Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3751: The Dead, The Living, and The Folds III

As Noah and Kalysta approached the base of the first Paradoxical Fold Mountain, existence itself seemed to roll into a heavy silence.

They passed Monads and Primarchs scattered here and there as they slowly ascended.

The mountain they reached bore a name etched into the Folds by those who dared to scale it.

Votharion, the Mountain of Forgotten Futures.

It rose in jagged, towering layers of obsidian-black stone, the veins of its cliffs pulsing with paradox-light.

Dead and Living Trees lined its base, their bark braided with glowing threads of chaos and possibility. Each branch held not leaves, but chaotic blossoms shaped like collapsed timelines and decaying crowns.

Their roots curled around floating orbs- tiny dead Omniverses, flickering with lightless memories. Some pulsed. Others blinked in and out.

And standing like silent sentinels were the obsidian Pillars.

Each one spiraled into the air, filled with glyphs of resonance and death. These were Concordance Pillars, but not like the ones found in the Outer Wheel Platform. These were untouched by balance. Untouched by order.

At the top of these Pillars, some were empty, while others had Monads or Primarchs sitting atop them.

Noahʼs 3-inch Null Form moved slowly as he passed beneath the boughs of a Dead Tree whose hollow trunk whispered to him in the voice of existence that once might have been.

And then he looked down.

The ground shimmered with glorious Sigil Fragments.

But not like those he had found before.

These fragments pulsed with layers- each one a chaotic lattice of incomplete Truth. Their forms fluctuated, shapes shifting between runes, living memory, and spiraling light. They burned. Some flickered through phases of possibility and existence at the same time.

Kalysta paused beside him, her face composed but serious. ”Anything you pick here,” she said quietly, ”will have no less than one hundred fragments. And each one will fight you. Each one will test not just your comprehension… but your very framework of existence and its capability to understand.”

Noah nodded, taking in the dizzying complexity of the fragments below.

Then he stepped lightly into the air, his Null Form humming as he ascended a few feet above the mountainʼs base.

He scanned the terrain, eyes narrowed, golden-blue irises glowing faintly.

He observed everything nearby and looked for something unique. And among the chaotic mess of fractals and weavings...

WUU!

He saw it.

A bright, sparkling white Sigil Fragment.

Unlike the others, it pulsed calmly. A clarity amidst madness. It did not shift erratically, it shimmered with deliberate brilliance, like a heartbeat steady against the storms.

He descended toward it.

But before he could reach out, his eyes and gaze just so happened to be scanning everything!

So in the corner of his eyes, he also captured a visage. It should have just been something random.

But…he was forced to do a double take.

His gaze lifted.

And he saw the figure again and affirmed with a sense of surprise.

Seated cross-legged atop a towering obsidian Pillar near the white Sigil he was going for just ahead was a man.

His back was straight. His robe a wonder of flowing green and white fire, stitched with radiant disorder. His skin was dark bronze, etched with runes that seemed to drink the existence around him.

His aura did not blaze. It didnʼt scream.

It radiated a calm so absolute that the surrounding Existence bent around him in silent reverence.

Noahʼs eyes widened.

He had seen this figure before!

In the verdant light of the First Breaking.

In the Records of the Witness!

It was…

Resplendent Monad Romulus!

But… he wasnʼt a Monad anymore.

NAME: Romulus, Verdant Flame of Collapse

TITLE: Primarch of Entropic Continuity

TRUE SOURCE: Entropy

CQ: 111,111(179,999) SU | PQ: 111,111(180,000) SU

NULL FORM: 500 Inches

And his Null Form…

It loomed like a reality-rendering titan.

Massive. Thick!

A 500-inch form of collapsing wheels and molten rings. Each layer of the Null Form spun in opposing directions, tearing and reforming itself constantly, bathing the mountain in tides of decaying brilliance.

Flames of green-gold Entropy flared from its edges, wrapping around the stone Pillars of the Fold and sinking into the roots of the mountain itself. It was beautiful. Terrifying.

A monument to paradox given form.

Entropy…of a different color entirely from Noahʼs own.

Noahʼs breath left him in silence.

Then he spoke as his weavings buzzed with remembrance.

”Romulus.”

HUUM!

The name echoed.

And above…

Romulus opened his eyes.

