Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4378: Oh, Shit IV

At such words, Noah’s eyes flashed with interest rather than disapproval.

Someone who refused limitation.

Who broke rules specifically because they were rules. Who achieved power through sheer stubborn insistence that arbitrary caps didn’t apply to her.

He understood that impulse very well.

Riya looked toward Kael with theatrical offense.

”Unc, are you really talking bad about me in front of The Glorious Ancestor?” Her tone dripped with mock hurt.

”Why not mention how I’m the fucking strongest? Most attuned to the Way? How I’ve mastered techniques even you struggle with? Hmph.”

She turned her gaze back to Noah, her jewel-blue eyes tracking across the molten crimson-blue landscape surrounding them.

”Ancestor,” she said, her tone shifting to something more genuine, ”I’ve wanted to leave that little bubble for thousands of years. But Uncle Kael here kept insisting we had to wait for your call. So I waited, even though it was boring as hell.”

She looked around with obvious fascination.

”What is out here? I’ve only heard stories of the First Folds, legends passed down from the Original Seed Members about external existence. I’m curious to explore everything. To see what’s beyond that isolated pocket we’ve been trapped in.”

”Oh, Early Creatures. Where are they at? I feel like stepping on a few right now...”

Her gaze drifted past Noah, toward the distant outline of The Infiniverse floating in the region of Collapse.

”What is that over there?” she asked, genuine interest in her voice. ”That structure with the massive presence? It feels... important. Powerful.”

Noah looked at her, this rebellious prodigy who’d exceeded all expectations, who carried more raw power than most ancient beings.

”Explorations will come later,” he said calmly. ”For now, let us return to your home. Let us see how far you all have come in these years.”

...!

Kael rose immediately, his form blazing with excitement. After all those subjective years of isolation, the Ancestor was finally coming to witness what they’d built, to see the Civilization they’d forged in his absence.

Riya sighed, looking around wistfully at the molten landscape, at the distant Infiniverse, at the vast expanse of external existence she’d been denied for so long.

”Can’t I just look around for a bit?” she asked, though her tone suggested she already knew the answer. ”Just a quick exploration, see what’s out here, maybe punch something to test the local power levels...”

”Later,” Noah said, his voice carrying magnetism that transcended simple command. ”Let’s go.”

...!

His words pulled at something fundamental in both of them...the architectural connection between Ancestor and Civilization, between origin point and those who followed his Way.

Even Riya, for all her rebellious nature, felt the pull of that connection.

She waved her hands in frustration, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like ”fucking tyrannical authority” under her breath.

Blue mana erupted around all three of them, not Noah’s signature, but the combined power of Kael and Riya, their authority wrapping around the space they occupied and preparing for transit.

The surrounding existence rippled.

And they disappeared, leaving behind only the molten crimson-blue landscape and the persistent glow of Noah’s territorial expansion still painting vast swathes of existence in his Civilization’s authority.

Bound for a pocket dimension that had been isolated for millions of subjective years.

Bound for a Civilization that had apparently exceeded every projection Noah had made about what isolated development could achieve.

Bound for answers to questions he hadn’t even known he should be asking.

The Early Creature, Osmont, was about to witness what his seeds had grown into when left to develop in fertile soil for long enough.

And based on what he’d already seen, on Kael’s fifty Quintillion, on Riya’s sixty-one, on the territorial expansion and system integration and sheer weight of advancement he’d received that was still continuing...

It was going to be glorious.

Magisterial!

Seconds passed...or perhaps no time at all, temporal mechanics becoming uncertain when beings of this complexity manipulated space, and then they manifested.

HUUM!

Noah’s perception expanded to drink in their new surroundings, and what he witnessed made even his tyrannical composure pause.

They floated in a region of multicolored light.

Waves of color that had no names, hues that existed between the standard spectrum, all of it flowing like currents in an ocean made of pure radiance.

And over all of it, submerging everything in its influence, a brilliant blue light pulsed.

His blue. His signature. The mana he’d given them when establishing this isolated pocket eons of subjective years ago, now refined and amplified until it had become the foundational element of an entire realm.

Noah looked ahead- far ahead, his perception stretching across distances, and there...

A massive circular domain floated in the sea of multicolored light.

It looked as large as a world. Perhaps larger.

The structure blazed with concentrated authority.

But appearances were deceptive.

Noah’s enhanced perception could sense the truth...inside that circular domain, space had been folded, compressed, expanded through techniques.

The interior dimensions stretched for Gigaparsecs, an entire Fold contained within boundaries that looked planetary from the outside.

Kael floated forward, his blue-winged form radiating pride and anticipation.

”I welcome the Ancestor,” he said, ”to observe the changes of what has happened to your Civilization after all these years.”

His gesture toward the massive structure carried the weight of someone presenting their life’s work...not just his own efforts, but the accumulated achievement of every being who’d developed within this isolated pocket.

As they moved closer to the circular domain, preparing to enter, Noah felt presence manifest behind him.

Close. Very close.

He turned slightly, and there was Riya, floating mere inches from his back, her jewel-blue eyes half-closed and her expression...

She was sniffing him.

Actually leaning in and inhaling deeply, her face showing an expression of appreciation if it weren’t so brazenly disrespectful.

”Ancestor,” she said, her tone filled with genuine curiosity mixed with her irreverence, ”what did you do to your mana to have it smell so good? It’s like... fuck, I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s interesting.”

...!