Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3959: Advancement and Inevitabilities! III

The space they had materialized in defied common sense!

Walls of flaming obsidian gold rose on all sides...left, right, above, and below, creating a cube of scorching paradox that had no true orientation.

The flames themselves were wrong, burning with heat that froze and cold that seared, their light casting shadows that were somehow brighter than the surfaces they fell upon.

The obsidian was not solid but liquid, not liquid but gas, not gas but something that existed in states for which no words had been invented!

”Young Miss,” Thessaly’s voice rang out from behind them, already hidden in the veils of existence alongside Altheon, their presence undetectable yet undeniably close.

”We are right behind and will act as soon as danger appears.”

Sigrid nodded. ”Let me act first. If I cannot handle it, then you may make your move.”

There was no verbal response, but Noah felt the acknowledgment silently.

Beside him, the massive figure of Titano remained visible, his presence a mountain of barely contained violence that somehow managed to be reassuring rather than threatening.

The being’s expression had shifted to one of serious contemplation.

”Brother,” Titano said, his voice carrying that distinctive broken cadence that somehow made his words more impactful, ”Can I stay and talk with you as we go? I have much to learn.”

Noah couldn’t help but smile at this terrifying entity he had yet to fully figure out who spoke with such earnest sincerity. ”Sure.”

They began moving through the doorway, each step requiring conscious effort against the environment’s attempts to unmake them. The ground beneath their feet was simultaneously solid and intangible!

Titano looked down at his massive hands, flexing fingers that Noah knew could shatter the existence of powerful Living Existences.

”Brother,” he said, ”All I know is how to break the bones and bodies of Living Existences and Inevitabilities. How can I get rich like you?”

...!

The question, delivered with such brutal honesty, made Noah’s estimation of this being rise even further.

He was honest when it came to this simple being that he actually liked due to his nature.

”It will be too hard to get rich exactly like me,” Noah said, choosing his words with care. ”But you can use your strength to get rich. Tell me, brother, how many Living Existences have you killed so far?”

Titano’s brow furrowed with the effort of recall, his lips moving slightly as he appeared to count on mental fingers. ”I have broken the heads and existence of fifty-five Honored Living Paradoxes.” He paused, continuing his mental tally. ”Nine Honored Living Elementals. Seven Honored Living Origins.”

...!

Another pause, then almost as an afterthought: ”Oh, and two Royal Living Origins.”

HUUM!

The casual delivery of such a tremendous kill count made Noah’s expression sharpen with newfound respect, while beside them, Sigrid actually stumbled, her shock breaking through her composed exterior!

He had killed Honored AND Royal Living Origins?! Why?!

Before Titano could continue what was clearly going to be an even longer list, Thessaly materialized.

Her expression had darkened to something approaching actual anger, an emotion that seemed foreign on her fairy-like features.

”Titano,” she said, ”Duke Gwendolyn told you to never mention your missions to others.”

Titano blinked with the confusion of someone who had been following rules he didn’t quite understand. ”But this is Brother,” he said, gesturing toward Noah with one massive hand. ”The man who bagged the Young Miss. He is not among ’others,’ is he?”

WAA!

The simple logic, delivered with such straightforward certainty, made Noah laugh.

”Right,” Noah said, wrapping an arm around Titano’s shoulder in a gesture that required him to reach significantly upward. ”I am a close Brother, so you can tell me anything!”

His voice took on a conspiratorial tone. ”Why were you ordered to kill all those Living Existences?”

Titano’s response came without hesitation. ”They were Traitors.”

The single word hung in the paradoxical air like a death sentence already carried out. Noah nodded thoughtfully, filing away this information about the complexities within the Coalition of Living Existences.

”Okay,” he said, maintaining his casual tone despite the weight of what he was learning. ”What did you do with their bodies?”

Titano blinked again, clearly puzzled by the question. ”Nothing? Broken bones and muscles are useless to Titano.”

Noah shook his head with the patient exasperation of a teacher. ”Brother, the corpses of your enemies are one of the best ways to get rich! It is high quality Loot! If you had given me a corpse of an Honored Living Existence right now, I could make you very rich.”

The transformation in Titano’s expression was immediate and profound.

His eyes brightened with the fervor of someone who had just discovered a fundamental truth about existence! He nodded so vigorously that the air around him displaced in visible waves, his white gold muscular skin vibrating.

”What about Inevitabilities?” he asked with growing excitement.

”If you capture for me an Inevitability equivalent to an Honored Living Existence,” Noah said, ”I’ll make you just as rich.”

Titano’s eyes blazed with purpose as he beat his chest with enough force to create thunderclaps in the paradoxical space. ”Titano will break all Inevitabilities to get rich!”

His booming declaration echoed through the domain with terrifying intensity, seeming to bounce off the flaming obsidian walls in ways that multiplied and magnified the sound until it became a roar of challenge.

A challenge!

A challenge that no entity within this space could possibly ignore.

The response...was immediate.

”SKEEE!”

The sound that answered Titano’s challenge was not quite a scream, not quite a roar, but something that existed in the space between...a harrowing cry that spoke of hunger so vast it had gained consciousness, of absence so profound it had learned to hate everything that dared to exist!

