Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3813: Unbeatable! II

Sigrid’s voice faded with finality.

Silence lingered like a thin veil after a thunderclap, its weight heavy.

Master Shen slowly turned, eyes narrowed in clear disbelief. He shook his head with the lazy grace of a man unsure if he was drunk or struck.

”...I feel like I missed some critical parts of this story,” he muttered. ”That little tidbit you told everyone at the beginning and this one...there seems to be a gap in between!”

His gaze swept between her and Noah.

Noah stood motionless.

But his eyes, crimson-gold and sharp like a thousand spinning blades, were radiant.

The implications twisted through his mind with perfect clarity.

The Living Paradox... it had spread its influence across the Folds not through domination, but through orchestration. Through a trade. A contract of despair. And all it had needed was for a being to give away its everything.

He analyzed what it meant, what it could still mean.

But for now, he focused.

”To defeat an Inevitability,” he said softly, almost to himself, ”one must give it everything.”

Then, louder. With clarity.

”If the solution is everything...”

His body surged with Living Origin Authority.

”...then let us give it everything.”

...!

CRACK!

His arm rose like judgment passed. From his palm, the air screamed.

Then...

BOOM.

From his hand, incandescent fireballs of ancient suns streaked upward like a chain of miniature supernovae. Crimson-gold flames, radiant and primal, shot toward the screeching Inevitability above.

Each sun was forged with Authority.

Each one, a piece of Origin.

The Inevitability screamed in euphoric hunger. Its writhing mass, layered with wings and pulsating crimson tendrils, absorbed them greedily.

SHAAA!

It consumed them all.

And from its body...

BOOOM!

A brilliant new wing erupted, featherless and veined with white runes. Its aura intensified into a storm.

But it did not stop there.

The Inevitability countered.

From its bulging core, jagged tentacles erupted like a sea of falling blades. Hundreds of them. Each one radiating existential rot and imitated authority.

They fell like a crimson-gold monsoon upon Noah, Sigrid, and Master Shen.

Master Shen’s face twisted into grim resolve.

His foot stomped down, the Tree quaking as a shockwave of green-gold runes bloomed beneath him.

”[Verdant Bastion: Wrath of Rootbound Yggdrasil].”

BOOM!

From the roots beneath him, a colossal wall of spiraling wood and mythic bark erupted. Glowing with ancient sigils, it formed an arched bulwark etched with the memory of the First Tree.

Dozens of tentacles slammed into it...

CRACK!

And shattered through its layers.

Sigrid stepped forward as golden threads wove between her fingertips.

Her face was serious but resolute.

”[Sanctuary of the Origin Warden],” she whispered.

HUUM!

A circle of blinding white runes expanded around them, forming a dome with intricate spirals of celestial script.

HUMMMM!

Light bloomed.

An enormous statue formed at its center- an Origin Warden, faceless and serene, its arms spread in a glorious embrace. It radiated waves of calm.

From it came wonders.

And they came just in time!

Because the remaining tentacles came with fury.

They struck.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM!

The dome of white light shook.

Cracks spread like veins across its shell.

But it held.

Barely.

Inside, Noah stood untouched, still feeding fireballs upward with a raised hand. The stream never faltered. A constant beam of flame like molten scripture surged toward the Inevitability.

It drank it all.

Screamed in glee.

And grew again.

A pulse of crimson-gold light exploded from the Inevitability’s mass.

Then... it retaliated.

Crimson gold light radiated from its dozen eyes.

All across the vast region of the World Tree, the bark trembled.

Crimson-gold roots instantly erupted like coiling serpents across branches.

And then...

BOOM!

From all around, pillars of consuming ruin exploded upward.

Rays of ”ending” descended like falling moons, erasing all they touched in streaks of imploding reality.

Master Shen gritted his teeth.

From his chest, an emerald sphere burst forth, merging with the roots below and forming a titanic image of the World Tree behind him. A tree layered with runes, twisting upward to shield against the devastating end-rays.

THOOOM!

Sigrid reinforced her Sanctuary of the Origin Warden, as the massive Warden statue lifted its hands and extended its wings of script.

Crimson-gold beams struck.

BANG!

The shields cracked, but held.

Smoke and steam erupted.

Master Shen stumbled.

Sigrid’s breathing became heavy.

Noah?

Noah was untouched.

Still feeding flame upward.

Still watching the Inevitability with eyes like blades of insight.

Master Shen drank from his gourd, no humor in his eyes.

”If you continue feeding it and it gets even stronger...What if it explodes after it skewers us?”

