Ripheus23

"Since ZFC provides us with the resources to construct ultrapowers, we can construct inner models using mice."

"Since ZFC provides us with the resources to construct ultrapowers, we can construct inner models using mice."

I realized that there's a difference between proving "x is not a set of anything" and proving "x is a set of nothing," and I needed to prove that the ur-element is not a set of no elements of any set, including itself. I think I worked it out* but anyway, another result of the model was that while zero is an empty subset of other sets (a set with no elements of any other sets), so all other sets are empty subsets of zero (sets of no elements of zero). So this underscores why for all natural numbers n besides 0, the powerset is uniquely 2 to the power of n, whereas 0 to the power of 0, 1 to the power of 0, 2 the power of zero... 1 to the power of 1, 1 to the power of 2, 1 to the power of 3... = 0 ^^2 = 1 ^^ 2 = 1. <So zero is the only number before aleph-zero that has an infinite number of powerset expressions.>

*my idea is that "being a set of no elements of x" means being 0 (in relation to other numbers) and being other numbers (in relation to zero). But the relation is never defined on the ur-element. More, then, we can just define the ur-element such that it it is not a set of no elements of other sets, nor itself. In conjunction with the ur-element's not being a set of anything either, it follows that it is not a set of anything or nothing, which rules out the ur-element being a set.

Next step/stage.

First-run technical account of the ur-set and the ur-element concept.

Next step/stage.

Anselm cardinals. A transet in V proposed by the "cult of the universal constructor." Its elements are supposed to be "cardinals so large that only divine power could have brought them into being" or give them a reference. Note that this concept therefore requires that Anselm numbers be transfinally ordered, making the first Anselm number into the meridian of a nexus <where the Anselm section of V is the "greatest" section>.

cult of the universal constructor, the. Believers in a transcreationist model of the Godelian universal constructor. Their leader is Cardinal Mahlo [finally!], who is actually secretly working with the Septarch of Commandment (also known as Deonomy). According to the cult, it is not provable whether empirical reality was created by a divine nature, but it is provable whether mathematical reality was transcreated by a divine nature. <The argument goes: there is a possible mathematical world that was transcreated; therefore there is a possible transcreatrix; if something is a transcreatrix, it is this necessarily; therefore the transcreatrix, if it exists for any possible mathematical world, exists for all of them.>

Godelian universal constructor. An entity whose existence is supported by Godel's ontological argument. Similar to the necessary agent.

necessary agent, the. Posit of naive deontic logic: there is an obligation that exists purely from logical grounds (an obligation to "uphold" the law of non-contradiction), wherefore there is always (necessarily) an agent able to discharge the obligation. In ecograph theory, this posit is actually a principle for the manifestation of different kinds of "necessary" agents.

Deonomy. The Septarch empowered by divine-command theory. He was also the first ecoarch to manipulate the Keyscape in order to the Septatheon. (Note that ecoarchs are already a peculiar kind of "necessary agent.")

"Another dimension of their ingenuity was in using complex functions to single out individual cardinals on the first level of infinity, such that the orders of complexity among those functions could be used to mirror V altogether. The 'slogan' was: the first level of aleph-numbers is sufficient for the intuition of 'Cantor's paradise,' which is a thematic image of V (the generic metafinitary description "infinity of infinities" is first satisfied over the first level of the alephs). By this means, the accessibility of some of these complex functions (their relative simplicity, all things considered, nevertheless) could be semiotically interposed with the 'power' of the higher infinities mapped to by this method, so that the Keyscape's mediation of different levels of power as such could be accomplished more easily."

"Another dimension of their ingenuity was in using complex functions to single out individual cardinals on the first level of infinity, such that the orders of complexity among those functions could be used to mirror V altogether. The 'slogan' was: the first level of aleph-numbers is sufficient for the intuition of 'Cantor's paradise,' which is a thematic image of V (the generic metafinitary description "infinity of infinities" is first satisfied over the first level of the alephs). By this means, the accessibility of some of these complex functions (their relative simplicity, all things considered, nevertheless) could be semiotically interposed with the 'power' of the higher infinities mapped to by this method, so that the Keyscape's mediation of different levels of power as such could be accomplished more easily."

