Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4665: Surprise II

The Depths held fragments of The Earliest Folds.

When Noah delved into this place before, he had found a number of things, but seeing how the final level held such a thing, he moved faster than Planck Speed as he appeared at the end of the wall.

At the end of a multicolored wall that pulsed with ancient authority, there was a humanoid entity who seemed to be getting pulled into the wall itself. Multicolored chains were stuck into his body at various points, connecting back to this wall like roots drawing sustenance from soil. Each chain pulsed with its own frequency, its own color, its own terrible purpose.

A faint glimmer of THE Civilizational Authority of Existence could be felt on the walls and chains as the one bound by them seemed to be in a state of slumber, his head drooped forward and his body hanging limply like a puppet whose strings had been cut but whose frame remained suspended.

Noah’s eyes blazed with immensity and brilliance as the weight of an entity at THE Intermediate Depth of Absolute Sovereignty erupted from him.

He opened his eyes fully and radiated a brilliant flash of blue-gold light that shockingly released a Logos, one that closely meant "Break what is unbreakable."

HUUM!

The chains of Existence binding this entity down shattered one after another in a cascade of multicolored fragments that dissolved into nothing before they even hit the ground. Each chain snapped with a sound like reality itself crying out in protest, but Noah’s authority was absolute and his command was undeniable.

Noah then appeared beside this entity who was about to fall and placed his hands around his shoulders as he slowly began to carry them from their chained location toward the center of this place.

All around them, waves of multicolored radiance permeated the space as if the cavern itself was responding to the breaking of those ancient chains. And as he moved, the entity he supported began to flutter his eyes wide open before they focused on him, and a look of shock and recognition bloomed across his features.

Then this entity smiled weakly and said, "Haha, friend, what in the unfathomable Weavings of Existence brought you here?"

...!

Noah looked back at this being as he brought him down to the center of this place, gazing at the weakened body of an entity he had met as a brilliant man long ago.

"I need to ask the same of you, Anaximander," Noah replied with genuine curiosity mixed with concern. "How exactly did you come to be here?"

...!

BOOM!

Yes, it was Anaximander, the brilliant Fold Dweller he had met in The Earliest Folds!

He looked unfathomably weak as his figure even seemed illusory at some points, as if he was here and not here at the same time. His dark hair was now mixed with streaks of white that hadn’t been there before, and he was adorned in a simple white robe at this moment that hung loosely on his diminished frame. But his eyes still held that same brilliance that seemed to be thinking of countless things in one instant, that spark of endless curiosity that defined his very existence.

Noah looked at him and shook his head at the state this once vibrant entity had been reduced to.

Anaximander smiled while sighing as he began to stretch and look around at the cavern that had been his prison.

"Too many things have happened," Anaximander said with a voice that held both exhaustion and a strange sense of acceptance. "I never expected that one of the parts of me laid out across Existence would be discovered by you of all beings."

Noah’s brows rose at these words. "One of the parts of your existence? There are many others out there?"

Anaximander smiled and shook his head before he replied, "There were many others scattered across the Folds and hidden in places that even THE entities would struggle to find. They have either been lost through time or right now since one of me has awakened, they will all return to their source."

He paused, and a light returned to Anaximander’s eyes slowly as he looked at Noah with an apologetic expression that held genuine remorse.

"I heard you call me not too long ago," he said quietly. "I heard your words of ’Anaximander, come!’ echoing through the Weavings of Existence itself. I am sorry that I wasn’t able to come to your aid when you needed me. It seems that I got myself mixed up in things that I had no business in, and I paid the price for it even though you had warned me about THE Existences."

...!

His words were heavy ones as Noah sat opposite him, processing everything he was hearing.

Nearby, the figure of Malphas ridiculously brought down a golden plate between them that had silver cups which shone with liquid that could be none other than the Sacred Mead of Existence, as if he were simply a butler serving his master and a friend during a casual afternoon visit rather than in the hundredth level of an excavation depth that held fragments of collapsed reality.

Noah took the cup and drank while staring intently at the entity opposite him who smiled and did the same before he spoke with tiredness that seemed to reach into his very soul.

"I was always curious," Anaximander began, his eyes growing distant as he recalled events that clearly still haunted him. "My mind is that of a scientist, and I always questioned everything around me. To pay back the favor of THE Weavers for showing me the Way, they told me I had to do something simple. All I had to do was go into a place and deliver to them an object. It seemed simple and harmless enough."

...!

He paused and took another sip of the Sacred Mead before continuing.

"Of course, I should have known that this object was not theirs. I should have known that it belonged to another. Nobody had a chance to get this item because it was protected by authorities that would destroy anything that approached. But my Way... my Way did not even need power to bypass such things."

His expression grew more troubled as the memories surfaced.

"I felt immense resistance for the first time ever, and so I simply said... ’There is no resistance in this place that can stop me.’ And when I stood before the object and it seemed far too heavy for anyone to carry, I simply said ’This is something that I can carry.’ It drained everything that I had, but I wanted to repay the favor and get back to studying Existence. So I took the object, and I delivered it to THE Weavers."

Anaximander’s voice dropped to something barely above a whisper.

"The object I took... belonged to THE Creature. And it was something truly heavy as THE Weavers and their master, THE Living Paradox... utilized it to strike against THE Heart of THE Creature."

BOOM!