Chapter 4156: Order! IV
Chapter 4156: Order! IV
The glorious beam of white light that spilled forth from Sigrid expanded outward like dawn breaking over a world that had forgotten what morning meant.
It washed across the Concordat Amphitheater, and where it passed, subtle changes rippled through existence itself.
Above each section of the amphitheater, reality had already transformed to match the nature of the Living Existences gathered there!
The space above the Paradoxes writhed with uncertainty made visible...storms of possibility that existed and didn’t exist simultaneously.
The area over the Temporals flowed backward and forward through time like a river that couldn’t decide which way was downstream.
Each section bore its own signature of chaos, its own particular flavor of disorder that had been accepted as natural.
Yet the moment Sigrid’s light of Order passed by, everything changed.
Over the section of Paradoxes, where contradictions swirled like storms trying to tear themselves apart, Schrodinger actually rose to his feet!
His eyes widened with something that might have been surprise or delight or both simultaneously as he watched the waves of paradox that had been churning in endless conflict suddenly... settle.
The storm became ordered drops of rain that began to flow with certainty, each droplet knowing exactly where it would fall, when it would fall, why it would fall.
Paradox hadn’t been eliminated...it had been given structure!
HUUM!
Among the Living Temporals, time itself straightened like a river suddenly remembering it had banks.
The constant fluctuation between past and future, the endless uncertainty of when, resolved into a single direction...forward, always forward, the direction Order deemed appropriate!
Temporal beings who had grown comfortable existing in multiple moments simultaneously found themselves suddenly, disconcertingly, present.
But it was in the section of Living Spirits that the most dramatic transformation occurred.
A figure had just been arriving when the light washed over...a terrifying presence despite her small appearance.
She looked petite, almost childlike, dressed in a frilly black dress that would have been adorable if not for the inscribed pictures covering it.
Each image showed the same thing from different angles: a smiling dog whose grin contained too many teeth, whose eyes held intelligence that transcended animal, whose very presence in embroidered form made reality nervous.
In her small hands, she held a chain that seemed insignificant at first...just a simple leash that might restrain a normal pet.
But as it extended behind her, it grew. And grew. And grew!
The chain enlarged until it spanned over a thousand miles, each link forged from crystallized authority that could have anchored concepts to reality.
And at the end of that impossible chain, wrapped around a neck thick as a World’s foundation, was something that made even Duke-level existences step back.
A Spirit Pitbull Terrier whose very presence redefined what terror meant.
Its obsidian fur devoured light, consumed it, digested it into something darker than dark!
Crimson eyes burned in its massive head with rage that transcended emotion and became force itself.
An ancient insignia was inscribed on its forehead, the mark pulsing with power that predated current understanding of what power meant as it should stem from...the Earliest Folds!
The Dukes following behind the petite figure maintained careful distance, their wariness palpable.
Over the years, no less than three Dukes and one hundred and nine Honored and Royal Living Existences had accidentally been devoured by this creature.
Accidentally. As if it had simply forgotten that Duke-level beings weren’t supposed to be snacks!
Its body swirled with a heavy storm of power. The complexity emanating from it neared...no, exceeded, one quadrillion!
The marker of a Young Early Creature contained in the form of a pet.
When the light of Order washed over this area, something unprecedented occurred.
The petite Duke turned instinctively toward her terrifying companion, expecting to need to reinforce the chains, to exert her authority to keep the beast contained through this new stimulation.
But what she saw made her eyes widen with shock.
The ferocious crimson eyes, usually burning with rage that could melt concepts, actually... loosened.
The constant tension in the massive body, the readiness to destroy that defined its every moment, simply... relaxed!
The snarl that had been its default expression for eons softened into something that might have been contentment.
It became calm. Ordered.
"Fluffy!" the petite Duke exclaimed, her voice carrying delight. "The Curse of Rage lessened? Haha!"
Fluffy!
This was the name of this terrifying creature!
And she, its owner...
She was known among the Living Spirits as the Beast Shepherdess...the only being who had successfully tamed spirits that shouldn’t be tameable, who walked nightmares on leashes and made pets of horrors.
Her eyes shone brilliantly as she waved her hand, and the massive, terrifying pitbull actually bent its enormous head to gently nudge her with affection that would have been touching if it didn’t come from something that could unmake Folds with a bark.
The Beast Shepherdess turned toward the source of the white light, her gaze honing in on the figure whose authority had accomplished what eons of effort hadn’t...bringing true calm to her cursed companion!
Her eyes found Sigrid, still seated on Noah’s lap like a queen on the strangest throne ever conceived, radiating Order that didn’t impose but revealed.
Across the amphitheater, similar scenes played out!
Living Concepts found their ideas suddenly organized into hierarchies that made sense.
Living Dimensionals discovered their spaces had coordinates that remained consistent.
Living Quantums realized their probabilities had collapsed into certainties without losing their quantum nature.
Each environment experienced its own form of ordering as the light passed over, and many rose with stern eyes, recognizing that this white light was indeed Living Existential Authority...but it wasn’t any of the ten they were familiar with.
What was this?
The question rippled through the gathering like waves through still water!
This was new. This was unprecedented!
On the side of the Paradoxes, Schrodinger had risen with a smile that suggested he was about to do something characteristically grand and paradoxically straightforward.
His hands began to move in patterns that existed and didn’t exist, preparing something that would either clarify everything or confuse it beyond recovery.
But then his expression changed.
The smile that had been forming...that expression of someone about to reveal they had been playing a different game all along...simply faded!
His gaze, usually focused on multiple points simultaneously, locked onto a single location.
He looked up.
Toward skies filled with the purple-blue temporal river that had become more ordered under Sigrid’s white light, where nothing existed that hadn’t been there before.
But in the next moment, at the exact spot where Schrodinger’s gaze had fixed, figures began to appear!
HUUM!
First came two entities that looked identical despite their different genders...a man and a woman whose similarity was ridiculous!
They wore simple white garments, clean but clearly worn, showing the particular wear that came from being washed by hand countless times!
The fabric was thin in places, carefully mended in others, carrying the dignity of those who maintained what little they had with pride.
In their hands were not weapons of power, not artifacts of authority, not symbols of their elevation. They carried farming tools!