Chapter 4344: CHEAT V "What did you just say?" she demanded, her voice sharp enough to draw blood from concepts. Not asking Origin Ama Gias. Not the stupidly dazed Duke Gwendolyn who had her memories of Noah flsshing in her mind again and again. It was as if she was asking existence itself, demanding clarification from reality before she did something catastrophically violent. At most, it had been whispers and jokes before, but now, they seemingly affirmed it as if it were undoutedly real! Her mind was racing...Noah could see it in the way her authority pulsed, the way space around her began crystallizing with frost that shouldn’t exist in this region. She was processing, calculating, reaching conclusions that terrified her. All remaining Early Creatures are Dead or Prime Dead Early Creatures. This was was Tatiana herself had said. It seemed the people of The First Farmer knew this as well. If someone claimed to be an Early Creature who wasn’t Dead or Prime Dead... Her face paled. Actually paled, color draining from features that rarely showed anything but cold certainty. Did they...just bring an enemy into their lands?! A Prime Dead Early Creature, smuggled past all their defenses, carried on their own vessel directly toward the heart of the First Farmer’s sanctuary?! "STOP!" The command erupted from her with force that made the entire Verdant Ark shudder. The Obsidian Ox at the front bellowed in confusion, its massive form straining against suddenly conflicting orders. The Barge began to slow, its momentum fighting against Elysia’s authority. Noah felt it immediately, the shift in her presence. She wasn’t just concerned anymore. She was terrified and preparing to act on that terror with violence that would make the previous weavings look like children’s arguments! Her hand moved, authority coalescing around her fingers in patterns that suggested she was about to do something irreversible. Her twin beside her tensed as well, that massive rake beginning to hum with power that could harvest entire Folds. And then, internally, Noah sensed it...the pulse of communication going out from Elysia Firmhand to forces that were distant but also close as they neared The Sanctuary of The First Farmer! She turned fully to face Noah, and her expression was the kind of cold fury that preceded executions. Not hot anger, but the frozen certainty of someone about to remove a threat before it could fully manifest. "Who... are you, really?" she asked, each word carrying the weight of judgment already rendered. Her eyes swept over him, then to Sigrid, Moiraine, Khor, the others gathered around him. "The only Early Creatures present in existence outside of THE Loom... are Dead Early Creatures!" The accusation landed with finality that made several nearby Living Existences stumble backward, as if proximity to Noah had suddenly become lethal. Because if he was Dead...if he was Prime Dead, then nothing they’d seen from him could be trusted! And worst of all, if he was Prime Dead Early Creature, they’d just delivered him directly to one of the last safe havens in existence. The tension on the Barge was thick enough to solidify. Living Existences were backing away, moving toward the edges of the vessel, preparing to flee if this exploded into violence that their complexity couldn’t withstand. Noah remained still through it all, his expression unchanged. He didn’t move to defend himself, didn’t make declarations of innocence, didn’t try to flee or attack preemptively. He simply stood there, surrounded by his people, and waited. Because this was the moment...the knife’s edge where everything could slide toward catastrophe or clarity. Where his nature would either be understood or would require demonstration that he really, really didn’t want to provide. Not here. Not when they were so close to the First Farmer’s lands, to answers he’d been seeking since the Failed Seed had first sprouted in his grasp. Sigrid’s hand found his, her grip tight with tension she wouldn’t voice. Moiraine had shifted position subtly, placing herself where she could act if needed. Khor was smiling that particular smile that suggested she found all of this deliciously entertaining. The Emperor Penguin and others harrumphed as they would love to show off the little progress they had made in their Way of the Mana Architect! And Noah... Noah just watched Elysia Firmhand and waited to see if she would listen or if she would attack. But soon after... The air around them changed. Noah felt it before he saw it. That particular pressure that came from beings whose existence warped everything around them simply by being present! Like standing at the edge of a cliff and feeling the pull of gravity before looking down, knowing that something vast and terrible waited below. The Wandering Territories had been dangerous throughout their journey...chaotic space, Living Collapses that appeared like storms of entropy as they weren’t too complex for them, and regions where authority failed and teleportation sent you to random locations that might not have exits. But this? This was different. They’d entered a boundary region, he realized. The edge of the First Farmer’s territory, where his influence met the wild chaos of the Territories proper. And this boundary was defended! Of course it was defended. What else would you expect from the sanctuary of a being who had gazed upon THE Living Existences?! Soon after Elysia’s accusation, eruptions of power emerged from the shifting colors of transition space, the Wandering Territories spread out before them in all their terrible glory. Their surroundings gradually changed as the Ox tried to stop, but had still gone forward. And Noah saw... Collapsed regions floated like islands of absence, spaces where existence had given up and left only void. Between them, stretches of impossible terrain defied description...forests made of crystallized time, rivers that flowed upward through dimensions that didn’t have names, mountains that existed in states of perpetual becoming without ever fully being. And approaching them, drawn by their presence or perhaps