While his entire lineage was faced with its advancent under his watch, Achilles continued a relatively peaceful cultivation in the Nine Seas of Tian and The Cavern of Existence. He proceeded deeper while getting ready for the challenges ahead, but his mind churned with questions that demanded answers even as his power grew.
And when it ca to questions, many entities could get into conflict or cause issues for themselves whenever they sought the truth for certain inquiries. So questions were dangerous not because of what they asked but because of what answering them required.
One of the bigger questions that he was wondering right now, as he learned more and more about Observable Existence through consud mories and direct observation, was the distinction between the Shattered Folds and Tian. The contrast was stark and unsettling. Outside of this Primordial Realm, advancent was a struggle asured in eons. Inside, power accumulated with almost casual ease, but even then, it wasn’t enough.
And then there was the fact that their Observable Existence was stunted.
These were the words that THE Resplendent Paradox had said in the mories he had consud from THE Corpse Hierophant, her giving the idea that Observable Existence was one that did not live up to its full potential. She had spoken of it with frustration, as if describing a garden that refused to grow despite having all the necessary soil and sunlight.
Which of course naturally made him ask further questions that spiraled outward from that central mystery.
What truly made Observable Existence stunted? Was it a natural condition or sothing imposed? What secrets did The Groundskeeper not ntion about Tian and its relationship to the broader Folds? And how could he learn more without bringing himself into multiple conflicts that would distract from his advancent?
Perhaps the answer to this ca in the form of traversing the Nine Seas casually, beginning to look for and communicate with the older THE entities who had been purifying these waters for eons beyond counting. Beings who had never left Tian, who had accumulated knowledge across spans of ti that made the Age of Collapse seem recent.
The Groundskeeper had never said that such communication was forbidden, and it seed like a good place to start expanding their knowledge without triggering whatever sensitivities surrounded these deeper mysteries.
But this was rely the question that he was currently asking.
Achilles did not know that the sa question was still the center point of countless musings of Existence at this very mont in ti.
---
In an entirely different section of the Nine Seas of Tian, far from where Achilles and his companions purified Corrupted Growths and plotted advancent, there existed a Sea unlike the others.
The Fourth Sea reflected itself in multiple different directions simultaneously, its golden waters showing images that contradicted what floated upon them. A wave rising in one reflection fell in another.
Light that shone from above also emanated from below. The horizon curved both upward and downward depending on which angle of observation one chose, and all angles were equally valid.
Unique storms of paradoxes constantly blood across this Sea’s expanse, contradictions given teorological form. Lightning that struck upward from the waters into clouds that rained in reverse. Winds that blew in all directions at once without canceling each other out.
Thunder that preceded the flash rather than following it. Each paradox resolved itself only to birth new contradictions in endless cycles of impossibility made manifest.
At the very center of this paradoxical Sea, there was the visage of a woman whose robes were the waters themselves.
She lay back upon a platform that existed and did not exist simultaneously, her form bathed in extrely dense currents of THE Civilizational Authority of Paradox that flowed around her like lovers attending their mistress.
Her hair shone obsidian-gold with radiance that seed to absorb and emit light in equal asure, and her features held beauty that contradicted itself, sohow both ancient and youthful, both serene and tornted, both present and absent.
She had been here for longer than most THE entities had existed.
She would remain here until sothing changed.
At this mont, the figure of The Groundskeeper appeared a distance away from this woman and her paradoxical Sea. His golden crystallized form manifested with weight that pressed against the contradictions surrounding him, his presence creating a pocket of stability in the midst of constant impossibility.
His expression was frowning as he looked over at the woman who barely even turned to acknowledge his arrival. Her attention remained fixed on sothing that only she could perceive, contradictions that only she could fully appreciate.
Her voice rang out calmly with single word that sohow asked everything.
"What?"
...!
The question was singular in form but plural in aning. It asked why he had co, what he wanted, what had changed, what was worth interrupting her eternal contemplation. It demanded justification for his presence while simultaneously expressing complete disinterest in whatever justification he might offer.
The Groundskeeper remained calm despite the layers of dismissal woven into that single syllable. He looked out at the expanding and contracting paradoxical Sea with golden eyes that held patience asured in eons.
"A genuine potential contender has appeared who may be able to shoulder the weight of Existence itself."
His voice carried weight that made even the paradoxes nearby pause in their eternal cycling.
"If he is successful in shouldering that weight, if he can claim what he dreams of claiming..." He paused, allowing the significance to settle. "And if you can heal enough to exert your influence with Paradox once more, I could reach out to HIM. Alongside him, I could also exert enough brilliance to potentially withstand the imnsity of Chaos."
The paradoxical storms around them intensified as if responding to his words.
"Three of the four aspects of the Oldest Paradox would be covered. We would have much more weight to stand on, enough foundation to allow us to finally change the state of our Observable Existence." His golden features showed sothing that might have been hope in a being capable of such emotion.
"Access to Axioms that have been denied to us. More control over that which we cannot currently control. We are only limited when it cos to The First Tongue, as this one is far too impossible to find soone capable of holding its weight."
He turned to face her directly.
"When the ti cos, will you be there, O Resplendent Paradox?"
...!
Will she be there?
This was yet another question thrown between beings who seed to communicate primarily through inquiries that demanded answers neither was certain they possessed. Question after question, each one layered with implications that stretched across the history of Observable Existence and toward futures that remained uncertain.
THE Resplendent Paradox, the legendary entity who had departed toward unknown fate and left behind only Keys and cryptic advice, lay within her paradoxical Sea and seed to be thinking of countless things simultaneously.
Her features shifted through expressions too fast to track, joy and sorrow and rage and peace flickering across her face like shadows cast by flas that burned in multiple dinsions.
Her hands moved in gestures that contradicted each other, reaching toward The Groundskeeper while pushing him away, beckoning while dismissing.
She never truly replied.
The silence stretched between them, filled with paradoxes that blood and resolved and blood again, and The Groundskeeper waited with patience that had been honed across eons of similar exchanges.
So questions took ti to answer.
So questions were their own answers.
And so questions were simply too heavy to respond to with re words!
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