Rather than focus only on unfathomably faster means of ascending V, I did some more ground-level work on various countable patterns in V, of an elegant nature after all, however. Here are some examples:

Rather than focus only on unfathomably faster means of ascending V, I did some more ground-level work on various countable patterns in V, of an elegant nature after all, however. Here are some examples:

Rather than focus only on unfathomably faster means of ascending V, I did some more ground-level work on various countable patterns in V, of an elegant nature after all, however. Here are some examples:

Rather than focus only on unfathomably faster means of ascending V, I did some more ground-level work on various countable patterns in V, of an elegant nature after all, however. Here are some examples:

After some more reflection, I have discarded by "epsilon-alpha hypothesis" about the interpolation of the finitely-indexed hyperoperator sequence and the aleph numbers. Although this increases the implicit semiotic scale of the universe of sets (on my model), it has the drawback of eliminating a particularly nice example of advergence and also makes my representation of a generalized glyphic index harder to handle (versus the classical/mainstream fixed-point notation, in this context). Of course, this is really just the fact that the reality is harder to handle, here.

So anyway I have no more solution to the first triangle operation or the first hypertower, to say nothing of my notion of a xatrix cardinal!

I've had occasion to obsess over infinitesimals, of late, and I came up with a perhaps naive hypothesis about how to characterize them "intuitively." Let us say that every real number has aleph-zero many digits. This means that we will at least count to a ωth digit if we read out their decimal expansions. Now allow, then, that there is some number for which the ωth digit is 0, but if there is a next digit, this ω+1th is 1. This number is therefore infinitely small but not equal to zero. Voila, an infinitesimal! So think of something like 0.000 ... (ω 0s) ... 01. This is variously the smallest or largest such infinitesimal.

But this model allows us to go on fracturing the continuum. Suppose, then, that after the ω+ωth digit, we go back to an infinite countable sequence of 0s, succeeded by another infinitesimal sequence, and so on. We will have a whole realm of infinitely broken numbers. But we will also have realms of permutations of these options, and so on.

The intuitively maximal case is to go on to imagine a number whose decimal expansion goes at least to ω1, the first uncountable number. That is, it has as many non-zero digits as there are numbers in the Continuum (we're presuming the Continuum Hypothesis). Such numbers, if they are complete (nowhere broken) are each in themselves indecomposable continua, up to the "syrupy" case of the Brouwerian model. In fact, the whole occurrent model appears to allow us to exactly formulate whether and how a continuum is decomposable or not (think back to those fractured sequences), or at least to frame comparable questions relative to a category either akin to or under that of decomposable and indecomposable continua (c.f. the notion of density in this context).

I've had occasion to obsess over infinitesimals, of late, and I came up with a perhaps naive hypothesis about how to characterize them "intuitively." Let us say that every real number has aleph-zero many digits. This means that we will at least count to a ωth digit if we read out their decimal expansions. Now allow, then, that there is some number for which the ωth digit is 0, but if there is a next digit, this ω+1th is 1. This number is therefore infinitely small but not equal to zero. Voila, an infinitesimal! So think of something like 0.000 ... (ω 0s) ... 01. This is variously the smallest or largest such infinitesimal.

But this model allows us to go on fracturing the continuum. Suppose, then, that after the ω+ωth digit, we go back to an infinite countable sequence of 0s, succeeded by another infinitesimal sequence, and so on. We will have a whole realm of infinitely broken numbers. But we will also have realms of permutations of these options, and so on.

The intuitively maximal case is to go on to imagine a number whose decimal expansion goes at least to ω1, the first uncountable number. That is, it has as many non-zero digits as there are numbers in the Continuum (we're presuming the Continuum Hypothesis). Such numbers, if they are complete (nowhere broken) are each in themselves indecomposable continua, up to the "syrupy" case of the Brouwerian model. In fact, the whole occurrent model appears to allow us to exactly formulate whether and how a continuum is decomposable or not (think back to those fractured sequences), or at least to frame comparable questions relative to a category either akin to or under that of decomposable and indecomposable continua (c.f. the notion of density in this context).

