Chapter 3957: Advancement and Inevitabilities! I

The golden bubble hung suspended in the void like a captured sun, its surface rippling with currents of Living Origin Authority that bent reality around its edges.

Within its confines, Duke Gwendolyn’s sigh carried the weight of eons as her gaze swept across the assembled beings who would determine Sigrid’s fate.

"These are the Existences that will be traveling with you," she said.

"Altheon, Thessaly, Titano, and..."

Her eyes drifted to Noah, and in that moment, something shifted in her expression.

The stellar darkness within her gaze deepened, wheels within wheels turning as she studied him with an intensity.

She was a Duke. One of the eighty-one who sat at the pinnacle of Living Origin hierarchy.

Throughout her impossibly long life, she had catalogued and categorized every form of power, every variation of authority that dared to manifest across the infinite Folds.𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

She always knew what she looked at...it was not arrogance but simple fact, as fundamental to her nature as breathing was to mortal creatures!

But when she gazed at Noah Osmont, that certainty fractured.

Her mind turned through possibilities.

Perhaps he was someone intrinsically connected to THE Living Order, bound by threads of Existence so profound that even she could not fully perceive their nature.

The way Sigrid looked at him, the casual ease with which she accepted his presence...there was something binding between them!

Or perhaps he was the scion of another Duke, one of her carefully cultivated allies....

The game of Dukes was one played across Folds and ages, where a single move might take millennia to reach fruition.

The third possibility made her chest tighten as...perhaps he carried an Inheritance so profound that even Living Existences would tear apart existence to have it. What he displayed in Concordia could be part of it!

She was curious, desperately curious, about exactly what-...!

|Do not worry too much about his identity.|

Sigrid’s voice bloomed in her mind like a flower of pure thought, |Just know that he... will absolutely protect me.|

HUUM!

The mental communication carried undertones that Duke Gwendolyn had not heard from the Young Miss before- absolute certainty mixed with something that might have been fondness!

Duke Gwendolyn sighed at such words.

Things were getting more and more entangled!

Duke Gwendolyn’s gaze shifted between them....Sigrid watching with that small, knowing smile, while Noah continued his earnest instruction of Titano as if he were a sage imparting the deepest mysteries of existence to an eager disciple.

The massive titan nodded along with such sincere concentration that his entire form seemed to vibrate with the effort of understanding, occasionally interjecting with "Yes, brother!" and "This makes sense!" as Noah explained what appeared to be the fundamental principles of...finding a baddie through material wealth?

The absurdity of it- a supposed Fold Dweller lecturing one of the more terrifying weapons in the Living Origin arsenal about romantic economics should have been laughable!

Instead, it filled Duke Gwendolyn with a profound unease that settled in her bones.

She released another sigh, this one carrying the weight of responsibilities that stretched across existence itself.

Turning to Sigrid, she allowed her expression to shift from calculation to concern.

"Young Miss," she began, "things are not as peaceful as they appear. There is a Coalition of Living Existences, yes, but..." She paused.

"Not all are truly allied. Schemes run deep...deeper than the roots of the trees of existence, deeper than the foundations of existence itself. Power runs even deeper still as apart from those truly Living...there are also those truly Dead!"

The golden light within the bubble seemed to dim slightly, as if responding to the gravity of her words.

"And on top of all this," Duke Gwendolyn continued, her hands moving in subtle gestures that painted pictures in the air...shadows of things that should not be named directly.

"There are the Weavings of Existence themselves, forces that even make us seek the Loom with such desperate fervor. In all of this maze of power and purpose, you must be careful. You are both a hope for the future and..." She hesitated, then pushed forward with grim determination. "And a weapon that many would wield without concern for your wellbeing."

The earnestness in her voice, stripped of all pretense, seemed to strike Sigrid. The Young Miss nodded seriously, her stellar eyes reflecting understanding of burdens she should not have to bear.

Duke Gwendolyn straightened, addressing the entire gathering now.

"There are things you know and things you do not know. This time around, when it comes to the identity of the Young Miss, no one...absolutely no one, is to be trusted."

Even Titano stopped his eager nodding to pay attention!

"Thus," Duke Gwendolyn declared, her words falling like hammers, "your first Doorway to the Loom will not even stem from the Transcendent Origin Battlefront Folds."

WAA!

Noah’s conversation with Titano ceased mid-sentence, his attention snapping to the Duke with intensity.

"Instead," she continued, a smile playing at the edges of her lips that held no warmth whatsoever, "you will enter silently into a Doorway from the side of the Transcendent Paradox Battlefront Folds."

...!

"What?" Sigrid’s surprise burst forth before she could contain it, "Paradoxical Folds?"

Duke Gwendolyn’s smile widened, becoming something that might have been satisfaction.

"Surprised? Yes, a Doorway through the Paradoxical Folds. Just as Paradoxes have extended their reach toward other Transcendent Folds over the eons, so have we. I have my... clone waiting for you in front of the exact Doorway you will enter."

For Living Origins to move through Paradoxical territory spoke to infiltrations and schemes that redefined the supposed boundaries between the great powers!

"I chose this one," Duke Gwendolyn explained, "because Inevitabilities are much easier to predict and face than other Living Existences. I know for certain there are no Living Paradoxes, Origins, Laws, or any other Living Existences within this particular Doorway. Such a thing is a much more controlled environment, regardless of its inherent dangers. And mind you, it is very dangerous!"

She paused, allowing them to absorb this information before delivering the final assessment. "Because the number of Inevitabilities is higher due to it being in the Paradoxical Folds, the danger level is elevated, but manageable with the current team. So you shall... go."

The moment the word left her lips, the bubble erupted with radiant Living Origin Authority that made reality itself sing. The light was so brilliant it seemed to burn through dimensions themselves, and then...

HUUUM!

Nothing.

Where once a few beings had stood ready, now only Duke Gwendolyn remained, her form solitary against the vast expanse of the Transcendent Origin Battlefront Folds in this area.

She looked toward distant Aeternitas Concordia, its towers catching light that had traveled across impossible distances to reach this moment.

Another sigh escaped her, this one carrying dread and solemnity.

"I wonder," she said to the endless expanse, "how many beginnings will face destruction in this coming storm..."

The question hung unanswered in the space between heartbeats, between one moment and the next, as somewhere across the impossible distances of existence...Noah materialized before a Doorway that should not exist, in a place where they should not be!

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