Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4195: Nurturing Hunger! IV

And then, before Noah’s very eyes, Schrodinger began to dissipate.

His form dissolved into the very fabric of the surrounding space, as if he were a paradox resolving itself into nothingness. He was gone!

Or at least, he was gone from the gazes of most others.

Schrodinger, now in a state that was neither here nor there, a superposition of presence and absence, kept his eyes on Noah.

He took a single, conceptual step, and appeared countless light-years away, near the distant musings of the where thr location of the Heart of Origin from which the Origin turtle had been summoned!

He was confident that no other being in this Fold could perceive him now. He turned back, his gaze piercing through the chaos, to check if Noah’s gaze had moved, to see if the young tyrant had been fooled.

He saw the colossal figure of Noah still looking at the exact position where he had just disappeared from, as if tracking a ghost that no one else could see.

Schrodinger remained still, his state of un-observation a perfect cloak.

”Friend,” his thoughts were a playful whisper across the void, ”can you really not hear me and see me, or are you just playing?”

...!

He asked the words as if he was half certain and half not! As if out of all beings, he hoped that his friend did not let him down and that he could still be seen!

But...

He received no reply, no indication that he had been heard or seen. He hummed, a thoughtful, paradoxical note, and took another step, vanishing completely as he moved ever closer to the Heart of Origin.

Noah moves his gaze on the struggling, terrifying head of the Dead Early Creature in his hands, but his mind was elsewhere!

A cold, analytical thought formed amidst the inferno of his Haki.

’So, your aim is within the Heart of Origin...’

...!

—

At this time, in a place hidden within the weavings of Collapse, the Infiniverse hummed with a quiet, industrious energy.

It had received a sudden, massive influx of new residents...the entire population of the now-devoured Nullvein Gravewake Folds. Noah had left the monumental task of organization and integration to the Infiniverse herself, and she had accepted the responsibility with a serene, focused calm.

At the very center of this glorious, ever-expanding structure, the Early Veiled Shore was undergoing a transformation of its own.

It was painted in hues of brilliant white and gold, its expanse far vaster than it had been before. It had taken the final step, advancing from a Blooming Shore to a Radiant Shore!

The transformation, this time, had been personally overseen by Khor.

At the heart of this vast wonder, the main bodies of Noah’s people were gathered.

Sigrid, Moiraine, Ruination, the Infiniverse, and the others sat upon the golden sands, the air around them thick with a somber, contemplative energy.

Even in the face of this magnificent growth, their moods were not celebratory. Only Noah knew the full, crushing weight of Khor’s news, of the coming unknown and its Fallout, but the gravity of the situation in the Origin Folds was enough to cast a shadow over them all.

Erikson and the others were preparing to depart for the Wandering Territories with their bodies in the Transcendent Temporal Folds, their usual carefree demeanors replaced by seriousness!

Sigrid’s expression was a mask of cold, ordered anger as she processed the violation of her home Fold.

In the midst of this heavy silence, Khor floated near Noah. She had a smile on her face, a small, defiant flicker of light in the encroaching gloom.

”Outsider,” she began, her voice a soft, melodic counterpoint to their somber mood, ”my work with the elevation of the Shore to a Radiant Shore is done.”

She drifted around him, her tiny form a whirlwind of ancient energy as she looked towards him and others here. ”I did want to tell you, just because of the disastrous news of certain death that may or may not be coming... it does not mean that we have to be sulking 24/7. We can still enjoy the little things. Part of the secret of existence is to enjoy what is directly in front of you.”

HUUM!

She paused, her abyssal eyes sparkling. ”None of us can truly ever know what tomorrow, or eons from now, will hold. What’s the use in worrying? Do your best. Continue to be as desperate as you can be. Keep clawing your way towards more and more complexity and purity. But in the meanwhile, enjoy existence.”

Her smile widened. ”Because if you just so happened to be so unlucky that tomorrow is the day that anything outside The Loom ceases to exist, what can you even do? You wouldn’t be able to do anything, Outsider! So come on, loosen up, and let’s take a look at what your Shore has become.”

Towards her words, Noah raises his brows and gave a light nod, a flicker of warmth returning to his tyrannical gaze. ”This, I know.”

He looked out at the transformed Shore, at the impossible architecture of his Abode, at the Aquarium teeming with life, at the new, ominous corner where Ra’Zan was cultivating Death itself.

He looked at this Shore itself with possibilities!

”I told you about the potential solutions,” he said, his voice a low rumble. ”The latest one I am thinking of is the Early Veiled Shore itself, and by extension, the Osmontian Shore. THE Loom was made from something. What if I elevate this Early Veiled Shore enough, to the extent that the protections it has could rival that of THE Loom?”

HUUM!

His words were terrifying in their ambition.

Khor’s smile bloomed into a full, genuine expression of delight.

”Your imagination and possibility is something else, Outsider. But hey, why not? Anything is possible in these grand weavings of existence.”

She clapped her hands together. ”But now that we got that out of the way... do you want to know what your Shore can now do, after I tweaked some things a little bit? I’ll spoil it before your prompts come... I was able to add an Inevitability Ranch Sanctuary! Your Shore can now... raise Inevitabilities!”

...!