THE Resplendent Paradox stood in a vast and wide cavernous space within The Existential Lattice, her contradictory features shifting through expressions that held calculation beneath her calm.
Invisible faint chains connected to her form, arteries and veins of corrupted authority that bound her to this location with a force that should have been impossible to resist. They pulsed with a rhythm that spread her Claim to Paradox outward like a beacon, drawing creatures born from the cancerous lifeblood of Observable Existence toward her position.
She had been here for what felt like eons, though ti moved strangely within this construct.
The crystalline walls around her humd with biological wrongness, purple obsidian brilliance that seed almost alive in its corruption. Channels stretched outward in multiple directions, pathways through which mutated creatures could approach from regions she could not perceive.
And sothing was approaching now.
An Absolute Mutated Corrupted Undivided One erged from the largest channel with presence that made the surrounding space tremble. It was massive, its form resembling a butterfly of impossible scale, but mutations had twisted it into sothing far more horrifying than any butterfly should be.
Three heads jutted from its corrupted body, each one bearing features that shifted between beauty and nightmare without pattern or purpose. Its wings stretched across distances, mbranes of purple obsidian light that pulsed with weavings so pained and horrid that simply perceiving them caused discomfort.
The creature’s existence was agony made manifest.
Every aspect of its being scread with suffering that had no end, Undivided nature corrupted by the forceful coalescence of ingredients that should never have been combined. It surged toward THE Resplendent Paradox with hunger, three heads opening mouths filled with teeth that existed in configurations that contradicted each other.
She should be getting devoured in the next mont!
But THE Resplendent Paradox moved her fair hands with motion that held grace beneath deadly purpose.
Existence paradoxically inverted across this entire region.
"Paradoxical Inversion."
HUUM!
What was up beca down and then beca sothing that was neither and both simultaneously. What was solid beca intangible and then beca states that had no nas because they should not exist.
The very fabric of reality within this cavernous space twisted upon itself in ways that made the Absolute Mutated Corrupted Undivided One pause in confusion that its three heads could not process.
She began attacking.
Terrifying paradoxical Embodints uttered from just the two words of "Paradoxical Inversion" overlapped and manifested from her contradictory form, expressions of authority that held impossible properties of...Absolutes!
She had hidden her power well!
Light that cast shadows darker than absence of light. Force that pushed by pulling. Destruction that preserved by destroying.
Her expression remained cold and chilly as these Embodints crashed against the mutated creature with impact that defied description. The three-headed butterfly tried to respond, tried to establish its own authority against this assault of contradictions, but it could not find purchase in reality that had been inverted beyond its comprehension.
Before the mutated creature could even do anything aningful, in a matter of nanoseconds, it was collapsed!
THE Resplendent Paradox clenched her hand.
She paradoxically compressed the Absolute Mutated Corrupted Undivided One into what should have been impossible, existence folding upon itself until the massive three-headed butterfly beca a singularity of concentrated authority. The creature’s agony intensified beyond asurent in that final mont, then ceased entirely as it beca sothing too small to contain consciousness.
She beckoned the singularity toward her, opening her red lips and her tongue rolled out...
And she swallowed it into her existence.
Her eyes beca chillier as power flooded through her contradictory form. Her aura expanded with weight that exceeded what it had held monts before, foundations strengthening from the integration of an Absolute she had collapsed through thods that should not work but did because Paradox made impossible things possible.
She looked out across the vast distances of The Existential Lattice with gaze that held determination beneath the cold surface as she thought of soone else.
"The Clair of Chaos."
Her voice erged soft, almost gentle.
"I cannot help you now. You may be dying again and again within whatever prison they have constructed for you, facing adversity that exceeds anything you have experienced before."
Her contradictory features settled into singular expression of resolve.
"But as soon as I understand this construct and break these shackles that bind here, I will work to free you..."
Her fair hands clenched with motion that made the surrounding space ripple.
"...and everyone else in our Observable Existence against these Outsiders."
Her golden-obsidian-erald eyes blazed with light that held promise rather than rely intent.
"For Paradox...can make anything possible."
...!
She made such a promise as...well, she truly didn’t know how the side of Achilles was faring. She didnt know!
—
At this ti, on an entirely other side of The Existential Lattice.
A second body appeared beside the chained form of Achilles within The Existential Lattice.
Its entire skin blazed with stellar obsidian brilliance that pulsed with Chaos, wings of pure Primordial Authority stretching outward. His form as a Chaos Lifeform, manifested within this prison that THE Prisoner believed would contain him indefinitely.
The chains binding his other body did not extend to this one.
Achilles moved away from his bound existence with steps that carried him deeper into the crystalline channels stretching outward from the cavernous space.
His Jötunn form radiated authority that made the biological walls around him pulse in response, corruption recognizing the Chaos that had partially birthed this entire construct.
He looked out across the vast distances of The Existential Lattice with eyes that burned cold.
"There are budding resources inside this Lattice that even soone who used to be at the Second Scale wants?"
His voice erged chilly!
"Okay. Okay!"
His stellar obsidian features twisted into an expression that held sothing far darker than simple determination. His eyes blazed with light of retribution!
Truly, not many apart from Rose knew this about him.
But he was a very petty, vengeful person.
He kept counts of the littlest things. Every slight. Every insult. Every mont of suffering inflicted upon him or those he cared about. He rembered them all with clarity that ti could not diminish, cataloging grievances that would one day be answered in full.
The counts of THE Prisoner and his forces were making him a very focused person right now.
Every death he had experienced at the claws of that Absolute Mutated Corrupted Terror. Every mont of agony during reformation. Every dismissive word from Lamashtu treating him and Rose like tools to be used and discarded. Every life lost across Observable Existence because of the cancerous growth he had been forced to help create.
He rembered all of it.
And he would begin taking the steps to make sure he could take into account everything done to him soti very fucking soon in the near future.
His Jötunn form moved deeper into The Existential Lattice, stellar obsidian wings carrying him toward resources that THE Prisoner wanted badly enough to imprison an entire Observable Existence to obtain.
Resources that Achilles intended to claim just like them. Because why not?!
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