Verdant green. Ancient. Burning with layered sorrow and undying resolve.

They met Noahʼs.

Deep and ageless eyes.

He looked down at Noah and frowned.

”You know me?”

Noah didnʼt answer at first. Instead, he walked slowly toward the gleaming white Sigil fragment. He picked it up, felt the screaming depth of its resonance, and only then did he speak.

”I saw you,” Noah said. ”In the records of the Witness. The First Breaking of the Wheel of Existence. I saw it all… through his eyes.”

…!

BOOM!

The terrifting Null Form ahead shivered with a terrifying pressure as if it had received a great shock!

A shock…that gradually paved way to joy.

Romulus blinked. Then, he smiled. Then, he laughed.

A deep, glorious sound that echoed like a choir of dying stars coming back to life.

He leapt from his pillar, descending in a smooth arc before landing lightly a few meters from Noah.

”Little Witness… So heʼs still causing trouble and living through Records…”

Noah was silent.

Romulusʼ voice turned soft. ”Since we were ejected… since that Breaking of the Wheel… weʼve all been trying to look for and return. To find our Home Wheel of Existence. Those who survived…no one remembers exactly where it is. No one knows how to locate it. Only that we belonged to it. That we came from it. That it carried us through an entire Breaking.”

He looked skyward, nostalgic!

”I remember the True Frequencies. My home True Frequency of the End. Of Genesis. Of Fire. Of Light. Of Dark.” He shook his head, eyes suddenly far. ”After the Breaking… they mustʼve degraded. At best, theyʼd survive as Prime Frequencies now. Maybe even less. Haha, how are the weavings of existence now? How is Little Witness?”

Primarch Romulus asked with bright eyes of hope and expectation!

And finally… Noah looked at this being and spoke calmly.

”The Witness…is dead.”

…!

Romulus blinked, becoming utterly still.

Noah continued.

”The Wheel underwent its final Breaking. The Dead and Living both attacked during the final turn of the Wheel. The Witness tried to hold the weavings alongside all of us… but he died at the end. Crushed beneath too many layers of existence.”

Romulusʼ golden eyes burned.

A heavy silence descended as in the distance, event the figure of Primarch Kalysta felt like she was intruding on something.

After the silence, the expression on Romulus dimmed as he asked with unfathomable veiled rage.

”Who?”

HUUM!

”Who ended the Witness? Who drove the Wheel to death?”

Noah did not hesitate as he replied calmly.

”Primarch Eluriah Veilnox of the Chronosect of Threadbound Folds killed the Witness- rewrote his entire existence with hers. And the Mawbearers of the Hollow Concord of Nullity… they triggered the chain that unraveled the rest. I was not strong enough to change anything back then, and I…even had to leave at the end to preserve my own weavings.”

HUUM!

He spoke as if this happened ages ago. But truly, it was just days.

Silence was all that followed.

Romulusʼ Null Form flared.

Primarch Kalysta looked between the two of them calmly, her eyes shining bright.

Entropy spun faster. The cliff behind Primarch Romulus cracked, unable to contain his budding fury.

”I see,” he said quietly.

Romulus stood still for a moment, the green-gold embers of entropy flickering across his armor, licking the folds of the air with restrained fury.

His massive Null Form of 500 inches spiraled behind him like a sovereign storm, each collapsing wheel and molten ring spinning at odds with one another—tension wrapped in elegance.

Kalysta and Noah said nothing!

Then, Romulus broke the silence.

”You know… I once told the Little Witness,” he began, his voice low and laden with ancient weight, ”that existence balances itself between Life and Death by necessity. That for every moment of radiance, there must be one of collapse. For every genesis, a forgotten ending. And for every Living Thing who dares to breathe… a Dead Thing waiting to inhale what they exhale.”

He turned slowly, his gaze cast over the mountain horizon, toward the endless obsidian sky.

”But what happens when that balance is mocked? When those who should hold the threads decide they alone deserve to weave them? When the Witness dies… and the Wheel turns one last time?”

His hand clenched tighter.

”We were cast away like refuse. Scattered. Searching. I believed, perhaps foolishly, that the Wheel would one day stabilize. That weʼd return and find it brighter. Better. But now….now I see this was but a dream.”