I've had occasion to obsess over infinitesimals, of late, and I came up with a perhaps naive hypothesis about how to characterize them "intuitively." Let us say that every real number has aleph-zero many digits. This means that we will at least count to a ωth digit if we read out their decimal expansions. Now allow, then, that there is some number for which the ωth digit is 0, but if there is a next digit, this ω+1th is 1. This number is therefore infinitely small but not equal to zero. Voila, an infinitesimal! So think of something like 0.000 ... (ω 0s) ... 01. This is variously the smallest or largest such infinitesimal.

But this model allows us to go on fracturing the continuum. Suppose, then, that after the ω+ωth digit, we go back to an infinite countable sequence of 0s, succeeded by another infinitesimal sequence, and so on. We will have a whole realm of infinitely broken numbers. But we will also have realms of permutations of these options, and so on.

The intuitively maximal case is to go on to imagine a number whose decimal expansion goes at least to ω1, the first uncountable number. That is, it has as many non-zero digits as there are numbers in the Continuum (we're presuming the Continuum Hypothesis). Such numbers, if they are complete (nowhere broken) are each in themselves indecomposable continua, up to the "syrupy" case of the Brouwerian model. In fact, the whole occurrent model appears to allow us to exactly formulate whether and how a continuum is decomposable or not (think back to those fractured sequences), or at least to frame comparable questions relative to a category either akin to or under that of decomposable and indecomposable continua (c.f. the notion of density in this context).

Regarding the concept of a metaindex and cardinalities defined therefrom.

Something I didn't emphasize clearly enough: 

Something I didn't emphasize clearly enough: 

A Novel Eschatology

Let us suppose (we are going to make a good number of extreme suppositions) that, long ago, humankind had developed a civilization that, while not as powerful as ours is, nevertheless was much more powerful than even Rome or elder China, say. While it is unlikely that they manufactured nuclear weapons in the modern sense, there is a small amount of evidence that radioactive materials might have been used in an “elevated” form (e.g. in Mohenjo Daro) at various remote points in antiquity and before. At some point, wars relating to these and other materials consumed this ancient civilization to naught, leaving us the remarkable structures of Macchu Picchu, the Giza pyramids, Stonehenge, and so on, as a testament to the might of what was then lost.

            Among the survivors of those days were the precursors to the Israelites. There is some evidence that YHWH, among those (hypothetical) survivors, began His “life” as a god of metal. But inasmuch as the Hebrew scriptures “translate” the tetragrammaton as a code for the divine self-assertion, “I am that I am,” we might suppose that “YHWH” is ultimately no more a simple proper name than it is just a descriptive term. Suffice it to say that the proto-Israelite metallurgical YHWH was not really the One God YHWH of the Hebrew scriptures.

            Now the Book of Daniel (and the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, implicitly citing the Danielite text) says that the human enemy of the Messiah (now known variously as the Antichrist or the Beast from the sea), in the “last days,” will set himself up as a god in himself, as the embodiment of a heretofore unknown, unrecognized “god of fortresses” placated by offerings of precious metals and other such treasures. The Gospel of Matthew notes that representatives of the false eschatological religion will perform signs and wonders so as to deceive “even the elect, were this possible.” This religion, therefore, must appear very similar in form and content to Judaism and Christianity. The easiest sum of this and the rest of the above is: the antichurch will present itself as worshiping YHWH, but this will be the forsaken god of metal from the end of an older human world, not the Father of the Son, Jesus Christ.

            Why would an evil lord of metals be the image of ultimate darkness as such? Uranium is not emerald ooze or ore, but a typical metal in regular appearance. By means of its power, humankind has formed a “god of fortresses” (to contain and uphold the dire weaponry) that has subverted the political integrity of every people, nation, tribe, and tongue: all are beholden, directly or not, to the forbearance of the “great powers,” such that the threat of nuclear holocaust holds all humanity hostage to itself—trapped in the “fortresses” of the great lands. The discoverers and inventors of the threat sometimes saw themselves as having achieved divine stature, as unleashing a deity of death and destruction (“I have become Death, destroyer of worlds,” as Oppenheimer said).

