Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 5045: Hadean! I

Are Primordial Architects the Blessed Lifeforms of Observable Existence?

Some entities emerge from the collision of differentiation and undifferentiation as Undivided Ones. Others crystallize into Formless Terrors. Still others become the countless classifications that populate Observable Existence at every Scale and depth.

But Primordial Architects are born different.

They emerge already holding authority that others spend eons cultivating. Some manifest at THE First Scale with foundations so refined that reaching Absolute depths becomes inevitability rather than aspiration. Others appear directly at THE Second Scale, their existence already transformed into configurations that most beings cannot achieve regardless of how long they struggle toward transcendence.

What did they possess within their existence that others didn’t? What quality separated their emergence from the emergence of everything else? Were they favored by THE First Cause itself, or did some random arrangement of forces during their formation grant them advantages that had nothing to do with preference?

Nobody knows.

The Primordial Architects themselves don’t know. They simply are what they are, born into privilege that they did nothing to earn and cannot explain to those who ask.

There was a time when THE Creature counted himself among them.

Before he became what he is now, before he shattered classifications and rebuilt himself into something that defied every category Observable Existence had established, he walked as a Primordial Architect.

His power was immense. His authority was absolute within the domains he claimed. His future stretched before him with possibilities that most beings could only dream of reaching.

And he chose to throw it all away.

The story goes that a Proterozoic Scale Primordial Architect stood before him when he announced his intention. An ancient entity whose name has been deliberately forgotten, someone who had watched THE Creature’s rise with concern.

"You understand this is irreversible," that entity had said. "What you propose is annihilation of everything you currently are. The weavings of a Primordial Architect cannot be reclaimed once abandoned. You will become nothing, and from that nothing, you hope to become something else entirely."

The entity paused, letting the severity settle.

"Things will forever change. You will never again be what you are now. The weavings that made you will dissolve, and whatever emerges from its ashes may not survive the process. You may entirly collapse and lose our blessing. Is that truly what you want?"

THE Creature’s response had been grand.

"A Blessing?" He laughed, and the sound made reality itself flinch. "You call this a Blessing? I call it a ceiling. I call it a cage with comfortable walls. I call it the highest room in a structure when I want to stand beneath open sky."

He had stepped forward, and even that ancient Primordial Architect had stepped back.

"Why I would leave behind such weavings? I ask you why I would keep them? To remain what I was born as? To accept limitations written into my existence before I had any say in what I would become? To spend eternity as the greatest version of something I never chose to be?"

His presence pressed against everything nearby, already beginning the process of unmaking what he had been.

"I don’t want to be a decent Primordial Architect. I want to be something that makes the very concept of Primordial Architects seem small. And if that means burning away every advantage I was given, then I will burn gladly. I...will always burn."

He smiled then, and he began to burn.

And THE Creature emerged from the ashes of what he abolished, standing as proof that chosen paths could exceed gifted ones, that will could surpass circumstance, that sometimes the greatest power came not from what you were given but from what you were willing to destroy in pursuit of what you wanted to become.

The Primordial Architects remained Blessed.

THE Creature...became something else entirely.

---

Erwin looked at the domain materializing before them as he and Moloch crossed into spaces hidden between the Observable and Unobservable.

"What is this place?" he asked the Singular Cognizance floating beside him. "And why did we come here?"

Moloch’s golden plates spun faster as they approached the main gate.

"Nakatsukuni. A unique Singular Cognizance and multiple Proterozoic Scale Architects have this domain as their home. They’ve maintained peace here for eons while the rest of Observable Existence tears itself apart with schemes and conflicts."

Erwin considered this information. Peaceful Proterozoic Scale beings seemed like a contradiction, but existence had shown him stranger things.

"And we’re here because?"

"Because you need to make some new friends." Moloch’s voice carried amusement that pressed against Erwin’s awareness.

"These are the hardest friends to make. Beings who have rejected conflict, who have chosen stillness over ambition, who will not be swayed by promises of power or threats of destruction."

The Singular Cognizance turned its attention fully toward Erwin.

"So we start with the hardest ones first. If you can convince those who want nothing to align with your cause, convincing everyone else becomes simple by comparison."

Erwin smiled at the logic. It was paradoxical in its own way, seeking allies among those least likely to become allies.

They entered through the main gate, passing Primordial Architects at Absolute depths who regarded them with expressions mixing wariness and curiosity. Erwin felt their gazes tracking him as he moved deeper into the compound, but he paid them little attention.

His focus was elsewhere.

His paradox burned within him with intensity that surprised even himself. The weavings of contradiction he had cultivated across eons reached a precipice now, pressing against boundaries that many may not have anticipated he could approach. His Civilizational Anchor was nearly complete. His claim to Paradox, held and not held simultaneously, pulsed with authority that made the Primordial Architects around him shift uncomfortably.

He was close now.

So very close to something that would change everything. But he was also even more cautious as he knew the closer one came to a grand accomplishment, the more likely they could fall and stumble. He had fallen and stumbled many times that he was now very careful of this. He wanted to see what would rise to try and trip him this time.