Chapter 4405: Ormordnes III

The entity tilted its head, serpentine and strange.

"All the Inevitabilities should be bound to THE Loom, you understand. The entirety of their existence in constant state of agony and pain as their being is continuously drained while they seek endlessly for more. Their Hunger growing without possibility of satisfaction, a perfect perpetual motion engine of suffering and power generation."

The words were spoken with the same tone one might use to describe mundane things- factual, detached, utterly unconcerned with the horror they described.

Khor’s eyes flashed sharply, but she refused the bait. She closed her eyes briefly, wondering about the truthfulness of those claims, whether her people truly suffered in such endless torment.

The silence seemed to delight THE Living Paradox further.

"Come now," it said, voice taking on coaxing quality.

"I am genuinely curious. Very few could reverse collapse...especially collapse executed by me personally. Did THE Creature somehow manage this? But that entity shouldn’t be able to act freely anymore, not after what I arranged..."

It paused, considering.

"Was it THE Living Temporal? Did that little rat perform temporal manipulation? That would be characteristic, though I thought we’d accounted for such interference..."

Questions poured forth, but Khor remained silent, ancient discipline holding firm at this momemt.

THE Living Paradox’s smile became eerily serene, and in that moment Noah felt the temperature of danger shift from warm threat to cold certainty.

"Well," the entity said softly, "if you won’t tell me, I’ll simply dig through your existence itself. Examine your fundamental architecture. Trace the mechanisms of your restoration. Identify the culprit responsible..."

Schrodinger’s hand reached out toward Khor with calm confidence, fingers extending!

And in that instant, Khor’s crimson eyes blazed as something settled over her consciousness like a shroud.

Noah recognized it immediately, though he’d never felt its weight himself.

Ormordnes.

Despair...not for her own destruction, but for what her examination might reveal about him.

Through whatever connection they’d forged, her voice touched his mind.

"I... am sorry, Outsider."

...!

The words carried finality that made Noah’s existence run cold. Not apology for failure. Not regret for circumstances.

Goodbye.

She...planned to collapse herself before examination could occur. To unmake her own existence rather than risk revealing his involvement in her restoration. To Hunger...and Hunger completely.

Noah’s eyes shifted, and light of obsidian-crimson leaked from them like blood from a wound...something deeper than his blue-gold Primus Mana, primal and hungry and utterly unbound by the Festival’s constraints, and yet still pulsing as if it were the same Way of Existence.

The prompts had been specific...all current weavings of expressed Civilizations have been suppressed.

All current. All expressed.

When the Festival descended, he had been expressing only his Way of Mana.

His other Way...newer, rawer, less refined, had been dormant. Unexpressed.

And therefore, unbound.

"Arise," Noah said quietly, calling to his Hunger.

BOOM!

Obsidian-crimson brilliance erupted from him like thousand hungry mouths opening simultaneously, jaws of infinite appetite manifesting in the space around him.

He felt his existence extend through them, consciousness distributed across devouring force that recognized no limitation save its own appetite.

The countless jaws snapped onto the Civilizational Chains of Paradox.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The sound drew THE Living Paradox’s gaze instantly, those crimson-gold eyes widening with surprise.

For a heartbeat, Noah was far in the distance, bound and helpless.

In the next heartbeat...

POP!

He stood directly behind Khor, immediately before THE Living Paradox, as obsidian-crimson waves of Hunger spread outward like smoke given terrible purpose, devouring chains of Paradox with methodical hunger.

Noah wrapped his arms around Khor and pulled her back from the reaching hand, and THE Living Paradox simply watched, apparently amazed that escape was even possible within its absolute domain.

Even knowing this situation remained impossible, even understanding they could not match the entity before them, Noah moved with calm born of discipline rather than hope.

He danced along the edge of tumultuous waves, waiting to see how he would emerge on the other side...if he emerged at all.

As he retreated with Khor in his grasp, he activated The Lens of Civilization, focusing on THE Living Paradox with every enhancement his ascension had granted.

He wanted to see weaknesses, understand mechanisms, identify any advantage...

And saw nothing.

|Target’s complexity far exceeds your own existence|

|No possible weavings obtained|

The words were clear as carved stone, absolute as death.

Noah’s expression grew heavier, but he whispered to Khor as his Hunger continued its feast.

"Don’t try to do that again, even if things seem impossible."

His voice carried that commanding tone it had adopted since he began walking Two Ways, since he’d stepped into The Early Infinity Dominion Realm.

Not louder, but heavier, as if the words themselves carried existential weight.

Khor’s ancient eyes studied him, then she sighed and nodded lightly.

"Okay, Outsider. But it seems I have drawn you into a point of no return."

Noah arrived beside Riya again, his obsidian-crimson Hunger continuing its meal of paradoxical chains.

The consumed material flowed into some internal repository...he would examine it later, if there was a later.

For now, every scrap of attention needed to remain focused on the entity before them.

Because even after accomplishing this minor impossibility, he still felt that prickling sensation of vastly superior power pressing down from all sides.

THE Living Paradox’s full attention had turned upon him.

"Now," the entity said, voice carrying delighted interest, "you have garnered my complete attention. You are very weak...barely worth noticing by normal standards, yet somehow you violated the rules of my Festival. The constraints should be absolute for beings at your level."

The corpse’s head tilted as if accessing memories from the flesh it inhabited.

Recognition sparked in those crimson-gold eyes soon after.

"Ah! The Early Creature, Osmont, yes? And you have begun spreading your Way like a small child who just discovered fire and wants to show everyone what bright things it can make..." THE Living Paradox’s smile widened. "My oh my, how cute."

The words mixed condescension with genuine amusement, as if observing precocious infant attempting tasks far beyond its capability.

Noah continued staring at the entity while his mind raced through possibilities of survival, each one examined and discarded as insufficient.

His Complexity, his Principles, his carefully cultivated capabilities....all seemed woefully inadequate against power operating at this scale.

Then, a thought crystallized with desperate clarity.

If I lack the power to resolve this... could I call someone who possesses such power?

Someone like...Anaximander?

HUUM!

Existence howled around them, carrying neither hope nor despair but simply the weight of moment stretched thin, ready to snap in whichever direction fate decreed.

And THE Living Paradox continued watching with that terrible, amused smile, waiting to see what the small child playing with fire would attempt next.

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