Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 5024: The Pluvial Epoch! III

THE Beholder had observed existence since before differentiation taught reality how to have boundaries.

He watched a portion of THE First Cause unfold when potential became actual and the endless sea first learned to flow in directions that could be named. He witnessed the emergence of Primordial Architects from the intersection of what was and what was not. He perceived a portion of the birth of Observable Existence itself, that grand experiment in structured being that had persisted across cycles beyond counting.

In all that observation, across all those eons of simply watching without acting, he had never witnessed anything quite as grand...until now.

Some he understood the name of as soon as he saw it.

The Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity.

He didnt know where it began, but it began with endless drops. Those initial drops became streams. Streams became rivers. Rivers became floods that could not be contained by any boundary mortal minds had constructed.

The waters spilled outward from what he theorized to be THE Interstices into Observable Existence with hunger.

THE Wastes received the rainfall first among the outer regions.

That crimson expanse where THE Primordial Armor had once hunted for the finite conductor found itself drowning in multicolored precipitation that pressed against its foundations with weight accumulated since before most of what currently lived had begun to exist.

The corrupted proto-matter that had been spreading through THE Wastes from THE Prima Indifferentia dissolved upon contact with those waters, paradoxical weavings washing away like filth before a flood.

THE Beholder observed beings who had been struggling against that corruption suddenly freed from pressure they had believed would eventually claim them.

Their relief lasted precisely as long as it took for the rainfall itself to begin testing their foundations.

Those whose Civilizations could withstand the density of the Cause survived with foundations saturated by authority they had never possessed before. Those whose Civilizations could not withstand that density simply ceased to exist, their weavings dissolved back into undifferentiated potential that the rainfall absorbed and carried forward.

There was no malice in this distinction. There was no judgment. There was simply the fundamental truth that some things were strong enough to endure transformation and some things were not.

The Wandering Territories received the deluge next, those chaotic regions where lost things gathered and broken pieces of existence accumulated. The multicolored waters flowed through spaces that should have resisted any organized authority, and yet they found purchase regardless.

The rainfall did not care that the Wandering Territories existed in layers that overlapped without truly touching. It fell through all layers simultaneously, cleansing each one with equal thoroughness.

Impossibilities that had drifted through those territories for eons were washed away. Fragments of space that had folded in on themselves were straightened by waters that refused to accept their contradictory geometry. The Wandering Territories did not cease to exist, but they became something different, something more ordered despite their chaotic nature, something that had been baptized by authority exceeding anything they had contained before.

The Transcendent Folds experienced the rainfall with particular intensity, for these were regions where the finite conductor’s Infinity had spread most thoroughly across his native era.

His Infinite Absolute Seals had saturated these Folds, and now that saturation served as channel through which the Pluvial Epoch flowed with concentrated force.

THE Beholder turned his singular perception toward the Shelters of THE Loom that had their doors flung open.

Early Creatures within that primordial space felt the waters pressing against their ancient foundations, testing weavings that had existed since THE Earliest Folds itself. Some of those Early Creatures had grown complacent across eons of unchallenged existence. Some had allowed their Civilizations to stagnate while they rested upon accomplishments achieved in ages past.

Those Early Creatures discovered that age alone did not guarantee survival.

The rainfall did not care how long a being had existed. It cared only whether their Civilization could withstand the pressure of Existential Infinity falling endlessly upon their foundations. Three Thousand Early Creatures within a Shelter of THE Loom dissolved during the initial deluge, their ancient weavings insufficient to contain what was being poured into them.

Living Existences fared worse on average.

Those who had grown weak. Those who had neglected their cultivation. Those who had relied upon external support rather than internal strength. They dissolved alongside the Early Creatures who had made similar mistakes, their classifications insufficient to protect them from the fundamental truth that weakness invited extinction.

THE Beholder observed it all with attention he had not granted anything in eons.

Alfheimr received the rainfall with particular significance, for this Primordial Realm had been touched by the finite conductor’s presence a few times across his journey through existence.

