Noah's eyes flashed brilliantly as he gauged the power of this terrifying entity.
His enhanced perception, refined through impossible experiences and elevated beyond normal limitations, attempted to get a read on Goliath's actual power level.
But the asurent itself was paradoxical…the numbers fluctuated unstably, simultaneously exceeding and falling below one quadrillion, both realities equally true and equally false.
It could could be 100 Trillion, 900 Trillion, or 2 Quadrillion all at once as his nature made it unsure!
This was a powerful being in ways that transcended simple accumulation of complexity and purity. This was sothing that had made reality itself accept contradictions as truth.
Khor nodded at Goliath with sothing that might have been approval. "Yeah, among those here, this one seems more like a strong one. But..."
Her eyes blinked, a motion that seed too normal for soone of her nature, and her gaze focused on an area behind the massive serpent.
Behind Goliath, floating with the kind of grace that suggested gravity was a personal choice. Duke Diviticus could be seen.
She was another distinguished Duke, her form wrapped in white and obsidian radiance that didn't so much illuminate as suggest that darkness and light had reached an agreent.
She was adorned in a simple white-black dress that buzzed with paradox…simple and elaborate, revealing and concealing all at once.
And behind her, almost lost in the shadow of such luminous impossibilities, was a figure that seed to actively resist attention.
A beggar-looking paradox in ragged clothes that might have been made from the fabric of space-ti that had given up on maintaining its dignity.
His appearance was simultaneously the most and least important thing in the amphitheater…forgotten and unforgettable, insignificant and essential.
Khor actually ca to focus on him, her expression shifting through surprise to confusion to sothing that looked almost like recognition trying to happen but being prevented by so force that transcended re forgetfulness!
She blinked again, tilting her head with the particular angle of soone trying to rember a dream while still inside it.
"Who is that one?" she asked, the question carrying more weight than such simple words should be able to bear.
Noah's eyes shone brilliantly with interest!
Why would Khor, this being from the Earliest Folds who treated Duke-level existence as barely noteworthy, go out of her way to ask about what appeared to be the least impressive figure in the entire gathering?
"That," Noah replied, his voice carrying layers of aning that suggested he understood more than he was saying, "is Schrodinger."
The na landed in their conversation like a stone thrown into perfectly still water, creating ripples that spread in directions that included ones that didn't exist.
Schrodinger.
Khor tilted her head further, the angle becoming almost impossible as she seed to be trying to rember sothing that aggressively resisted being rembered!
Her expression cycled through confusion to recognition to confusion again, as if the mory itself was paradoxical.
Then she said sothing that made even Noah's tyrannically calm deanor flicker with surprise.
"I feel like I rember that face. I just cannot recall from exactly where."
BOOM!
The words echoed in their private bubble of conversation with the weight of impossibility acknowledging impossibility!
Khor was an extrely old entity from the Earliest Folds. She had existed before existence had properly figured out how to exist.
She had witnessed the rise of Early Creatures, the establishnt of Principles, the original attempts at creating structure from chaos!
Why… would she rember the face of Schrodinger?
The question hung between them like a paradox itself…answerable and unanswerable, significant and aningless, true and false, all at once!
Noah gazed at Schrodinger with a complex expression.
Beside him, Khor seed genuinely stumped…an emotion that looked foreign on her ancient features, like watching a mountain experience surprise.
Her fingers traced absent patterns in the air as if trying to physically grasp mories that slipped away the mont she approached them.
"This is fascinating," she muttered, her voice carrying frustration. "Why would that creature's face be among my collapsed mories?"
The phrase 'collapsed mories' hung in the air.
mories that existed in superposition until observed? mories that had been deliberately folded away? Or perhaps mories that belonged to a version of existence that no longer was, or hadn't yet been, or was currently being?
Both she and Noah stared toward Schrodinger with blatant observation that would have been considered rude.
Their gazes carried weight- Noah's burning with tyrannical assessnt, Khor's pressing with the force of eons trying to rember themselves.
The combined weight of their attention was impossible to ignore, even for soone whose entire nature revolved around existing in states of un-observation!
Schrodinger actually turned toward them, his movent neither sudden nor gradual.
One mont he wasn't looking at them, the next mont he was, with no transition between states that observation could catch.
Their gazes clashed across the impossible distance of the amphitheater.
The beggar-paradox blinked…an action that sohow seed to reset local reality, as if that simple closing and opening of eyes determined which version of existence would continue forward.
His gaze moved between Noah and Khor with the interest of soone discovering an unexpected variable in an equation they thought they'd solved.
But tellingly, devastatingly, he showed no signs of recognition toward Khor.
This being from the Earliest Folds, this entity whose mories predated the proper structuring of mory itself, might as well have been a stranger.
Instead, Schrodinger focused entirely on Noah, and then, even more surprisingly…he nodded.
The nod was acknowledgnt, greeting, and promise all at once.
Then his gaze shifted, scanning the area around Noah with the particular attention of soone checking a guest list.
His expression shifted through micro-expressions of interest, assessnt, and what might have been disappointnt at finding certain expected elents missing.
Then, shockingly, from where he stood at an impossible distance across an amphitheater designed to keep powers separated, Schrodinger began to mouth words!
His voice carried across that impossible distance to ring around them with perfect clarity.
"Hello, friends. Fold Dweller Osmont, right? I was hoping you would bring THE Living Order in attendance today as well, otherwise things would be unbearably boring. I actually... picked up so trash of hers that she discarded, and I would have loved to exchange notes."
…!
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