Chapter 3997: An Instant! I

The air itself seemed to hold its breath as existence trembled at the mere confrontation of two ancient powers!

The fabric of reality rippled outward from where Aion and Schrodinger locked gazes, their accumulated authority creating waves of pressure that made the very foundations of the Transcendent Temporal Folds uncertain about their own nature.

Lesser beings found themselves frozen in place, their bodies betraying them as Existential Trembling coursed through every fiber of their being!

Noah observed this display of overwhelming might with eyes that remained steady behind his obsidian helm.

The trembling that seized others, that fundamental recognition of powers beyond comprehension, simply... did not touch him.

His form stood perfectly still within Yoshinami’s armor, not through effort or resistance, but through the simple truth of what he was.

He was an Early Creature.

The thought burned through his consciousness with tyrannical certainty. How dare entities lesser than himself attempt to make him experience fear through mere displays of accumulated authority?!

They commanded respect, certainly. Their power could reshape existence itself, undoubtedly. But trembling? That was the province of those who stood beneath, not one whose very nature predated the concepts they wielded.

His gaze swept across the battlefield with cold assessment, taking in the positions of every player in this grand game.

Some of his goals had been achieved...the Festival of War had shifted the battle’s momentum, resources had been gathered, connections forged. Others remained tantalizingly out of reach. But the arrival of these heavy hitters, these beings whose authority transcended normal categorization, had transformed an already complex situation into something far more interesting.

Aion stood wreathed in temporal authority that seemed to slow time itself around her presence, each draw from her pipe pulling in possibilities while exhaling certainties!

She represented power that exceeded normal Dukes by margins that made comparison meaningless. And Schrodinger...that deceptively mundane figure whose presence generated warning signals in Noah’s mind...remained apathetically calm.

Noah’s lips curved slightly behind his concealing helm. He was not at the center of attention. And that was okay as since now, he had deemed it that way!

When circumstances served his purposes, he would do whatever proved necessary to obtain what he desired.

Consequences could be calculated, reactions predicted, outcomes orchestrated through understanding rather than force.

And right now, he wanted a certain terrifying treasure to be triggered.

In that moment of absolute stillness, where existence itself seemed frozen between heartbeats as two transcendent beings measured each other across impossible distances, Noah began to move.

His form lifted from its position with fluid grace, the obsidian armor flowing around him like liquid darkness as he started floating across the twisted space of the battlefield.

....!

Amidst an Existential Trembling where others were frozen, he moved!

His destination was unmistakable...the massive form of the Primordial Death that Diviticus had bound in her tendrils of paradoxical authority, its skeletal frame held in perfect stasis despite the tremendous power contained within.

The shock of his actions rippled through every consciousness present like stones thrown into still water.

Eyes that had been locked on the confrontation between Aion and Schrodinger suddenly swiveled toward this impossible sight.

Here, in the midst of Existential Trembling that should have rendered all movement theoretical rather than actual, a single figure glided through space as if the overwhelming pressure simply... didn’t exist!

The obsidian armor caught and reflected the chaotic energies of the battlefield, creating patterns of darkness that seemed to absorb light rather than merely block it. Yet it was not the armor that commanded attention...it was the complete absence of struggle in his movements.

His body showed no indication of effort, no tremor of resistance against forces that made reality itself uncertain.

He moved as naturally as one might walk through an empty room, unaffected by pressures that had frozen beings of tremendous power in place.

Schrodinger’s ancient eyes shifted toward Noah’s advancing form, the calm assessment in his gaze suddenly flashing with brilliant illumination!

The beggar-like Duke’s expression remained unchanged, yet there was something in that brief flash of light that suggested pieces falling into place on a board whose scope only he could fully perceive.

Aion drew deeply from her pipe, the smoke swirling around her in patterns that seemed to write equations in the air before dissolving into nothingness.

Her eyes, those windows to temporal authority refined beyond normal comprehension, flickered with genuine interest as they tracked Noah’s movement.

The Temporal Watcher’s attention carried weight that made causality bend around its focus.

The distance between Noah’s starting position and the bound Primordial Death seemed to stretch and compress simultaneously, space itself uncertain about how to accommodate his passage!

Yet he continued forward with unwavering purpose, each moment bringing him closer to the massive creature whose very existence challenged the supremacy of life over death.

When he finally arrived within immediate proximity of the bound horror, close enough that the deathly authority radiating from its form should have begun the process of systematic dissolution, Noah turned his concealed gaze toward Diviticus calmly!

"I had laid claim to this little skeleton before you arrived and so rudely interrupted." His voice carried across the battlefield with crystalline clarity, each word cutting through the oppressive atmosphere as if the existential trembling was merely background noise. "So... release it."

HUUM!

The words hung in the space between them.

They were not phrased as a request or suggestion. They emerged as command, delivered with the casual authority of one who expected immediate compliance regardless of the vast differential in apparent power!

Noah’s mind raced through calculations as the words left his lips. He had chosen them with deliberate precision, understanding exactly how Diviticus would process such audacious demand.

She was currently intoxicated with her newfound might, drunk on capabilities that had elevated her beyond every previous limitation. Her entire approach to this situation had been crafted to establish Living Paradoxes as essential partners, to entrench their position within the broader weavings of existence.

He knew with absolute certainty that even if he deliberately sought to enrage her, she would not make direct moves against him here, not with all these Living Existences here.

As an unknown existence who displayed no obvious waves of dangerous power, yet who could walk unaffected through the Existential Trembling of beings whose might transcended normal Dukes, he represented a puzzle. And when faced with such an enigma, when confronted by someone bold enough to issue commands despite showing no apparent capability to enforce them, there was only one action she would take...

BOOM!

The obsidian tendrils that had held the Primordial Death in perfect stasis suddenly loosened, their grip releasing with the sound of existential law being deliberately violated!

The massive skeletal creature, freed from its bonds, roared with renewed fervor that made the temporal rivers themselves flow backward in recognition of wrongness given voice!

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