Chapter 5338: Source! I
The scintillating light died down, and Dame Seraphine smiled.
"And so, a Sword of Existence is born," she said. "Whether your name will be carved and recorded across existence, or whether you will serve and pass unremembered, is yet to be seen. That is for your records to decide, not for me." She studied him.
"But you are a bit special. So let us give you your special treatment. Because you are special, a directive will likely arrive with missions tailored specifically to you. Others among the Swords are sent to join Wars, or to specific Observable Existences to hunt Gilded Ones or Infinite Lifeforms. Yours may be geared more toward Terminal Observable Existences, given what you have shown yourself capable of."
She raised a finger.
"But before you can act as a Sword, you require Clearance. That comes from me, or from a few others of sufficient standing. I must deem you battle-ready, that you have sufficient strength to protect yourself, because a Sword that dies is a failure of the order, and you especially cannot die. So." Her smile turned faintly mischievous. "Let us see whether you have the qualities you need."
HUUM!
A brilliant light flashed through the hall, and all of them disappeared.
---
They appeared at the edges of THE Hallowed Demesne, inside what looked to be a farm.
Noah’s interest sharpened immediately, because he had his own farm in THE Infiniverse and the cultivation of potent things was a pursuit he genuinely enjoyed. Plots of land stretched across the area, each one filled with terrifyingly potent Source Herbs, the plants blazing with concentrations of energy that pressed against his perception with the density of things grown in THE Source Lands across long careful cultivation.
He walked toward a plot and touched the leaves of a Source Herb, and its details resolved before him.
|Source Herb — Primordial Essence Bloom. A cultivated plant that generates and stores Pure Primordial Essence within its structure. Slow to mature. Extraordinarily valuable. The Essence stored within a single mature specimen exceeds what most beings encounter in their entire existence.|
He turned the leaf between his fingers, filing the plant away as something worth acquiring for THE Infiniverse, as Seo-yeon drifted back to his side with inquisitive eyes, Dame Seraphine and Sir William behind them.
"I need to know you can fight," Dame Seraphine said. "And I need to know you can run when running is the correct choice, because a Sword who cannot flee a losing situation is a dead Sword, and dead Swords serve no one. So your first task is simple." She gestured behind the plots of Source Herbs. "Catch that."
...!
Noah turned to look behind the plots.
There, among the Source Herbs, were...chickens.
They were obsidian-feathered, each the size of a full-grown man, and there were nine of them scattered across the surrounding plots, pecking at the Source Herbs with the entitled leisure of creatures that considered the entire farm their personal feeding ground. Their feathers were a deep glossy obsidian that caught the light.
They held their heads high, their movements carrying an unmistakable arrogance, a prideful strut that suggested each one believed itself the most important thing in any space it occupied. They were grand, in their way. Ridiculous and grand at once.
Chickens.
He had to catch a chicken!
He turned to Dame Seraphine dubiously, but her expression remained entirely serious. Then she smiled, mischievous, clearly enjoying something he did not yet understand.
"Just some chicken," she said. "Catch one quickly so we can proceed."
Noah looked back at the chickens, and the prompts resolved.
|Designation: Unknown Source Lifeform.|
|Available detail: The fastest lifeforms in existence.|
...!
The fastest lifeforms in existence.
Noah approached the nearest chicken with caution and confidence of a being who had erased nine Fourth Scale Ragnars in nine seconds, but he knew there should be something unique here!
He reached for it, and...
WAA!
It was no longer there.
He had not seen it move. There had been a chicken, obsidian and arrogant, pecking at a Source Herb, and his hand had closed on the space it occupied, and the space was empty, and the chicken stood three meters to the left, regarding him with one flat disdainful eye as though he had done something mildly embarrassing.
Noah’s brow rose.
He reached again, faster. The chicken sidestepped without appearing to hurry, a single unbothered shuffle that put it exactly far enough from his hand to make contact impossible. He lunged. It drifted aside. He swept both arms in a motion that should have cornered it against a plot of Source Herbs, and it was simply elsewhere, pecking at a different herb, its back turned to him in a display of contempt so complete it bordered on artistry!
He could not touch a feather!
His amusement curdled into focus. He erupted with his power, THE Aura of THE Source Barbarian blazing across his frame, and began to seriously pursue them, moving now at speeds that blurred his passage across the farm.
|Unknown Source Lifeform — partial detail unlocked through proximity.|
|The entire existence of this lifeform gives off an extremely stable isotope of THE Primordial Source. While it is a version of THE Primordial Source rather than the source itself, it carries unique value. For a young Source Lifeform whose existence is already bathed in Pure Primordial Essence, absorbing this stable isotope can induce a reaction that may allow them to begin generating their own Pure Primordial Source.|
BOOM!
Noah’s eyes burned with wonder.
Generate his own Pure Primordial Source!
Not Essence, the precursor he had been flooded with, but the Source itself, the destination he had been chasing through every path available to him. He carried high concentrations of Pure Primordial Essence already, amplified a thousandfold by Seo-yeon’s Blessing, and if absorbing this isotope could induce the reaction, then catching one of these ridiculous chickens was not a test of his ability to be a Sword. It was a shortcut toward the single thing he wanted most.
He rushed the chickens at full speed.
"This looks fun!" Seo-yeon called, delighted. "Seo-yeon wants to try!"
She joined the chase, and Noah watched in something close to slow motion as her first attempt nearly worked. Her small hands came within a hair of an obsidian tail, closer than he had managed, and the chickens noticed. Three of them turned their heads toward her with arrogant flat stares, clucking in a cadence that sounded unmistakably like taunting, as if to ask why such a small thing thought it had any business trying.
Seo-yeon pouted and moved faster!
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