CHAPTER 90: THE PARADOX WAR

Samael’s fingers gestured in the air, pale light carving geometric patterns between them as she paced in front of the gathered council, eyes half-lidded, mouth curling with the barest hint of amusement.

Her voice, calm as always, carried across the chamber with effortless clarity, laced with quiet thrill.

"Before we dive into the subject of the Paradox War," she began, "we must first align on the definition of what a paradox is."

She raised her hand toward one of the Limbo Tier Constructs, which promptly projected a symbol into the air—a circle folded into a triangle that twisted into itself in ways geometry should not permit.

"A paradox," Samael continued, "is a circumstance in which logical contradiction negates a definitive resolution. In simpler terms: something that cannot be true without simultaneously being false. Something that both happened and didn’t. Something whose outcome invalidates its own cause."

She paused for a moment, letting her gaze glide over the council.

"Now apply that idea to war."

The murmurs in the temple dimmed.

Samael tilted her head just slightly, as if enjoying the moment before slicing into it. "A Paradox War," she said, "is a conflict that began from an event no faction claims responsibility for, yet every faction had a direct hand in making it inevitable. Not by intent. Not by collusion. But by the consequence of what should be an impossibility."

She stepped forward. A new projection flared above her—four sigils forming a square around a hollow center. The sigils pulsed: Hollow Aequor, High Maosh, Umaska Alliance, Yevdat Kingdom.

"Let me tell you how it unfolded," Samael said, her tone dipping into an almost conspiratorial rhythm. "And you may decide for yourself whether this war ever had a beginning at all."

The first sigil flickered—the seal of Hollow Aequor.

"Three years ago, the Coral Sovereignty—one of the former regimes of the Hollow Aequor—broke apart. A schism between two internal priest-kings split their sea into civil conflict. In desperation, one of the priest-kings conjured a mass illusion: a fabricated enemy shaped like a terrestrial titan invading the sea bed...

"They wove it into the minds of their kin so thoroughly that the illusion stabilized, becoming a reality. The false enemy fought, bled, and even killed."

She waved a finger.

"But in truth, it was an invention meant to unify the Aequorians again for quite a while. And it worked! Resulting in the great unification of the Hollow Aequor for a whole year!"

"So short!" Kivas said in the background, since this was the first time she heard about the explanation for the Paradox War.

The second sigil lit up—High Maosh.

"The fabricated titan, born from the Hollow Aequor’s projection, surfaced. It wandered the upper atmosphere, caught in a loop of purpose that didn’t exist. High Maosh’s orbital observatories detected it. Their calculations failed to identify any creator or origin...

"The Maon, ever skeptical of unquantified variables, dispatched a squadron of Mayin to investigate. The Mayin misread the illusion as a multi-dimensional incursion!

"Believing it to be a failed weapon test from the Umaska Alliance, the Mayin responded with a countermeasure—spatial reflection beams that accidentally echoed the illusion back into the Wellstream and forth, amplifying its presence."

The third sigil shimmered—Umaska Alliance.

"Down on the continent, a mining operation in Umaska’s southern frontier detected sudden tectonic dissonance. What they did not know was that the reflected illusion had taken root in a slumbering leyline underneath their territories.

"Their scholars, mistaking the presence for a natural soulstorm, began conducting refinement rituals on the leyline. Their actions inadvertently gave the illusion an Umaskan metaphysical footprint, infusing an entirely new essence into the altered reality."

Samael’s eyes sparkled.

"And now! The entity now bore traits of three factions. And it still didn’t exist, in the classical sense."

"Because it is an illusion?" said one of the Claturian.

"Precisely!" Samael pointed out a sign that read ’Correct!’ as she continued her history lesson.

The final sigil pulsed—Yevdat Kingdom.

"And that’s when the Umbra King’s puppets began moving. The illusion, now saturated with mixed origin, began to bleed into the area that was contested by the Yevdat Kingdom and a neighbouring bastion...

"Some of the King’s puppets, specifically ones stationed near the Umaska front, encountered the being and failed to parse it. The Umbra King interpreted the event as external tampering with his puppets’ perception layers—a grave offense. His response was simple—!

"A retaliation. He mobilized a vanguard army and launched a surgical incursion against Umaska’s leyline zones since their essence was the highest at the time."

Samael paused and looked around.

"But here’s the delightful twist."

