Noah did not like the feeling of not having control.
It was a simple truth for him...not about domination or absolute authority over others, but about maintaining sufficient influence over the immediate space around him, the moments that unfolded breath by breath.
He moved through existence with careful deliberation, ensuring that in the domains he touched, he held enough sway to react when circumstances shifted beneath his feet like sand in a tide.
Control meant that when conflict came, and it always came, he could at least oppose it. Could bear the weight! ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฃ๐ธ๐ซ๐ฎ๐.๐๐๐ถ
Could dance along the edge of catastrophe without plummeting into its depths.
This was what he preferred: a measure of control, however small, regardless of what struggles pressed against him.
At this moment, he felt its absolute absence.
The air itself had changed.
It was thicker, heavier, as if existence had become viscous fluid that resisted all movement.
Breathing required conscious effort. Thought moved through something like honey. Simply being demanded exertion that moments ago had been effortless.
Around them, crimson-gold brilliance pervaded everything.
The light claimed, establishing dominion over space and time and the very possibility of action.
CRITICAL CATASTROPHE DETECTED
You have fallen into THE FESTIVAL OF PARADOX
The words materialized before Noah's vision with clinical precision, but he barely needed their confirmation.
He could feel the truth in his existence, in the way his Primus Mana guttered like flame in windstorm.
Due to vast disparity in the immensity of Civilizations between yours and THE Living Paradox's, all current weavings of expressed Civilizations have been suppressed completely.|
The Civilizational Chains of Paradox moved through the air like serpents of concentrated authority, and they had already wrapped around everyone present with discriminating precision.
Leonore Rureaux hung suspended, her considerable power rendered meaningless against constraints designed suppress entire
frameworks of existence rather than mere individuals.
The two remaining Living Schrodingers, Concept and Quantum, were similarly bound, their multiple natures collapsed into singular helplessness.
Khor floated immobilized, The First Hunger herself unable to devour despite that being the fundamental principle of her being.
And Noah, with Riya beside him, caught in the same terrible web.
The chains wrapped around limbs and stretched them in different directions, anchoring them in space so completely that even the smallest movement became impossible.
It was not merely physical restraint, this was existential binding!
The Quintillions of power they held within their beings meant nothing when the very Ways through which they expressed that power were shut down entirely.
Noah's Primus Singularity had dimmed to barely perceptible glow, a dying sun overwhelmed by foreign radiance. Only crimson-gold remained, absolute and inescapable.
The wind carried no scent of death, but something worse: the
absence of natural order, as if the rules governing how things should be had been temporarily suspended pending review by an authority that cared nothing for their restoration.
Noah looked at the chains binding him with the analytical focus that had me his nature.
Even now, even trapped and helpless, his mind worked with clarity.
The Lens of Civilization and his recent ascension into The Early Infinity Dominion Realm provided benefits that ran deeper than mere power...they granted understanding, a cool peace that crept over his thoughts even in the face of impossible odds.
The chains were actively suppressing his Primus Mana, preventing its expression through mechanisms that operated at civilizational scale. But as he observed them with enhanced perception, testing their constraints with the gentlest pressure of his will, he felt something interesting- they dimmed ever so slightly when his Way pressed against them.
Barely noticeable, like starlight competing with the sun, but real nonetheless.
Given time...seconds, minutes, perhaps longer, he could batter them endlessly. Even suppressed, the infinite nature of his reserves meant sustained assault remained possible.
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