Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3887: Frost and Crimson Teeth! II

The air beneath the canopy of frost stilled.

Above the broken branch carved from the Yggdrasil’s spine, Master Hannibal tilted his head back and stared upward.

The hunger in his gaze bled beyond predation as something deeper stirred in his eyes. Recognition. Calculation. A glimmer of joy twisted by the sheen of blood still wet on his lips.

”Well, well,” Hannibal’s voice slid out like a snake. ”You’ve come, both of you! Welcome!”

Kalysta whimpered in his grip, the side of her face smudged with blood and streaks of Kismet light. Her legs trembled as he held her aloft, hand clutching her ribs like a trophy.

The golden light around him rippled with amusement as he turned his gaze toward Noah.

”One anomaly that has no right wielding the strength she does,” Hannibal said, voice drenched in mockery. ”Who managed to strike against a Master of Existence. And another...” His eyes slid toward Noah. ”Who carries a Key stolen from the Chronosect of Threadbound Folds.”

He licked a sliver of Kalysta’s blood from his lower lip as he breathed in happily.

”Destiny has grown... playful. Perhaps a little too generous. Kismet shines far too brilliantly on me today.”

Snow stirred beneath Noah’s feet as he began floating forward.

No hurry. No grandeur. Just the sound of the wind brushing over his shoulders, his robes rippling in the wake of frozen breath.

Sigrid moved with him, her expression one of calm anger.

From across the vast limb of the tree, Master Etheopa bellowed out hoarsely. Her one good eye flared with alarm.

”You two! Leave! Find Master Shen and the other Masters of the Veiled Sunfolds and bring help!”

Her voice cracked, desperation shredding her authority. But Noah didn’t look her way.

His gaze remained on the blood-slicked form of Kalysta.

Her body hung limp, one arm twisted unnaturally, but her eyes met his again. Even through agony, she continued to look at him the same as she had a look of...

Trust.

Noah shook his head wryly as why did this girl trust him to save her when she still knew so little about him?

But...she was right!

”One second.”

He didn’t shout.

He didn’t raise his authority.

He simply spoke.

”I’m giving you one second,” Noah said, his tone coated in frost, ”to let go of the girl in your hands.”

HUUM!

The silence that followed wasn’t still.

It was suffocating.

All things paused... waiting to see what came next!

One second.

The words hovered in the air like the stillness before an avalanche, impossible to ignore.

Noah’s voice threaded through the frost-laced winds and etched into the bones of every figure in that vast, frozen domain. Even the cold itself seemed to grow quieter, as if the landscape had held its breath and waited...almost as if asking what the hell was about to happen?!

Master Etheopa’s battered face twitched as her aura flickered, golden tendrils of power humming uncertainly. The Primarchs behind her, bloodied and weary, stood stock still.

Only Kalysta... smiled.

A tremulous smile. One lined with blood and pain, but also relief as if she knew after that one second, she would be free.

Her eyes burned with Kismet and resolve, even as Hannibal’s cruel grip tightened over her.

Far beyond the four colossal Trees of Yggdrasil, the distant sky shimmered.

Auras, dozens and dozens of them, flickered across the white-gold horizon like pricks of starlight on canvas. Fold Dwellers. Some Originus Venerants. Most were Primarchs!

They were being pulled here, drawn to the buzz of authority like moths to the final blaze.

In the center of it all, Master Hannibal chuckled. A slow, arrogant chuckle, as his blood-slicked lips curved upward, teeth gleaming red.

”One second?” he echoed, derision thick in his voice. ”Even if you gave me a day-!”

BOOM!

Existence blinked.

That was all.

One breath. One flicker of time.

And in the next instant, his entire form collapsed downward with an earth-rending crash.

BOOM!

The sound reverberated like the existence itself had cracked open!

The white trunk beneath his feet cratered as his limbs shattered. Hammers of crimson gold protection, barriers spun from his Archetype...none of it remained!

His body smashed against the Yggdrasil like a sack of bloodied pulp. Bones became jelly. Flesh flattened into grotesque shapes as his face spasmed and contorted, blood pouring from his ears and nostrils.

The hand holding Kalysta was no more.

Gone.

Severed by a force that left no sound, no wind, no flash of light.

Kalysta’s form, frail and broken, drifted gently toward the approaching figures of Noah and Sigrid.

