Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3825: Paradoxical II

Noah stood before the brilliant white-gold Cache, the remnants of the Sacrifice-bound Primarch having fully condensed into a singularity of wealth and essence.

He raised his hand, and the Lattices of the True Source of Loot on his palm pulsed with crystalline authority. The Cache hovered silently and expectant as he tapped it once.

BZZT!

Immediately, a flood of light and resonant weavings exploded from the Cache, swirling around with the spiraling Lattices of Loot like an existential harvest unraveling.

The opening of a chest or cache was something he would never tire of!

And as everything activated, the Living True Source of Loot continued to exert it effects as the light of gold painted everything.

|The Loot within the Cache of Ysra has been inherently elevated 1,000% in Quantity and 1,000% in quality.|

|10x Living True Source Panaceas, a type of Loot capable of augmenting Purity and Complexity below the level of an Originus Venerant entity, have been obtained.|

|10x Primarchical Pearls of the True Source of Sacrifice, a type of Loot capable of granting the weavings of the True Source of Sacrifice up to Primarchy level, have been obtained!|

...!

The first items were orbs of pristine white-gold luminescence, glowing softly like heartbeats made of radiance.

They pulsed with power that could raise an entity’s Purity and Complexity up to the verge of Originus Venerant- 999,999 in both metrics!

The second items shimmered like dimensional pearls, each encasing an illusionary Wheel of Existence within, promising to bestow an entire True Source to anyone who consumed them.

Noah collected them silently. This was only the first prison. This was only the beginning!

Around him, thousands of obsidian coffins shimmered across the sea and sky, each one chained with possibility.

Before he continued, he turned his gaze toward Moiraine, his thoughts weighed with something he had not yet voiced, but his weavings were telling him to ask now.

”What is the state of the Living Existences now? How do we, the Living Paradoxes, compare to the Living Existences I have only heard about so far?”

...!

A seemingly simple question.

Moiraine had been watching quietly as his Cache opened. When he asked this question, her eyes narrowed faintly. Her figure resumed slowly as she beckoned him toward another coffin, the sky quivering above them.

”Since the earliest ages, Living Paradoxes have always drawn the ire of others. There were reasons, of course,” she said with an edge of solemnity,”Wars were waged. Territories claimed. Our Foldless Ones expanded rulerships across the Folds.”

She smiled faintly, a glint of past glory in her eyes. ”And still, they could not push us back. We were, and still are, dominant. As in the tale of the Earliest Folds... Paradox is strong. Truly strong.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed as he processed her pride. Her aura danced with confidence, but something tugged at him. Something that didn’t match.

”Then why,” he asked sharply, ”do you and Oryzarakh treat someone like me they way that you are? Saying no to joining the ranks of thr Foldless Ones was not an option for me as Oryzarakh made abundantly clear.”

WAA!

His eyes radiated a terrifying sharpness as he asked such a question, knowing that getting an actual answer may be difficult!

Moiraine stopped before the next obsidian coffin. Her eyes turned to him slowly, gleaming with suppressed thoughts.

As if there were things she could not freely mention.

A beat later, Oryzarakh’s immense pressure pressed down from above once more, subtle and quiet as if it wanted to express its thoughts.

But Moiraine simply looked up, unblinking.

”Fuck off, Oryzarakh. If I wish to speak about anything, someone else is sure as hell not going to stop me.” she muttered.

The pressure vanished.

She turned back to Noah, seriousness in every syllable. ”Against the wishes of the peeper, I will tell you something very few know. A truth we’ve hidden for eons.”

Her voice dipped low, even as it rang across the sea. ”New Living Paradoxes... are appearing less and less. Across all the Folds, their emergence is slowing. Unbound Living Paradoxes are rare to now come across.”

BOOM!

She let such heavy words hang before she continued.

”It’s begun to cause some...panic among the Foldless Ones. Because our kind... we cannot reproduce. Not normally. We cannot give birth to more of ourselves. That right was stripped from us long ago.”

Noah’s expression grew colder at such words as he asked...”Why?”

Moiraine exhaled, golden strands of hair flickering in the ambient resonance. ”Because when two Paradoxes try to resonate... they give way to Inevitabilities.”

...!

Inevitabilities.

The word settled like a death knell.

”We carry the curse of the First Sin- the aftermath of the war in the Earliest Folds. After the Living Paradox’s downfall, the Living Paradoxes that rose after that tried to rebuild. Tried to bond. And yet, every attempt produced only those damned entities. Only Inevitabilities!”

WAA!

Noah’s brow furrowed.

Moiraine extended her hand.

It was delicate. Impossibly soft. Gold-white skin glowing with Paradoxical authority.

”Stretch your hand forward with your Paradoxical authority. Let me show you what I mean.”

Noah raised his hand slowly. From his palm, blue-gold tendrils of his lineage and thr murky Living True Source of Paradox flared. He pressed his hand toward hers, their palms inches apart. Sparks fluttered.

Moiraine’s eyes remained calm, her voice laced with bitter memory. ”Every time, it happens. The resonance begins, and the Inevitability blooms like a tumor. The damnation echoes the First Sin.”

She paused.

Their hands met as she was about to explain the Inevitability that would soon bloom between them.

And...

”...?”

Nothing happened.

No bloom. No Inevitability.

Instead- a surge of luminous light followed right after.

A burst of enrichment and unity, of something unfathomably new!

Moiraine froze. Her pupils dilated.

Her expression transformed from curiosity to confusion... then to fury.

It all happened in such a short period of time!

From confusion to fury...was but an instant!

HUUUM!

Chains howled.

From every direction, obsidian and gold chains burst into being. They raced toward Noah like serpents through stormy winds. With sickening speed, they pierced his limbs- his wrists, shoulders, ankles, even the back of his head!

Golden stellar blood gushed from the punctures, sizzling against the sea below.

Moiraine stepped back, her hands still trembling from the unexpected reaction.

Her voice was a whip.

”What. Are. You?!”

Behind Noah, Oryzarakh materialized in full, his eyes also showing a sense of confusion and fury as if something was not possible!