In the moment before the Early Creature’s Glyph could flash with terminal authority, Noah spoke with calm certainty.
"You are a Record of yourself. You are already dead."
...!
HUUM!
The words struck Thal’dorven with such unexpected force that his casual demeanor faltered.
The Early Creature stopped, his Living authority pausing as he focused his full attention upon this insignificant Marine Lifeform who had dared to speak truth that cut to his heart of existence itself!
In the next moment, Noah’s serpentine form began changing as his own glorious humanoid shape manifested.
His bare upper body emerged with the same primitive majesty that marked Thal’dorven, his skin gleaming with inner radiance while muscles spoke to power!
Power!
Noah stared coldly at the Early Creature as his understanding crystallized into strategy.
"Someone of your stature should be able to sense it," he said with calculating precision, each word chosen to cut through layers of self-deception that even Records could maintain.
"You are but an echo, a memory given form but no longer truly Living. The rewards you speak of gaining from my failure are illusions, phantoms of desires that belonged to the being you once were but can never be again."
His voice carried tyrannical authority as he continued!
"You possess no capacity to benefit from my success or failure. You are a shadow cast by light that no longer shines, a story told by voices that have long since fallen silent. Whatever obsessions drive you now are the chains of a dead past binding a present that should not exist."
HUUM!
The Early Creature’s expression shifted to something that combined majesty with profound despondence, of power mingled with existential sorrow!
"Of course," Thal’dorven replied, his voice carrying weavings of acceptance mixed with endless regret. "I know that I am dead. The knowledge burns through every moment of this false existence. But understanding changes nothing."
His gaze grew distant as he continued, "I still carry my obsessions, the fundamental patterns that defined who I was when life flowed through these veins. Obsession, you see, is one of the more terrifying tools anyone can possess. It transcends death, outlasts reason, persists when every logical foundation has crumbled away."
The Early Creature’s smile carried the weight of tragedy as he focused once more upon Noah.
"No, I do not have to kill you. But my obsession, who I was and who I remain even as a Record, will ensure that you are killed. Because some patterns run deeper than existence itself."
Noah nodded with calm understanding, recognizing the fundamental nature of what they faced.
Yet even as acceptance settled over him, curiosity burned with its own form of desperate intensity.
"Before you kill me then," he said with the measured tone of someone requesting a final favor, "could you tell me more about us? About why you died? And why others are nowhere to be seen?"
These words caused the Record of the Early Creature to have his eyes flash with genuine surprise, awareness focusing upon weavings that had not occurred to him until this moment!
"The others are missing?" Thal’dorven said, his voice carrying undertones of growing concern. "This..."
He seemed contemplative as understanding began to dawn, ancient mind processing information that challenged assumptions he had carried since his death!
Soon he shook his head with a smile that mixed sorrow with resigned determination.
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