Either-Nor’s dependence on the living

EITHER-NOR’s dependence on the living defines both the source and the limit of its power. The force is not self-sustaining: it draws kinetic energy from the living, accumulating strength from the evil of others, yet cannot govern those who resist it. The rule makes opposition consequential even when the entity appears overwhelmingly powerful.

Source and Limit of Power

During the confrontation at the altar, Gerry Fenn understands EITHER-NOR’s strength as an accumulation of force drawn from the people present. The narration describes it as negative force torn from the positive, producing an imbalance over them all. Its power therefore depends on living human beings, and its strength is bound to the collective conditions that feed it rather than being unlimited in itself.

The same dependence creates a constraint: EITHER-NOR cannot govern those who oppose it. Resistance is not described as automatically overcoming the entity, but as denying it complete control. Fenn hears the imperative to resist, yet his effort fails under the pressure of the creature’s power; the rule establishes a possible means of opposition without making it an easy or assured escape.

Fenn’s Recognition

Fenn connects the command to resist with voices he had heard in dreams, and wonders whether they were the voices of two dead priests. The scene leaves that identification uncertain, but the instruction itself becomes a practical expression of the rule: EITHER-NOR’s dependence on the living makes their resistance matter. Fenn’s own attempt shows the gap between recognizing that limit and being strong enough to use it.

The rule sharpens the scene’s contrast between collective vulnerability and individual opposition. Those around the altar are close to collapse, while EITHER-NOR’s power is described as drawn from the evil of others; nevertheless, that power has a boundary where resistance begins. The entity’s apparent dominance thus contains a dependence that makes it formidable but not absolute.