            America on some (fundamental) level has always imagined itself to be the truest example of the New Rome, not only the inheritor but the transcendental successor to the apex predator of human antiquity. We can see how far America has carried out its antichristian foundations in this, that when the US state made of itself an ideological soldiery (in the holocaust of Vietnam), the prerequisite explanatory appeal was to a clearly Beastly system:

The conquered people are not [always] forced at gunpoint to change their ways, but “all participation in public life, whether political, cultural or economic, is conditioned on acceptance of the new faith.” (Michael McClintock, Instruments of Statecraft, chapter 12)

            Rarely do we find such an explicit (if unintended?) evocation of the “prerogative” of the Antichrist, his False Prophet, and the image of the Beast thereof: “It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands [their deeds] or their foreheads [their beliefs], so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the Beast’s name or the number that stood for its name” (Revelation 13:16-17).

Fire from heaven

Although YHWH in the “Old Testament” is depicted as having entire cities destroyed by fire from heaven, Christ mysteriously enough claims that it will go better for Sodom and Gomorrah, at the final judgment, than it will for several other cities (Matthew 10:15). According to some copies of the Gospel of Luke, Christ actually goes so far as to ask His disciples once, “Do you know what kind of Spirit it is that we serve? For the Son of Man came not to destroy life but to save it” (Luke 9:56), and this in reply to a request by the disciples for celestial incandescence to be visited upon some unfaithful village in Samaria. Now there is apparently little to no archaeological evidence for the story of the ancient Israelites under Moses and Joshua going about physically slaughtering entire peoples in the land of Canaan, and it fits with the typological method of scriptural interpretation to suppose that those genocidal legends are allegorical for the ideological efficiency of monotheism versus polytheism: as Jewish philosophers (prophets, as per the definition of Maimonides) testified to the intellectual and emotional superiority of faith in One God instead of many, pagan regions variously converted en masse to monotheism of various forms (exclusivistic Ra-worship in Egypt for a time, say, or Zoroastrianism in Persia, being seeds or samples of such foreign processes).

            Accordingly, the False Prophet, however, will as his preeminent “sign” of power unleash “fire from heaven” on behalf of the Beast and the Beast’s image. Now there is one nation, above all others, who has indeed unleashed “fire from heaven” at many times and in many places: America, first and foremost in Japan, also to some degree in France and Germany (and a few other countries, during the Second World War, I believe), then massively in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. (Granted, other nations have inflicted the same or similar flames on this or that land, but no other to the degree or extent that the US military has.) It is in America that the falsest forms of Christianity have taken pride of place in much government decision-making, public or covert (by this I mean that even notions like “Christian Identity,” a racist formulation that is brother to Nazism, are on the minds of at least some of our leaders, here or there, now or then). It is America that has the unique potential to betray the reconstituted Israel—the means, the motive, and the opportunity, even.

            Who is like the Beast, therefore? I think it is easy enough to see who is so in our day, at least.

A Novel Eschatology

Let us suppose (we are going to make a good number of extreme suppositions) that, long ago, humankind had developed a civilization that, while not as powerful as ours is, nevertheless was much more powerful than even Rome or elder China, say. While it is unlikely that they manufactured nuclear weapons in the modern sense, there is a small amount of evidence that radioactive materials might have been used in an “elevated” form (e.g. in Mohenjo Daro) at various remote points in antiquity and before. At some point, wars relating to these and other materials consumed this ancient civilization to naught, leaving us the remarkable structures of Macchu Picchu, the Giza pyramids, Stonehenge, and so on, as a testament to the might of what was then lost.

