Chapter 4075: The Weight of Endless Service! IV

Morathis listened to the assessment with an expression that grew more sorrowful with each word. When she spoke, her voice carried the weight of terrible knowledge.

“I wish those perceptions were true. I wish THE Living Existences were simply powerful beings playing games with reality for their amusement. That would be… manageable. Predictable, even.”

She moved to a window that showed not outside…but elsewhen, displaying Shores that existed in parallel possibilities.

“THE Living Paradox has broken the restraints placed upon it all those years ago.” The words fell like stones into still water, creating ripples that would never stop spreading.

“It hasn’t been long…time moves strangely at those levels, but thousands of Early Veiled Shores have shattered. Not destroyed, not conquered, but shattered, as if their very existence was retroactively made impossible.”

Her tails writhed with agitation that transcended physical movement.

“Nobody knows why. Is THE Living Paradox doing this intentionally? Is it even aware of what’s happening? Or is this simply what happens when paradox is allowed to exist without restraint…reality begins to contradict itself out of existence? And what of THE Creature? Oh!”

She turned back to Kelgar, and her golden eyes held depths of concern that Noah, even experiencing it secondhand, found overwhelming.

“Some say THE Living Concept is involved, that thought itself has decided physical reality is too limiting. Others claim THE Living Dimensional is folding spaces into themselves, creating pockets of existence that can’t be accessed or escaped. There are even whispers that something else entirely has emerged…something that THE Living Existences themselves fear. Something…Dead.”

The weight of these revelations pressed against the memory itself, making it flicker at the edges.

“Something is coming for our Earliest Folds, Kelgar. Something potentially catastrophic. We don’t know what, we don’t know why, we don’t know how to stop it. We only know that Shores are shattering like glass under pressure, and the pressure is increasing.”

She approached him, and even in memory, Noah could feel the warmth she radiated…it was existential, the comfort of being near something that cared about your existence.

“When it comes…and it will come, where would you rather be?”

The question stayed between them with weight that transcended words. It wasn’t about physical location but existential position. Would he flee? Would he hide? Would he seek safety in distance?

Kelgar’s response came without hesitation, emotion making his voice thick: “With you. With everyone here. If existence ends, I would rather end alongside those who made existence worth having.”

Morathis smiled at this answer, and in that smile was both pride and sorrow, love and resignation. She reached out to touch Kelgar’s face with a hand that could unmake mountains, but touched him with gentleness that wouldn’t disturb dust.

“My loyal disciple. My Last Disciple. Your devotion honors me more than…”

BOOM!

The memory shattered.

Not ended, not concluded, but shattered, as if the crystal containing it could no longer maintain coherence.

Noah felt himself yanked back through layers of time and possibility, his consciousness snapping back into his own body with force that made him stagger.

He stood again before the Memory Stone, his hand still pressed against its surface, but now he understood. The stone had contained the last moment of peace before catastrophe, crystallized and preserved by someone who knew that even memories of better times might become precious.

The implications of what he had witnessed raced through his mind. THE Living Paradox breaking restraints…was this related to the current situation? The shattering of thousands of Early Veiled Shores…

And Morathis herself…an Early Creature of obvious power and compassion, reduced to nothing while her loyal servant continued his vigil forever. What force could accomplish such complete destruction?

|Grand Record Observation Complete|

|Living memory of unfortunate past experienced|

|Effort to understand history recognized|

|Complexity gained: +1,000,000,000|

|Purity gained: +1,000,000,000|

|Additional Reward: Blueprint Acquired|

|Common Living Early Abodes of a Shore|

|Can now construct residences matching Early Creature standards|

|Note: Materials from Primordial Excavation Depths recommended|

The prompts seemed almost mundane after what he had experienced, but Noah understood their significance.

He hadn’t just gained power from observing the memory…he had gained understanding.

The blueprint was practical, but the knowledge of what had happened, even incomplete, was invaluable.

He looked at his companions, who were still mining Paradox Minerals with focused efficiency.

How could one convey the weight of Kelgar’s loyalty, Morathis’s concern, the implications of THE Living Paradox’s actions?

More importantly, what did it mean for their current situation? If THE Living Paradox had once shattered thousands of Shores, what was stopping it from doing so again?

“Well, if the fucker is still around…”

Noah uttered calmly while shaking his head.

The Memory Stone stood silent now, its purpose fulfilled but its presence still commanding. Noah removed his hand slowly, almost reluctantly. There was more to understand here, more connections to make, more patterns to recognize.

But for now, he had enough to consider. The past had been harvested, and like all good harvests, it would need time to properly process what had been gathered.

Noah moved took a single step and appeared beside Sigrid, watching as she worked with the particular focus of someone discovering new applications for her power.

Tendrils of Order extended from her form…conceptual assertions that things should be organized, categorized, made comprehensible.

The Paradox Minerals responded to her authority with reluctant compliance.

Where they had been embedded in crystal formations that defied conventional mining, Order simply insisted they should be separate, accessible, collectible.

The minerals emerged from their housing like students responding to a teacher’s command, arranging themselves in neat formations that awaited collection.

“What have you managed to mine so far?” Noah asked, genuinely curious about the yields this unconventional method was producing.

Sigrid turned to him with an expression that managed to be both proud and slightly exasperated. “These things resist classification. They want to exist and not exist simultaneously, which makes storing them… interesting. Anything that allows me to exercise Order right now is good as this works greatly…”

She handed him a collection of the Paradox Minerals she had extracted, and Noah examined them.

|Paradox Minerals Obtained: 47 units|

|State: Existing/Not Existing (Fluctuating)|

|Quality: Exceptional|

|Warning: May spontaneously decide they were never mined|

|Additional Warning: Prolonged contact may cause holder to question their own existence|

|Storage Recommendation: Convince them they want to be stored|

“…”

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