Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4027: Do Nothing! III

The grove...that monument to impossible agriculture, was gone. In its place was nothing.

The trees hadn’t been destroyed; the concept of their growth had been devoured. The soil hadn’t been scorched; the idea of fertility had been consumed.

Noah looked up through the absence where beauty had been and witnessed something that transcended his understanding.

The First Farmer stood in the space above, holding a farming hoe that looked simple except for how reality bent around it in reverence. The tool dripped with something that might have been blood.

At his feet, or what served as feet for a being of his scale, lay the massive leg of an Early Creature, severed at the thigh. Crimson-gold droplets gushed from it like rivers, each drop containing enough authority to create or destroy Folds!

But it was the Farmer’s expression that struck Noah.

Viltharion, the One Who Gazed Upon THE Living Spirit, was crying!

Stellar tears rolled down features that had been carved by eons of patient work, each drop containing the condensed sorrow of watching everything he had built be destroyed in moments.

When he spoke, his voice carried the weight of grief transformed into rage!

”Why must it be like this?”

HUUUM!

The question rang through the devastated space, making even the absence of things pause to listen.

”We till the soil of existence. We plant. We nurture! We ask for nothing but the right to grow our crops in peace. Yet Early Creatures hunt us for sport or madness. Living Existences look down upon us as if we are insects unworthy of consideration. Inevitabilities unmake us for the crime of existing without paradox.”

His grip on the hoe tightened, and reality cracked around his fingers.

”We have no Glyphs to protect us. No Authority beyond what time grants through simple endurance. We are the forgotten children of existence, neither transcendent enough to matter nor insignificant enough to be ignored!”

The tears continued to fall, but his voice grew stronger, angrier!

”But I will change things. I WILL change the position of Fold Dwellers, even if I have to hide them in the spaces between Folds themselves! Even if I have to dig beneath Existence to plant gardens where no Early Creature can reach! Even if I have to cultivate Principles in darkness until we become something that cannot be hunted!”

HUUM!

His roar shook the foundations of the domain as in his bellows and rage...he sensed life.

His gaze fell upon Noah...the sole survivor of the carnage.

The anger in those ancient eyes transformed into pity.

”Child,” he said, his voice gentling despite the rage that still burned within, ”you cannot remain here any longer. You will perish in seconds in a place devoid of the concept of life itself. I will send you...far from here.”

He raised the hoe, and reality prepared to obey whatever command would follow.

”If I succeed in my goals, I will save you and all other Fold Dwellers. We will have our place in existence, our safety, our right to simply be.” His expression grew complex, mixing determination with sorrow. ”For now, take the latest result of my failures, and some fond memories...”

With these words, Viltharion waved his hand. Light erupted around Noah...encompassing, wrapping him in complexity so dense it formed a cocoon of pure authority.

The last thing Noah saw was the First Farmer standing amid devastation, tears still falling as he gazed at farmland that would never grow again.

Never again!

Then space folded, and Noah was elsewhere.

|Your existence has been wrapped by extremely complex authority for Emergency Evacuation across Fold Boundaries. Destination is random.|

|Item Received: Failed Seed of the Principle of Perpetual Harvest- Viltharion’s attempt to cultivate a Principle that would allow infinite growth without depletion. Status: Incomplete - Missing crucial understanding. Can be completed with proper knowledge or materials.|

...!

Prompts flashed amidst a storm of authority!

As Noah tumbled through spaces between spaces, the weight of what he had witnessed settled into his bones. He had sought advancement and found tragedy! He had gained power through sacrifice he never asked for!

And somewhere in the Earliest Folds, a Farmer continued to cry over fields that would never bloom again, planning revolution that would echo through the Folds!

It was enough for him to ask...why things were the way they were in the current Era.

Where...were the powerful Fold Dwellers?!

Where was the First Farmer?!

As his existence buzzed, he appeared in the new region with a sensation like being spat out by existence itself. His feet found purchase on ground that might have been stone or crystallized thought, and for a moment, he simply stood there, expression heavy as mountains that had witnessed too much.

Before he could process his surroundings, prompts continued to cascade across his vision.

|Additional Items Transferred by Viltharion, the First Farmer. Seed of the Tender’s Tree- One of the first successful seeds Viltharion cultivated after meeting THE Living Spirit. When planted and matured: Produces small humanoid lifeforms that exist solely to tend farming plots. Lifeforms possess no consciousness but perfect agricultural instinctm Each tree can produce 10 Tenders per cycle.|

|Seed of the Singular Prosperity Grass. A culmination of early experiments in concentrated growth. Produces a single blade of grass after 100 days. Consumption grants: +1,000,000,000 Complexity and +1,000,000,000 Purity Quotient.|

Noah gazed at the seeds materializing in his palm with an expression that mixed gratitude with something far more complex. The weight of them felt wrong... emotionally.

These weren’t just gifts; they were inheritance from someone who might never fulfill their own dreams.

He had made tremendous gains in the Earliest Folds so far in the midst of terrifying danger.

His complexity had soared, yet his existence felt sour, like fruit that had ripened in shadow rather than sunlight.

Silvara’s face burned in his mind...that final expression of fear mixed with determination, with that smile that said she regretted nothing.

She had known him for minutes at most, yet had given everything.

Everything.

What was her Everything worth?

The weight of that sacrifice pressed against his consciousness.

Threnvar, who had saved him, whom he hadn’t even seen die. Had the Keeper of the Eighth Perimeter fallen in those first seconds of crimson light? Or had he survived only to witness the devastation of everything he had sworn to protect?

The Mad Early Creature itself...that thing that moved while devouring entire concepts from areas, leaving behind nothing but absence!

Noah’s eyes burned with anger. It was the kind of rage that could fuel centuries of purpose!

But overshadowing even that was the image of the First Farmer, tears streaming down his ancient face as he stood over devastation with the severed leg of an Early Creature at his feet.

Viltharion had actually pushed away an Early Creature, had made it lose a limb...a feat that should have been impossible for a Fold Dweller.

All of them were unfathomably powerful by any reasonable measure, yet power hadn’t been enough.

It was never enough when the disparities were so vast.

How had Noah managed to survive when beings far greater had fallen?!