Chapter 4328: A Glorious Protocol! III In the isolated bubble where Noah, Schrodinger, and Leonore Rureaux were meeting. POP! The small, world-sized isolated domain popped like a soap bubble, its blue-gold light scattering into the chaotic void of Collapse. Noah began to float up, his figure a slow, deliberate ascent into the heart of the storm. His presence immediately came under the gazes of Tatiana and the Prime Dead, who had been waiting with a profound, terrible patience. Their collective authority, a silent, crushing weight, began to buzz with a new, focused power. From the small garden he had just left, Schrodinger frowned, his usual playful demeanor gone, replaced by a mask of genuine concern. "What exactly could you be doing, friend?" he shouted, his voice a sharp, cutting blade of disbelief. "I did not take you for someone on a suicide mission..." ...! Noah ignored the words. He continued his ascent, a silent, tyrannical king rising to meet a challenge. He came to a stop at the same level as Tatiana, the two of them now facing each other across a chasm of silent, simmering hostility. It was a glorious, terrible standoff. And in the periphery of this cosmic duel, a quiet, almost comical, exodus was underway. The Living Existences who had remained conscious, beings who could command the very fabric of reality, were now engaged in a desperate, silent retreat. They pulled along their unconscious comrades, their movements a frantic, chaotic scramble to get as far away from this impending cataclysm as possible. They did not run; they scurried, their usual regal dignity replaced by the primal, undeniable urge to simply... not be here! Tatiana’s gaze, cold and sharp as a shard of obsidian, swept over Noah, a slow, dismissive up-and-down assessment. "Are you the one," she asked, her voice the sound of a tombstone cracking, "who has been disrespectfully replying on behalf of THE Living Order and holding her captive?" Noah gazed back at her, at the legion of Prime Dead Early Creatures that were beginning to rise on the vessel behind her, at the hundreds of obsidian-white Dead Existential Armors that were now lighting up, their dead eyes glowing with a cold, malevolent light. "I’m the one who has been telling you to fuck off," he replied, his voice not a shout, but a low, resonant, and utterly absolute pronouncement. "But you cannot seem to get the message." ...! His words were a physical weight in the dead air. Tatiana’s eyes pulsed with a dangerous, crimson light. But Noah was not done. "Are you the same Tatiana who held a concentrated Everything of THE Creature?" he asked, his tone now a blade of pure, condescending curiosity. "You seem a bit weak compared to others of your stature, like Gilgamesh... is this a lesser body of yours, or did you simply not live up to the potential you were born with? You were not defective... right?" BOOM! The words were a calculated, tyrannical cruelty, a series of precise, surgical strikes aimed at the very heart of her pride. And in response, Tatiana smiled. "Okay." A single word. She didn’t curse. She didn’t bellow in rage. She simply said, "Okay," and the very fabric of the collapsed space trembled. A brilliant, pristine white light of Order began to pulse around her, and woven within it, a deep, obsidian grandeur, the unmistakable signature of a Principle, began to bloom. The moment that terrifying display of aura began, Noah’s eyes flashed with a cold, almost bored, light. "Activate the One Man Army Protocol." ...! One Man Army. He named it this because other entities, even the great and terrible beings of the Earliest Folds, had their limits. They had to expend their Everythings, a finite, precious resource, to unleash their most terrifying capabilities. This limitation... his existence did not even register it. He had Infinite Mana. And his most terrifying capabilities, his Mana Arcana Glyphs... all ran on Mana. In the next instant, a glorious, swirling storm of stellar blue brilliance erupted around him. The first Mana Arcana Glyph was cast. |[The Indomitable Will] has been activated.| A wave of pure, boundless Mana, an ocean of it, surged from his small figure. It coalesced above him, forming a creature of impossible, glorious defiance. It was a Mellivora benfieldi, an ancient honey badger, its form now a shimmering, spectral azure. Its eyes were two cold, arrogant stars, and they gazed out at Tatiana and her legion with a look of profound, absolute indifference. |The conceptual form of an Ancient Honey Badger has been summoned. It is a being whose very nature is a defiant rejection of all external influence. For one minute, you are protected by a [Badger’s Barrier of Mana], a shield capable of absorbing up to 1.5 Quintillion in damage. As they say... a honey badger does not give a damn.| A shimmering, azure barrier, its surface a swirling, chaotic vortex of pure, unyielding will, formed around Noah. But the symphony of his power had only just begun. |Master, the other Mana Arcana Glyphs under the [One Man Army Protocol] are being activated.| |[The Unbound Moment] has been cast.| |[The Tyrant’s Maw] has been cast.| |[The Unbreakable Shell] has been cast.| |[The Saber’s Edge] has been cast.| |[The Unshakeable Mountain] has been cast.| Above him, the azure badger was joined by a pantheon of impossible, beautiful, and utterly terrifying manifestations. A glorious, spectral Wheel of Existence, its azure form spinning with the light of a billion frozen moments, appeared, its presence a declaration that time itself was now his to command. The conceptual ghost of a Megalodon, its form a shimmering, azure vortex of pure, predatory hunger, materialized, its silent roar a promise of a feast to come! A spectral carapace of an ancient Ankylosaurus, a living fortress of azure, crystalline plates, formed a second, denser layer of defense around him! HUUM! The ephemeral spirit of a Smilodon, its azure fangs long, sharp, and impossibly, conceptually, true, materialized, its silent roar a promise of a perfect, unavoidable cut. And finally, a vast, spectral mountain range, a fortress of pure, unyielding stability, rose behind him, its peaks scraping against the very firmament of the Fold. He was a glorious, terrible sight. The entire region around him was now a roiling sea of his Mana, and from its depths, these six colossal, illusory manifestations glared out at his enemies, a council of primordial titans ready to dispense judgment! OOOOH! |Finalizing Protocol...| |All buffs are now active.| | - [The Unbound Moment]: For one minute, all of your abilities, including your Mana Arcana Glyphs, have no cooldown.| | - [The Tyrant’s Maw]: For one minute, all of your attacks deal 50% more damage.| | - [The Unbreakable Shell]: For one minute, all incoming damage is reduced by 25%.| | - [The Saber’s Edge]: For one minute, all of your attacks gain a base damage of 1 Quintillion.| | - [The Unshakeable Mountain]: For one minute, all incoming attacks are reduced by 1 Quintillion in power.| | - [The Indomitable Will]: A barrier of 1.5 Quintillion stands ready to absorb all harm.| The final summary bloomed, a stark, numerical declaration of his new, impossible reality. |One Man Army Protocol: Status Update.| |Active Buffs: 6.| |Defensive Capacity: Your [Mana-Born Aegis of the Architect] and its [Innate Omnichalcum Aura Field] provide a base defense of 920 Quadrillion. The [Badger’s Barrier of Mana] adds a 1.5 Quintillion buffer. [The Unshakeable Mountain] provides a flat 1 Quintillion reduction to all incoming attacks. [The Unbreakable Shell] provides a 25% reduction to all damage that bypasses these defenses.| |Total Defensive Threshold: You can currently withstand a single, instantaneous blow of approximately 4.5+ Quintillion in power, or a sustained assault of a lesser, but still astronomical, magnitude.| |Offensive Capacity: Your base power of 1 Quintillion, amplified by [The Saber’s Edge] to a base of 2 Quintillion, is then further amplified by 50% through [The Tyrant’s Maw]. Your every attack will now carry a base damage of 4.5 Quintillion. All of this, with no cooldowns for the next minute.|