Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4288: War! II

As Noah followed the porcession of Vulcan, his gaze occasionally drifted to the other sections of Aethelgard.

In the distance, he could see other beings of Vulcan’s caliber...entities whose power ranged from two thousand to five thousand Quadrillion in Complexity and Purity.

Each of them was a sun in their own right, and around each, dozens of other powerful Early Creatures and even a few Living Existences orbited like loyal planets.

It was as if all those here had already chosen their allegiance, their place in the grand legions of this impossible civilization.

They walked towards the grand, gilded walls of Aethelgard, a barrier so vast it seemed to hold back the very chaos of the primordial Fold.

As they moved, Noah turned his head in one direction.

Commander Kael, his fiery hair a stark, vibrant splash of color against the monochromatic stone, was escorting a furious Elara, his grip on her arm a gentle, yet absolute, band of authority.

Her voice, sharp and clear and filled with a profound, almost tragic, sense of vindication, cut through the air.

”Did I not say this would happen?!” she exclaimed, her eyes blazing with a mixture of rage and a bitter, self-righteous satisfaction.

She turned towards Noah, her gaze now a desperate thing. ”You... you didn’t give them anything, right?!”

Looking at this Fold Dweller, this brilliant, ambitious, and ultimately outmatched being, Noah’s lips curved into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.

”I gave them nothing, Commander Elara,” he said, his voice a calm, steady anchor in her storm of fury. ”Don’t worry about this.”

...!

Elara nodded, a flicker of relief in her eyes.

”Good,” she said, her voice now a low, determined murmur. ”This will all be over shortly then...”

At their exchange, Forgemaster Vulcan, who had been walking ahead, turned.

He stared at Noah, and a wily, knowing laugh rumbled in his massive chest.

He began to climb a set of grand golden stairs that spiraled up the side of the city wall, their very substance a breathtaking fusion of the pristine, stellar white of Early Omnichalcum and the dark, volatile gold of Tartarite Metal.

His voice boomed out towards Elara, a casual, brutal lesson in the realities of their situation.

”Girl, nothing will be over shortly,” he declared, his tone one of amused, almost paternalistic, condescension.𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

”Do not think of yourself so important that an entire conflict will be started for you. No... what is happening now is a war, and since you are currently on the enemy side... you’d best act carefully to make sure you do not become an unintended casualty, okay?”

...!

His words were heavy, each one a hammer blow of terrible, undeniable truth. Noah looked over and saw Elara’s face become ashen, her body trembling as if she were withstanding a terrifying, invisible Haki!

He sighed.

He had far too many things to worry about, far too many grand, impossible schemes to orchestrate, to be concerned with the fate of Commander Elara!

He continued up the golden steps, his own gaze sweeping across the vast, breathtaking expanse of Aethelgard.

He saw the tens of thousands of Early Creatures, the even larger numbers of Living Existences and a few Fold Dwellers, all moving with a calm, purposeful energy.

Some were tending to the city’s many strange, beautiful gardens. Others were engaged in quiet pursuits. And some... some were disappearing into the very ground, into a vast, unseen world that existed beneath the city’s golden streets!

A set of prompts bloomed in his mind, the cool, analytical voice of RUIN/EDEN a quiet counterpoint to the vibrant life of the city.

|From the little I was able to analyze, Master, there is a dense underground portion of Aethelgard we have not seen and cannot perceive. There, the farmlands cultivating Everythings should be, alongside countless more Early Creatures, Living Existences, and Fold Dwellers tending to these farmlands of Everythings.|

...!

Noah listened to her words calmly as he nodded and continued higher. His thoughts churned, a silent, tyrannical calculus.

This war, this conflict between two primordial powers...it was a market!

A glorious, chaotic, and unimaginably rich source of loot. The Early Laboratories had their own unique resources, their own secrets.

Gilgamesh’s Sovereignty had its own. A war between them would be a feast of opportunity. He needed to profit from it!

He arrived at the top of the wall, and the view was a thing of pure, breathtaking glory. He stood on the Rampart of Aethelgard, a bastion of brilliance that stretched for light-years in either direction.

The moment his feet touched the gilded, warm stone, a new, profound sensation washed over him.

|You have stepped upon the Rampart of Aethelgard and have been granted the Blessing of Aethelgard.|

|Boon 1: [Bastion’s Might] – Your Complexity and Purity are amplified by 200 Quadrillion for as long as you remain within a few light-years of the wall.|

|Boon 2: [Sovereign’s Gaze] – Your perception is enhanced, allowing you to see through the cloaking and defensive auras of all beings with a lesser authority than the wall itself.|

|Boon 3: [Unity’s Echo] – You are now connected to the collective will of Aethelgard. You will receive real-time tactical updates and can, if you choose, contribute to the city’s collective defense.|

...!

The power was a warm, heavy blanket, a feeling of absolute, unshakeable stability.

He looked around the endless stretch of the grand, gilded walls, and all he saw were other Early Creatures, their forms radiating a similar, profound confidence.

They stood or floated, their gazes fixed on the approaching horizon, their power a quiet, contained ocean.

They were like Vulcan, filled with an immense, immeasurable certainty, as if the skies and the ground below them would not dare to shake unless they deemed it should.

As if they wholly believed that their power and their Way... was indefatigable!

Their Way of Existence.

”Isn’t it funny, Outsider? How seriously they take their Way of Existence, and yet the Way of Existence of Inevitabilities was overlooked like nothing?”

...!