Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4049: Sir! I

In the distance, the white rays of Order finally began to fade from the Transcendent Paradoxical Folds, leaving only normal impossibility in their wake. But the changes those rays had initiated, the transformations they had catalyzed, those would continue rippling through existence!

It would be known across the Folds.

Order…had returned!

The Kleos Concordat approached, and with it, convergences that would reshape many things

But for now, there was only waiting. And stories. And the memory of Everythings… given and received!

—

Perception shapes reality in ways that transcend the physical. How one believes they are perceived by others can transform their entire mental landscape, creating prisons or palaces from nothing more than assumption.

Some walk through existence crushed beneath imagined judgment.

They believe others see them as strange, inadequate, unworthy.

This perception becomes a weight that bends their shoulders, dims their voice, makes them smaller with each passing day. Anxiety blooms from seeds that were never planted, depression grows from soil that exists only in their minds!

Others stride forward wrapped in assumed admiration. They believe themselves seen as intelligent, confident, capable. This perception becomes armor and wings simultaneously, carrying them through challenges that might break those who doubt.

They act calm because they believe others expect calmness. They project confidence because they assume it’s already attributed to them.

The anxious do not know that they can always choose to do the same. To simply project confidence and calmness as this…would change their lives immensely!

Across existence, perception determines trajectories. Wars have been fought over how nations believed they were viewed.

Loves have died from assumptions about what a glance meant.

Entire civilizations have risen or fallen based on how they thought history would remember them!

But…there was one being who cared remarkably little for how others perceived him.

In Aeternitas Concordia, Noah’s merchant body remained in the domed garden with the tranquility of someone tending their own backyard.

He examined the plants with genuine interest, though he noted they weren’t as terrifying as the ones he had planted in his Shore. These were domesticated things, powerful but tamed, lacking the raw potential of truly wild growth.

His contemplation shattered as the garden suddenly buzzed and shook with the force of multiple arrivals.

Duke-level Living Origins materialized in rapid succession, their combined presence making reality pay attention!

But it was Duke Gwendolyn whose fury blazed brightest, her eyes locking onto Noah with intensity that could have melted lesser beings.

She hauled the still-unconscious bodies of Thessaly and Altheon like sacks of grain, dumping them unceremoniously as her focus remained fixed on him. When she spoke, her voice cracked with barely controlled rage.

“Where is she?!”

The question rang through the garden with force that made the tamed plants tremble.

Every Duke present immediately understood…somehow, impossibly, this merchant was the one who had taken what they had gone to retrieve from the Transcendent Paradoxical Folds. THE Living Order had vanished under his influence!

A dozen Dukes of Living Origins fixed their gazes upon him. Each stare carried enough weight to crush Prime Living Existences into paste. The combined pressure of their attention should have been unbearable, should have forced him to his knees or worse.

Noah bore it without flinching.

After all, he had moved through an Existential Trembling. This was merely… attention.

He looked at Duke Gwendolyn with the same calm he’d shown while examining plants. When he spoke, his voice carried no stress, no acknowledgment of the pressure bearing down upon him.

“She is safe. Somewhere where she cannot be threatened by Paradoxes, Inevitabilities… or anything else.” He paused, his gaze drifting away from Gwendolyn though his words remained clearly directed.

“And best of all, nobody knows where. So nobody cannot just blab away everything about her.”

…!

The accusation landed with precision that made Duke Gwendolyn’s nature flare visibly.

“You…!” Power pulsed from her form, the might of a Duke making space crack around her edges. “The Living Order is not yours to take and make decisions for! She belongs to and with the Living Origins! For you to come in here and do all this… just who do you think you-”

WU!

Before she could finish, brilliant authority erupted from Duke Whisker. The tiny mouse’s power vibrated through existence with such force that reality itself considered trembling.

Almost trembled. The fact that it only almost happened made the display more terrifying than if it had fully manifested.

Duke Gwendolyn’s words died instantly. Her nostrils flared, fists clenched white, as she continued staring at Noah with fury that had no outlet.

Duke Whisker’s ancient gaze moved across the assembled Dukes before settling on Noah with weight that transcended simple observation.

“Leave us,” he said to the others. “I will ascertain things here.”

Several Dukes shifted, clearly wanting to object. They were Dukes…who was Whisker to dismiss them like subordinates?

The answer came as the small mouse’s body began radiating terrifying white light. Not of Origin, but of Beginning itself…something more fundamental, more absolute.

The other Dukes found themselves moving toward the exits without conscious decision, their bodies obeying before their minds could object!

Duke Whisker clearly held a unique position among the Dukes of Living Origins, one that transcended simple seniority or power.

Duke Valen left with a knowing nod, his blind eyes seeing more than sight allowed. Duke Gwendolyn was the last to depart, her reluctance visible in every movement, but even she couldn’t resist that white light of Beginning.

When the garden held only Noah and the tiny Duke, the atmosphere shifted completely.

Duke Whisker studied Noah for a long moment. Then the somber tension he had been radiating dissolved, replaced by something almost conversational!

He breathed out, a surprisingly human gesture from such a form, and spoke with calm certainty.

“Sir, I apologize for how your interactions with Living Origins have gone so far.”

BOOM!

The word hit Noah with more force than any attack could have.

Sir.

A Duke of the Living Origins had called him ‘Sir.’

Noah’s composed expression buzzed slightly, genuine surprise showing through. “For what reason could you be calling me Sir?”

…!

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