Up ahead, where the corridor of flaming obsidian gold seemed to twist into a knot of spatial impossibility, thousands of tentacles erupted into being!

They did not emerge from anywhere so much as simply decide to exist, each one a different shade of wrong- some were transparent yet cast solid shadows, others were solid yet translucent, and still others seemed to exist in states that Noah’s enhanced perception could only classify as ”probably there.”

But what made his expression sharpen with genuine interest was not the tentacles themselves, but what his prompts immediately identified.

|A type of Inevitability has been observed : The Gnawing Absence of Purpose|

|Threat Level: Honored Living Existence Equivalent|

|Warning: Paradoxical Proliferation taking effect|

HUUM!

Before their eyes, the single mass of tentacles shimmered like heat mirages on a summer road.

Then, where one horror had been, five identical versions materialized, each one absolutely real, each one independently conscious yet somehow sharing a distributed intelligence that made them more dangerous than five separate entities could ever be.

The tentacles surged toward them with the inexorable certainty of entropy itself, each appendage seeking to unmake, to drag them into whatever nightmare of non-existence spawned such creatures.

Beside him, Sigrid stepped forward, and Noah felt the air change as Living Order began to assert itself against the chaos of this domain.

In another direction, a muscular force of nature had an excited expression as he looked towards the Inevitability while punching his chest, his booming roar echoing out as he also moved!

”Titano! Will get! Rich!”

...!

The tentacles surged forward with the inexorable hunger of existence denied, each appendage a different shade of impossibility!

They moved without pattern yet with terrible purpose, some phasing through the obsidian flames as if they didn’t exist, others treating the fire as solid surfaces to push against, and still others seemed to exist in multiple positions simultaneously until the moment of observation collapsed them into singular, terrible reality!

Titano’s response was immediate and gloriously simple.

”I BREAK YOU TO GET RICH, INEVITABILITY!”

HUUM!

The declaration boomed through the paradoxical space with such force that the flaming walls actually flickered, as if his voice alone carried enough conviction to make even this twisted domain pay attention.

Then he moved, and Noah finally understood why Duke Gwendolyn kept this being as her personal weapon and gave him missions to even kill Royal Living Origins.

There was no technique to Titano’s assault, no sophisticated manipulation of Living Existential Authority or clever application of authority.

He simply reached out with hands that had broken Royal Living Existences and grabbed the nearest cluster of tentacles with the casual certainty of someone picking flowers. The appendages, each one dense enough with paradoxical authority to crush an ordinary Living Existence into conceptual paste, tore like wet paper in his grip!

”Break!” Titano roared, ripping another section free with his left hand while his right pulverized three more tentacles into a spray of impossible fluids that existed in too many dimensions at once.

”Break for richness!”

...!

The Inevitability screamed with five overlapping voices that created a sound that should not have been possible. Each of its proliferated bodies felt the damage, sharing the pain across their distributed consciousness in ways that made them writhe with synchronized agony!

Yet for every tentacle Titano destroyed, two more seemed to manifest from the twisted space between existence and void.

The massive being didn’t care. He waded into the mass of writhing appendages like a child playing in ocean waves, each movement destructive beyond comprehension.

And again...there was not really any burst of Authority around him!

When tentacles wrapped around his arms, he flexed and they shattered!

When they tried to pierce his skin, they bent and broke against muscle that had been forged through eons of violence.

When they attempted to unmake him with paradoxical authority, he simply refused to acknowledge their attempts, his existence too stubbornly simple to be undone by complexity.

”Brother, I am very strong, yes?!” he called out to Noah mid-destruction, casually backhanding a tentacle thick as an ancient tree trunk into obliteration. ”Titano will break many things! Soon very rich!”

...!

But even Titano’s terrifying might could only do so much against five bodies that shared consciousness yet acted independently.

The tentacles began to adapt, learning from each destruction, beginning to weave patterns that even his tremendous strength couldn’t simply tear through.

They were...Inevitable.

They started moving in quantum uncertainties, existing in probable positions until the moment of impact, making it impossible to grab what wasn’t definitely there!

It was at this moment that Sigrid stepped forward.

The change in the atmosphere was immediate and absolute.

Where before the air had tasted of paradox and contradiction, now something else began to assert itself...something that predated the chaos, something that remembered when existence had structure and meaning and purpose!

Her face lit up with white brilliance that had nothing to do with external light sources.

It was illumination that came from within, from the very core of what she was becoming.

Her hair, those striking strands of white and dark, began to dance in winds that existed in dimensions where order still reigned supreme.

Each strand moved with deliberate grace, creating patterns that had been perfect before paradox had ever learned to question them.

She raised her hand with the slow majesty of inevitable consequence, and in that gesture was contained the weight of every law that had ever been written, every rule that had ever brought structure from chaos, every moment when existence had chosen meaning over entropy!

Then she brought her hand down, and with perfect clarity that cut through the screaming chaos of battle, she spoke a single word.

”Order.”

Order.

...!

Oh, fucking Order!