Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3975: I Am A Humble Merchant! I

There existed, in the grand weaving of existence, a fundamental truth that transcended all boundaries of power, wisdom, and cosmic understanding...one being’s shit could very well be another’s most coveted treasure.

Consider, if you will, the profound absurdity of this principle when applied to Early Creatures themselves.

What an Early Creature might casually discard as worthless detritus(shit), perhaps the crystallized remnants of a sneeze, or the shed scales from an idle scratch, would become objects of worship for Living Existences across entire Folds.

Wars would be fought over such ”shit.”

Entire civilizations would dedicate themselves to the pursuit of what amounted to existential garbage, simply because it had once been touched by power beyond their comprehension!

The excrement of an Early Creature? Folds would crumble beneath the weight of the bidding wars that would ensue.

Living Existences would sacrifice their accumulated power of eons for a single grain of such material, believing...correctly, that even the waste products of such beings contained more concentrated authority than they could generate in millennia of cultivation!

Yet to the Early Creature who produced it? Nothing more than an inconvenience to be disposed of with the same casual indifference one might show toward discarding a used napkin.

Such was the laughable weavings of existence...value determined not by inherent worth, but by the vast chasms of power that separated one tier of being from another!

---

In the resplendent magnificence of Aeternitas Concordia, where golden towers stretched toward infinity and the very air shimmered with crystallized authority, four figures moved through corridors that hummed with the accumulated power of ages.

Alexander Asmodeus walked with the measured pace of one who was filled with confidence!

Beside him, Seraphina Valorheart moved with graceful precision, and Kaedric Voss maintained his position with the silent vigilance of a guardian.

But it was the fourth member of their group who commanded the most attention, even when she was trying to appear casual.

Royal Living Law Tristesse moved with the kind of barely contained energy that made reality itself nervous.

Her dark hair caught the ambient light of Concordia’s towers, while her pristine white robes seemed to drink in the authority that saturated the air around them!

Her aura was reigned in to the point where it appeared almost mundane, yet anyone with sufficient sensitivity could feel the vast forces held in check beneath her brilliant smile.

”Did you think,” she said, her voice carrying the kind of musical quality that made even casual conversation sound like a performance, ”that I would let you take my dear niece away all alone?”𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The question was delivered with such radiant warmth that it took several moments for the underlying menace to register.

Tristesse’s smile never wavered, never lost its brilliant intensity, even as her words carried implications that could have frozen the blood of lesser beings.

”I will personally guide you all through the Living Doorways of the Loom,” she continued, her tone maintaining that same dangerous sweetness. ”Because nowadays... well, too many crazy accidents are happening, don’t you think?”

She paused in her walking, turning to face Alexander with that radiant, terrifying smile still lighting up her features.

”It seems like every day, you hear about Honored and Royal Living Existences dying in the most unfortunate circumstances. You have to ask yourself... just who could be killing them, hmm?”

The way she posed the question made it sound like idle curiosity, the kind of wondering one might express about the weather.

Yet the undertones carried weight that suggested she knew far more about these ”accidents” than her casual demeanor suggested.

Alexander listened to her with calm composure.

When he replied, his words carried a confidence so absolute that it seemed to bend reality around its certainty.

”I have already looked into my future,” he said, his voice steady as the foundations of existence itself. ”Death is not in the cards for me.”

HUUM!

The statement hung in the air between them like a challenge issued to existence itself.

It was the simple declaration of someone who possessed knowledge that transcended normal understanding of possibility and consequence!

Tristesse’s smile grew even more dangerous at his words.

Yet even as her smile blazed with terrifying approval, she noticed something that caused its intensity to flicker.

Her niece, Seraphina Valorheart, was looking at Alexander with eyes that held far too much warmth, far too much interest, far too much of the kind of smitten devotion that made older relatives want to lock young people in towers until they developed better sense.

’How absolutely idiotic the young ones are nowadays...’ Tristesse grumbled internally, her thoughts carrying the exasperation of someone who had watched countless generations make the same mistakes!

Yet even her internal frustrations were interrupted as their progress through Concordia’s magnificent pathways was suddenly disrupted by a growing commotion ahead.

Voices began to rise from the crowds that moved along the golden roadways, carrying astonishment that cut through the usual ambient noise of commerce.

”He’s back!”

”He’s alone!”

”Which Royal Living Existence sponsored him?”

”How did he return so quickly?!”

The voices belonged to Fold Dwellers and Living Existences alike, their tones carrying a sense of shock!

Alexander and his companions turned their attention toward the source of the disturbance, their gazes following the pointing fingers and astonished stares that had begun to converge on a single location.

Before them stretched the heart of Aeternitas Concordia in all its impossible glory. Large golden crystalline towers stretched toward the skies on all sides, their surfaces reflecting and amplifying the ambient authority until the very air seemed to shimmer with liquid Living Existential Authority.

Through the center of this magnificent chaos ran a single golden pathway that led upward toward the ascending heights of Concordia...the Aureum Ascendant!

The road itself seemed alive, pulsing with the accumulated footsteps of countless beings who had walked its length in pursuit of advancement and glory.

Along the sides of this golden road, peak Originus Venerant Fold Dwellers had their stalls beneath massive banners.

If one ascended the golden road with sufficient attention, the transition became clear....the stalls of Fold Dwellers gradually gave way to the towers of Living Existences.

It was at this junction, at the precise point where Fold Dweller ambition met Living Existence authority, that Alexander and those around him found themselves staring in astonishment at a figure that should not have existed in this place.

Noah Osmont walked here in magnificent repose, adorned in a golden robe that seemed to drink in the ambient light of Concordia itself. The fabric was inscribed with infinity symbols that moved and shifted when observed directly!

Yet it was not the robe that captured attention, impressive though it was.

Upon his head sat a crown that defied every convention of royal regalia. The stellar obsidian circlet hung at an arrogant angle, its positioning suggesting casual dominance rather than formal ceremony!

The crown’s surface held depths that seemed to contain entire Folds of darkness.

Seraphina’s voice cut through the stunned silence, her words carrying shock that bordered on disbelief.

”Isn’t that your friend who was escorted away by an Honored Living Existence?”

...!