Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3795: Schemes and Entry I

Her words settled like magisterial decree.

A terrifying silence followed.

Noah remained still.

Kalysta’s lips parted slightly as she floated closer.

The other Masters of Existence looked at each other- not speaking, but their eyes flashing with what everyone now dared to wonder.

If the rune on her forehead revealed a key of this magnitude...

What else was hidden beneath the others?

Just how many doors could this girl unlock?

Sigrid caught all of it.

She wasn’t a fool.

Her brows furrowed and she signed quickly, her body leaning closer to Noah for support.

[If these markings can help me know who I am...] She turned her head to the side, studying the glowing X in his hand. [Then... what door does that Key open?]

...!

Yes.

Every key had a door.

And now... dozens of powerful beings stood with buzzing wonder.

What door?

What possible door did this artifact open?

Across the radiant fields of the True Frequency of Fate, Master Shen let out a low whistle as he tipped back his gourd again.

Then he laughed.

”Ahh, Young Anomaly,” he said, his words echoing across the golden stillness. ”That’s the question, isn’t it?”

He twirled mid-air and gestured toward the distance.

”That Key of yours...we have seen that shape before. A door that’s been there for countless years beneath our very Folds. Its been open for us to enter freely, but it seems like we haven’t truly opened it if it has a key...”

He paused, his eyes serious now.

”And now...it looks like you fell down into our Sunfolds for exactly this reason.”

...!

Master Etheopa nodded once, confirming his words.

”We can go to that possible door,” she said evenly. ”Right now.”

An unbearable wave of silence followed.

Primarchs and Masters of Existence were expectant just at what shocking levels of wonder would bloom.

Only Master Hannibal, arms crossed and expression unreadable, stared coldly ahead. Behind his glowing golden irises, there was greed.

And deeper still...

Something else.

Something only he knew.

—

Far from the Veiled Sunfolds.

Beyond the reach of golden collapse, in a darkened stretch of Folds where even the ambient radiance of gold folds dimmed- there floated another body of Master Hannibal.

A temporal copy?A clone? A parallel extension?

Only Masters of Existence knew the cost of splitting across Existence, and fewer still could pay it.

This form pulsed within a web of misty golden Lattices, hundreds of thousands of Existential Dimensional chains stretching into spirals of obscurity. The region was fully veiled. Even another Originus Venerant would find it difficult to pierce its defenses.

Then...

HUUM.

Two presences tore through the fabric of this obscured Fold.

The first was blazing blue, its brilliance threading waves of Mana and Ether, a spiraling symphony of mana that spread through the surrounding space. He arrived clad in luminous azure robes, four muscular arms crossed across his chest. A third golden eye shimmered open on his forehead.

A Master of the Mannafolds.

He said nothing, but the air quivered under his presence.

The second was a haunting ripple of violet and blue tides, a purple luminance trailing her passage like strands of woven time. Her upper body was distinctly humanoid- elegant and sharp-featured with piercing, sea-glass eyes. Below the waist, her body shifted into a shimmering, finned tail that rippled like liquid scaled metal. A tail of a mermaid.

An Atlantian!

A Master of the Chronosect of Threadbound Folds.

Her voice rang out before she fully materialized.

”What could be so pressing, Hannibal? Has the Sin that drew a Young Living Collapse already begun to tear your precious Sunfolds apart? If you’d told us your people were dispatching the Drunken Master, we would’ve sent someone with speed from our side first. We might’ve been the ones dissecting the Unbound Living Paradox by now.”

Her tone was accusing, but layered beneath it was something else- hunger. Cold, calculating hunger.

Such was the way of things at the level of Masters of Existence.

There was no easy progression. No natural path forward.

Not anymore.

Once you became an Originus Venerant, the very act of advancing demanded devouring everything- essences, existences, frequencies, Wheels... anomalies.

The weak?

They didn’t exist at this level.

Only the opportunistic survived.

It was the survival of the Fittest. The strong ate the weak!

And even the most stable Concords of Folds...Mannafolds, Chronosect, Sunfolds- held quiet cabals of Venerants probing the veil of power, always searching for what could let them rise a single infinitesimal step forward.

Hannibal remained silent at first, his golden hair flickering like flames as he studied them through narrowed eyes. Then, he tapped his fingers once.

PA!

Two radiant singularities formed in front of the others. Recordings.

Replays.

A direct memory stream of what had occurred not long ago that flew to the two before him.

And they watched.

They saw Noah Osmont, the Unbound Living Paradox, floating beside the strange, rune-covered woman. They saw her tear through a containment field meant to hold Primarchs. They saw the Key- that blazing crimson-gold X form from her forehead.

The Master of the Mannafolds whistled with bright eyes.

The Atlantian’s eyes went still.

Then Hannibal spoke.

”You arriving late to the breaking of the Null Cradle didn’t just cost you the Unbound Living Paradox.”

His tone was emotionless, clinical. But his fingers curled as he continued.

”It meant the Veiled Sunfolds now possess something else.”

”A Key.”

The word landed like a weight across the collapsed Folds.

The Atlantian hissed.

The blue-haired Master’s third eye narrowed dangerously.

They understood.

This was no ordinary discovery.

Hannibal stared at the projection still floating before them. At the smiling figure of Noah Osmont. At the carefree, gluttonous anomaly who’d unlocked a Key without even knowing it.

”Etheopa kept it from me. And Shen’s deployment was rushed. They may suspect me- maybe, but they suspect something.”

He stepped closer into the misty veil, voice now edged like a blade.

”But it doesn’t matter. That Key could very well change everything. If it leads to what destiny points to...we may have found the resources we’ve been waiting for. Something to finally breach the plateau. A way to move forward in our realms. And if she is hiding even more...we cannot let it be discovered by dozens of Fold Dwellers to share resources with.”

WAA!

The others said nothing.

Because there were no words to spare.

They knew exactly what Hannibal was implying.

They were Masters.

And for them, advancement was everything!

No matter who had to be ground down to achieve it!