The white light had a hum.
It was subtle, like the resonance of an ancient chord struck once and left to echo for an endless age.
Noah’s eyes narrowed as the glow danced across Sigrid’s trembling form, her runes alive with flux, her aura rising higher still within the confines of the Labyrinth. The white light pulsing from her head wasn’t like anything he’d encountered before!
It had weight, not from raw power, but from clarity. A cleaving brightness that silenced uncertainty.
The mont his existence touched it, he felt...
Stability.
Not rigidity.
Not stillness.
But the subtle, ever-correcting breath of a system that knew where to place each thing. A frawork. A silent blueprint.
It was... Order.
Order!
He felt it in the depths of his understanding!
Order was not a force that commanded. It was the one that balanced. The invisible architecture behind continuity. Behind causality. Behind reason. It wasn’t always seen, but it was known.
It reminded him of breathing.
Of direction.
And now, it was blooming within her.
His mind sharpened, mories flashing. The Living Order. The authority said to have vanished in the chaos of the Earliest Folds. The one that once helped seal THE Living Paradox itself with its death!
How... and why... would its Remnant live within Sigrid?
It wasn’t whole.
But it was...at the sa ti.
Even Living Order seed paradoxical as it presented itself from Sigrid right now!
He felt the runic mark she’d placed on him shift on his forehead, as if responding in real-ti to the ergence. Light etched itself anew as a prompt unfurled before his sight.
|You have been granted the Marker of the Aide of the Chosen.|
...!
His brows slightly twitched.
Him?
An Aide?
He, who spun Existence toward his own path?
Hah!
But there was no ti to indulge the weight of such a thing.
Sigrid’s body jerked suddenly as she pulled back from him, her hand pressing against her chest, her breath ragged. "Stop- stop the inflow of your authority!" Her voice cracked with panic.
Noah imdiately reined himself in, his aura silencing like a curtain being drawn.
But her eyes were wide, not with fear of him- but of sothing else. She tilted her head sharply in all directions and toward the ceiling where the white light still roared.
And her face soon changed.
A streak of realization crossed her face.
The fairy. She saw the shocked Labyrinth Guider in the skies!
Hovering above, cloaked in multicolored brilliance, still stunned- frozen in place by what she had witnessed.
Sigrid’s hand rose.
HUUM!
White-gold radiance burst forth, forming a colossal, translucent palm above. It reached without hesitation- plucking the fairy from the ceiling and dragging her downward in a streak of light.
The pillar of authority severed instantly.
The white glow vanished. The air cald.
And in her hand, the small fairy writhed, her wings fluttering like frightened petals. She looked utterly overwheld.
Sigrid’s voice cut through the silence.
"Have you already alerted your Origin Descendant?"
Her tone was sharp.
Urgent.
Terrified.
The fairy whimpered. Then quickly dropped to her knees atop Sigrid’s open palm. "I...I’m sorry, Miss!"
BOOM!
The ceiling split open with a scream of golden white.
The blinding brilliance of Living Origin Authority cascaded down in rivers of light. It ca with a trumpet of celestial presence, so loud it made the very folds of space shiver.
A Living Origin descended!
Altheon descended!
A radiant being, his robes fluttering in a breeze that did not exist, his wings spread wide and woven from glinting white-gold mist. A curved halo hovered behind his head, rotating slowly. His eyes, burning with reverence, locked onto Sigrid as if beholding the impossible.
He hovered in the air.
Then descended with disbelief etched into every motion.
"Miss... is it truly you?" he asked, his voice trembling. "Your form... your bearing... How can you be here? Oh, the Honored Ones must be alerted!"
But Sigrid’s face had grown cold. Her eyes dimd. Her aura muted.
Her voice was frigid.
"No one is to be alerted."
HUUM!
Her words were simple.
But they struck with more power than any authority.
Altheon paused.
And in that pause... Noah saw and gazed out.
He saw the man who had once tried to erase his body from existence, the one who had aid for Ozymandias and made deals with Thauron!
It was this fucker that he currently looked at.
But more than that, from the recent interavtions... he saw the connections between Living Origins and Sigrid.
That Sigrid was one of them in a terrifying sense.
Not loosely tied, but deeply rooted.
A foundation they seed to worship!
And she had left them.
Wiped her mory due to an event that was too painful.
Hidden herself.
And now they found her not because of searching, but because of him.
Altheon’s expression soured slightly, tension forming at his jaw.
Sigrid repeated herself.
"No one is to be alerted."
...!
There was finality in the air.
Altheon stood still in the suspended light. Eventually, he gave the smallest nod.
"Yes... Miss."
Then Sigrid turned.
She looked at Noah, her expression cracked by two opposing forces, pain and gratitude.
She stepped close.
Wrapped her arms gently around him.
And her words barely brushed his ears as she whispered, "I wish you had not awakened ..."
Her voice shook.
"But I’m thankful that you did."
He said nothing.
He only breathed.
And above them, Altheon watched.
His expression twisted- subtly at first, then more overtly.
As if witnessing sothing that should not be. As if watching sacred pages being burned.
He took a step forward in the air, his tone darkening. "Young Miss... other existences cannot desecrate you like this."
The air went cold.
Noah’s eyes opened, slow and sharp. The light within them didn’t flare.
It narrowed.
And when they turned to Altheon, they were quintessential blades.
"Does my existence alone desecrate her?" Noah asked, voice like polished obsidian.
The Living Origin’s face twisted as wings and halos unfurled fully behind him, his Authority swelling like a sea about to break.
"A re Fold Dweller," Altheon said, his voice low, "who does not know the depth of existence... can die without ever knowing they have died. Do not think you are deserving of being near such majesty..."
...!
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