Chapter 4394: The Doctrines of Hunger I

Noah floated toward Khor, his form radiating blue-gold brilliance from the Primus Mana coursing through his existence.

Behind him, Riya watched with fascinated eyes as the singularity above continued dimming.

Noah could also sense the signatures of brilliant concentrations of Mana heading in this direction, with these belonging to the Seed Members of this Civilization.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

Khor’s crimson eyes met his with ancient hunger perfectly contained beneath their surface.

"Outsider, it is just power. I had it once. I may have it again. Let us see what the results will be."

Noah gazed at this unique being calmly as he closed the remaining distance between them.

"Existential Rollback," he said simply.

...!

HUUM!

|Existential Rollback Protocol Initiated|

|Function: Restore lost weavings or previous states of existence for designated target|

|Resource Requirement: 50 Mana Glyphs of The Cheating Architect (Active Consumption)|

|Current Available: 125 Mana Glyphs - Sufficient for activation|

|CRITICAL NOTE: Primus Mana elevation detected in all active reserves|

|Effect: Unknown enhancement to restoration parameters|

|Projected Outcome: Standard rollback would restore partial power/state|

|Enhanced Outcome: Primus-elevated rollback may achieve results exceeding theoretical maximums|

|WARNING: Target’s lost state involves THE distinction - restoration may have cascading unknown existential effects. Restoration to THE is entirely out of the realms of possibility.|

|Proceeding with activation...|

Golden light erupted around Noah’s form...the pure crystalline gold of the fundamental architecture of Cheating Architect asserting itself.

Riya watched with wonder as Noah’s hand rose slowly, his five fingers extending toward Khor’s face with deliberate precision.

Contact.

The moment his fingertips touched her skin, a blinding pillar of golden light erupted skyward with force that painted the entire Isolated Civilization in radiance of magisterial gold.

Riya’s jewel-blue eyes tracked the phenomenon with fascination mixed with concern.

When she looked at Noah and Khor directly, she saw both of their eyes shining with pure golden beams of light, their expressions calm as if they were no longer present in their bodies...as if consciousness had departed for somewhere else entirely.

—

Noah did not fully know where he was at this moment.

He felt like a grand observer watching existence unfold in an extremely unique place...neither participant nor truly external, but something between.

A witness to history that had already occurred, viewing events through mechanisms that far, far exceedednormal temporal observation.

His gaze drank in surroundings.

Endlessly rising jagged obsidian towers stretched toward a sky.

Everything was immensely dark...filled with a concentration of darkness, as if shadow had been compressed until it became solid architecture.

And everywhere, absolutely everywhere, trillions of Inevitabilities swarmed.

They blotted out nearly every spot of atmosphere with their tentacle-formed bodies, creating a living sea of writhing obsidian appendages that moved with coordinated purpose.

His perception focused on the top of one flat obsidian tower, and there he saw a figure who looked like Khor... but didn’t show the ancientness of age in her eyes.

She seemed young.

Filled with a sense of innocence that the current Khor had long since lost.

Her form was humanoid rather than her natural Inevitability shape, and she stood before another humanoid Inevitability who gazed at her with eyes full of accumulated wisdom.

The humanoid Inevitability spoke first, his voice showing gentle concern.

"What troubles you, Little Hunger?"

Young Khor’s expression twisted with frustration and hurt.

"All the other Inevitabilities are bullying me," she said, "They mock this form I’m taking. Say I’m pretending to be weak. But..."

She looked down at her humanoid hands with confusion.

"This form does limit my power. I can feel my Hunger constrained, compressed into something smaller than it should be. Why do I have to take this form? Why do you make me practice being weaker than I am?"

The humanoid Inevitability, his features stern but kind, knelt to meet her gaze directly.

"Look around you, Little Hunger," he said, gesturing at the swirling mass of tentacle-formed Inevitabilities.

"Among all the trillions here, have you seen any others who can take this form like us?"

Young Khor shook her head silently.

"The form we’re inhabiting," he continued, "is the form of one of the weakest creatures in existence. Soft. Fragile. Limited in ways our natural state never experiences. But that is precisely why it’s valuable for training."

He placed a hand on her shoulder with gentleness.

"If you can learn to hone your Hunger in this form at your weakest, if you can master control when constrained, when limited, when operating at a fraction of your natural capability...then one day you may grow to be as strong as I am. Strength cultivated through constraint becomes far more refined than power that knows no limitation."

He straightened, his expression becoming more serious.

"Now, remember what I told you about the Doctrines of Hunger. What was the first and foremost?"

The question carried weight of stern teacher testing crucial lessons.

Young Khor’s expression shifted...frustration giving way to concentration as she accessed memorized teachings.

"The First Doctrine of Hunger," she recited, her voice steadying, "states that Hunger is the fundamental acknowledgment of incompleteness.We hunger because we recognize we are not yet whole. We devour because we seek to become more than we currently are. All advancement begins with acknowledging what we lack, and all growth stems from the desire to fill that void. To deny Hunger is to deny the possibility of becoming greater."

WAA!

The humanoid Inevitability nodded with satisfaction.

"Correct. And because you acknowledge you lack control in this weak form, you possess the foundation necessary to eventually transcend that weakness."

He offered his hand to lift her up, his smile carrying warmth.

"Come on. Existence has much more for you to see, and lessons don’t wait for readiness."

Young Khor took his hand, her expression brightening despite lingering confusion.

"Yes, Tor."

...!

Tor.

Noah observed the scene as his eyes flashed with analytical brilliance.

There was someone, an Inevitability, even more powerful than Khor? How did she become THE First Hunger and not him? What happened to change that hierarchy?

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