Noah didn’t look at him.

He just smiled.

Cold. Calm. Calculated.

”Then I hope the two of you can hold on.”

He stepped forward.

”Because otherwise...”

His fire intensified.

Crimson-gold mini suns howled through the air.

”...we all die.”

...!

And so it raged.

A battle against inevitability.

A battle where the only solution... was to give it everything.

—

Elsewhere, within the tranquil dominion of one of tremendous Origin.

Serenity reigned.

The surface of the sea shimmered with threads of crimson-gold. Tides of Living Origin ebbed and flowed not with force, but with grace. The sky mirrored the sea- boundless, iridescent, swirled with spiraling currents of Authority.

Clouds of lattice-woven runes drifted like whales across the high firmament, casting veils of quiet over all.

And above this peaceful realm, seated atop a floating bloom of Origin crystal, was the Origin Descendant.

Still.

Silent.

His eyes closed.

But then...

He opened them and turned his head slightly... to the east.

A gentle breeze carried a playful chuckle. And from the horizon, amidst curling bands of light, a new figure stepped forth across the sky. A woman clad in robes stitched from radiant script and harmonic origins of existence. Her skin shimmered with dawnlight, and her hair flowed like calligraphy unfurling.

Her presence breathed Living Origin Authority.

Just like his.

She smiled wide, amusement glinting in her eyes.

”Mmm, so I wasn’t mistaken,” she said, walking barefoot across the surface of the sea, each step blooming runes beneath her feet. ”I heard from the Labyrinth Guiders... that your domain here has some entrants from the Folds under the Living Paradoxes?”

The Origin Descendant didn’t move.

Didn’t answer at first.

But as she came closer, he finally gave a slow nod, barely perceptible.

”Mm.”

She exhaled in wonder, then floated down beside him, forming a twin bloom of Origin crystal. She sat with her legs folded beneath her, chin propped in one palm.

”May I tap into your strings then?” she asked sweetly. ”Just to peek? I promise not to interfere...”

His gaze shifted toward her.

Unamused.

”Must you be curious,” he said, voice deep and composed, ”with so many terrifying things moving across Existence?”

He looked away once more, facing the waves of Authority and the thousands of crimson-gold threads stretching far and wide.

”I’ve already confirmed them. All of them are mere Fold Dwellers. They’ve lived under the shade of Paradox, but none bear the Blood of the Foldless Ones. If they did...” His tone sharpened, faintly. ”I would have intervened. Removed them myself.”

...!

The woman’s smile didn’t fade.

She leaned back, hands behind her head.

”You’re just like the others. Always so prejudiced against anything even touched by the Living Paradoxes.”

He didn’t rise to the bait.

His voice remained calm. Measured.

”There’s reason enough for that prejudice. We all remember what the Living Paradox did for many years. All of us have heard the Stories of the Earliest Folds, and what happened through the Revered Creature.”

The woman raised her gaze skyward at that, expression softening with faint reminiscence.

”...The Stories of the Earliest Folds. Whatever some may say, many things would not be possible today without the Living Paradox...” she echoed gently. ”Do you think, if these Fold Dwellers knew the Stories, they might actually stand a chance? Against the Imitation Mutated Inevitabilities, at least?”

He didn’t reply at first.

She waited.

And finally...

”Maybe.”

He turned slightly, eyes glinting with subdued contemplation.

”But if they have sufficient Origin, if they survive long enough and climb high enough within this Labyrinth, then they will naturally reach distinction. And when they do... they will be shown many things. Including the Stories.”

...!

At that moment.

HUUM.

A soft burst of light pulsed across the sea of Authority.

A ring of runes spun into being as a small figure appeared- no more than a few inches tall, with wings of geometric light and hair that shifted between hues of red and gold.

The Labyrinth Guider of this domain.

She floated gracefully toward the pair of Origin Descendants, bowing her head with solemn respect.

”My Lords,” she said, her voice like falling wind chimes.

She turned first to the seated man.

”A unique new battle is unfolding. One of the Fold Dwellers... seems to have deciphered something.”

...!

At this, she lifted her small hands and tugged on a seemingly invisible thread.

A wave of luminous lines bloomed before them, curling into an image suspended in Authority.

And in it...

Noah.

A figure of crimson-gold, feeding fire into the screaming form of a massive Inevitability.

Beside him- Sigrid, glowing like a holy beacon.

And Master Shen, a wall of resistance, as they fought not to destroy, but to feed.

The battle unfolded in real time.

The Origin Descendant and his peer watched silently!