It fucking worked?
Noah’s eyes shone with brilliance as he watched the impossible unfold before him.
It was a long shot, a gamble based on a split-second analysis through the Lens of Civilization. He had looked at Aethon and peeled back the layers of magma and storm to see the core truth of the entity, and what he found was simple and profound. Aethon cared for his people more than his pride.
Was this the first enemy that was actually reasonable?
Noah watched the blue-gold snowflakes settle on the skin of the Elemental Legion like blessings descending from an alien heaven. He watched them close their eyes in reverence. He watched them pay their respects to his Primus Mana, to the Civilizational Authority of Mana and Hunger that wore the mask of Elemental supremacy with such perfect conviction.
The moment they accepted, his existence lurched.
It wasn’t a stumble or a misstep but an expansion, as if the boundaries of his being had suddenly grown to encompass territory that had never belonged to him before.
He felt a profound sense of immensity wash over him, a validation that vibrated in his very marrow and sang through his bones. He had made the right choice!
In all things, Noah debated the angles and calculated the trade-offs. Every action was a transaction with Existence. To spare Aethon was to forsake the immediate loot of tens of thousands of Sextillion-level entities, to leave a harvest un-reaped in the traditional sense of conquest and consumption.
But as the immensity settled into his bones and spread through his consciousness, he knew the trade was not just fair.
It was a magisterial robbery.
Because the prompts that bloomed before his vision were not of simple experience or loot, not the mundane accumulation of power through violence.
They were of Glory.
|UNFATHOMABLE ACTION CONFIRMED|
|You have embarked further upon your Way of Existence.|
|You have actively utilized the Unique Quality of The Way of Mana.|
|Analysis: Mana is present and pervasive. It is the basal authority, the fundamental building block of countless weavings. No fire burns, no ice freezes, no earth hardens without the catalyst of Mana.|
|By proving your Mana is the supreme form of their authority, you have initiated:|
|THE CIVILIZATIONAL ENCROACHMENT OF MANA|
|Target: The Primordial Civilization of Elemental.|
|Status: You have laid claim to the foundations of this Civilization.|
|The number of entities paying respect is small relative to the whole, but their acknowledgment represents a conceptual breach. You have opened a pathway to siphon the immensity and harvest of a Primordial Civilization directly.|
...!
Noah read the words and his eyes blazed with concentrated intensity.
Around him, the blue-gold snowstorm became maddeningly serious in its purpose. It spun faster, the flakes growing heavy with accumulated authority, turning the battlefield into a domain of absolute Mana Supremacy.
He felt it then, a terrifying influx of harvest crashing down toward his existence like the endless waves of a celestial sea threatening to drown him in power.
|Quintessential Harvest Descends.|
|Source: Civilizational Encroachment|
|Target: Primordial Civilization of Elemental|
|The harvest of the laid claim has begun. The concentration of this authority exceeds all prior harvests.|
|The foundation of the Elemental Civilization stretches far outside THE Loom and expresses itself even more immensely within it. You are siphoning from the totality.|
|Under your Primordial Civilization of Mana and Hunger, a new feature has risen- The Derivative Civilizations of Mana and Hunger|
|You can now enact: The Derivative Civilization of Elemental under the Brilliance of Mana.|
...!
Holy shit.
What?
Noah’s mind raced as he processed the implications cascading through his understanding.
A Derivative Civilization?
He thought that power belonged solely to THE Creature, that only THE Primordial Civilization of Existence could spawn derivatives like The Way of Idle Existence or The Civilization of Effort. These were privileges reserved for the absolute pinnacle of existential authority.

"You Sacrilegious Fucking Savage."
BOOM!
"How dare you?"
DUM. DUM. DUM.
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