Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4150 Who Is He?! V

Noahʼs eyes flashed brilliantly as he gauged the power of this terrifying entity.

His enhanced perception, refined through impossible experiences and elevated beyond normal limitations, attempted to get a read on Goliathʼs actual power level.

But the measurement itself was paradoxical…the numbers fluctuated unstably, simultaneously exceeding and falling below one quadrillion, both realities equally true and equally false.

It could could be 100 Trillion, 900 Trillion, or 2 Quadrillion all at once as his nature made it unsure!

This was a powerful being in ways that transcended simple accumulation of complexity and purity. This was something that had made reality itself accept contradictions as truth.

Khor nodded at Goliath with something that might have been approval. ”Yeah, among those here, this one seems more like a strong one. But...”

Her eyes blinked, a motion that seemed too normal for someone of her nature, and her gaze focused on an area behind the massive serpent.

Behind Goliath, floating with the kind of grace that suggested gravity was a personal choice. Duke Diviticus could be seen.

She was another distinguished Duke, her form wrapped in white and obsidian radiance that didnʼt so much illuminate as suggest that darkness and light had reached an agreement.

She was adorned in a simple white-black dress that buzzed with paradox…simple and elaborate, revealing and concealing all at once.

And behind her, almost lost in the shadow of such luminous impossibilities, was a figure that seemed to actively resist attention.

A beggar-looking paradox in ragged clothes that might have been made from the fabric of space-time that had given up on maintaining its dignity.

His appearance was simultaneously the most and least important thing in the amphitheater…forgotten and unforgettable, insignificant and essential.

Khor actually came to focus on him, her expression shifting through surprise to confusion to something that looked almost like recognition trying to happen but being prevented by some force that transcended mere forgetfulness!

She blinked again, tilting her head with the particular angle of someone trying to remember a dream while still inside it.

”Who is that one?” she asked, the question carrying more weight than such simple words should be able to bear.

Noahʼs eyes shone brilliantly with interest!

Why would Khor, this being from the Earliest Folds who treated Duke-level existence as barely noteworthy, go out of her way to ask about what appeared to be the least impressive figure in the entire gathering?

”That,” Noah replied, his voice carrying layers of meaning that suggested he understood more than he was saying, ”is Schrodinger.”

The name landed in their conversation like a stone thrown into perfectly still water, creating ripples that spread in directions that included ones that didnʼt exist.

Schrodinger.

Khor tilted her head further, the angle becoming almost impossible as she seemed to be trying to remember something that aggressively resisted being remembered!

Her expression cycled through confusion to recognition to confusion again, as if the memory itself was paradoxical.

Then she said something that made even Noahʼs tyrannically calm demeanor flicker with surprise.

”I feel like I remember that face. I just cannot recall from exactly where.”

BOOM!

The words echoed in their private bubble of conversation with the weight of impossibility acknowledging impossibility!

Khor was an extremely old entity from the Earliest Folds. She had existed before existence had properly figured out how to exist.

She had witnessed the rise of Early Creatures, the establishment of Principles, the original attempts at creating structure from chaos!

Why… would she remember the face of Schrodinger?

The question hung between them like a paradox itself…answerable and unanswerable, significant and meaningless, true and false, all at once!

Noah gazed at Schrodinger with a complex expression.

Beside him, Khor seemed genuinely stumped…an emotion that looked foreign on her ancient features, like watching a mountain experience surprise.

Her fingers traced absent patterns in the air as if trying to physically grasp memories that slipped away the moment she approached them.

”This is fascinating,” she muttered, her voice carrying frustration. ”Why would that creatureʼs face be among my collapsed memories?”

The phrase ʼcollapsed memoriesʼ hung in the air.

Memories that existed in superposition until observed? Memories that had been deliberately folded away? Or perhaps memories that belonged to a version of existence that no longer was, or hadnʼt yet been, or was currently being?

Both she and Noah stared toward Schrodinger with blatant observation that would have been considered rude.

Their gazes carried weight- Noahʼs burning with tyrannical assessment, Khorʼs pressing with the force of eons trying to remember themselves.

The combined weight of their attention was impossible to ignore, even for someone whose entire nature revolved around existing in states of un-observation!

Schrodinger actually turned toward them, his movement neither sudden nor gradual.

One moment he wasnʼt looking at them, the next moment he was, with no transition between states that observation could catch.

Their gazes clashed across the impossible distance of the amphitheater.

The beggar-paradox blinked…an action that somehow seemed to reset local reality, as if that simple closing and opening of eyes determined which version of existence would continue forward.

His gaze moved between Noah and Khor with the interest of someone discovering an unexpected variable in an equation they thought theyʼd solved.

But tellingly, devastatingly, he showed no signs of recognition toward Khor.

This being from the Earliest Folds, this entity whose memories predated the proper structuring of memory itself, might as well have been a stranger.

Instead, Schrodinger focused entirely on Noah, and then, even more surprisingly…he nodded.

The nod was acknowledgment, greeting, and promise all at once.

Then his gaze shifted, scanning the area around Noah with the particular attention of someone checking a guest list.

His expression shifted through micro-expressions of interest, assessment, and what might have been disappointment at finding certain expected elements missing.

Then, shockingly, from where he stood at an impossible distance across an amphitheater designed to keep powers separated, Schrodinger began to mouth words!

His voice carried across that impossible distance to ring around them with perfect clarity.

”Hello, friends. Fold Dweller Osmont, right? I was hoping you would bring THE Living Order in attendance today as well, otherwise things would be unbearably boring. I actually... picked up some trash of hers that she discarded, and I would have loved to exchange notes.”

…!