She gestured again. The projections rotated and condensed into a single image—four armies circling a glowing figure that did not resemble any known creature.

"The Hollow Aequor, upon seeing the Umbra King mobilize, assumed that they were the titans they themselves once created as a pawn to craft a means to an end. Seeing it move outside their reach triggered another wave of projections—a second titan meant for a different purpose than the last, this one stronger, began marching down toward the incoming army that arrived at the sea and the Umaska’s border.

She crossed her arms.

"The High Maosh, unaware of this origin, detected the ’second’ titan and classified the appearance as proof of an interdimensional summoning system. Their response was to deploy a containment fleet of fifty-seven Mayin!

"But for some reason, this operation accidentally breached one of Umaska Alliance’s precious memory wells, containing top secret research related to psychic infrastructure, which triggered a psychic quake across their surrounding domains."

She unfolded a long scroll from her pocket and let it fall dramatically. The scroll stretched all the way to the base of the podium.

"Umaska Alliance still had no idea what was going on," she said. "To them, this was simply a spiritual backlash from their leyline tampering. But after the Yevdat attack, they assumed Hollow Aequor had used the illusion to mask a multidimensional attack on their infrastructure."

She looked toward Blanchette, who was holding her head in confusion.

"So now, you have four factions, none of whom started anything deliberately. None of them coordinated. Yet all of them reacted to each other’s reactions, created by their own retaliation to a thing that was barely targeted toward them."

Samael smiled.

"The war makes sense~" Blanchette gleefully gloated. "How come it is even dubbed as a Paradox War~?"

"Obviously, the reason why my story made sense is because of a single detail," Samael theatrically pointed forward. "I made up the existence of the Coral Sovereignty, and that the very reason why the first titan is ever turned into an existential illusion is because of one thing and one thing only."

"And that is?" Oizys asked, curious to know where this was going.

"A psychic quake that hit the border of one of the many sections of Hollow Aequor, resulting in two priest-kings splitting their sea into civil fight because of a conflicting idea on how to respond. In desperation, one of the priest-kings conjured a mass illusion: a fabricated enemy shaped like a terrestrial titan invading the sea bed..."

"Wait!" One of the attentive Claturian raised her hand. "Don’t tell us that the psychic quake is the same one caused by the breached memory wells of the Umaska Alliance, which happen at the far end of the chain reaction..."

"100 points for you!" Samael shouted as she pointed at the happy Claturian with gravitas. "Karasu Association had cross-checked the event that caused the Hollow Aequor’s inner conflict with the newly sighted memory wells incident...

"The signature matched."

Bickers erupted amongst the visible crowd.

"Something or someone sent the psychic wave into the past!"

"Maybe it is all just a coincidence, no?"

"What if, a hidden faction deliberately planned for that so-called infrastructure project just so that the psychic quake connected with the one happening in the past!"

While everyone was discussing with each other, Samael butted into the noise like forced narrator that talk when a show was ending.

"And that is the paradox!" Samael celebrated. "A war with no instigator. Every battlefront began as a defense against a misunderstanding, which led to more aggressive misunderstandings. And at every step, no side pulled back, because each believed themselves to be reacting to the enemy."

Blanchette raised her hand fast. "So... who’s winning?"

Samael shrugged. "No one. That’s why it’s still called a paradox. There is no clear objective. No territory gains. No formal declarations. Just a chain of retaliations, validations, and escalating misinterpretations."

"I doubt that they even knew which one is their actual enemy yet," Kivas chuckled.

Sarkha’una leaned forward. "Why hasn’t it ended then?"

Samael’s gaze narrowed.

"Because every side now believes they’re right. And because each of their truths have become real. Through manifestation, through doctrine, through consequence. The illusion started everything, but the aftermath became tangible—

"It doesn’t matter that the cause was false. The deaths are real. The responses are real. The consequences are historical."

Sarkha’una nodded slowly, eyes shimmering with arcane light. "It’s like a recursive knot that no longer cares about who tied it."

"I’m hungry," Blanchette yawned. "Does anyone have a snack?"

"Why did we invite her again?" Oizys questioned Kivas.

"You know what, that is a good point."

The future of the New Vaingall Consortium now lies on the current development of the Paradox War.

Because soon enough, it might spread and erupt far wide onto more places and some notable individuals, adding more playing factions into the field of what should be a tangled mess that better dies without notifying anyone.