Chapter 4399: You! I
Khor paused, her expression hardening.
"I will display one which may be of importance for all of us to observe. It should be a memory of my existence...during oraftermy collapse."
...!
She waved her hands, and a radiant, extremely solid illusory screen materialized in the air before them... a concentrated construct of her recovered Hunger given visual form.
After manifesting the screen, Khor closed her eyes, and on the illusory surface, obsidian darkness gave way to brilliance as a glorious...and horrifying scene began to play out.
Noah and the others watched as devastation bloomed across the screen.
The scene showed a fractured and decimated landscape of obsidian crystals stretching for impossible distances.
Billions upon billions of corpses...tentacled Inevitabilities in their natural forms, sprawled across the shattered crystalline terrain in poses suggesting violent, sudden death.
No signs of battle. Just... termination. As if something had simply decided they should cease existing and reality had complied.
In the center of all this devastation, the corpse of an adult Khor could be seen.
Her figure of sublime beauty seemed utterly defiled...an immense, massive gash permeated from her forehead vertically all the way down across her body, as if something had attempted to split her in half and had succeeded.
She was clearly dead. Unmistakably collapsed. Her existence terminated!
And standing over her corpse was a shadowy humanoid figure shrouded in darkness that made perception struggle to focus properly.
The entity was whistling nonchalantly...actuallywhistling, as if surveying the scene of genocide was a pleasant afternoon activity.
He reached out into Khor’s corpse with familiarity andpulled, extracting a radiant obsidian-crimson Heart that pulsed with terrifying luminosity even in death.
The entity hummed while throwing the Heart up and down, feeling its weight with assessment.
"Another piece of the puzzle obtained..." he murmured with satisfaction, and he turned towards the corpse of Khor as he used his other hand to shut her absent crimson eyes tenderly, as if he was soothing her to sleep!
Noah’s gaze hardened as he watched, his enhanced perception throughThe Lens of Civilizationtrying to pierce the shadows shrouding the figure.
Beside him in the present, Khor’s eyes remained closed, but her hands were clenched so tightly her knuckles had gone white.
Her expression showed barely controlled risinglividity.
In the scene, three figures appeared behind the humanoid shadowy entity holding theHeart of Hunger.
They spoke in perfect unison, their voices overlapping.
"With this action, we must move even more quickly."
The humanoid entity shrouded in darkness nodded while continuing his humming.
"Yes, yes, My Little Weavers," he said.
"The Death ofTHE First Hungerwill be felt byTHE Creature.That guy has always looked after her from afar with sentimentality ever since he butchered her Master in a haze, and has wanted to make amends since. Ah... sentimentality of fools. Well, no matter."
He tossed the Heart casually.
"It is time to activateAnaximanderagainstTHE Creature.Do you have everything ready on your end?"
...!
Noah’s eyes flashed with chilling light as he processed those words.
THE Living Paradoxand those three should be...THE Weavers.They’re discussing usingAnaximanderas a weapon againstTHE Creature?!
His mind raced through possibilities while the scene continued!
THE Weaversreplied in their unified voice: "It took considerable work, butAnaximanderis prepared to be unleashed againstTHE Creature.He does not even comprehend what exactly he is doing, and he will not understand until the very last moment."
At such words, the shadowy figure grasping Khor’sHeart of Hungernodded as he turned.
And his face became clear in the scene.
"Let’s get started!" he declared with enthusiasm that bordered on mania.
BOOM!
The moment his face became fully visible, Noah’s eyes opened with shock.
In front of him in the present, Khor’s eyes snapped open simultaneously, shock and lividity warring across her features as shehowled!
That face!
They knew that face intimately!
She had recognized it before, and she had stated so!
BOOM!
An eruption ofHungerexploded where Khor stood, obsidian-crimson flames consuming the surrounding space as her eyes blazed with rage!
Noah stared at the face with a heavy gaze.
It was unfathomable. Impossible. And yet undeniable.
The face thatTHE Living Paradoxwas wearing in that memory...
Was the face ofSchrodinger.
How? How could this be?
Noah’s eyes flashed sharply as he looked at countless possibilities as...it did not make too much sense!
The beggar paradox, the Elderborn...he’s THE Living Paradox? Or connected to him? A fragment? A Will? A disguise?
Khor’s figure trembled with palpable rage, her voice shaking with barely restrained violence.
"I recognized him," she said, "I should have known! All this time...right under my nose!"
HUUM!
Her aura exploded outward.
"He collapsedbillionsof Inevitabilities! He collapsed MY existence and took myHeart of Hunger, myPrimacy of Hunger!He enslaved all Inevitabilities and mutated them to work for his Loom! He..."
Her voice cracked with emotion!
"He must collapse! He mustpay!"
BOOM!
Hunger began raging uncontrollably around her, obsidian-crimson flames consuming atmosphere itself.
Noah stepped forward, his voice holsing authority meant to penetrate her fury.
"Wait. Let us plan first. We cannot simply-"
But in the next moment...
WAP!
Khordisappeared.
Simply gone, as if she’d decided to exist somewhere else right away.
Noah’s face became heavier with profound concern.
There were still too many unknowns!
IfTHE Living Paradoxis truly Schrodinger, or potentially his Remnant Will, or some fragment, or something others can’t even conceptualize...how powerful is he truly?
Going to face a being with THE distinction currently will have catastrophic consequences!
...!
But Khor had already set off, and Noah felt what she felt through their brief connection during the memory viewing.
When it came toHunger, the one quality he now understood intimately was this...whateverHungercraved with sufficient potency, it wouldfind.
Even if Khor didn’t know precisely where Schrodinger was...though she did, because they’d been keeping tabs, with Schrodinger and Leonore currently hidden while observing a Justiciar complete its massacre in the Transcendent Quantum Folds with Noah’s false illusions.
Even if she didn’t know, herHungerwould track him and all his other bodies with inexorable certainty.
And she had already departed in her rage without questioning whether what they saw was truth, without wondering if they could actually face an existence with THE distinction at this moment.
Hungerwas filled with fury!