Noah paused at the threshold of the Primordial Early Excavation Depths, his hand resting against the archway of impossible stone.

He could feel his complexity hovering at levels that, while still formidable, felt depleted after the massive expenditures of forging three Seed Glyphs. But...

He had two more Early Living Existential Seed Glyphs pulsing with unused potential...one on each palm. And each one could grant a Harvest Festival Endowment once per day.

"Why leave power unused?" he murmured, raising his right hand to observe the Glyph that gleamed there like a verdant star. "Upon myself, the second Harvest Festival Endowment shall bloom."

HUUM!

The response was immediate. Green-gold leaves materialized from his right palm, spiraling around him with purpose that suggested they knew exactly what effort needed rewarding.

These leaves seemed different from the first set...more knowing, as if they could see the effort of restraint, the work of not using power immediately, the patience that was its own form of labor!

|Second Harvest Festival Endowment activated|

|Target: Self|

|Measuring accumulated efforts since last harvest...|

|Note: Effort to forge multiple Glyphs recognized|

|Note: Effort to lead others recognized|

|Note: Effort of restraint recognized|

|Complexity gained: +21,000,000,000|

|Purity gained: +21,000,000,000|

HUUM!

The influx washed through him like a tide of validation. His complexity surged back toward comfortable levels, but he wasn’t finished. His left palm blazed with its own eager light.

"Upon myself, the third Harvest Festival Endowment shall bloom!"

BOOM!

This time the leaves that emerged carried a different quality...they recognized not past effort but ongoing work.

The effort of maintaining multiple bodies across reality. The effort of holding a Shore together through will alone. The effort of being what others needed him to be.

|Third Harvest Festival Endowment activated|

|Target: Self|

|Recognizing continuous ongoing efforts|

|Note: Simultaneous existence maintenance quantified|

|Note: Leadership burden acknowledged|

|Note: Reality anchor role measured|

|Complexity gained: +19,000,000,000|

|Purity gained: +19,000,000,000|

|Current Total Complexity: 41,847,293,152|

|Current Total Purity: 41,847,293,152|

Noah breathed deep, feeling power settle into his bones with the satisfaction of a well-fitted garment. This was better...not overwhelming, but sufficient.

He waved his hand, and the Goad flew across the Shore into his grip with the eagerness of a tool recognizing its moment had come. The simple stick hummed with potential, its ability to educate through contact ready to meet whatever ignorance the depths might contain.

Standing there with his shepherd’s tool and three Principles gleaming on his body, he looked like what he was...someone ready to tend to realities that had forgotten they needed tending!

Before he could take his first step into the depths, two figures approached with distinct gaits that proclaimed their natures.

Heidrun trotted over with the particular arrogance of someone who had existed since before existence properly organized itself.

She nudged him with her head...not gently, but with the force of someone making a point.

|Heidrun wishes you to know:|

|"Don’t die in there. Who else would I share grass, mead, and knowledge with?"|

|Translation: Please be careful|

...!

Noah smiled at the prompt that translated her arrogant care into something more recognizable. He scratched behind her ears, earning a huff that suggested such gestures were beneath her dignity but acceptable from him.

Yoshinami approached more directly, her form shifting from solid to light with the fluidity of someone who had never fully decided which state she preferred. Without ceremony or warning, she dissolved into radiance that wrapped around his head, condensing into an obsidian crown that seemed to devour light while creating its own.

"I’ve finished devouring the corpse of that Dead Existence," her voice resonated directly into his thoughts, carrying satisfaction that transcended simple fullness. "From now on, I can act twice a day to kill anything below the level of an Early Creature. And in this form, I’m considered a tool...we can enter together without exceeding occupancy limits of the group."

WAA!

The crown settled onto his head with weight that transcended the physical. It was authority made wearable, death given form that chose not to kill.

"Then let’s see what memories these depths are hiding," Noah said, stepping toward the entrance with his assembled party.

The moment they passed through the archway, reality shifted.

The entrance sealed behind them...not permanently, but with the finality of a door that wouldn’t open until they had earned their exit.

The atmosphere hit them first.

"This place..." Yoshinami’s voice echoed from the crown with recognition that carried across eons, "it smells and feels like the Wandering Territories. Like the Earliest Folds. There’s an age here that predates the separation of concepts."

Around them, existence was still rearranging itself as they could not see much!

"Then we’re likely to find things that shouldn’t exist anymore," Noah replied, his voice carrying tyrannical interest rather than concern!

What they saw initially was almost disappointingly mundane...a cavern that might have existed in any world, though the stone carried a quality that suggested it had been compressed by time rather than pressure.

But it was small, cramped, the path forward blocked by material that seemed to exist too thoroughly to simply push aside.

|Welcome to Primordial Early Excavation Depths|

|Current Level: 1 - The Forgotten Servant’s Vestibule|

|Danger Rating: Manageable (for beings of your caliber. Are you being carried?)|

|Possible Encounters: Remnant Guardians, Memory Echoes, Conceptual Parasites|

|WARNING: Memories here may be infectious|

...!

The stones ahead of them pulsed with purple obsidian age that had weight, blocking their path with the stubbornness of reality that had existed too long to remember it could change.

"Allow me," Ruination said, stepping forward with the particular grace of someone who ended things professionally.

The crimson-gold Glyph of Ruin on her forehead pulsed once, and the stones ahead simply ceased. Not destroyed, not moved...ended, its existence concluded with the finality of a story reaching its last word.

And Ruination remained forging ahead as if she would mine and destroy the jagged stones making the path so small for her Master!

The Infiniverse followed close behind above a verdant gold leaf as she looked around cautiously!