            Among the survivors of those days were the precursors to the Israelites. There is some evidence that YHWH, among those (hypothetical) survivors, began His “life” as a god of metal. But inasmuch as the Hebrew scriptures “translate” the tetragrammaton as a code for the divine self-assertion, “I am that I am,” we might suppose that “YHWH” is ultimately no more a simple proper name than it is just a descriptive term. Suffice it to say that the proto-Israelite metallurgical YHWH was not really the One God YHWH of the Hebrew scriptures.

            Now the Book of Daniel (and the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, implicitly citing the Danielite text) says that the human enemy of the Messiah (now known variously as the Antichrist or the Beast from the sea), in the “last days,” will set himself up as a god in himself, as the embodiment of a heretofore unknown, unrecognized “god of fortresses” placated by offerings of precious metals and other such treasures. The Gospel of Matthew notes that representatives of the false eschatological religion will perform signs and wonders so as to deceive “even the elect, were this possible.” This religion, therefore, must appear very similar in form and content to Judaism and Christianity. The easiest sum of this and the rest of the above is: the antichurch will present itself as worshiping YHWH, but this will be the forsaken god of metal from the end of an older human world, not the Father of the Son, Jesus Christ.

            Why would an evil lord of metals be the image of ultimate darkness as such? Uranium is not emerald ooze or ore, but a typical metal in regular appearance. By means of its power, humankind has formed a “god of fortresses” (to contain and uphold the dire weaponry) that has subverted the political integrity of every people, nation, tribe, and tongue: all are beholden, directly or not, to the forbearance of the “great powers,” such that the threat of nuclear holocaust holds all humanity hostage to itself—trapped in the “fortresses” of the great lands. The discoverers and inventors of the threat sometimes saw themselves as having achieved divine stature, as unleashing a deity of death and destruction (“I have become Death, destroyer of worlds,” as Oppenheimer said).

            America on some (fundamental) level has always imagined itself to be the truest example of the New Rome, not only the inheritor but the transcendental successor to the apex predator of human antiquity. We can see how far America has carried out its antichristian foundations in this, that when the US state made of itself an ideological soldiery (in the holocaust of Vietnam), the prerequisite explanatory appeal was to a clearly Beastly system:

The conquered people are not [always] forced at gunpoint to change their ways, but “all participation in public life, whether political, cultural or economic, is conditioned on acceptance of the new faith.” (Michael McClintock, Instruments of Statecraft, chapter 12)

            Rarely do we find such an explicit (if unintended?) evocation of the “prerogative” of the Antichrist, his False Prophet, and the image of the Beast thereof: “It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands [their deeds] or their foreheads [their beliefs], so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the Beast’s name or the number that stood for its name” (Revelation 13:16-17).

Fire from heaven

Although YHWH in the “Old Testament” is depicted as having entire cities destroyed by fire from heaven, Christ mysteriously enough claims that it will go better for Sodom and Gomorrah, at the final judgment, than it will for several other cities (Matthew 10:15). According to some copies of the Gospel of Luke, Christ actually goes so far as to ask His disciples once, “Do you know what kind of Spirit it is that we serve? For the Son of Man came not to destroy life but to save it” (Luke 9:56), and this in reply to a request by the disciples for celestial incandescence to be visited upon some unfaithful village in Samaria. Now there is apparently little to no archaeological evidence for the story of the ancient Israelites under Moses and Joshua going about physically slaughtering entire peoples in the land of Canaan, and it fits with the typological method of scriptural interpretation to suppose that those genocidal legends are allegorical for the ideological efficiency of monotheism versus polytheism: as Jewish philosophers (prophets, as per the definition of Maimonides) testified to the intellectual and emotional superiority of faith in One God instead of many, pagan regions variously converted en masse to monotheism of various forms (exclusivistic Ra-worship in Egypt for a time, say, or Zoroastrianism in Persia, being seeds or samples of such foreign processes).

