Chapter 4385: Primus! I

Above a grand citadel of an advanced Civilization, the scene was very, very heavy!

Heartbroken and crying, Riya looked at Noah with an expression that contained millions of years of desperate hope collapsing into despair.

"Ancestor, why... why has it not changed? Why, after all this, after you’ve seen what we built, after I’ve given you tools specifically designed to ensure victory...why is the light of Mana still set to dim in my perception of what’s coming?"

...!

Her gaze at this moment felt immensely heavy!

She looked to him for answers when at this moment, he did not have any!

Why hasn’t the future changed?

Noah embraced her tighter, his hand stroking her hair gently as he looked out at the vast Civilization spread around them.

The floating ring structures. The towers pulsing with accumulated power. The millions of beings carrying his Way.

All of it built through desperation and Mana into something magnificent.

And according to Riya’s sensitivity...according to her unique perception of Mana across time...all of it was still destined to dim.

What could possibly accomplish that? Do we truly fail on all accounts? Does the Bastion of Mana not succeed? Do I fail to reach THE distinction before The Fallout arrives? Does something else...some variable I haven’t accounted for...emerge to destroy everything despite all these preparations?

Just... what goes wrong?

His mind raced through possibilities, discarding unlikely scenarios, focusing on the factors that could genuinely threaten a Civilization of this magnitude.

THE Loom and its Justiciars. THE Dead Order and their response to his killing of their Prime Dead Early Creatures. THE Creature.

The fundamental Collapse of existence itself. Unknown variables operating on scales he hadn’t yet perceived.

Any of those could be the source of Mana’s dimming light in Riya’s future perception.

Or perhaps multiple factors converging simultaneously, creating cascade failures that even his preparations couldn’t prevent.

His own senses as the pioneer of this Civilization didn’t tell him any of this.

But he couldn’t just categorize the words of an anomaly like Riya as untrue.

He looked down at her crying form, still clutched against his chest.

What she feels should be valid.

Which meant despite everything...despite his advancement, despite the Isolated Civilization’s achievements, despite the Bastion of Mana and these offered Principles...something was still wrong.

Some critical factor remained unaddressed.

Some threat existed that would dim Mana’s light- his glorious, magisterial brilliance...despite all their preparations.

The question of exactly what echoed through his tyrannical mind.

How do I change a future that apparently hasn’t shifted despite everything I’ve already done?

"..."

He held Riya tighter, his Infinite Mana flowing through their contact in waves meant to comfort, to reassure, even as his mind continued calculating.

His ideology was one of Tyranny.

He did what he had to in order to protect himself and his family.

He had built entire existence around many things, with being the principle that...

Nothing was predetermined! Everything could be changed with sufficient audacity, tyranny, and Infinite Mana.

Even futures that apparently remained dark despite millions of years of desperate preparation.

He just needed to figure out what was missing.

What piece of the puzzle remained undiscovered.

His tyrannical heart pulsed with determination!

The Early Creature, Osmont, stood atop a floating ring structure, holding a prodigy who’d spent years preparing for his return, staring out at a Civilization that was somehow still destined to fail.

And he began planning how to violate that future as thoroughly as he’d violated every other limitation existence had tried to impose on him!

He held Riya gently, his hand still stroking her hair as tears slowly stopped falling from her jewel-blue eyes.

His expression remained steady, his tyrannical composure unshaken!

"Do you feel," he asked quietly, "the immensity of the Mana burning within me?"

Riya nodded silently, closing her eyes as her enhanced sensitivity reached out to truly perceive what he was.

An ocean without shores, a well without bottom, a flame that consumed nothing because it was the source itself. Mana that didn’t deplete or diminish or fade!

Noah continued.

"All I have ever had," he said, "has been that Mana. From the very beginning, when I first discovered what I was capable of, it has been the single constant in an existence defined by escalating impossibilities."

His gaze drifted across the Civilization spread below them.

"And with it, I have gone through many apocalypses. Natural ones...cosmic catastrophes, existential collapses, the death of entire realities. Engineered ones...beings who decided that existence needed to end and possessed the power to make it happen. They’re all the same at their core...overwhelming force seeking to unmake everything."

"And while I cannot say why the dimming of Mana you feel has not changed, why your perception of the future remains dark despite everything we’ve accomplished, I will continue to work toward a solution to overcome this apocalypse just like all those before it."

He looked down at her, his tyrannical gaze meeting her tear-stained face.

"I will continue to violate every limitation. To defy every predetermined outcome. To find paths forward where none should exist. That is what I do. That is what I am. And I will not stop until either we have changed that future you perceive. Okay?"

At these words, Riya nodded, remaining with her head against his chest.

Her jewel-blue eyes twinkled with curiosity as she looked up at him.

"How...did you solve the other apocalypses?" she asked softly.

Noah blinked, the question pulling him into nostalgia for battles that felt simultaneously ancient and recent depending on which reference frame he used.

"Brute force most of the time," he admitted.

"I become stronger than the apocalypse itself, or stronger than the thing bringing forth the apocalypse. Overwhelm the threat with sufficient power that its apocalyptic nature becomes irrelevant."

He paused.

"That has been the goal for The Fallout as well. But when it’s something set in motion such a long time ago, with beings operating on an entirely different Scale of Existence..."

"It is turning out to be just a little difficult."

A little difficult.

Hah!

Riya looked up at him, her expression shifting as decisiveness replaced the despair that had dominated moments before.

Her jewel-blue eyes pulsed with determination.

"Okay, Ancestor," she said, "I will give you my Everythi- "

Before she could finish, Noah shook his head.

"None of that," he said firmly. "I do not need my people to make sacrifices for my gains."

...!

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