Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4705: All Must Die II

The movement was fluid, graceful, and utterly without wasted motion!

One moment she was seated, gazing out into the endless expanse of the Stoa. The next she was standing, and she began to walk toward him as her eyes locked onto his lone figure.

Noah stood up as well, feeling like he was being tracked by an apex predator that had suddenly decided he might be worth the effort of hunting. But he didn’t feel any fear. He felt that same cooling sensation spreading across his existence, that clarity of conviction that had settled into his bones.

Before, he would have thought along different lines. She was more powerful. She could collapse him. So an Anchor Point would be activated, and he would be okay. That was the old way of thinking, the way that measured safety in terms of escape routes and contingencies.

But his new line of thought was simpler.

Her Depth did not matter.

He could view power as he wished, and at this moment, she couldn’t collapse him. That was how he could look at his power now. He didn’t need the specifics of why she couldn’t collapse him apart from the fact that the anomalous Weavings of his existence made it so.

THE Formless Depth was not about matching power levels or comparing immensities. It was about existing outside of those comparisons entirely.

So he breathed calmly and looked at the features of THE Secretive Eon, an entity he had previously considered unfathomably higher than him, as he now sought to rectify this perception. She was still dangerous. She was still ancient and powerful beyond his current capabilities. But she was not above him in some absolute sense. She was simply...different.

She looked at him up and down as she stopped a meter away. Her expression and eyes gave away nothing of what she was thinking. That composed face could have belonged to a statue for all the emotion it revealed. Only those dark eyes held any hint of depth, and even they were carefully controlled.

Then she spoke.

"You do not know what you are getting yourself into." Her voice remained measured, unhurried, but something in it had shifted.

There was weight there now, the weight of someone delivering a warning. "You can still turn back. Even now, even after everything, you can still choose a different path."

"In Existence, the ignorant are happy. They do not know what they do not know, and that ignorance shields them from truths that would crush them. But those who know, those who see behind the veil and understand the mechanisms that drive all things, for them everything can feel unbearable." Her dark eyes held his without wavering.

"Even with your claim on The First Tongue, you could stay as you are. Nothing much would change for you. You could live out your existence in relative peace, growing stronger in your own way, never brushing against the true conflicts that shape Observable Existence."

Her head tilted slightly.

"But if you continue, if you enter and become embroiled in all of this, you will put everything under scrutiny. Not just yourself. Everything."

She let that word hang.

"You may have your means, Scale Breaker. You may have your protections and your contingencies. But what about those around you?" Her voice remained calm, almost gentle, but each word landed with the weight of absolute truth.

"Nearly all those with a Civilization are not alone. They have disciples. Lineages. Families. Beings who depend on them, who are connected to them, who would suffer if they were to fall."

Something ancient stirred behind her composed features.

"Do you know who has the highest mortality rate in all these conflicts? It is not the Absolutes themselves. They survive. They always survive, one way or another. It is everyone around them who pays the price." Her dark eyes searched his.

"Ask yourself how many around THE Creature were collapsed in the conflicts against THE Living Paradox. How many Civilizations were extinguished? How many lineages were ended? How many disciples watched their masters fall and then fell themselves?"

She paused.

"At this moment, is not all of Observable Existence a casualty while THE Creature and THE Living Paradox remain fine and well? THE Fallout reshaped everything. Countless entities were destroyed. Reality itself was fundamentally altered. And yet both of them still exist, still pursue their goals, still play their games."

Her gaze did not waver.

"If you continue ahead, expect those within your Civilization to face an unprecedented danger of collapse. Because you may be untouchable, but what about them? What about the ones who cannot become you? What about the ones who must exist within the boundaries of Depth and power that you deemed to have transcended?"

She let the silence stretch for a moment.

"Most others have learned to become unfeeling, to sever their connections, to care for nothing and no one so that nothing and no one can be used against them. Can you do that? Can you move forward knowing that on your path to Ascension, it will be filled with the blood and bones of those you knew? Those you considered family?"

...!

BOOM!

Her words were heavy, landing against Noah’s existence like stones dropped into still water!

The ripples spread outward, touching every part of him, testing his conviction.

But his eyes remained unflinching. His gaze remained imperious.

"My will and My Way are infallible." His voice was steady, absolute. "My Way will not be built on the blood of others. I will decide!"

...!

He would decide. He would ensure that no blood of his people spilled. That was not arrogance. That was not naive optimism. That was simply the truth of what he was and what he would become.

His Way was Formless, unconstrained by the limitations that had claimed others. If other Absolutes had failed to protect those around them, it was because they operated within frameworks that made such failure inevitable.

He would not make the same mistakes.

THE Secretive Eon looked at him calmly for a few seconds of silence. Her expression gave nothing away. Those dark eyes studied him as if reading something written on his very existence, something that only she could perceive.

Then she nodded.

"Very well." Her voice carried a note of something that might have been acceptance, or might have been resignation. "You want to be part of the games. You are now part of the games."

She paused.

"You are a bit weak, I will not pretend otherwise. But weakness is not permanent, and you have shown you can grow in unexpected ways." Her head tilted slightly. "How do you feel about working with me and joining my camp, Scale Breaker? How do you feel about hunting Absolute Depth entities for the preservation of Observable Existence?"

...!

BOOM!