Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 5114: Custodes! II

As she was thinking all this, lost in contemplation that had consumed her attention across eons of observation, a voice reached her through pathways that shouldn’t have been accessible.

"Hey."

The greeting was nonchalant and natural, almost familiar in its casualness. She found herself nodding and responding lightly before her conscious mind caught up with what was happening.

"Hey."

Then her eyes opened wide.

Across the room, THE Gesinde turned toward her with expressions of mild confusion. They blinked as if trying to determine who she was talking to, their perception scanning the space around her for the source of a conversation they couldn’t perceive. Did she call for them?

Ubergulden Adelheid controlled her expression with discipline cultivated across countless eons.

Internally, she was shocked. She reached into her existence, following the pathways through which that greeting had traveled, and found its origin in the endless Quintessence Infiniforce integrated throughout her being. The voice had been Osmont’s!

It had traveled through the connection between them!

But this...shouldn’t have been possible.

How did he reach through unreachable weavings to be capable of sending even a communication? The connection established was one-directional. Information, communication, anything else should have been blocked by countermeasures she had implemented specifically to prevent exactly this scenario!

She focused on the Quintessence Infiniforce saturating her existence.

And shockingly, she began to see something forming within those multicolored seas. An illusory outline took shape, features becoming distinct as her perception refined its focus. It was Osmont, his form constructed from the very Infinity he had integrated into her being, manifesting in a space that existed entirely within her own existence.

Her expression grew heavier.

Part of her own weavings coalesced internally, her consciousness shifting to engage with this intrusion directly. Inside her body. In an expanse of multicolored Quintessence Infiniforce swirling all around.

Noah’s illusory visage finished forming.

From his perspective, all he could see were these endless multicolored seas stretching in every direction. Golden walls blocked off absolutely everything past the areas where these seas were contained, barriers she had constructed to prevent exactly this kind of penetration. He couldn’t sense or see a thing beyond the Infiniforce that belonged to him.

Good.

Moments later, a very real and very angry Ubergulden Adelheid appeared within these seas.

She looked at him with an imperious gaze that held fury barely restrained beneath its surface. Her golden eyes blazed as she spoke with authority that pressed against his illusory form.

"I was magnanimous enough to leave you be, but you do this? You give a Bounded a mile, they reach for light years..."

Her voice cut through the swirling Infiniforce like a blade.

"What do you want? Are you unable to take care of the entanglements you have gotten yourself into down there? Are you running to me for help now?"

She stepped closer to his illusory form, her presence overwhelming despite existing only as a projection within her own internal space.

"I.. cannot help you."

She berated him with everything she had because he truly didn’t understand what she had already done for him. The less he was connected to her, the more he wouldn’t be found out. Because if he was found out by those who mattered, he would be killed.

Killed, erased so thoroughly that even the concept of his existence would be scrubbed from Observable Existence as if he had never been.

She had done what she could to preserve his life.

And he was doing this now?

She gazed toward him with calm anger burning in her golden eyes as he blinked calmly, his expression unchanged by her fury.

"I can take care of my own things."

His voice was steady and almost amused.

"I just reached out to check in on you and to notify you of a few things I have planned. I just didn’t expect you to be so charged up, O Great Gilded One."

The last part came out almost mockingly, and Ubergulden Adelheid’s eyes became sharp.

"You did all this to check in on me?"

Noah nodded as he looked around at the golden walls and swirling Infiniforce surrounding them.

"You left the weavings of Gilded Lifeforms eons ago to live as a Bounded, so it must have sucked. You’re now back where you ran away from."

His eyes returned to hers.

"How does it feel?"

...!

How did it feel?

Ubergulden Adelheid blinked as she found herself without words. She didn’t even know how to reply to such a question. She alone knew why she had left here and suppressed herself to live as a Bounded Lifeform. She alone knew the circumstances that had driven her to abandon everything her engineering had granted her. And she alone knew how she felt now that she had returned.

But this was something she had never shared with anyone.

She wouldn’t start now.

She regained her imperious bearing with effort that didn’t show on her face. Her gaze traveled over Osmont’s illusory form, examining it with perception that could see things his classification shouldn’t have been able to hide.

Her eyes flashed sharply.

"You seem to have changed and advanced somewhat. Are you enjoying the little connection and siphoning you’ve been taking from me?"

Noah looked at his arms, examining them with interest as if noticing his own transformation for the first time.

"That’s what I was actually going to mention to you. I don’t know much about Gilded Lifeforms, but in the near future, I’ll likely be widening and further fortifying our connection."

He looked back up at her.

"I just wanted to make sure a little, tiny Bounded ant like me won’t cause any problems for you and your reserves of existence. And I also don’t wish to expose myself for being too loud so...fortify yourself to make sure nothing leaks."

...!

Ubergulden Adelheid raised her brows at this before shaking her head.

"You won’t be able to do much. The connection we have stops at that. I’ve made sure of it, and even if I do nothing, a Bounded cannot alter or change much when it comes to the state of a Gilded."

Her voice carried certainty born from understanding.

"Even if I didn’t already set up countermeasures. If you wish to fully remove any risk from yourself, you can always pull back your weavings of Infinity from me."

...!

After she said these words, Noah nodded slowly.

"I just wanted to pass on the message so that you’re not too surprised. Going back to a place you ran away from for eons can be disorienting, so I hope you are adjusting well."

His illusory form began to flicker at the edges.

"If you need to talk, just reach out to Infinity. I’m also very curious about you and all things to do with Ubergulden Adelheid. I’ll be dealing with a Civilizational Holy War for now but I’ll check in as things progress. Hang in there, O Big and Great Gilded One."

...!

Ubergulden Adelheid’s eyes opened wide at hearing her true name spoken from his mouth, and then ending his words mockingly again!

How did he find out her identity? The countermeasures she had implemented should have prevented anyone from perceiving what she truly was.

She was going to ask.

But the moment his words finished, his illusory form dispersed and fell back into the roiling Quintessence Infiniforce. He had dropped such a bomb and left immediately after, knowing she would want to reach out to him now, knowing she would have questions that demanded answers.

Ubergulden Adelheid’s eyes shone sharply.

She would never reach out to him. She was going to grasp the Containment she had placed on the Quintessence Infiniforce in her body, was going to reinforce the barriers that should have prevented this communication from ever occurring in the first place.

But at this moment, a voice echoed through the vast room.

"Sister, it is time."

...!

The voice of Ubergulden Dietrich filled the space as THE Gesinde throughout the room stood at attention with perfect synchronization.

A door opened in one of those breathing golden walls, revealing her brother’s unfathomably handsome features and the golden eyes that held no pupils.

Behind him stood a few more Gilded Lifeforms!