Her Complexity and Purity was jumping upward by multiple Quintillions with each passing moment!
And in this weighty silence, it was THE Dead Order who finally broke the stillness.
"The Resurgence of my Order..." Her gaze fixed on Sigrid with intensity.
"And I assume you are Osmont?" Her attention shifted to Noah. "You two are genuinely joined at the hip, it seems. How delightfully... intimate."
Her tone held no mockery despite the observation.
"You stand before the presence of Order itself. The Seer of Truth. The Arbiter of Structure. The First Foundation. The Architect of Systematic Perfection." She paused deliberately.
"Though... you seem to be lapping up and siphoning modest portions of myself at this very moment through mechanisms I cannot immediately interrupt. Do you think you could stop that voluntary theft?"
...!
Could she stop that.
At such a pointed question delivered with remarkable calm given circumstances, Sigrid remained initially silent.
She was uncertain how to respond to being directly addressed by the entity she was always dreading!
Noah looked at THE Dead Order with focus before proceeding to respond with his own formal introduction.
"You stand before the presence of The True Emperor of Quintessence. The True Emperor of Tyranny. The 9th Infernal Lord. The Daemon of Tyranny. Imperius Avallonis. The Antediluvian. The Lumen Emperor. The Weaver of Existence. The Weaver of Extremity..."
...!
The scene that unfolded carried mixture of grandeur and absurdity as...just as THE Dead Order had introduced herself through accumulated titles, Noah proceeded to do precisely the same but with far more exaggerated length.
He listed multiple grand designations with his voice maintaining perfect seriousness, his gaze remaining calm while THE Dead Order observed him with eyes beginning to shine with what might have been amusement beneath her careful composure.
"...The Gazer of the Unscalable Wall. The Indefatigable." He paused as if mentally cataloguing. "Let me see, is that everything? Ah, no. There are more. The Dreamer of Extremity. The Dream of The Beyonder. The Burnt One. The Cartographer of Existence. The Stranger. The Outsider..."
He let final titles settle with deliberate weight:
"The Early Creature, Osmont."
...!
He had conducted such lengthy introduction that when he finally concluded, both Sigrid and THE Dead Order were regarding him with expressions mixing bewilderment and incredulity at the sheer audacity of matching her formal presentation with such an elaborately constructed response.
And in the silence following this performance, THE Dead Order spoke.
"You... are one of the primary reasons my Civilization is facing existential threat at this moment? You?"
The emphasis on that final word suggested difficulty reconciling the being before her...however unusual, with the scale of disruption apparently being caused.
...!
At such question, Noah nodded with perfect calm and utmost seriousness.
"Yes, Ma’am. And no, I don’t believe The Resurgence of your Order, as you’ve termed her, I don’t think she possesses capability to cease siphoning from you. In fact..."
His smile widened slightly with an expression mixing tyrannical confidence and deliberate provocation.
"I think we’ll amplify the process considerably."
...!
BOOM!
An unfathomable phenomenon manifested as Noah and Sigrid came face to face with a terrifically powerful being possessing THE distinction...an entity who should theoretically be capable of collapsing them through mere attention!
After Noah’s bold proclamation, a heavy silence settled across the unique liminal space separating them from THE Dead Order.
Satisfied by this confirmation, Noah turned to directly face THE Dead Order’s massive illusory form.
"I have always felt profound sympathy for Order, truthfully. The first victim of THE Living Paradox’s ambitions. Falling in a battle where you were only attempting to do what was fundamentally right. And what compensation did you receive for such righteous dedication? Collapse. Absolute termination."
"Why did you have to be the one to perish? Why not Origin? Why not Emotive? Why not Spirit or any of the other THE entities who participated in that conflict? And worst of all, after that grand show of force concluded, with THE Living Paradox being imprisoned thereafter as a consequence... why was it that THE Living Emotive and others simply turned away and subsequently collaborated with THE Living Paradox to forge THE Loom?"
BOOM!
"It effectively rendered your sacrifice and death worth absolutely nothing. Your collapse became a meaningless footnote in a grand narrative rather than martyrdom that changed trajectories. You entire existence amouted to...absolutely... nothing."
BOOM!
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