Chapter 3826: What are you?! I

What are you?

The question was not raised in alarm.

It was spoken heavily and quietly by a being whose presence bore the weight of silence itself!

A Foldless One, sovereign and unfathomable as even this loss of composure was a rarity.

Moiraine’s golden-white countenance remained still, though the light surrounding her dimmed imperceptibly, as though existence itself paused to await her verdict.

Behind her unreadable gaze was a calculation vast enough to drown Existence.

Oryzarakh hovered behind Noah, titanic and unmoving as his presence suffocated all fluctuation in this place.

Noah’s body was impaled.

Chains- formed of paradox and heavy with complexity, pierced his limbs and spine. They ran like unbreakable filaments through his torso, shoulders, and skull.

Golden blood, iridescent and unyielding, dripped in slow, dignified lines onto the chains.

He did not writhe in pain. He did not flinch.

He thought. His gaze was clear. The analysis began with his own state of being.

|Your existence has been pierced by the weavings of an attack backed by 100% Paradoxical Resistance, 100% Origin Resistance, 100% Emotive Resistance, 100% Spiritual Resistance, 100% Temporal Resistance... and another Resistance not known from the established 10 Resistances.|

|Functionality of Existence of this body has been reduced below suboptimal levels.|

|Movement is not possible. Weaving of any authority is not possible.|

His 425% Collective Resistance- the armor of his being- was rendered irrelevant before a serious Foldless One.

He absorbed this truth with a steady gaze.

Then, finally, he spoke- his eyes expressing his coldness at this moment.

"We were doing very well," Noah said quietly, his voice level. The chains embedded in his bones didn’t alter his cadence. "Until you chose to skewer me. You ask me what I am and do all this...because an Inevitability didn’t rise between us?"

Moiraine’s expression did not shift, but the stillness became heavier around her as she gazed at him up and down.

Her voice, when it came, was low and without edge. "When Paradoxes resonate, Inevitabilities arise. Always. Without fail."

She paused, as if reviewing a truth etched into the foundations of the Fold itself.

"For one not to appear...means you are not one of us. You are not a Living Paradox."

The Fold itself dimmed in response to the implication.

And yet Noah looked at them coldly, his own mind buzzing with possibilities as he replied calmly.

"But I am, though?"

...!

Behind her, Oryzarakh’s glow pulsed once.

"I verified him," the Primordial Foldless One intoned, his voice like gravitational collapse shaped into words. "I observed...no deception. No distortion. But..."

And yet, doubt laced his timeless tone!

Moiraine did not glance at him.

She raised one hand- smooth, deliberate, royal.

"If you are what you claim, this will not harm you."

She spoke two words that seemed to pull gravity into them, her body radiating waves of heavy authority that Noah could barely analyze.

"Schrödinger’s Box."

...!

HUUM!

The atmosphere folded.

Reality twisted and resolved as all nearby weavings buzzed and shook.

An obsidian box gradually took form, its edges paradoxical and absolute. Its surfaces showed nothing and everything, reflecting Wheels of Existence and Null simultaneously.

It closed around Noah as it contained an undeniable complexity and purity he could currently not deny!

It did not slam shut. It did not lock.

It simply...was.

Schrödinger. Paradoxical. Glorious!

Moiraine’s voice echoed within it with a voice of final examination, her voice steady with suspicion but also...expectation.

As if she wanted to be wrong!

"If you are truly paradoxical...then within this box, you are both alive and dead. You should both hear me and not. You should answer and remain silent."

A pause.

"Can you answer me?"

Silence.

A heavy, suffocating silence!

The Foldless Ones stood without motion.

Their authority did not flicker. Their forms did not shift.

And then...

"Of course I can hear you."

BOOM!

Moiraine’s eyes widened with a glorious light at such words, her expression showing a sense of surprise!

With a single motion of her palm, the obsidian box deconstructed.

Its pieces dissipated like principles rewritten into void.

Noah was still chained. Still unmoving. Still bleeding.

But his golden gaze remained calm. Too calm. As if he was demanding an explanation!

Moiraine looked at him in silence as if she was still assessing what all of this could mean.

Oryzarakh, looming, was also silent.

And at times, silence alone was able to say a great deal of things.

Moiraine turned to him with gravity in every syllable.

"Seal these region of the Folds. Reinforce the structure across all weavings of Existence and make sure nothing leaks out. And begin setting up a Transcendence Foldpath immediately."

No hesitation. No drama.

Just execution.

Oryzarakh gave no reply.

He vanished right away, folding through unseen geometry and complexity.

And around Noah, the paradox-forged chains began to fall apart, unraveling in strands of luminescent light as he was freed!

The prison platform dimmed once more into silence.

Noah floated still and composed as the golden chains dissolved into motes of paradoxical light. His form reconstituted itself silently, authority and motion returning in layers as if rewound by unseen hands. The air was heavy, but his posture remained unshaken.

Across from him, Moiraine remained statuesque. Her expression, while unchanging in its celestial poise, held the imperceptible trace of tension, a single fracture beneath the grandeur. Her tone carried the weight of an edict rather than apology.

"My apologies for the earlier action," she said, her voice a calm wonder of existence. "It was a breach of decorum. But what we witnessed was something that could only lead to that reaction."

Noah regarded her with quiet thought as his wounds slowly healed "And what anomaly would compel you to act in such a manner?"

Moiraine’s gaze, like a pair of Wheels rotating in silence, turned to him fully. "The emergence of a Living Paradox like yourself without the taint of Inevitability when coming in contact with another Paradox... should not be possible."

She spoke with solemn deliberation as her gorgeous figure had waves of glorious light of paradox bouncing over her like an endless invisible sea.

"Throughout the Ages, Living Paradoxes have not been able to reproduce. When we resonate with each other, Inevitabilities arise- abominations born of the First Sin. We can bond and reproduce with other Living Existences, but the act itself stirs hatred, even war. Many conflicts occur whenever any Living Paradox touches any Living Existence."

She shifted ever so slightly, an infinitesimal movement that carried existential meaning. "As other Existences multiplied and endured over the eons, we can only wait. Wait for Young Paradoxes to emerge naturally throughout the Folds since paradox is always present. But that process has slowed to a trickle. To the point that as I mentioned before...Unbound Living Paradoxes are now rare! And you..."

A beat of silence passed.

"You resonated with me, and yet nothing rose. No Inevitability. That changes many things. That changes Everything."

HUUM!

Noah’s inner vision shimmered.

|The Living True Source of the Protagonist shakes its head with incredulity, as such an entanglement and progression is not something even it imagined.|

|The Living True Source of Paradox stares at the Living True Source of Origin.|

His True Sources looked at each other.

His weavings buzzed!

Noah said nothing aloud. But his thoughts churned with silent depth.

He was paradoxical, yes.

But he was also a Living Origin.

The Living Protagonist, the Living Infinity, the Living Singed...and more!

He could also become a Living Quantum, and many more!

A Living Existence layered in contradiction and unity, wielding resonance without birthing chaos.

Something that should not be.

But was.

He looked at Moiraine.

Her bearing was calm, measured as always. Regal beyond emotion. She had not raised her voice. She had not broken her poise. But within her words, within her measured cadence, he could feel the hesitation and disbelief.

She did not know what he was.

And she would not truly know.

Not yet.

Not ever.

Not until he decided on his own terms what she and many others would come to know! For now, there was simply navigating this shocking progression.

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