Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4355: The First Farmer! III

She helped him sit on the brown-gold sand at the edge of the cultivation field, her movements carrying practiced ease that suggested this wasn’t the first time she’d performed this action.

She waved her hands, and mats materialized from nowhere...simple, elegant things woven from what looked like compressed concepts of rest and stability.

One mat settled beneath her father. Another positioned itself beside him for her to sit upon. A third appeared near Noah, positioned at comfortable conversational distance.

”Please, sit,” Elyndra said, her voice carrying gentle insistence.

”Father tires easily these days, and this conversation... this is important to him.”

Noah complied, his form settling onto the mat with movements that suggested he was humoring her request rather than following orders.

The three of them sat there on the edge of that golden-radiant field, forming triangle of conversation.

The First Farmer laughed then...not the pained wheeze from before, but something closer to genuine joy, though it still carried notes of exhaustion that suggested even happiness cost him dearly.

”Countless eons ago,” he began, ”when I was still cultivating in the Earliest Folds, when I still possessed power that could reshape territories and nurture concepts into Principles... THE Creature visited my gardens.”

...!

Noah’s attention sharpened immediately.

THE Creature.

The being whose authority seemed to permeate everything related to Early Creatures. The mysterious presence that even THE Living Existences seemed to reference with particular weight.

”He was masked as a Fold Dweller,” The First Farmer continued, his eyes growing distant with memory. ”But I knew what he was. You cannot hide that kind of presence, that level of fundamental authority. It radiates from every action, every gesture, every casual observation.”

He paused, his hands trembling slightly where they rested on his lap.

”He examined my cultivation plots with interest that felt... proprietary. And when he came to the Failed Seed...the one that would eventually become your Perpetual Harvest, he held it and stated what a shame it was that such a seed would never bloom! That...even a Leader of a Civilization would have benefited tremendously from it!”

HUUM!

Noah felt his existence buzz.

THE Creature had held the Failed Seed of Perpetual Harvest and said such things?!

”...”

RUINEDEN’s voice emerged in his consciousness at such a time.

|Even though we already knew of its importance, we may need to designate Perpetual Harvest with multiple additional levels of importance.|

Noah’s expression remained calm.

The First Farmer continued speaking.

”But that was then,” he said, his voice growing heavier. ”When I still had power. When I still stood a chance. When I was on the cusp of attaining...”

He paused, his eyes flashing with emotion that mixed pain and obsession in equal measure.

”...THE.”

The word dropped into the space between them.

...!

THE.

Not just power. Not just advancement. Not cultivation to higher levels or accumulation of greater Complexity and Purity.

THE!

The distinction that separated beings who merely possessed power from entities who defined existence’s fundamental parameters.

”I was close,” The First Farmer continued, his voice carrying notes of obsession that had survived despite everything else being stripped away.

”So close that I could taste it. My cultivation had reached heights that current-era beings can’t conceive of. My understanding of growth and harvest and nurturing had become so refined that I was beginning to perceive the underlying code that governs how Principles themselves develop.”

His hands clenched into fists, trembling with emotion!

”I stood at the threshold,” he said, his voice breaking. ”One more step. One more breakthrough. One more refinement of My Way. My Civilization. And I would have achieved THE. I would have become THE First Farmer! I would have been able to stand alongside THE Living Existences not as lesser being seeking approval, but as equal force defining existence’s nature.”

He shook his head, pain flickering across his features.

”But THE Living Emotive appeared.”

Elyndra, who had been sitting beautifully and calmly beside her father, suddenly pulsed with contained rage so intense that space around her began crystallizing with frost.

The First Farmer’s voice continued, each word heavy with trauma that time hadn’t healed.

”That psychopath appeared in this very Sanctuary. They came through the protective forests as if they weren’t there, bypassed every defense we’d cultivated, arrived here with smile that suggested they found the entire situation amusing.”

His eyes grew distant, reliving memory that clearly caused him anguish.