The entropy around him dimmed, consolidating into his Null Form. A deliberate silence followed. Then, he turned to Noah fully and spoke out!

”Do you have another body out there?” he asked suddenly. ”Can you lead me to them- the Mawbearers? The Primarch of that Chronosect of Threadbound Folds? I wish to teach them a lesson in life and death.”

WAA!

Noahʼs eyes burned bright as he reevaluated this entity befor him. His voice remained cool as he replied!

”I can lead you to the Mawbearers,” he said. ”They left too many entanglements to remain hidden. But the Chronosect of Threadbound Folds… I know little.”

Both of what he said was true!

At such a time.

Kalysta blinked beside them.

She took a single step forward, her Null Form rotating behind her in subtle golden arcs.

”This,” she said, ”is beyond anything I imagined today. But if youʼre speaking of the Chronosect of Threadbound Folds, those I know of.”

Noah turned toward her.

Romulus did not move.

Kalystaʼs eyes gleamed with a wary sheen, her voice adopting the tone of one who had wandered too close to power.

”They are not some fractured sect of stubborn mystics,” she said. ”They are a dominion of temporal tyrants. Time Sentinel Primarchs- Living Things with the ability to drift through anchored moments across the Nullvein Gravewake Folds. They walk into the past to steal its knowledge. They reach into tomorrow to borrow weapons not yet born.”

Noahʼs eyes narrowed.

Kalysta continued. ”They are not bound by now. Not even slightly. Every time you think youʼve cornered one… that version was discarded days ago. Or created minutes later. And itʼs never the same version that returns.”

She took another step closer, her golden Null Form pulsing faintly.

”Even more frightening is that above these Time Sentinels, there are greater beings. Personages of the Chronosect whose Complexity and Purity are said to spiral so far beyond known comprehension that even the Folds do not observe them too long.”

Romulus remained silent, but his Null Form stilled for a beat.

”If you entertain war against them,” Kalysta said softly, ”be prepared to fight in battles that already happened. In wars already lost. Against foes who prepared for you long before you ever became who you are.”

The wind shifted around them. Not natural wind, but the brush of impossible existence. The air trembled with the notion that paths were opening. Choices waiting.

Romulus exhaled slowly.

Noah stood steady.

And Kalysta… she looked to the sky.

”You may yet change the Folds,” she whispered. ”But do not mistake rage for readiness. Every True Source must be tempered. Especially in the face of Time. I advise against you going after that Time Sentinel…just from what I know of the Chronosect of Threadbound Folds.”

The mountain loomed and seemed unbearably heavy.

Choices.

As always, those damned choices had to be made!

Romulus stood in silence, the green-gold glow of his Null Form burning in layered tides around him. The weight of entropy coiled at his feet like a silent tide, but his voice, when it came, rang clear through the air- measured, slow, and deep!

”Existence…is a unique thing, you know? It is not kind,” he began, his eyes sweeping across the mountain, the shimmering fragments below, the horizon. ”It does not reward the patient, nor does it punish the wicked in the way we wish it would. It simply…continues. It folds. It collapses. It twists.”

Kalysta turned her gaze toward him. Noah stood still, absorbing every word with a tyrannical gaze.

”Life and death are not enemies. They are not even opposites. They are transitions. Choices. One chooses to live. One chooses to end. And when others rob you of that choice, when they erase what should not have been erased, when they shatter what should have endured…then they commit a crime against more than existence.”

His eyes narrowed, glowing with remembered pain.

”They commit a crime against Meaning.”

He stepped forward, the obsidian cracking beneath his feet as his Null Form pulsed, its molten lattice folding inward once more.

”I will make a choice.”

His voice trembled with solemnity now.

”To destroy the Mawbearers of the Hollow Concord of Nullity. And to cast down that Time Sentinel of the Chronosect of Threadbound Folds.”

Kalystaʼs golden eyes flickered as she sighed slightly.

Romulus continued.

”And whatever consequences may bloom from this, be they paradox or punishment, I will shoulder them. That too… is part of Existence.”

A heavy silence hung in the air after those words.

Kalystaʼs face was unreadable, but her gaze turned thoughtful, her threads of Kismet subtly curling tighter in the air.

Then, Noah spoke.

”There are other weavings of mine outside the Null Cradle. They can lead you to the Mawbearers.”

