Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4704: All Must Die I

Formless Depth.

Noah’s entire existence buzzed with unfathomable brightness as he felt his mind so clear.

What was this? His body felt freer, like a cool sensation was spreading across his existence as everything coursed with immensity and vibrancy. The very fabric of reality seemed sharper and more defined!

It even felt more colorful all around, enough to make one ask: was this why people took drugs? Because it felt fucking fantastic.

But his drug right now was an immense sense of Clarity and Conviction.

Because it was unfathomably clear to him who and what he was. He felt like he could breathe much easier after knowing and accepting his Existence. There was no more uncertainty, no more grasping at definitions that did not fit, no more trying to squeeze himself into categories that were never designed to contain something like him.

He was Formless.

He simply was.

And in this clarity, he learned many things.

First was just how ridiculous those who attained THE Absolute Depth of Absolute Sovereignty were.

Embodiment was the defining factor, the thing that separated the truly transcendent from everything else.

With Embodiment, one could never truly collapse entities like THE Living Paradox, THE Primordial Chaos, and THE Creature. These beings had undergone a metamorphosis so complete that they no longer existed as separate things from the concepts they wielded. They had become those concepts. Their flesh was philosophy. Their blood was ideology.

Their very breath was the manifestation of truths so fundamental that Existence itself could not function without them.

THE Living Paradox embodied contradiction itself. Every impossibility, every logical inconsistency, every thing that should not be able to exist yet did, all of it flowed through him like rivers through a landscape. To collapse him would require the elimination of paradox from all of Existence, and paradox was woven into the very fabric of reality.

How could something exist and not exist simultaneously? It shouldn’t be possible, and yet it happened constantly. That impossibility was THE Living Paradox.

THE Creature embodied the primordial nature of existence itself. Supposedly, every entity that had ever existed, every Civilization that had ever risen and fallen, every thought that had ever been conceived, all of it traced its lineage back to him in some fashion.

THE Primordial Chaos embodied entropy and disorder itself. The gradual decay of all ordered things, the inevitable march toward dissolution, the fundamental truth that nothing could remain static forever, all of this was his domain.

And if you wanted to collapse them, to truly and permanently end their existence, it meant attacking the very concepts they represented.

If one wanted to collapse THE Creature, did that not mean they had to collapse Existence itself? How could you destroy the embodiment of existence without destroying existence in the process? It was a logical impossibility, a paradox in its own right.

As he thought of this, Noah’s mind buzzed as he released beams of blue-gold light from his eyes. The revelation was too grand to contain, too profound to keep within the boundaries of his physical form!

His expression was one of wonder. "Is this why THE Living Paradox attacked THE Creature with THE Fallout? It was an attack on Existence itself, altering Existence overall, which would in turn be an attack on THE Creature’s Absolute Embodiment?"

...!

He felt like he was grasping at things he didn’t even know existed. The architecture of power at the highest levels was so far beyond what he had previously understood that it made his earlier conceptions seem childish in comparison.

THE Fallout wasn’t just destruction for destruction’s sake. It was a surgical strike against the very concept of Existence, designed to wound THE Creature in a way that conventional attacks never could.

Brilliant.

Terrifying, catastrophic, and utterly monstrous in its implications, but brilliant nonetheless!

At this time, in the middle of this grand epiphany as his existence continued to buzz and a transformation was underway, THE Secretive Eon spoke.

"I may have judged you too harshly."

There was no urgency in her tone and no surprise, only the calm acknowledgment of something she had observed.

"I dismissed you entirely when we first spoke, and I must say I was even disappointed. Another fledgling stumbling into waters far too deep, I thought. Another one who would drown before learning to swim." She paused, her dark eyes settling on him with renewed consideration. "But it appears you have potential."

"Potential. That is what The First Tongue stood for the most, in the end. The capacity to become something more than what you currently are. I considered you a fledgling before, one who did not understand the depths he was wading into. You should now be considered something slightly more. A blind man with a walking stick, perhaps. Still unable to see, but at least capable of feeling your way forward without stumbling into every obstacle."

Something flickered in her dark eyes.

"Your conviction was not shaken by my words. So you can be considered somewhat sufficient."

Her lips curved into something that was almost a smile.

"But understand this, Scale Breaker. If you claim yourself to be as profound and as powerful as THE Creature or THE Primordial Chaos, you are also opening yourself up to challenges just like them. You are declaring yourself a player in games that have consumed beings far greater than yourself. You are opening yourself up to a challenge from someone like me."

The almost-smile became something more dangerous.

"What if I wished to challenge you right now? Would your power be able to stop me?"

BOOM!

Her expression remained calm throughout, serene and composed even as that dangerous smile played at the corners of her lips.

In response to her words, Noah closed his eyes and actually took a deep breath, as if he was smelling Existence in a newfound manner for the first time!

The air tasted different now. Reality felt different against his senses. Everything was sharper, cleaner, more defined. He let that breath fill him completely, let the cool clarity of his new understanding spread through every fiber of his being.

And when his eyes opened, they held an imperious gaze that seemed to smile slightly while radiating an unbound sense of tyranny.

"If you challenge me right now, even if I lose, I would have already won." His voice was steady, calm, utterly without fear. "That I can definitively and gloriously say: even you, THE Secretive Eon, are not someone that I fear being collapsed by."

...!

Oh.

Fuck, that felt good to say.

The words had come out naturally, without hesitation, without the careful calculation that would have accompanied them before his transformation. Because they were true!

He didn’t fear her. He didn’t fear collapse. He didn’t fear anything at this moment except perhaps the limitations of his own imagination in exploring what he had become.

There were so many things he currently wanted to do. So many things he wanted to try! THE Existential Ceiling? It could absolutely fuck itself right off.

As his existence adapted to THE Formless Depth of Absolute Sovereignty, profound changes were spreading even to THE Infiniverse and Ruination. His connected bodies were experiencing the ripples of his transformation, and there was so much to be done, so much to explore, so much to understand about what he had become.

But first, there was still THE Secretive Eon.

And from her, there may still be things to gain. This meeting was already fruitful beyond his initial expectations. He had come seeking information and had instead stumbled into a transformation that redefined his very existence. What else might he obtain if he continued this conversation?

So he looked at her with a calm gaze, and after his words, she rose up from her position.

...!

Oh?