by thr alarm Elysia Firmhand rang, were...the Guardians. Fold Dwellers. But not weak ones. Not beings who measured their power in mere trillions! Noah’s enhanced perception caught them first...signatures that blazed against the chaotic backdrop of the Territories like stars against void. And his eyes flashes with surprise as he smiled. Because above each approaching form, visible to him through weavings of his evolved perception that made such things clear, were names and measurements that made the Living Existences on the Barge look like children playing at power. |Thorne the Unrelenting| |Classification: Prime Fold Dweller| |Complexity: 1.1 Quintillion| |Purity: 1.1 Quintillion| Approximately 1 Quintillion in power. One quintillion! This was a being whose casual existence generated more power than some Wheels of Existence contained in their entirety. And it wasn’t alone. |Meridian of the Constant Harvest| |Classification: Elder Fold Dweller| |Complexity: 2.3 Quintillion| |Purity: 2.1 Quintillion| Two Quintillion. |Vex the Boundary Keeper| |Classification: Prime Fold Dweller| |Complexity: 1.5 Quintillion| |Purity: 1.4 Quintillion| One and a half Quintillion. They came from different directions, converging on the Verdant Ark with purpose that suggested they’d been expecting visitors but weren’t necessarily pleased about it! Their forms were as varied as their power levels...one appeared as a massive humanoid made entirely of woven roots that pulsed with verdant authority, another as a constantly shifting shape that cycled through forms too quickly to track, the third as something that looked almost normal except for the way reality bent around it like light around a black hole. Behind them, more signatures. Dozens more. All of them exceeding 1 Quintillion in power. All of them moving toward the Barge. All of them looking at the Living Existences aboard like farmers examining pests that had wandered into their garden. Noah’s weavings were running at speeds that transcended normal thought. Was this a glimpse of the power of the entity who planted Principles? Were his advancements so grand? These were... The First Farmer’s people! Fold Dwellers who had found sanctuary in the Wandering Territories and had been growing in power, developing along paths that current-era existence didn’t recognize because they’d been isolated for so long. And right now, they were approaching a Barge full of Living Existences who had just been arguing about whether one of their passengers was a Prime Dead Early Creature. This was going to be interesting. Or catastrophic! Elysia Firmhand had frozen mid-accusation, her attention split between Noah and the approaching guardians. Her expression suggested she was wondering how fucked she was if she really brought an enemy this deep into their territory! Thorne the Unrelenting reached them first, his massive root-form rising up beside the Barge like a mountain deciding to take interest in an ant colony. Those eyes swept across the vessel’s occupants. When his gaze landed on Noah, it paused. Just for a moment. Just long enough to be noticeable. Recognition? Assessment? Simple curiosity about the being everyone was staring at? At such a time. The voice of RUIN/EDEN emerged in Noah’s consciousness. |Current Situation Assessment: Complexity - Light. Threat Level - Ehh. Probability of Diplomatic Resolution - Medium. Probability of Violence - Increasing by 0.3% per second.| Noah almost smiled at the precision of RUINEDEN’s words. |Primary Threat Vector: Elysia Firmhand believes you to be Prime Dead Early Creature infiltrating First Farmer’s territory. Secondary Threat Vector: Fold Dweller guardians detecting conflict aboard vessel entering their protected space. Tertiary Threat Vector: Origin Ama Gias’s recent declaration of your identity has created cascade effect of recognition among all passengers.| Yes yes, he’d noticed that. |Recommended Actions: Option One - Immediate demonstration of Living status through methods that cannot be faked by The Dead. Option Two - Prepare for combat against beings with average power exceeding 1.5 Quintillion while simultaneously protecting allied forces and avoiding destruction of vessel currently keeping everyone from being scattered across Wandering Territories(Not much benefit)| RUINEDEN paused, and Noah could almost sense the system’s equivalent of dry amusement. Around him, the other passengers on the Verdant Ark were backing away further, creating space that felt less like courtesy and more like blast radius calculation. The Obsidian Ox at the front of the Barge was bellowing nervously, its massive form shifting with uncertainty about whether to continue forward or flee backwards! Thorne the Unrelenting had been joined by Meridian and Vex now, three beings whose combined power could have reshaped Folds. A heavy tension fell! And the tension had reached that particular point where it would either break toward violence or toward conversation, and the next few seconds would determine which. Noah took a breath. And then he spoke. "I am Noah Osmont," he said, his voice carrying across the Barge with calm that defied the chaos around them. "The Early Creature, Osmont. Living. Not Dead, not Prime Dead, not infiltrator or enemy." He paused, letting the words settle. "I carry the Failed Seed of the First Farmer." BOOM! Elysia’s eyes widened fractionally. "I have come here," Noah continued, "not as threat or enemy, but seeking understanding of what I carry. If that makes me dangerous in your estimation, then act. If it makes me worthy of conversation, then listen." He gestured to the approaching Fold Dwellers, to Thorne and Meridian and Vex. "Unlike the weak things on this Barge...ask them. Ask your guardians to sense what I am. The Dead cannot hide their nature from those who know how to look. The Living carry signatures that The Dead cannot fake, no matter how perfectly they mimic life." It was truth! And as if his words had been a bit too mild, Noah yawned at this moment as he added... "Let us not waste time here as I was looking forward to...meeting The First Farmer." ...!