            Accordingly, the False Prophet, however, will as his preeminent “sign” of power unleash “fire from heaven” on behalf of the Beast and the Beast’s image. Now there is one nation, above all others, who has indeed unleashed “fire from heaven” at many times and in many places: America, first and foremost in Japan, also to some degree in France and Germany (and a few other countries, during the Second World War, I believe), then massively in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. (Granted, other nations have inflicted the same or similar flames on this or that land, but no other to the degree or extent that the US military has.) It is in America that the falsest forms of Christianity have taken pride of place in much government decision-making, public or covert (by this I mean that even notions like “Christian Identity,” a racist formulation that is brother to Nazism, are on the minds of at least some of our leaders, here or there, now or then). It is America that has the unique potential to betray the reconstituted Israel—the means, the motive, and the opportunity, even.

            Who is like the Beast, therefore? I think it is easy enough to see who is so in our day, at least.

Ԙ: The Final Power, Part 2

The Shield defends Ripheus with a surety as of wild gold, and as true, for he alone holds it in valor. But this valor is only enough to preserve this one man as he ascends the last staircases of destruction's transfinity. Everyone else not here in the City falls and rises in the self-desecrating magma of the apocalypse, gasping for words of horror at each rise and fall of the crystal Forms of Evil and Nothingness.

Armirex stands alone at the base of the four towers, watching skyward in despair and hope.

Some of the others reach out, try to cross over to...

Like calliopes of massacre, the shifting stairwells up which Ripheus goes trespass upon themselves darkly. Again and again the Shield saves him from being smashed apart by their cataclysm of murder. Sinstone breaks in torrents, rocking the ascent to the parapet that runs parallel to Apollyon's ray of fire and light.

... as they live and die they live up...

Ripheus makes it to the parapet. He looks through an aperture onto the artificial plateau, bearing first witness to the ramparts of destruction's flame. Within which he intends to stand...

... to interpose himself between goodness and the Form of Evil...

... they live up, up, upward into the City...

... he braces the Shield for his entrance onto the parapet, slanting it as he passes the boundary of the Destroyer's radiant wake. Blocking the passage of that radiance, the Shield yet blocks only a small halo therefrom: enough for Ripheus to survive and endure through this end.

Already, however, he is driven back by the weight of the light pouring forth unto him. This is the fire of the Final Power enmeshed with the ferocity of Apollyon. Those words, "Nothing can be done to stop the one who comes to end that which does not exist," Ripheus thinks back to.

Hammered by the might of desolation, the Shield forms a wake of its own in the ray. As incandescence surges around him, Ripheus feels the stone on which he stands melting. Step by step, Apollyon raptures him towards the parapet's edge, and he sees the melting of the stone as a slow river carrying him along with the rapture.

... assembling at the base of the fourfold tower...

--And a flicker of Apollyon's power sails off, rams into the Shield directly. Gripping the Shield's handle, Ripheus flies off the parapet, down towards portals opening from the physical plane that reveal friends and enemies and others come to fight or not. Ripheus warps the Shield like a kite and after harrowed sailing amidst the sapphire period of the light he manages to hit ground at a safe velocity and angle.

The rest of the ensemble having arrived, one of them--[add name later]--runs up to the man of Troy. Talking to him while looking at the gem of Evil, she asks, "What is happening?"

Hanging his head, Ripheus explains the situation: and the gem explodes again: and again the nova of the seraph hydra floods the streets of the City.

Ԙ: The Final Power, Part 2

The Shield defends Ripheus with a surety as of wild gold, and as true, for he alone holds it in valor. But this valor is only enough to preserve this one man as he ascends the last staircases of destruction's transfinity. Everyone else not here in the City falls and rises in the self-desecrating magma of the apocalypse, gasping for words of horror at each rise and fall of the crystal Forms of Evil and Nothingness.

Armirex stands alone at the base of the four towers, watching skyward in despair and hope.

Some of the others reach out, try to cross over to...

Like calliopes of massacre, the shifting stairwells up which Ripheus goes trespass upon themselves darkly. Again and again the Shield saves him from being smashed apart by their cataclysm of murder. Sinstone breaks in torrents, rocking the ascent to the parapet that runs parallel to Apollyon's ray of fire and light.

... as they live and die they live up...

Ripheus makes it to the parapet. He looks through an aperture onto the artificial plateau, bearing first witness to the ramparts of destruction's flame. Within which he intends to stand...

