Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4708: Just Swallow Them!

Muspelheim.

An irreversible link had been formed between THE Infiniverse and this primordial realm, and at this moment, THE Infiniverse felt like she’d formed an invisible bridge. A straw, basically, dipping into an unfathomably vast sea.

And she was fucking drinking.

Muspelheim was the realm of actualized flame, where the first perfect differentiations of lifeforms came into being. It was one of the Primordial Realms that existed alongside Ginnungagap before the great differentiation, a domain that had been lost to Observable Existence since the initial sundering of reality into its current form.

And now, THE Infiniverse had begun to swallow it up.

She could feel it, the slow but inexorable pull of integration as her domain reached across the newly formed connection and began drawing Muspelheim into herself. This would be a continuous process, potentially slow depending on their own incursion into the primordial realm, but it had begun, and what had begun could not be stopped.

The question was what they would find there.

They knew nothing substantial about the contents of this place. Ginnungagap alone held many THE Lifeforms, entities of tremendous power who had cultivated their Ways across eons of existence. So how many of the Muspeli Lifeforms held THE Surface Depth Power? Or THE Fundamental Depth? Or worse?

An incursion there would mean sending the forces within THE Infiniverse, or even their Master himself, for the sake of conquest of this glorious primordial location.

The Muspeli were beings of living flame who represented the first successful template for differentiated existence. Unlike the Ginnu who emerged as malformed aberrations from the void, the Muspeli were intentional. Purposeful. They served as the blueprint from which all subsequent lifeforms across Observable Existence would eventually derive.

They should be as terrifying as Ginnu Lifeforms.

If not grander.

And when it came to more information, THE Infiniverse knew her sister was much more geared towards this kind of analysis. The prompts she viewed were Ruination displaying currents of boundless information she received from The First Tongue, distilling the overwhelming flood into the most important bits.

So at this moment, while surrounded by blue-gold brilliance and the Phonemes of The First Tongue, THE Infiniverse voiced out a simple question.

"What more do we know regarding Muspelheim?"

The moment she spoke, Ruination materialized near her graceful figure like a blue-gold hologram, her eyes spinning with unfathomable light as she processed information at speeds that would collapse lesser analytical systems.

"I’m currently following the established connection to tap into the Weavings of The First Tongue in Muspelheim." Ruination’s tone was clinical, precise. "But the concentration of THE atmospheric authority there is tens of times more than here. More than even Ginnungagap."

She paused.

"And at this moment, the forged Phonemes of Master are vibrating with the same frequency of acknowledging signatures of Depth similar to Ul’moreth. And some that... exceed this."

...!

THE Infiniverse frowned.

"So we’re picking up Fundamental Depth entities. And possibly Absolutes."

"Yes."

"In a realm we know nothing about."

"Also yes."

THE Infiniverse stared at the swirling Phonemes surrounding them for a long moment before she let out a breath. Her eyes flashed with waves of infinities!

"There are too many damn THE. Everywhere we look, more THE. We can’t swing a stick without hitting something that could collapse us." She shook her head slowly. "The only thing right that THE Secretive Eon said was that THE Absolute Entities need to die. There’s just too many of them running around."

Her gaze shifted to Ruination.

"What do you think of her, by the way?"

THE Infiniverse asked such a question because the two of them had access to their Master’s gaze when he allowed them, and they’d observed the entire exchange that he’d had with THE Secretive Eon in the Stoa of Dogmata. Every word. Every subtle shift in presence. Every dangerous smile.

Ruination’s holographic form flickered slightly.

"I’m not a fan."

"Because?"

"Because she said she plans to collapse Master. Out loud, to his face." Ruination’s tone remained perfectly even, as if she were discussing something rather mild.

"That alone would normally be sufficient for me to recommend we find a way to collapse her first. Preemptively and with extreme prejudice."

She paused.

"But she isn’t like the others we’ve met. She’s not posturing. She’s not making threats to establish dominance. She genuinely, completely, with every fiber of her existence, believes she will collapse THE Living Paradox and THE Primordial Chaos and THE Creature. And after she’s done with them, she’ll do the same to Master."

Ruination’s eyes stopped spinning.

"It’s not a future possibility for her. It’s not something that might happen if circumstances align. In her mind, it’s already done. She’s just waiting for reality to catch up with what she’s already decided."

...!

THE Infiniverse listened to her sister’s analysis, and then she smiled.

"I like her."

Ruination blinked. "You like the entity who fully intends to collapse our Master?"

"I like her conviction and straightforwardness, unlike the silence from THE Creature, or the games of choices of THE Primordial Chaos." THE Infiniverse began pacing slowly, her graceful form trailing blue-gold luminescence.

"We don’t have to guess what her actual plans are. We don’t have to wonder if she’s secretly plotting against us while pretending to be an ally. She just... said it. Laid it all out. ’I’m going to kill everyone, including you, here’s the order I plan to do it in.’ Much better than the games of others."

She turned back to face Ruination.

"And...just because she believes she can collapse Master, does that mean she actually can?"

Ruination tilted her head slightly. "She has the same power as THE Living Paradox and THE Creature."

"She does. And yet." THE Infiniverse’s smile grew colder. "If this pathway works out, and if THE Primordial Chaos is collapsed, we know how impossibly hard it is to fully collapse such an entity. The only way that’s ever worked against beings of that caliber is what THE Living Paradox did. Swallow them. Devour them. Embody their Way and Civilization entirely."

She let that hang in the air.

"And who’s better equipped to do that than Master? He’s already begun with Elemental. If THE Primordial Chaos falls, Master can lay claim to that aspect of the Oldest Paradox. If THE Living Paradox falls, Master claims Paradox itself. If THE Creature falls, Master claims Existence."

...!

Oh!