Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3821: Moiraine II

Above the obsidian sea where coffins floated like solemn stars of death, Noah’s obsidian-sheened form of Ozymandias stood unshaken!

The illusions of nine wheels spun quietly in the golden eyes of the Foldless One before him.

He looked at her like an analyst dissecting a threat or an unsolvable puzzle.

Still, her beauty, ridiculous and regal, was undeniable. Her golden white skin shimmered with a subdued hue of glory, and her figure, cloaked in a tight white gold robe that gripped her body with devout reverence, spoke of dangerous allure.

Her waist curved like a carved sigil of temptation, her chest prominent and proud.

Curvaceous!

Strands of gold-black hair tumbled down her shoulders, dripping like liquefied shadow, and the glint of Complexity wove through every inch of her being.

If Sigrid was a bloom of chaos and mystery, this one was a perfected sculpture of intent and allure.

And so Noah, in the body of Ozymandias, asked calmly, his voice composed and devoid of any false awe, "Who might you be? And why...would someone like you do something as thankless as oversee a prison?"

The woman tilted her head slightly, her smile the definition of amused dismissal.

"What is useless and thankless to one can be a treasure and a paradise for another," she replied, her voice weaving through the prison like threads of warm silk as she picked up the hem of her robe while she continued.

"I am Moiraine. The Golden Paradox. I am the Warden of this Paradoxical Prison. The only one, regardless of what Oryzarakh told you."

Her eyes sparkled with half-amused judgment as she floated just above the sea. "Now, will you keep talking and wasting breath, or shall I do the introductions?"

Noah gave a slow, easy smile as he thought of her words. He nodded. "Please. Lead the way."

With a motion that seemed to beckon all attention, Moiraine floated upward, her golden-white form gliding like an echo through a half-forgotten dream.

Her presence tugged on the very weavings of the Fold!

Noah followed.

She pointed toward the skies, to the thousands of obsidian coffins stationed like silent sentinels across the vast expanse. Each one tethered to the next with living obsidian chains, pulsing faintly with suppressed authority.

"Each of those," she began, her voice shifting to something colder, instructional, "are isolated Paradox Domains. Inside, time and sensation cease to behave the way they should."

She extended a hand, and one of the coffins floated closer as chains moved. It looked plain. Silent. No screaming faces. No twisted runes. Just quiet death.

"It may look simple," she continued, "but within each of these...is a space as vast as an entire world. Sometimes an Omniverse. Each tailored to its prisoner’s frequency. Within, you lose time. Sound. Sight. Emotion. You become unanchored."

A beat passed.

"And that is the mercy of it."

The coffin turned slowly in the air, the chains rattling like echoes of forgotten guilt.

"Those inside? Some are monsters. Others are mistakes. Lifeforms that crossed our paths. Or worse- they delved into Taboos. Interacted with things they were never meant to. Some...dared to touch Inevitabilities."

Noah’s expression didn’t shift much, but his mind honed in on that word like a sword finding its edge.

"Inevitabilities?" he asked, calmly. "I thought the last of them were destroyed. The Creature from the Earliest Folds took care of that, didn’t it?"

Moiraine’s eyes gleamed, and her lips curled. She tilted her head like a cat watching prey. "You really haven’t heard the rest of the tale, have you?"

Noah gave a slight shake of his head. "Only fragments. I would appreciate the rest."

"I’ll share another piece of the story" she promised, the glint in her voice playful, "after the introductions."

The coffins continued to float silently. Noah followed her as she glided toward the central region of the skies, where the Nine Thrones were fused into a spire of impossible geometry.

Chains pulsed from them like arterial threads, feeding into the coffins above and below.

He took in the island beneath them.

Lush with complexity-laden crystals. Fruits that glimmered like sentient gemstones. Jewels that pulsed with embedded authority. Items strewn like tributes to a Paradoxical power, their mere presence enough to make Noah’s body buzz with the symphony of Complexity and Purity.

And still, this Moiraine stood amidst it all as if she were the only treasure that mattered.

He turned to her and asked seriously. "Are all Foldless Ones this...different in nature? The last one I met was cold. Apathetic. You are much more carefree."

Moiraine scoffed. Her eyes looked toward the skies, and then downward.

"Power does that to some," she said, "They forget. Forget how to speak. How to live. They rot in apathy and mistake it for supremacy."

She glanced at him with that same amused smile that could change at any moment. "But that’s not mastery. That’s slow death. I laugh. I curse. I drink. I devour. And I will continue to do so until I stop breathing. Mmm, if that is ever possible."

"A good nature," Noah said with a short nod. "I appreciate someone like you far more."

WAA!

Her gaze turned sharp.

"Yes. I’ve noticed you appreciating me by looking me up and down multiple times. You are either one dumb fucker with absolutely no sense of preservation, or you are entirely not fearful of what you currently know about Foldless Ones. You...do know that in a minute, I could kill you 100 times, and you would lose your status as an Unbound Living Paradox, right? So don’t look too freely unless you have the power to back it."

...!

Noah didn’t flinch. He smiled and, for a moment, let his eyes sweep over her once more.

He could die many more times than 100. He had the power to back his gaze!

Moiraine rolled her eyes as if nothing happened. "Moving on. You see the sea below? Those coffins aren’t like the ones above. Those hold...Living Existences."

Noah stilled.

She continued.

"Entities who came across Living Paradoxes and met conflict. Creatures of terrible origin. Some are Living Concepts. Some Living Origins. Others are Living Elementals."

Noah’s lips parted slightly.

He looked down, and saw the faint pulsing chains reaching deep into the obsidian sea. Each one seemed to vibrate with ancient hatred.

The two of them floated in silence above a sea of sealed terrors, one golden and glorious, the other dark and infinite.

Moiraine glanced at him again.

"Come on, Little Paradox. Let us to why you are here."

And then she turned.

Toward a nearby coffin.

Toward the beginning of something far more twisted than anyone could ever imagine!

Chains rattled as the Coffin before them...became transparent.

Inside, with waves of endless darkness...the figure of a haggard old woman could be seen.

Her skin was cracked, and yet it still pulsed with a shocking level of authority as it was someone at the peak of Primarchy!

Someone who seemed just a breath away from being a Master of Existence.

Moiraine looked at Noah and then this old woman in the prison as she then spoke coldly with a chilling smile.

"Enter the cell and...eat."

...!