Romulus turned to him, his expression still steady.

”But the Chronosect?”

Noahʼs sharp expression faded slightly. ”I know nothing much apart from what we have just heard.”

Romulus listened quietly and nodded.

Kalysta finished with a warning as she saw minds made. ”You think to destroy A Time Sentinel? Even the lowest among their Time Sentinels is a thread that could bind the fate of multiple Wheels of Existence. Be careful. I do not offer fear. I offer truth.”

Romulus bowed slightly in acknowledgment. ”And your truth… is received.”

Then, he looked to Noah. ”Your weavings outside the Cradle- how will they find me?”

Noah raised his hand.

From his palm, a glowing symbol of Infinity pulsed into existence- blue and gold, radiant and soft.

”Keep this,” he said, pressing the construct gently into Romulusʼ palm. ”Itʼll allow any part of me to track your presence. Wherever you are, Iʼll know.”

Romulus studied the symbol for a long moment, then nodded. ”So it shall be.”

His gaze swept the Middle Wheel Platform one final time.

”I did not think I would leave. Not after all these years,” he said softly. ”But in existence… everything is as it should be.”

Without another word, the Primarch of Entropic Continuity turned.

And began his descent.

Each step toward the distant Outer Wheel Platform sent silent shockwaves through the Middle Wheel. Primarchs turned. Monads paused and glanced. A Primarch was leaving the Null Cradle?

It raised some brows, but…

Romulus walked on, bearing the weight of purpose, and the fire of entropy!

He eventually stepped across the threshold of the Middle Wheel Platform, his towering 500-inch Null Form shimmering like a dying star flaring one last time before a collapse.

The collapsed threads beneath his feet twisted into floating wheels of paradox and possibility- bridges connecting the Middle Platform to the Outer Ring. Each wheel spun with faint echoes of failed Sigils and forgotten truths, rotating in fractured grace.

He leapt.

The first wheel trembled under the weight of his Entropic Continuity. The second cracked in reverence. By the third, a storm of resonance trailed behind him like a silent hymn of departure.

When he descended upon the Outer Wheel Platform, the gravity of existence shifted.

No more of the terrifying pressure of the Middle Wheel Platform could be felt!

Primarch Romulus remained calm as he swept his gaze out across the Outer Wheel Platform he left long ago.

And he saw many things, Living and Dead.

But other things were much more brilliant that most!

Because he also saw…a storm of black, violet, and sorrow.

He saw the visage of Bob!

A Dead Thing with a 500-inch Null Form stood majestic, just like him, in an undulating cathedral of tentacles and radiant despair.

Of radiant Khaos!

Runes glowed along every inch of his limbs, whispering of sorrow and calamity.

And beside this Dead Thing, a distance away…

The atmosphere darkened.

There was an even more oppressive being…with a Null Form twice as massive.

His 1,000-inch Null Form loomed like a throne forged from regret and command. Obsidian and blood swirled beneath its base, ancient chains coiled like serpents bound in ritual. His silhouette flickered between stillness and sovereignty.

Romulus landed before them and many others, the ground singing with pressure as many eyes pulsed with surprise.

Thauronʼs eyes opened slowly.

”A Primarch…” he said in a voice etched in gravestones and philosophy. ”Is descending?”

His tone was unreadable. An inquiry that he continued with a smile as this unfathomably powerful being simply seemed to be curious!

”Are you leaving the Null Cradle of Fold-Breaking Ascension?” Thauron asked. ”You must have not even reached the Paradoxical End Platform yet...what could warrant your exit now of all times, Friend?”

Romulus looked between Thauron and Bob.

And then, he replied calmly.

”I need leave…to right what was undone. To kill.”

A silence fell.

Then…

Thauron smiled.

Not wide. Not cruel.

But knowing.

”To kill,” he said softly, ”can sometimes be a good reason for many things.”

He remained seated, his titanic Null Form pressing space into submission with each motion.

”This may be the last time you see this Wonder of the Folds,” Thauron said, voice like a glorious dead scripture. ”Good luck. And may your killing… be successful.”

Romulus bowed slightly, not out of deference, but acknowledgment as he continued moving.

And then…

They passed each other.

Romulus. Thauron. Bob.

None of them knew.

That Bob had once walked the same Wheel Romulus sought to avenge right now.