”And they...shattered my foundation.”

WAA!

The words were delivered simply.

”Not killed me,” The First Farmer clarified, his voice taking on bitter tones. ”That would have been mercy. Instead, they dismantled my cultivation base piece by piece, breaking down the architectural supports I’d spent eons constructing, collapsing the Principles I’d nurtured, destroying the accumulation of My Way and My Civilization that had brought me so close to THE.”

He paused, his breathing becoming labored.

”They nearly destroyed all of my Civilization as well. The Fold Dwellers and Living Existences who had found sanctuary here, who had been cultivating under my guidance....they went through them like farmer culling diseased crops. Not out of necessity. Not out of strategic concern. Just because they could. Because their suffering amused them.”

Elyndra’s rage intensified, her form practically vibrating with contained violence that wanted expression but had nowhere to go.

”And when they were done,” The First Farmer continued, ”when they had reduced me from the cusp of THE to barely functional weakness, when they had collapsed most of my Civilization and left survivors traumatized beyond normal healing...they explained why.”

His voice took on mocking tones, clearly mimicking THE Living Emotive’s words.

”They said: ’There are already enough existences with the distinction of THE who will be left behind. We don’t need another one. Your ambition is noted and denied. Your potential is recognized and eliminated. Consider yourself fortunate that I’m leaving you alive to witness The Fallout from this diminished state.’”

...!

The cruelty was breathtaking in its calculated precision.

Not just defeating a rival. Not just eliminating a threat. But specifically leaving the First Farmer alive and aware, forced to experience the helplessness of having once been powerful enough to stand alongside THE Living Existences, only to watch everything collapse while possessing insufficient strength to intervene.

It was torture disguised as mercy, punishment that would last until The Fallout finally ended his suffering!

”He didn’t even bother to kill me,” The First Farmer said, his voice carrying bitterness that had festered through eons. ”He stated that my fear and anguish from being so close to THE, from having it ripped away, would be good sustenance for him for eons until I experienced The Fallout.”

His expression shifted, carrying genuine confusion mixed with pain.

”To this day,” he said, his voice growing quieter, ”I cannot understand why THE Living Emotive and others had the nature they did. It could not simply be from their Way, right? To act like that. To do all that. To cause suffering not from necessity or strategy, but from... what, artistic satisfaction? Entertainment? Pure malice refined into fundamental authority?”

He shook his head, the gesture carrying defeat.

”It was just... ah-”

The First Farmer suddenly began coughing, his frail form convulsing with spasms.

The coughing fit intensified, each hack sounding like it might be his last, his entire being trembling with strain that exceeded his capacity to endure.

Elyndra moved instinctively, her hand rising toward her father, radiance gathering around her fingers as she prepared to channel lifeforce that could stabilize him, heal him, provide relief from suffering that clearly exceeded normal tolerance.

But then she stopped.

Her hand froze mid-motion, the gathered radiance dissipating as she forcibly pulled back, her expression carrying anguish that suggested this internal conflict played out regularly.

She turned toward Noah, and in her eyes, he saw seriousness mixed with contained rage and helplessness.

”Any lifeforce or authority of others,” she said, ”even for the sake of healing, even with best intentions... is poisonous to him. The damage THE Living Emotive inflicted wasn’t just physical or cultivation-based. It was existential. Father’s being now rejects external assistance, treating it as contamination rather than aid.”

Her hands clenched into fists.

”None of us can help him. I... cannot do anything.”

The helplessness in her voice was genuine!

The First Farmer continued his coughing fit, his existence seeming weary and tired.

Noah watched this display with expression that grew increasingly grave.

So this was The First Farmer!

A broken man!

He had come here hoping to find powerful being who could stand against The Fallout, who could provide knowledge or resources or strategic advantage.

Instead, he’d found victim of THE Living Existences’ preemptive elimination of threats, someone who had been specifically targeted and broken because he’d gotten too close to achieving THE.

He had gotten too close to the sun!