Chapter 4596: 25 Seconds To Midnight III

In The Infinite Unfurling.

In Ginnungagap.

In The Primordial Genesis Shore.

For Noah, the goal to survive The Fallout had always been centered on achieving the power of The Level One Scale of Existence.

THE classification.

This had always been the fundamental objective as all the traversals that Noah had undertaken in the past and everything he continued to do in the present was designed to make absolutely certain that he did not experience tremendous catastrophic loss when THE Loom finally activated and The Fallout began.

Before he had left his Civilization to venture into the past, Riya had continued to tell him with growing concern how she felt the light of Mana that represented their entire Civilization dimming from Existence.

But now that he had attained the knowledge and developing control of The First Tongue, he knew innately with absolute conviction that Mana would never truly fade.

The First Tongue would never fade.

Of course, something similar applied to The Primordial Civilizations and the ancient entities who held such Civilizations at their foundation. They also could not be entirely collapsed or erased because they were too deeply woven into the fundamental fabric of Existence itself.

At this moment, as he looked at the imprisoned figure of THE Maelstrom Thundermane trapped in the cage, seeing the reduced state of such a powerful entity brought so low...

Noah turned to face Ul’moreth directly, his eyes shining with determination and building hunger for challenge.

|Existence is a struggle,| he began with voice carrying conviction. |The First Tongue is a struggle. Every aspect of advancement requires effort and confrontation with forces greater than oneself. Now that I have been given these tools, these letters and understanding, I wish to actually use them in genuine combat alongside internal practice.|

He paused before speaking the truly shocking request.

|Would it be possible to arrange for me to fight against the weakest THE level entity currently bound in any of these cages? I want to test myself against The Level One Scale of Existence while I am still firmly below it.|

BOOM!

The request hung in the air with tremendous weight.

Ul’moreth laughed jovially at the audacious words while his gaze remained fixed on Noah with what felt like measuring assessment beneath all that obscuring hair.

When he responded, his voice carried even more depth than usual.

|Struggle, Little Anomaly. You speak of struggle as if it is merely something to endure or overcome. But struggle is actually the catalyst that accelerates the processes of your Existence to become exponentially faster. The more one genuinely struggles, the more one puts sincere effort into confronting forces that should by all rights overwhelm them, the more rapidly their foundation solidifies and their capabilities expand.|

|This is a fundamental principle of how Existence operates. Comfort breeds stagnation. Safety breeds complacency. But genuine struggle, where collapse is a real possibility and victory is uncertain, where every component of your being must operate at maximum capacity simply to survive? That breeds transcendent growth that no amount of peaceful cultivation can match.|

His hairy form seemed to pulse with approval.

|Very well, Little Anomaly. You have a Foundation with The First Tongue. You have learned the eighteen Core Phonemes and begun practicing them internally. To stand successfully against THE level entities, I told you that you would need to master all eighteen letters completely. Fighting now will be an excellent glimpse of where your abilities currently are and what they need to become.|

He turned toward THE Maelstrom Thundermane in the cage as if sizing this particular being up and down with critical assessment.

|While this one you brought to your attention is technically weak by THE standards, they are definitely not the weakest entity we currently hold in confinement. So we will find you another opponent to start with, someone more appropriate for your first genuine challenge against The Level One Scale.|

Ul’moreth began walking along the row of cages, his presence causing the imprisoned entities to shift with various reactions ranging from hope to fear to horror.

|What you wish to do, Little Anomaly, is to go against a fundamentally higher Scale of Existence with The First Tongue as your primary weapon and bridge across that vast gap. For anyone else who asked me this, for any other Pre-THE entity who suggested fighting against THE classification, I might immediately say that it is simply not feasible and would end in certain collapse. But for you, given your unique circumstances and advantages, I will withhold definitive judgment and offer a cautious maybe.|

|Let me explain the very essence of what power a THE Surface Depth of Absolute Sovereignty entity actually possesses, and why this creates a gap so immense that it theoretically makes crossing it impossible for those of the lower Scale who do not have that fundamental Civilizational Depth.|

His voice took on teaching focus as he continued inspecting the cages.