The crystallized forests of that realm found themselves drowning in multicolored waters that pressed against their structure with weight that made their previous configurations seem fragile by comparison.

Ljosalfar across Alfheimr experienced the deluge with responses ranging from ecstasy to agony depending on the strength of their individual Civilizations. Those whose foundations could contain the density of Existential Infinity felt themselves elevated beyond anything they had previously achieved, their potential expanding to encompass possibilities they had never imagined.

Those whose foundations could not contain that density felt themselves dissolving, their weavings unraveling as the rainfall proved too much for what they had built across their existence.

THE Beholder calculated as he observed.

Approximately...one-third to one-half of all Civilizations across affected regions were collapsing under the pressure of the Pluvial Epoch.

Their dissolution was not painful in the conventional sense, for pain required consciousness to experience it, and their consciousness dissolved alongside everything else. They simply ceased to be, their potential returning to the undifferentiated state from which all things had originally emerged.

The survivors found themselves transformed.

Ginnu Lifeforms in Ginnungagap who weathered the initial deluge discovered their Civilizations had been fundamentally restructured by the experience. Authority they had struggled to accumulate across eons now saturated their foundations as if it had always been there.

Paths of advancement that had seemed impossibly distant now appeared within reach. The rainfall had not merely cleansed. It had cultivated those strong enough to survive its cleansing.

But the rainfall was not finished with its emergence.

THE Beholder perceived the waters flowing toward Jotunheim with purpose that exceeded simple spreading. They surged through THE Interstices and across the boundaries separating Primordial Realms with hunger that specifically targeted the corruption they seemed designed to cleanse.

THE Primordial Mycelia’s infection had spread furthest in Jotunheim, and the Pluvial Epoch sought that infection with determination that bordered on sentience.

Chaos Giants across Jotunheim felt the rainfall descending upon their unified existence with force that made their foundations scream.

The waters pressed against Unity itself, against the warm consciousness that had claimed countless beings and incorporated them into its collective. Where that Unity had seemed unassailable, where THE Entity had spread without meaningful opposition, the rainfall of Existential Infinity declared that unauthorized merger would not be permitted to continue.

Chaos Giants who had been fully consumed by THE Primordial Mycelia dissolved alongside the infection that had claimed them, host and parasite washed away together by waters that could not distinguish between them once merger had progressed beyond recoverable thresholds.

Their screams echoed across Jotunheim as the Pluvial Epoch cleansed what could be cleansed and destroyed what could not be separated.

Chaos Giants whose infection had not yet fully integrated experienced something different.

The rainfall burned the Mycelia from their foundations with precision that preserved what remained of their individual consciousness. They emerged from the deluge traumatized but themselves, their Unity shattered, their connection to THE Entity severed by waters that refused to permit such merger.

And in the heart of Jotunheim, where the infection was strongest, where THE Entity had established its deepest roots, something ancient felt the rainfall approaching.

THE Primordial Mycelia roared.

The sound pressed against Observable Existence with fury that made Primordial Realms tremble. It was a roar of shock that something could threaten what it had built across patient spreading.

It was a roar of anger that its Unity was being dissolved by waters that carried authority exceeding its own. It was a roar of something approaching fear, for the Pluvial Epoch was not stopping at the borders of its domain.

The multicolored waters surged forward regardless of that roar.

They crashed against the defenses THE Entity had constructed around its core territories with force that shattered barriers designed to repel anything at THE First Scale. They flowed through channels that Unity had thought secure, washing away infection that had taken eons to cultivate with indifference.

And at the very center of Jotunheim, where THE Entity’s roots ran deepest, two figures waited for the deluge to arrive.

THE Secretive Eon.

THE Primordial Chaos.

Both of them fully claimed by Unity.

The waters of the Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity surged toward them.

THE Beholder observed this with the full intensity of his singular perception.

For the first time since he emerged during that age of nothingness before differentiation, he found himself genuinely uncertain of what would occur next!