Chapter 87
'Only two seconds left.
If he truly understands this trap, he will hold himself back.
But if he doesn't, then the Administrator seed inside him will force him to react.
Let's see… one… two….'
"I understand. Your offer isn't just a simple offer.
It is a trap crafted with precision.
Cunning, yet effective.
And of course, in my current state, refusing it is impossible."
'This clearly isn't a response he had prepared beforehand.
Which means he never intended to answer or evade.
So why did he suddenly agree so easily?
As if he wanted me to face the Second Paradigm of the Administrators first, waiting for me to fall before he steps in to finish the rest.'
Haaaah!
'Was that compliment because he truly thinks I'm cunning, or is he testing my intelligence instead?
If his goal was to measure my awareness, then that compliment wasn't sincere praise, but a signal.
An indication that he also sees the trap I built and decided to play along with me.'
Theo felt something strange slip into the rhythm of his thoughts when Aldraya finally gave his answer, as though the tension from before was now falling gently like fragments of thin glass.
The answer appeared only as a small nod, smooth like the first breath after a storm, yet sharp enough to convey a precise judgment toward Theo's sly reasoning.
Aldraya's praise flowed not as flattery, but as a recognition of cunning that left him with no room to refuse.
To anyone else, it might have seemed like cooperation, but to Theo, the resonance in Aldraya's tone felt odd, like an off-beat rhythm in a melody that should have been harmonious.
Within his mind, Theo retraced the line of logic he had constructed.
He knew his offer was indeed impossible to refuse, yet Aldraya's reaction contained something different.
As if Aldraya had no intention of accepting or denying it from the start, but simply allowing the offer to fall naturally into the structure of the situation, letting Theo face the storm of the Second Paradigm alone.
The thought pierced his feelings, making him frown, because what had just happened resembled a decision to observe the game rather than participate in it.
And when that realization grew clearer, Theo saw the dark possibility hidden behind Aldraya's silence.
If Theo failed to break through the threshold of the Second Productivity, if he fell at the edge of his final strength, then Aldraya—with the Administrator seed within him—might intervene and wipe out the nine Administrators with his own power.
A cold and resolute choice, one that reflected a deep understanding of the force flowing through his being.
Thus, Aldraya's agreement was not a true agreement, but another strategy standing parallel to Theo's decision, as if two minds were testing the depths of one another.
A question then took root in Theo's heart, flowing like an echo that refused to fade.
If Aldraya truly understood the trap he had set and instead chose to test Theo's cunning and sharpness, then who was actually observing whom?
'It's fine. This is still within the range of possibilities I anticipated.
Not the main scenario, not the most logical one, and arguably the least likely.
But still one of the options I prepared from the beginning.'
Fhhhh!
'Even if Aldraya chooses not to help, not to refuse, or lets the situation drift toward the most unpredictable outcome possible.
Everything has been calculated thoroughly.
At the very least, it is this preparation that keeps my steps firm.'
"Conviction!"
The sky above them seemed to draw closer, creating a silent space that held every unspoken ripple of thought.
Within that stillness, Theo reorganized every branch of possibility he once considered as distant shadows lingering at the edges of his mind.
He had placed contingency upon contingency, and within even the thinnest branches he left room for Aldraya's improbable actions, actions that could still manifest if circumstances forced him to move.
He understood that beings like Aldraya could never truly be predicted.
Yet it was precisely this unpredictability that urged him to unravel every knot in the puzzle so the coming battle would leave no gap for the destruction lurking in silence.
Among the crashing currents of thought forming new hollows within him, Theo realized how vulnerable he truly stood before something far greater than himself.
He grasped tightly onto the calm he had painstakingly forged, sealing every wave of anxiety rising from the depths of his body.
The silence beside him was not mere silence, but a space where Aldraya stood as a gravitational center that tugged Theo's logic in every direction.
There was something in the way Aldraya steadied himself, as if deliberately waiting, observing, judging, then placing every one of Theo's actions into a vast picture only he could see.
And without uttering a word, Aldraya seemed to remind him that anyone who dares to think of a thousand escape routes will find that only one path truly exists.
When Theo sank too deeply into his reflection, something gentle brushed against the surface of his awareness.
A faint vibration seeped from Aldraya's side.
Not a word, not a gesture, but a resonance that flowed softly, like light touching still water.
The resonance was so melodic that it halted every analytical mechanism rampaging through Theo's mind.
He felt—rather than heard—a call so pure that the air immediately grew heavy, sacred, overwhelmingly dangerous.
And in that moment, Theo realized that the calm he created was not a support, but a trial revealing how fragile he truly was before Aldraya, who could never be entirely predicted.
'That conviction draws open the full veil of Aldraya's power.The Supreme Angels descend, while the cosmic realm collapses to reveal a multilayered destiny.'
Krrruk – kraaaak!
'If this is merely a reflection of the Administrator seed within him, then the scale of his power surpasses everything I have ever imagined, exceeding the boundaries of logic and shaking the foundations of reality as I know it.'
The cosmic realm that formed after Aldraya's voice left his lips stretched without limit, as though the world's foundations were stripped away until only a primordial stage remained, where the highest authority revealed its true face.
Theo stood in the center of the silence, his breath halted by the magnitude of the changes engulfing them.
Points of light born within the void blossomed into drifting clusters of fate, forming strands of histories yet to unfold.
From among the glimmers emerged the figure of Tapsry, or Azriel, a guardian of the scrolls of destiny, appearing like a light that broke through darkness without fully unveiling the mysteries it carried.
Before such a being, Theo felt as though he stood at the foot of a mountain holding the weight of creation's consciousness.
The emergence of the Supreme Angels followed like an unstoppable current.
Each arrived with a distinct ritual of power that made the cosmic realm tremble, as though each carried a different law of nature within their hands.
Axs La, or Haniel, rotated an unseen axis of the universe, creating a subtle whirl that made the entire realm respond like a long, deliberate breath.
The dreamlike mist brought by Regord, or Camael, drifted gently like snowfall, blanketing the boundary between consciousness and the subconscious.
To be continued…