NOVGO.NET Chapter 3922: Aeternitas Concordia! V
Chapter 3922: Aeternitas Concordia! V
Paradox!
The blazing obsidian marking hung over Noah and Sigrid like an inescapable brand, its dark radiance pulsing through the golden atmosphere of the Coalition Gateway!
The very air around them seemed to recoil from the designation, as if existence itself was reluctant to acknowledge what they had been marked.
The Living Coalition Gateway, that magnificent archway of golden brilliance that had processed many with seamless efficiency, now trembled with uncertainty.
Noah raised his head with a widening smile, his eyes shining with an intensity that seemed to pierce through the veils to see the machinations beneath.
So... this was how they wanted to play things, was it?
Were Altheon and those behind him truly unable to alter their designations to mark them as those of Origin Folds, or was this something else?
Beside him, Sigrid’s expression became cold. Her stellar eyes lifted toward the skies as if she could see through the layers of reality to where Altheon lurked.
The moment she did so...
For only their ears to perceive, Altheon’s grand voice resonated.
|I’m sorry, Young Miss. You two were supposed to be branded with the designation of Origin Folds... I will check to see what occurred. But all other plans should still be in place.|
...!
His voice carried a brooding quality, as if something had gone awry in calculations that should have been flawless.
But Noah shook his head at those words with the weary patience of someone who had long since learned that nothing in existence...ever occurred by mistake.
Nothing!
Every twist of fate, every apparent accident, was simply another thread in the weavings of magisterial existence!
Whatever had occurred was always what the plan had been. The question was simply whose plan it truly served.
Bathed in that accursed black light, Noah reached out to take Sigrid’s hand with deliberate casualness.
Together, they walked past the Coalition Gateway as the frozen masses of shocked observers finally found their voices, their paralysis breaking like ice.
"This..."
"Paradoxical Fold Dwellers!"
The shouts echoed through the Circle of Convergence like accusations hurled at criminals, each voice carrying its own particular blend of revulsion.
As if they were looking at pieces of shit!
In the surrounding spaces where Living Existences maintained their vigils, many pairs of ancient eyes turned to regard them with expressions that ranged from cold displeasure to barely contained hostility.
Why...would so many beings gaze upon Fold Dwellers simply because they originated from realms influenced by Living Paradoxes with such profound displeasure?
The answer lay in the fundamental weavings of guilt by association.
It was, quite simply, the sin of association!
Living Paradoxes were hated with an intensity that transcended anything and everything, their very existence seen as a cancer upon the ordered structure of Existence itself.
For surrounding the Loom...that ultimate prize that beckoned to every conscious being across the breadth of existence...lay countless horrifically powerful Inevitabilities that only came to be because of Paradox!
Everyone sought the Loom.
Everyone dreamed of reaching that quintessential destination where, it was believed, lay wonders and unfathomable answers relating to THE Creature...the being from whose essence all Living Existences had supposedly sprung from in the Stories of the Earliest Folds.
But over the eons, little progress had been made toward that ultimate goal, and the blame for that stagnation rested squarely... upon the shoulders of the Living Paradoxes.
Fucking! Living! Paradoxes!
Their very nature spawned Inevitabilities like infection breeding in an open wound, each paradox they embodied giving birth to new horrors that guarded the Loom.
The constant production of Inevitabilities had only increased exponentially over the years until entire regions of Doorways had become impassable death traps.
It was why Keys to new doorways empty of Inevitabilities were always sought by Living Existences!
So even Fold Dwellers who bore no personal responsibility for the actions of Living Paradoxes...found themselves branded with the same stigma.
This...was not the first time in history that beings associated with Paradox had appeared in Battlefront Folds!
In every previous instance, such unfortunate souls had been left to wither in isolation, unsponsored and unwanted, their potential wasted.
All eyes now focused upon Noah and Sigrid with pressure that might have reduced lesser beings, but Noah simply took Sigrid forward with the unhurried confidence!
They walked to the center of the square with measured steps, their bearing radiating a calm assurance that spoke to either supreme confidence or complete madness.
The Living Existences who floated grandly around the periphery of the square or sat upon thrones that pulsed with their own inner radiance regarded this display of composure with expressions of barely contained scorn.
How dare these marked creatures display such confidence in the face of existential disapproval?𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞
A Living Spirit, her form wreathed in threads of ethereal energy that shifted between states of existence with each breath, finally gave voice to the collective sentiment.
"Do not take up too much time here," she called out with the cold precision.
"You will not be chosen anyway...!"
Her words died in her throat as something impossible occurred before the astonished eyes of every witness.
An obsidian coin materialized above Noah and Sigrid’s heads, its surface shrouded in a veil of Living Existential Authority so dense it seemed to bend light around itself like a miniature black hole!
A coin of sponsorship.
The voice that announced this development carried across the Circle of Convergence with the weight of glory!
|An Unknown Living Existence has chosen to sponsor the Paradoxical Fold Dwellers on the square!|
BOOM!
The announcement struck the assembled crowd like a physical blow, sending ripples of shock and disbelief through beings who had thought themselves prepared for any eventuality!
Clamor erupted from both Living Existences and Fold Dwellers alike as they struggled to process what they had just witnessed.
Who would sponsor Paradoxical Fold Dwellers?!
Even more disturbing than the sponsorship itself was the designation of "Unknown Living Existence."
What level of authority was required for a being to conceal their identity even here, in the heart of Aeternitas Concordia where all pretenses were supposed to be stripped away?!