The golden aura hadn’t fully faded when Sigrid flinched.
All around her, titanic chains of golden fate were humming with intensity, as if sensing the proximity of another power trying to rewrite the script.
She huddled closer to Noah, glancing around warily at the many Primarchs, Solstice Veils, and Fold Dwellers who had materialized around them in radiant bursts of True Source brilliance.
Each of them were terrifying- not to ntion the pressure that the Originus Venerant entities emanated!
Her eyes lingered especially on the moving chains- each one thick enough to wrap a planet, each one veined with shimring Existential Dinsional Lattices.
Master Shen’s expression remained unreadable, a single brow lifting slightly as he prepared himself to observe this mont with a casual yet calculating gleam. Master Etheopa, however, had a glint in her eyes- eager, almost, as if the unraveling of this mystery might reaffirm sothing long waited for.
But before either of them could speak...
BOOM!
The folds of space scread as a thunderous impact reverberated through the airless havens. And then...
A presence.
Massive, searing, and glorious in its clarity.
It descended like a verdict.
The presence coalesced into a man adorned in regal gold, his robe a flowing torrent of folded starlight and woven fire. His hair, spun from golden threads, curled and twisted like living serpents around his head, reacting to the very frequency of his emotions. Each strand of flesh shimred with densely packed Existential Dinsional Lattices, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, each one singing the song of authority.
Master Shen let out a short breath through his nose of annoyance.
Master Etheopa’s brow furrowed imdiately.
"Such an important affair occurred for our Veiled Sunfolds," the newcor said coldly, "and you did not think to alert , Master Etheopa?"
His voice was heavier than booming thunder.
Noah narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze turning to observe the man more carefully.
A stat panel rose before him with many question marks...but it did have a na and distinctions.
Master Hannibal.
One of the rare beings who held the title of Sun Fold Master, a prized Guardian of the Veiled Sunfolds. A rank only a select few Originus Venerants ever attained here!
Etheopa didn’t flinch.
"You were preoccupied," she said crisply. "And this is a sensitive matter."
...!
The words were both respectful and pointed. A truth, and a barrier as it seed there was a hidden history here others were not privy to!
Master Hannibal snorted, dismissing it with a wave of his sleeve as his golden eyes slid toward Sigrid and locked on.
"She is the anomaly?"
He spoke the words like an accusation.
"The one that brought about prophecy and disruption? Sothing this crucial should have been handled imdiately. If I had been inford, I would have already dissected her Existence down to its roots."
...!
Dissected?
Sigrid froze- then took a full step behind Noah, eyes wide and wary, her fingers digging lightly into the fabric of his robe.
His robe...that was made of his energy and authority.
His robe that even a Monad would not be able to get past or wrinkle.
And yet...she was nearly tearing his robe his her fair hands that held absolutely no authority!
"..." Noah’s eyes buzzed silently.
She lifted her hands again and signed, haltingly but firmly.
[What the hell is he talking about? I’m not bringing any destiny or disruption. I don’t even know who I am or how I got here!]
Her eyes swept the gathered crowd.
Wary.
Frightened.
But still sharp.
She wasn’t a fool. Even without mories, Sigrid could sense the danger in the way they looked at her.
Their awe... and their fear.
"Would it be alright," Master Etheopa’s voice ca, gentle but serious, "if we examined you directly? I would only need to touch your hand. When we tried last ti while you were unconscious, we were... less than successful."
...!
Noah’s eyes flicked toward Master Etheopa who floated over slowly.
Even Originus Venerant-level beings couldn’t approach her without complications?
Fascinating.
No wonder she shattered containnt glass laced with hundreds of thousands of Lattices by rely brushing her fingers against it.
Noah looked at Sigrid.
Her eyes had returned to him.
There was hesitance in them.
Caution.
But also a budding trust. Not because he had earned it, necessarily- but because he was the only one here who hadn’t looked at her with terrifying eyes or treated her like a volatile experint.
And his figure was the first one she saw as he even...knew her na!
He was the only thing here that might know anything about her.
She signed again.
[Should I...?]
Her fingers moved slowly.
[Is it safe?]
Noah was about to reply.
He had already decided to advise her to allow it.
But...
"Hmph. Why ask permission for sothing this critical?"
HUUM!
A rupture of golden light blood behind them.
Master Hannibal moved.
Instantly.
The space between them folded like paper, and in less than a heartbeat, his form shimred into place directly behind Noah and Sigrid, his palm already outstretched- reaching for her arm with clinical coldness.
And he hadn’t asked.
Not for permission.
Not for forgiveness.
Just acted.
"Stop!"
Master Etheopa’s voice thundered with authority and shock, but it ca too late.
Master Hannibal’s form was already surging forward, the folds parting before him as his golden-robed figure appeared like judgnt incarnate, hand slicing through space toward Sigrid with razor precision.
Even Noah, already watching with cold calculation, couldn’t react in ti.
He could only observe.
The golden hand was re inches away from Sigrid’s skin.
And then...
She moved.
Not out of strategy.
Not with power.
But with fear.
A reflex.
Her right hand rose in front of her, palm turned outward in a weak attempt at defense. A simple motion from a young woman who looked like she could barely stand in zero gravity.
And in that instant...
BOOOOOOM!
A terrifying impact reverberated outward.
Space didn’t explode- it folded inward, crashing in on itself like glass under celestial pressure.
Master Hannibal’s figure was launched backward like a cannonball, his body spinning wildly as golden lattices around him shattered, combusted, and disintegrated in the blink of an eye. Hundreds of thousands of Existential Dinsional Lattices, carefully forged over eons, decimated.
In that split nanosecond, Noah saw it all.
He had watched reality slow to a crawl under the weight of his perception.
The mont Hannibal’s hand grazed hers, the force that burst out wasn’t offensive.
It was protective.
Calm. Pure. Absolute.
But its scale... its scale was absurd.
A force that not only matched, but overwheld a being of Originus Venerant caliber.
And it had erupted not from rage or intent.
Just from her skin refusing to be touched.
Master Hannibal smashed into the far reaches of the True Frequency of Fate, streaking across golden clouds and massive stellar branches like a cot crashing through prophecy.
Existence fell into a stunned, echoing silence.
Noah’s expression remained still.
But his eyes?
They shone with intense, fascinated light.
His gaze dropped to the girl now slumped against him, her body sagging as though it had spent the last of so hidden, primal reserve.
Sigrid clutched his robe tightly, breath shallow, trembling softly.
Then her fingers moved.
[Just...what is...going on?] she signed, slow and weak.
[I suddenly feel hungry... and starved...]
...!
After smashing away an Originus Venerant entity, this seemingly normal human woman weaker than an F Rank Hunter...felt hungry!
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