novelraw Chapter 687: Archean! II
Chapter 687: Archean! II
Did he really fail?!
Achilles did not say anything initially.
Then he nodded lightly.
"I failed."
The words were simple!
"I killed Lamashtu. I severed him from existence with THE Primordial Severance before he could complete his ritual. But I was too late. The ritual had already been answered. Something from the Unobservable came through."
THE Watcher’s singularity dimmed further.
"The flood approaching us..."
"Is from that being. A Miniature Cause called THE Great Archean Flood. Half of all lifeforms will perish. The other half will Persevere and evolve."
After he said this, Achilles released resplendent white waves of light from his transformed existence.
The brilliance bathed the entire region with evolutionary pressure that carried the same principles as the approaching flood. But unlike the flood itself, this pressure was controlled. Modulated. Directed by his will toward specific purposes rather than unleashed indiscriminately.
The waves concentrated most intensely on Rose.
She looked at him with eyes of worry.
But even though her eyes were filled with worry, he smiled.
"It’s okay."
He pulled her into a hug, his arms wrapping around her form with tenderness. She pressed against his chest and breathed in the scent of someone who had changed in ways she could not fully comprehend but was still the man she loved.
And nanoseconds later, the terrifying white floods surged to blanket the entire First Sea of Tian.
Abzu disappeared beneath waves of Archean light that carried evolutionary pressure demanding Perseverance or death. The golden waters churned as the flood washed through them.
All other seas would be bathed in this same flood.
Every Star Sea. Every Fold and Shattered Fold. Every territory across Observable Existence where lifeforms had developed across billions of years of history.
After this, absolutely nothing would be the same.
Half of all lifeforms would perish in the selection that Mansa Zulu had imposed without consent or warning.
And shockingly, at this very starting point, Achilles could proceed to take the step to enter THE Second Scale of Existence whenever he wished!
---
A terrifying flood permeated across existence.
White waves crashed through the boundaries of Star Seas and Folds and Shattered Folds without discrimination. They washed over territories that had remained unchanged for billions of years. They flooded domains where ancient beings had cultivated in peace since before recorded history. They swept through every corner of Observable Existence with evolutionary pressure that demanded adaptation or death.
Nothing was spared.
Nothing could hide!
Inside a vast Star Sea, on a small world whose name would never be remembered by those beyond its atmosphere, a hunter was fighting for his life.
Monsters had broken through from a dungeon that should have remained sealed for another century. The beasts poured into his village with hunger that knew no restraint, tearing through homes and families with claws that shredded everything they touched. He stood before them with a spear his father had given him, the last barrier between the creatures and the survivors huddled in the temple behind him.
He was about to die!
A beast twice his size lunged toward him with jaws that could crush stone. His arms were too tired to raise his spear in time. His legs were too weak to dodge. He saw death coming and could do nothing to stop it.
Then white flood appeared.
It washed over everything! The hunter and the beast were both swept away by waves that carried pressure unlike anything this small world had ever experienced. Pain erupted through every aspect of his existence as the flood demanded that he adapt or perish.
He roared.
The sound tore from his throat with defiance that refused to accept death in any form. His body screamed with agony as the Archean pressure restructured his foundations according to principles he could not comprehend. His muscles tore and reformed. His bones cracked and strengthened. His spirit shattered and rebuilt itself into something greater.
He persevered!
And through the white flood, he found the beast still struggling against the same pressure. Its eyes held confusion and pain as evolutionary forces it could not understand demanded changes it could not make. It was failing. It was dying!
He killed it!
His spear drove through the creature’s skull with strength he had not possessed moments before. The beast collapsed beneath the white waves, its existence unable to meet the threshold that the flood required. Under that same flood, the hunter felt his power rising with each breath he took.
He would survive this day.
Many in his village would not.
Inside a distant Shattered Fold, inside a plane of existence where cultivators had built civilizations that spanned continents, a king was having a meal in the royal palace with his family.
His daughter laughed at something her mother said. His wife smiled with warmth that made the burdens of rulership seem lighter. The food was excellent. The wine was aged perfectly. The evening held promise of peace that he had fought for across decades of warfare and diplomacy.
This was happiness.
This was everything he had worked to protect.
Then...
White waves crashed over everything.
They smashed through the palace walls as if they were paper. They flooded the dining hall with brilliance. They swept over the king and his wife and his daughter with pressure that cared nothing for titles or bloodlines or love.
Mana erupted from the king as he roared to protect his family.
He threw everything he had into a barrier around them, authority accumulated across centuries of cultivation pouring forth with desperation that transcended rational thought. He would shield them. He would protect them. He would not let this flood take what mattered most!
His barrier cracked almost instantly.
He watched his daughter dissolve.
She looked at him with confusion in her eyes, reaching toward him with hands that were already becoming transparent. She did not understand what was happening. She did not know why her existence was unraveling. She only knew that her father was supposed to protect her and somehow was not!
"Papa..."
Her voice faded with her form.
His wife followed moments later.
She did not reach for him. She reached for the space where their daughter had been, trying to hold onto something that no longer existed. Her eyes held grief rather than confusion as she dissolved!
The king roared with grief and pain.
The sound echoed through the ruined palace as the white flood continued washing over him. He persevered through agony, through loss that would never heal, through evolutionary pressure that elevated his power even as it destroyed everything that made power worth having.
He survived, but his family did not.
---
Scenes like this unfolded across Observable Existence.
Hunters killing beasts that could no longer threaten them. Kings losing families they would have traded everything to save. Children watching parents dissolve. Parents watching children fail to persevere. Cultivators at the peak of their power crumbling because their foundations could not adapt quickly enough. Mortals who had never touched Mana in their lives rising with potential they had never possessed before.
Half of all life perished.
The other half emerged stronger.
A great deal changed in those moments when THE Great Archean Flood washed across reality. Territories that had been stable for eons were restructured. Hierarchies that had seemed eternal collapsed. Powers that had dominated their regions dissolved alongside the weakest mortals in their domains.
Things would no longer be the same.
Achilles and Rose sat on a white platform above the golden seas of Tian.
The First Sea churned below them, white flood mixing with golden waters in patterns that seemed almost beautiful despite the death they represented. Archean light reflected from the surface with brilliance that painted their features in shades of white and gold.
They observed this flood with complicated expressions.
Rose leaned against him with her fiery green hair dimmed by the weight of what she was witnessing.
Behind them, THE Watcher floated in silence. The platinum singularity had dimmed further since Achilles’s return, golden lotus petals barely rotating as this ancient awareness observed the consequences of intervention it had helped set in motion.
Achilles looked out across the flooding seas.
His purple-gold eyes swirled with clusters of differentiation and undifferentiation as he perceived changes rippling through reality itself. Rivers of Archean light orbited his transformed existence with currents that responded to his will.
He spoke.
"Half of all life has perished."
He said.
"Those who remain will carry the weight of those who could not persevere."
He paused as white waves crashed against distant shores.
"Observable Existence will be connected to another. A channel will form between what is Observable and what is Unobservable. Information will pass through that channel. Civilizations will pass through that channel."
His eyes blazed brighter.
"Civilizations..will flow."
The words landed with finality.
"Civilizations...will flow."
...!