Sigrid raised her palm, golden threads blooming from her fingertips. A soft ray of radiance wrapped around Kalysta’s chest and spine, weaving itself through her ruined limbs as her body began to heal in a pulse of glorious warmth.

Kalysta gasped with wonder and relief!

Behind her, Master Hannibal quivered.

His limbs twitched sporadically. His mind reeled, still trying to understand what had happened.

Because...what the fuck had just happened?!

The Mannafolds Master near him had already begun to retreat. Inch by careful inch, he floated backward through the frost-bitten realm, unwilling to draw attention.

Eyes. So many eyes were currently on Noah!

Noah who now stepped forward, quiet and poised.

”I expected treachery,” he said, calmly. ”But I didn’t expect you to act this openly.”

His boots did not leave imprints on the frost. The snow curled away from his passage. There was no anger in his voice. No wrath. Just control.

Dominion.

Noah tilted his head slightly as he gazed at the crumpled form of Hannibal, who was trying, with trembling limbs, to rise.

”Did you truly think that simply being an Originus Venerant made you untouchable in this Labyrinth?” Noah asked. ”That the mechanics here would protect you from consequence?”

A low shudder passed through Hannibal’s body.

Noah’s forehead gleamed softly. The mark of a glyph pulsed with subtle light.

The Early Living Existential Glyph of the Protagonist.

Not a glyph borne of a Tower of Origin. Not a glyph from a mere Fold Dweller or even a Living Existence. It was the authority of an Early Creature!

Early! Creature!

And here, in the confines of this Labyrinth, that authority... held tremendous weight that others could not imagine.

Even if not a single Tower of Osmont was yet complete, the foundation of what they would become sat like an invisible crown atop his existence.

Paired with his 1,001% Resistance across all Existential, Noah did not even need to utilize the Archetype of the Runic Battle Mage.

Even stripped down, even as an echo of what he would be, he was still far above.

Sigrid floated beside him in silence. Kalysta now clutched her chest, breathing with ragged relief as the golden light continued to heal her wounds.

Noah’s gaze turned, catching Kalysta’s soft words as she looked up at him.

”Kismet... told me my death wasn’t yet here,” she whispered. ”And I kept seeing your face.”

His brows rose.

He turned to her only slightly, offering a faint nod as Master Etheopa’s injured form stood in stunned silence.

The young Unbound Paradox was this powerful?

Hannibal, whose entire frame was halfway twisted into a hunched posture, finally managed to raise his bloodied face and body- barely to his knees!

His jaw clicked.

”Are you...” he rasped, ”more than... an Unbound Young Paradox... now?”

BOOM.

The pressure hit again.

This time, not all at once. It came slowly.

Like a weight gradually increasing, second by second.

Hannibal dropped.

His knees cracked against the frost.

Hands slammed onto the ground.

The cold pierced through his skin and gnawed at his bones like thousands of unseen fangs.

Noah stood above him, eyes steady, his presence like a pillar of twilight set into the havens.

”How many from the Veiled Sunfolds,” Noah asked, voice low, ”have you killed and devoured?”

Hannibal didn’t answer.

His teeth clenched. His jaw twitched. His pride was being forced into the snow. An Originus Venerant, a Master of Existence, bowing under invisible pressure like an apprentice!

He was a Master, tried and true!

He couldn’t understand it.

Had it not only been hours? Had this Unbound creature not been a Primarch then?

How.

How?!

Rage boiled within his chest. Shame gnawed at his core.

But none of it mattered.

CRACK!

The frost beneath him shattered as his knees gave way further. His spine curled. His hands splayed across the frozen surface, and his aura sputtered uselessly as he found he fould not gain anything from his Garden!

”Wait...” he growled, blood dripping from his lips.

Noah let up.

Slightly.

Enough for him to breathe, to raise his head and stare through the red haze clouding his vision.

Noah stepped closer, until his presence enveloped Hannibal like a shadow drawn by a titan.

Again, he asked, his voice quiet, steady.

”How many?”

This time, Hannibal looked not at Noah, but at Etheopa.

There was no guilt in his eyes.

His breath came in shallow gasps.

”Over the years...” he said, voice heavy. ”Dozens of Primarchs. And...”

His face buzzed as the words clawed from his throat.

”...Master Tan.”

WAA!

The frost hissed.

The wind howled!