Chapter 4257: The Early Laboratories! V

Commander Elara stepped forward, her long, graceful fingers tracing the surface of the metal, a gesture that was almost tender.

"One’s Everything can be used up," she explained, her voice a low, lecturing murmur.

"It is the very core of your unique nature, the echo of THE Creature within you. When you expend it, it needs time to regenerate. We have to be conservative when it comes to manipulating these types of metals. Wastefulness is a luxury we cannot afford."

She then turned her gaze to the rows of incomplete, skeletal armors displayed in the glass structure behind them.

"The goal is to use these types of metals to forge Living Existential Armors, yes," she said, a flicker of something almost like passion in her otherwise cold voice.

"But the biggest issue we are coming across is a fundamental, catastrophic failure at the point of interface. The existence getting inside the armor... gets vaporized. The moment they even try to connect, their being is unmade."

Her gaze returned to the Omnichalcum. "If the metals it is composed of can only be activated by Elderborns, how can the armor itself, once forged, be utilized by others? How can a Fold Dweller wear it? Or a Living Existence? How can they effortlessly bear the weight of a material that is, by its very nature, a piece of an unfathomable wonder?"

Noah listened calmly, his mind a silent, whirring engine of analysis. Elara continued, her voice painting a picture of a grand, noble, and ultimately failing ambition.

"A solution we came to," she said, beginning to pace, her movements precise and contained, "is to augment the subject. Not just the armor, but the pilot. We theorized that if a subject were to be infused with a resonant material, a piece of their very existence rewritten to contain a sympathetic echo of the Omnichalcum, they might be able to form a stable bond."

She stopped, her expression hardening with the memory of countless failures.

"We have tried. We select the most promising candidates, beings of immense will and stable authority. We attempt a process of bio-conceptual integration, a surgical procedure that is more philosophy than science. We try to weave a sliver of this material into their very code of existence. But it hasn’t been entirely successful. The rejection rate is... absolute. And even if it were to work, to power the armor, to fuel its impossible capabilities, we theorize that Units of Everythings would be required."

...!

As Elara spoke of insurmountable problems, of noble failures and theoretical impossibilities, Noah’s mind was a silent symphony of solutions.

RUIN/EDEN, his wonder, was already dissecting her words, analyzing the flaws in their logic, and presenting him with a cleaner, more efficient path.

|Analysis of the ’Living Existential Armor’ Project.|

|Problem Identified: Catastrophic interface failure between armor and non-Elderborn pilots.|

|Current Proposed Solution (Elara): Invasive bio-conceptual augmentation of the pilot. High failure rate, high resource cost, and an unsustainable fuel requirement.|

|Analysis: Their approach is akin to trying to teach a fish to fly by surgically attaching wings. It ignores the fundamental nature of both the fish and the sky. The problem is not just the pilot; it is the interface itself.|

|Proposed Alternative Solution (RUIN/EDEN):|

| - The Core Modulator: Instead of a full, invasive integration, a small, stable [Omnichalcum Core Modulator] should be implanted in the pilot. This would not rewrite their existence, but act as a receiver, a keyhole.|

| - Symbiotic Interface: The Armor should not be a passive vessel to be piloted, but an active, symbiotic partner. It should be designed with its own nascent, limited consciousness, its primary drive being to connect with the Core Modulator.|

| - The Ignition Sequence: The pilot does not ’power’ the armor. The pilot uses their own will to ’ignite’ the Core Modulator, which in turn resonates with and activates the Armor. The Armor then draws its primary power from an external, replaceable source- condensed Units of Everythings, yes, but as a battery, not a direct fuel.|

|Conclusion: This transforms the relationship from a parasitic one (armor consuming the pilot) to a symbiotic one. It is a more elegant, efficient, and survivable solution.|

Noah read over the possibilities, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touching his lips. He could see the path.

Elara looked over at him, at his silent, contemplative expression, and seemed to misinterpret it as confusion.

"I will bring you to meet Dr. Flamel and the core laboratory soon," she said, her tone softening slightly.

"He can explain the technical details. I just need to finish up a few things here..."

Noah nodded.

’RUIN/EDEN,’ he commanded silently, ’scan and analyze all models of the Living Existential Armor here. Begin preparing schematics for the Core Modulator and a symbiotic interface based on the...Justiciar model.’

His gaze was bright as he was seeing far into the future.

Justiciar.

A single one that he saw in the future was ridiculously powerful. If he could get his hands on how to make them. If he could potentially aid in how they were made to potentially install failsafes or even how to dismantle them if he faced one!

If he could potentially design and forge his own Justiciar Armor that had 1000 Quadrillion Complexity or Purity? 2000 Quadrillion? The potential of what could be possible here were daunting.

|Confirmed, Master. Beginning full-spectrum analysis and preliminary design phase. It seems we are about to engage in a bit of espionage and unsolicited architectural consultation.|

As they were speaking, a new motion caught Noah’s eye.

In the distance, the four Early Creatures who had left earlier were returning. They were escorting a figure between them, a being with a downcast expression and dazed, unfocused eyes.

The defective Elderborn.

Noah’s gaze swept over him, and his mind, for the first time since his reboot, went utterly, completely still.

His eyes widened, a flicker of genuine, unadulterated shock breaking through his tyrannical calm.

The Elderborn being escorted... was someone who looked exactly the same as... Schrodinger!

The same unassuming, almost forgettable face. The same air of a being who was perpetually lost in a thought that was bigger than Existence.

And yet... it was not him.

The figure gave off no weavings of a Living Paradox. Instead, a steady, calm, and profoundly powerful aura of complexity radiated from him. The aura of a Living Concept!

What... was this?

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