|When an entity achieves THE classification at any Depth, they have crossed a threshold where their Civilization becomes more real than conventional reality itself. Their Civilizational Authority does not merely manipulate Existence but actually defines what Existence means within their sphere of influence. A THE Surface Depth entity can impose their vision of reality over yours so completely that your techniques, your Principles, your very Existence becomes subject to rules they determine.|

|Against such an opponent, a Pre-THE entity is not fighting on equal ground. They are fighting while reality itself bends toward their opponent’s advantage. Every attack you make must overcome not just the enemy’s defenses but the fundamental nature of space around you that now defines your attacks as weaker than they should be. Every defense you raise must resist not just incoming force but the redefinition of what defense even means in this localized reality.|

|This is the true terror of facing THE classification. Not merely that they are stronger, but that they operate on a different layer of Existence where normal rules do not constrain them the same way. The gap between Pre-THE and THE is not quantitative but qualitative. It is the difference between playing a game and being able to rewrite the rules of the game mid-match.|

He paused before a particular cage, studying the entity within.

|However, The First Tongue can act as a bridge to cross that vast Depth, to equalize the fundamental imbalance, because The First Tongue is the language that defines what reality is at a level deeper than even THE classification authority can easily override. When you speak The First Tongue, you are not arguing with their imposed reality on their terms. You are invoking the original language that created all reality, including the reality they are trying to impose.|

|If a THE Surface Depth entity declares that fire cannot burn in their presence, they are using their Civilizational Authority to rewrite local rules. But if you speak the Phoneme of Fire in The First Tongue, you are not asking their permission for fire to exist. You are declaring fire exists according to the fundamental grammar of Existence itself, pulling authority from Principles that supersede local reality manipulation.|

...!

Holy fucking shit.

Noah blinked with a sense of genuine amazement at Ul’moreth as...how was he able to explain that so easily?

The power of THE was always so mysterious, but from his perspective, it wss going against someone who absolutely imposed their own rules on existences as anyone below Pre-THE...would not be able to change these rules!

But the Phonemes of The First Tongue, when truly mastered, did not even ask for permission to follow the rules of THE. They said fuck that!

This...was why it was even feasible to think about going against THE with The First Tongue.

And as he arrived st this point, Noah also knew that going against The Fallout and THE Loom...the answer would actually not be attaining the power of THE, but the answer would lie...in The First Tongue.

In himself!

As he thought of all this, Ul’moreth continued.

|This is how The First Tongue would theoretically allow you to survive and potentially even fight effectively against THE classification despite being a lower Scale. You would be fighting not with your personal power alone but with the backing of Existence’s own linguistic foundation. Your attacks would carry authority that even THE entities must acknowledge because it comes from a source deeper than their Civilization.|

Ul’moreth stopped before a specific cage, his hairy body nodding with satisfaction.

|Ah, that one will do nicely for your first attempt. The battle currently occurring in the arena is wrapping up. Thereafter, we will put you in to face this opponent. All the other Ginnu Lifeforms observing the clash of Ways will be quite interested because nobody has witnessed a genuine clash between Pre-THE and THE in quite some time.|

Noah’s eyes lit up with intense curiosity at this revelation as he asked with eager interest.

|When was the last time this happened? When was the last time someone below THE classification fought against THE here?|

Ul’moreth’s presence seemed to carry dark amusement mixed with respect as he responded.

|We only discovered the truth later, after the battle had concluded and the mysterious entity departed. It turned out to be a weapon that THE Secretive Eon had personally forged and was testing in genuine combat conditions. An absolute beast of a creation that, while firmly at Pre-THE classification in terms of its Civilizational Depth, was somehow capable of fighting against THE level opponents with shocking effectiveness.|

|That weapon survived three consecutive battles against THE Surface Depth entities before THE Secretive Eon retrieved it and vanished. We never learned what techniques or principles allowed it to bridge the gap so effectively. But you, Little Anomaly, will be attempting something similar through your mastery of The First Tongue rather than through whatever secret methods THE Secretive Eon employed.|

He gestured toward the cage containing Noah’s chosen opponent.

|Hoho...would this make me similar to THE Secretive Eon? Hmm...Let us see if you can match or exceed what that mysterious weapon accomplished. Let us see if The First Tongue truly can serve as the bridge that allows the impossible to become merely difficult.|

Noah stared at the cage with building anticipation, his entire Existence buzzing with the eighteen Phonemes continuously refining his foundation.

He was about to challenge The Level One Scale of Existence itself!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.