That he had fought against Noah, against the very bearer of weavings caught in the center of the storm!

That Bob had fled from the Wheel and now emerged here, under Thauronʼs wing and side.

And now Romulus walked past him.

Their energies buzzed for an instant.

Resonance flickered between them.

Unaware.

Unknowing.

A dead Wheelʼs echo passed between two survivors of the same war across different times.

And then Romulus stepped beyond the edge.

The final stone beneath his Null Form cracked…and he then faded as he disappeared from the edge!

HUUM!

And space folded.

Then collapsed.

And he was gone.

—

No stars.

No sigils.

No sound.

Just emptiness.

Romulus blinked as he stood in an unmapped region of the Nullvein Gravewake Folds.

The moment he exited the Null Cradle, its presence vanished. No signature. No memory. As if it had never existed.

Only silence.

The silence before action.

He stood still, arms folded behind his back, the 500-inch Null Form having disappeared entirely- merely a product of the Null Cradle of Fold-Breaking Ascension.

And he waited.

Not for destiny.

Not for fate.

But for a single force.

A singular existence.

He waited for Noah.

To find him.

As he waited, his eyes gazed upon the endless folds.

The folds were still.

A dreary hush wrapped the unmapped Gravewake region where Primarch Romulus waited.

There was no movement.

No sound.

Only the cold, breathing silence of the Folds—the kind that didnʼt simply surround, but whispered and madd weak being scared.

Primarch Romulus sat with legs crossed on a slope of floating shale, his eyes opening and closing in sequence as Entropy seethed as if getting primed and ready.

He waited for hours.

He had not moved once.

Only thought.

Reflected.

Memories surfaced like quiet tides.

He remembered the Wheel of Existence- not in the fractured way Noah had described, but in its glory.

Its verdant sea of Complexity. The Frequencies of Converged Architects. The laughter of the Resplendent Monads. The radiant, blinding spokes of the original Verdant Wheel as it turned endlessly above.

The Flow.

The weavings of Existence. The people!

He had fought with them. Dined with them. Grown with them.

And when the First Breaking came… he, like many others, had been scattered.

Over the years, in the labyrinth of the Nullvein Gravewake Folds, he had found a few others. Some had lost their names. Others had lost their minds. Many died as the Nullvein Gravewake Folds were brutal. But a few… a rare few… had survived with resolve intact.

He remembered each of them.

And now…

He continued to wait.

Not just for Noah.

But for purpose as his eyes pulsed with a light of retribution!

—

Far across the folds, a golden-blue spark pulsed.

Noahʼs body, separated from the one inside the Null Cradle of Fold-Breaking Ascension, moved across the layers of paradox like a shadow cloaked in Quintessence.

The path he followed shimmered with the trail of the symbol he had given Romulus- an infinity symbol, compressed from his Lineage, humming faintly with tyranny.

Even with his Complexity, it had taken him hours to reach this region.

He had passed through oceans of broken weavings. Through storms of collapsed Genesis and Echo Frequencies.

Through graveyards where ancient Dead Constructs drifted like mournful ghosts.

Until finally…

WUU!

He warped across the folds as the blue gold infinity symbol he gave out flashed brightly, and there, in the distance…

He saw him.

Primarch Romulus.

Seated and waiting.

The folds around him churned softly as he opened his eyes.

Noah glanced around as he should have just left the Null Cradle of Fold-Breaking Ascension and remained here.

But…

There was nothing.

No signature.

No gravitational memory.

No echo.

The Null Cradle of Fold-Breaking Ascension had vanished entirely from this place. As if it had never existed.

Romulus stood at last.

Noah turned to him as he spoke.

”I have already started tracking my entanglements, we can move right away.”

He also wanted to get closure from the Mawbearers, and the Loot would not reduce just from bringing a powerful Primarch along!

They were about to depart when Romulus spoke again.

His voice, for once, felt unsure.

”Can you take me there first?”

Noah paused. ”To where?”

Romulus looked up, his eyes reflecting a longing older than any single thread of Existence. ”To our Wheel. Even if itʼs dead.”

…!

He wanted to see the Wheel of Existence he was born in!

Noah nodded at such a request as his blue gold brilliance flared, and they began to move across the Folds together.

Toward the ruins of an empty memory!