Chapter 4255: The Early Laboratories! III

At her words, the Early Creatures looked at each other, and then four of them detached from the group and headed deeper into the labyrinth, their expressions grim.

Noah paid them only a passing glance. His gaze was fixed on the glass structure behind the Commander.

Within its transparent walls, held in place by radiant white attachments, were... armors.

Unfinished, skeletal backbones of the very same design as the Justiciar that had annihilated Aeternitas Glacies!

There were dozens of them, displayed like anatomical models in a museum of death!

|[Living Existential Armor – Model J-7 (Justiciar)] - Incomplete.|

|[Living Existential Armor – Model V-3 (Vindicator)] - Incomplete.|

|[Living Existential Armor – Model P-9 (Purifier)] - Incomplete.|

His eyes blazed with a cold, intense light. So, this was where they were made.

The Fold Dweller, Elara, raised her brows, shaking her head as if to scold a curious child.

"You are moving too fast, Elderborn," she said, her tone sharp and impatient. "First, we have to verify your status. So... let us see if you can manipulate the Early Omnichalcum Metal. If you aren’t even able to do this... we can be rid of you even quicker."

WAA!

At her words, Noah finally turned his full attention to her.

She walked towards a massive, silver table that stood at the center of the clearing. Upon it rested a cluster of pristine, stellar white metal, its surface so pure it seemed to have no reflection.

"This," she said, gesturing to the metal with a proprietary air, "is Early Omnichalcum. A primordial metal that contains a high concentration of the enriched, leftover Everythings of THE Creature. To most, it is a useless, inert chunk of matter, completely unresponsive to any authority. But to an Elderborn..."

A faint, challenging smile touched her lips. "An Elderborn, with their unique connection to THE Creature’s essence, should be able to manipulate it, to cause a reaction with their own authority. So, let us see. Are you a genuine article, or just another defective model?"

...!

Was he genuine, or was he defective?

The question hung in the sterile, silent air of the Early Laboratories, a clinical assessment that held the weight of a death sentence!

Commander Elara stood with her arms crossed, her expression a mask of impatient, professional scrutiny.

On the silver table between them, the pristine, stellar white cluster of Early Omnichalcum Metal seemed to absorb the very light of the room, a silent, waiting judge.

Noah walked closer, his movements calm and unhurried. The dozens of incomplete Justiciar armors in the glass structure behind her were a silent, screaming testament to the terrible potential of this place, but his face betrayed nothing of the storm of thoughts within him.

"Can you tell me more about this metal?" he asked, his voice a low, even tone.

Elara’s brows furrowed with a flicker of annoyance, as if being asked for a basic explanation was an insult to her own vast intelligence.

"When THE Creature gave its Everythings," she began, her tone sharp and lecturing, "it was not just Living Existences that were bathed in its light or formed from its essence. Inert materials, the very bedrock of the Earliest Folds, were also affected by the existential radiation. They changed. Early Omnichalcum is one of them. A useless, indestructible lump of matter to most, but to the right existence... a key."

She stepped forward, her long, graceful fingers reaching out to touch the metal. The moment her skin made contact, a breathtaking phenomenon occurred!

The metal, which had seemed radiant but lifeless, bloomed. Intricate, golden lines, like the veins of a celestial leaf, spread out from the point of her touch, their light a warm, living thing against the stark white of the metal. Its hard, solid structure began to fluctuate, to shimmer, as if it were transitioning between a solid and a liquid state.

Noah could feel it, an immense, dormant well of Complexity and Purity awakening within the metal!

Elara breathed out, a soft, almost imperceptible sigh, and pulled her hand back.

The golden lines faded, the metal returning to its inert state. "That," she said, her crimson eyes fixing on him, "is what should happen. To activate Early Omnichalcum, your own existence must possess a type of Everything that is grand. Boundless. A quality that resonates with the First Cause. If you do not exhibit that... you are nothing."𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Her gaze drifted past him, to the dozens of empty, skeletal armors displayed in the glass walls.

"The goal of the Elderborns here is to achieve the aim of THE Living Concept," she said, a flicker of something almost like passion in her otherwise cold voice.

"To forge a suit of armor that any Fold Dweller, any being without the fortune of a powerful lineage, can wear. A suit that will grant them a power that can even exceed that of an Early Creature. A Living Existential Armor, to protect the weak and to prove that power does not need to be born. It can be forged."

Her words were terrifying in their noble, audacious ambition.

And in the silent chambers of his own mind, Noah smiled, a cold, bitter expression.

A lofty goal indeed!

To create a weapon that could make anyone a god, all for the sake of protecting the weak.

How, then, did such a noble ambition end up creating a Justiciar that had just wiped out a citadel that used to hold sextillions of Living Elementals and Fold Dwellers without a flicker of hesitation?!

Elara’s gaze returned to him, sharp and impatient. "If you are genuine, you will be put to work. You will learn to manipulate this metal, to shape it, to weave your own authority into its structure, to help us complete the work of THE Living Concept. So, come on."

She beckoned him forward with a flick of her wrist. "Let’s see what you are."

Noah approached the table, his gaze settling on the radiant white metal. It looked so pure, so unassuming.

’RUIN/EDEN,’ his thoughts were a silent whisper, ’analyze it. Find anything that could be of help.’

...!

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