Paradox!
The blazing obsidian marking hung over Noah and Sigrid like an inescapable brand, its dark radiance pulsing through the golden atmosphere of the Coalition Gateway!
The very air around them seemed to recoil from the designation, as if existence itself was reluctant to acknowledge what they had been marked.
The Living Coalition Gateway, that magnificent archway of golden brilliance that had processed many with seamless efficiency, now trembled with uncertainty.
Noah raised his head with a widening smile, his eyes shining with an intensity that seemed to pierce through the veils to see the machinations beneath.
So... this was how they wanted to play things, was it?
Were Altheon and those behind him truly unable to alter their designations to mark them as those of Origin Folds, or was this something else?
Beside him, Sigrid’s expression became cold. Her stellar eyes lifted toward the skies as if she could see through the layers of reality to where Altheon lurked.
The moment she did so...
For only their ears to perceive, Altheon’s grand voice resonated.
|I’m sorry, Young Miss. You two were supposed to be branded with the designation of Origin Folds... I will check to see what occurred. But all other plans should still be in place.|
...!
His voice carried a brooding quality, as if something had gone awry in calculations that should have been flawless.
But Noah shook his head at those words with the weary patience of someone who had long since learned that nothing in existence...ever occurred by mistake.
Nothing!
Every twist of fate, every apparent accident, was simply another thread in the weavings of magisterial existence!
Whatever had occurred was always what the plan had been. The question was simply whose plan it truly served.
Bathed in that accursed black light, Noah reached out to take Sigrid’s hand with deliberate casualness.
Together, they walked past the Coalition Gateway as the frozen masses of shocked observers finally found their voices, their paralysis breaking like ice.
"This..."
"Paradoxical Fold Dwellers!"
The shouts echoed through the Circle of Convergence like accusations hurled at criminals, each voice carrying its own particular blend of revulsion.
As if they were looking at pieces of shit!
In the surrounding spaces where Living Existences maintained their vigils, many pairs of ancient eyes turned to regard them with expressions that ranged from cold displeasure to barely contained hostility.
Why...would so many beings gaze upon Fold Dwellers simply because they originated from realms influenced by Living Paradoxes with such profound displeasure? 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
The answer lay in the fundamental weavings of guilt by association.
It was, quite simply, the sin of association!
Living Paradoxes were hated with an intensity that transcended anything and everything, their very existence seen as a cancer upon the ordered structure of Existence itself.
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