Chapter 3949: The Past and the Dead! I

The golden light of advancement continued to cascade across Noah’s newly transformed Blooming Shore, each wave of enhancement settling into the expanded realm.

Yet even as he stood at the epicenter of this profound transformation, even as the very fabric of his domain reshaped itself according to his will and achievement, a deeper truth swept across existence itself.

For all the magnitude of his accomplishments, for all the terrifying power he had accumulated and the impossible trials he had overcome, even he remained but a single thread in a weaving of Existence whose full scope defied comprehension!

Existence did not pause to acknowledge any triumphs.

The vast machinery of existence continued its rotation, indifferent to whether any particular being rose to greatness or fell into obscurity.

Countless eons ago, long before Noah’s name had ever been whispered into being, existence had unfolded according to its own immutable rhythms.

Its own unperceivable weavings!

Galaxies had burst into brilliant life and faded into cold darkness. Universes had expanded from singular points of density before collapsing back into the void that birthed them.

Entire Cosmos had danced their weavings across dimensions that stretched beyond imagination, each one containing within its boundaries billions upon billions of worlds, each world harboring its own stories of triumph and tragedy!

Omniverses had risen like titans from the primordial chaos, their boundaries encompassing realities so vast that the mind could not grasp their scope, only to shatter like glass when their time reached its ordained conclusion!

Wheels of Existence themselves, those fundamental constructs that served as the building blocks of Folds... had come into being and underwent Breakings and Transformations constantly.

Through all of this, existence had remained constant.

It required no single being to validate its continuation.

It needed no particular consciousness to witness its wonders.

The great machine ground on, as it always had, as it always would, producing marvels and catastrophes with equal indifference!

And yet, in the face of such overwhelming vastness, a question lingered.

What of Noah Osmont in this grand scheme of existence?

Would future beings speak of Noah Osmont with the same reverence reserved for Early Creatures? Would he even be known?

Would he become simply another story told in whispered tones, another fable shared among those who sought to understand the mysteries of power and transcendence? Another cautionary tale about the hubris of those who dared to reach beyond? Or would he not even be remembered?

The answer to this question remained shrouded in the mists of uncertainty, hidden behind veils of Quintessence!

For in the end, only time itself possessed the authority to determine which names would be remembered and which would fade into the silence of forgotten ages.

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Across the infinite weavings of existence, in domains so distant from Noah’s transformed Shore that the light of his achievement would take eons to travel the space between them, other stories continued to unfold according to their own inexorable logic!

In the Transcendent Paradoxical Folds, where reality bent and twisted according to principles that defied rational understanding, a scene of deceptive simplicity played out upon a world so insignificant that its destruction would barely register as a footnote.

The world itself existed as little more than a mote of dust.

Contained within a small universe, which itself was nestled within a larger cosmos, which in turn resided within a grand Existential Domain, which was but a single component of a massive Omniverse, which finally found its place within one of the countless Wheels of Existence that formed the foundation of existence itself.

Unperceivably small!

Upon this utterly inconsequential world, in a kingdom whose borders would have seemed laughably small to beings like Living Existences, a muddy road stretched between settlements that housed creatures whose greatest ambitions involved little more than the accumulation of modest wealth and the avoidance of starvation.

The road itself bore the scars of countless seasons, its surface a treacherous mixture of churned earth and standing water that reflected the gray sky above.

Along its edges, where the grass grew thick and wild, merchants and travelers had worn narrow paths that spoke to the endless migration of those seeking better fortunes in distant lands.

Thatched-roof buildings lined the road at irregular intervals, their walls constructed from timber and stone quarried from local hills.

Smoke rose from countless chimneys, carrying with it the scent of wood fires and the simple meals that sustained populations of thousands.

Through this medieval landscape moved the procession of humanity in all its varied forms.

Farmers trudged along the muddy road with carts laden with the fruits of their labor, their faces weathered by sun and wind, their hands bearing the calluses that marked a lifetime of honest toil.

Peasants walked alongside these farmers, their clothing patched and repatched until the original fabric had become little more than a foundation for layers of practical repair.

Among these humble travelers moved figures whose very presence spoke to the rigid hierarchies that governed this simple world.

Slaves shuffled along in chains that clinked with each step, their heads bowed in submission and in the bone-deep exhaustion.

Their guards rode alongside on horseback, their hands never far from the weapons that ensured compliance with the established order.

And occasionally, carriages would roll along the road with wheels that threw mud in all directions.

Through windows of real glass, faces peered out with the casual arrogance of royalty.

It was beside this road, in a spot where the mud had pooled particularly deep and the grass grew particularly thick, that a figure sat in apparent desolation!

At first glance, he appeared to be nothing more than another casualty of a world that showed little mercy to those without means or connections.

His clothes hung in tatters around a frame that seemed diminished by hunger and exposure, their original color lost beneath layers of grime.

Yet there was something in his posture that suggested deeper truths hidden beneath!

His skin, beneath the accumulated dirt and wear of his chosen disguise, possessed a vitality that seemed to pulse with each heartbeat.

At this moment of deceptive tranquility, when the beggar sat in perfect stillness beside the muddy road while the procession of humanity continued its ancient dance around him, the very fabric of space began to distort!

BZZT!

The distortion started as little more than a shimmer in the air. But it grew with each passing second, becoming a tear in reality.

From this tear in existence descended a figure whose presence transformed the very nature of the space around him!

Duke Elagabalus materialized with slow majesty, his form radiating power.

This being of great power descended through the mundane atmosphere of a world whose greatest concerns involved the price of grain and the changing of seasons.

His ancient eyes swept across the scene below with the particular disdain.

The humans who moved along the muddy road continued their daily routines as if nothing had changed, their limited perception unable to register the presence of something that could erase their entire world from existence with less effort than swatting an insect!

Duke Elagabalus floated downward, his attention focused entirely upon the figure who sat beside the road in apparent destitution.

"You have seen everything so far?" he asked, his tone carrying the careful respect of one powerful being addressing another whose true capabilities remained hidden beneath layers of deliberate misdirection.

"We were able to obtain the body of an Early Creature as I gave Diviticus the task of reanimating it. But..."

At such a moment, the beggar smiled.

And he spoke calmly!

"What worries you is that Ozymandias," the beggar said, his voice carrying none of the weakness suggested by his appearance. Each word emerged with the clarity of crystal and the weight of absolute certainty.

"Logically, you are convinced, as you rightfully should be, that he cannot possibly be an Early Creature. This is a correct line of thought. It is only logical, but..."

He paused, allowing the silence to stretch.

"What of the infinitesimally small chance that he is an Early Creature? Is that why you came to bother me?"𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

An immense silence settled over the muddy road, broken only by the distant sound of carriage wheels splashing through puddles and the murmur of voices engaged in the simple business of survival.

In that silence, two beings of unimaginable power regarded each other across a gulf that separated not just their physical forms but their fundamental approaches to the mysteries that governed existence itself!

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