... to interpose himself between goodness and the Form of Evil...

... they live up, up, upward into the City...

... he braces the Shield for his entrance onto the parapet, slanting it as he passes the boundary of the Destroyer's radiant wake. Blocking the passage of that radiance, the Shield yet blocks only a small halo therefrom: enough for Ripheus to survive and endure through this end.

Already, however, he is driven back by the weight of the light pouring forth unto him. This is the fire of the Final Power enmeshed with the ferocity of Apollyon. Those words, "Nothing can be done to stop the one who comes to end that which does not exist," Ripheus thinks back to.

Hammered by the might of desolation, the Shield forms a wake of its own in the ray. As incandescence surges around him, Ripheus feels the stone on which he stands melting. Step by step, Apollyon raptures him towards the parapet's edge, and he sees the melting of the stone as a slow river carrying him along with the rapture.

... assembling at the base of the fourfold tower...

--And a flicker of Apollyon's power sails off, rams into the Shield directly. Gripping the Shield's handle, Ripheus flies off the parapet, down towards portals opening from the physical plane that reveal friends and enemies and others come to fight or not. Ripheus warps the Shield like a kite and after harrowed sailing amidst the sapphire period of the light he manages to hit ground at a safe velocity and angle.

The rest of the ensemble having arrived, one of them--[add name later]--runs up to the man of Troy. Talking to him while looking at the gem of Evil, she asks, "What is happening?"

Hanging his head, Ripheus explains the situation: and the gem explodes again: and again the nova of the seraph hydra floods the streets of the City.

Ԙ: The Final Power, Part 2

The Shield defends Ripheus with a surety as of wild gold, and as true, for he alone holds it in valor. But this valor is only enough to preserve this one man as he ascends the last staircases of destruction's transfinity. Everyone else not here in the City falls and rises in the self-desecrating magma of the apocalypse, gasping for words of horror at each rise and fall of the crystal Forms of Evil and Nothingness.

Armirex stands alone at the base of the four towers, watching skyward in despair and hope.

Some of the others reach out, try to cross over to...

Like calliopes of massacre, the shifting stairwells up which Ripheus goes trespass upon themselves darkly. Again and again the Shield saves him from being smashed apart by their cataclysm of murder. Sinstone breaks in torrents, rocking the ascent to the parapet that runs parallel to Apollyon's ray of fire and light.

... as they live and die they live up...

Ripheus makes it to the parapet. He looks through an aperture onto the artificial plateau, bearing first witness to the ramparts of destruction's flame. Within which he intends to stand...

... to interpose himself between goodness and the Form of Evil...

... they live up, up, upward into the City...

... he braces the Shield for his entrance onto the parapet, slanting it as he passes the boundary of the Destroyer's radiant wake. Blocking the passage of that radiance, the Shield yet blocks only a small halo therefrom: enough for Ripheus to survive and endure through this end.

Already, however, he is driven back by the weight of the light pouring forth unto him. This is the fire of the Final Power enmeshed with the ferocity of Apollyon. Those words, "Nothing can be done to stop the one who comes to end that which does not exist," Ripheus thinks back to.

Hammered by the might of desolation, the Shield forms a wake of its own in the ray. As incandescence surges around him, Ripheus feels the stone on which he stands melting. Step by step, Apollyon raptures him towards the parapet's edge, and he sees the melting of the stone as a slow river carrying him along with the rapture.

... assembling at the base of the fourfold tower...

--And a flicker of Apollyon's power sails off, rams into the Shield directly. Gripping the Shield's handle, Ripheus flies off the parapet, down towards portals opening from the physical plane that reveal friends and enemies and others come to fight or not. Ripheus warps the Shield like a kite and after harrowed sailing amidst the sapphire period of the light he manages to hit ground at a safe velocity and angle.

The rest of the ensemble having arrived, one of them--[add name later]--runs up to the man of Troy. Talking to him while looking at the gem of Evil, she asks, "What is happening?"

Hanging his head, Ripheus explains the situation: and the gem explodes again: and again the nova of the seraph hydra floods the streets of the City.