Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4379: Oh, Shit V

Kael appeared beside her in a blur of movement, his hand swatting toward her with force that would have obliterated Folds.

Riya dodged easily, flowing backward with grace that suggested she’d been evading Kael’s disciplinary attempts for thousands of years.

”Riya!” Kael’s voice thundered with stern disapproval. ”If you cannot be respectful, keep your distance from the Ancestor! Your behavior is unacceptable for-”

”Ancestor this, Ancestor that, loosen up.” Riya muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.

But soon after, her expression brightened, mischief dancing across her features. She floated upward, positioning herself in front of both Noah and Kael with a flourish.

”O Great Ancestor,” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes, ”it would be our dearest honor to present to you your grand Civilization. The Emergence Protocols have been initiated, and the Citizens of Mana cannot wait to bask in your glorious, magisterial unfiltered presence.”

She bowed with exaggerated grace.

...!

At her words, something shifted in the massive circular structure ahead.

A small doorway of pure mana formed.

Blue light poured from the opening, coalescing into a beam that reached across the distance separating them from the domain.

The beam touched them, and Noah felt pull.

Not physical force....it was existential gravity, the architecture of the Civilization recognizing its Architect and drawing him home!

The multicolored light around them blurred, compressed, became a tunnel of radiance that carried them forward.

A moment of brilliant transfer, existence folding around them...

Noah opened his eyes.

And witnessed glory.

The skies stretched above him, filled with radiant blue clouds that pulsed with accumulated mana.

These were concentrations of pure power that had achieved sufficient density to take on cloud-like forms, floating masses of authority that painted the heavens in shades of transcendent azure.

Below...

Vast and endlessly glorious radiant white-blue structures spread across the landscape like a Civilization that had been designed by beings who understood architecture at the conceptual level.

This wasn’t construction. This was manifestation...buildings and towers and grand structures that existed because the Civilization had collectively decided they should exist, form following function following pure aesthetic perfection.

Floating in the air for thousands of miles, massive circular ringed white buildings stayed aloft through mana alone.

Each structure was painted with intricate Glyphs...thousands of them, millions, each one a compressed theorem of power woven into the very fabric of the buildings themselves!

The circular structures featured round rotating centers, massive orbs of authority that spun with precision, generating power through their motion.

Between the floating rings, tall tower-like skyscrapers rose from the ground below, their surfaces pulsing with mana-filled brilliance.

And in the skies of this entire place, floating at various altitudes across the vast expanse...

A few million beings hovered, all of them looking upward.

Looking at him.

Noah’s perception swept across them, and what he sensed made his tyrannical heart pulse with glory!

These weren’t weak beings gathered out of curiosity. Every single one radiated shocking levels of mana, their bodies pulsing with authority that would have made them powers in their own right anywhere in external existence.

They all gazed toward him with expressions of awe, reverence, and recognition. The architectural connection between Ancestor and those who followed his Way, made manifest in their collective acknowledgment.

And the moment he arrived, the moment his presence registered fully within the boundaries of this isolated domain...

|ISOLATED CIVILIZATION - FULL SCOPE ASCERTAINMENT COMPLETE|

|Complete architectural analysis of Civilization of Mana achieved|

|Actual Full Population Assessment: 6,783,294 total beings|

|Average Complexity: 8.47 Quintillion|

|Average Purity: 8.47 Quintillion|

|Development Level: EXCEEDS ALL PROJECTED PARAMETERS|

|As Architect and Origin Point of this Way of Existence, additional boons are being granted:|

|+5 Quintillion Complexity|

|+5 Quintillion Purity|

|Calculating additional advancement based on Civilization’s refined techniques and principles...|

|+6 Quintillion Complexity|

|+6 Quintillion Purity|

|TOTAL ADVANCEMENT: +11 Quintillion from current baseline|

|NEW TOTAL: 33.44 Quintillion Complexity|

|NEW TOTAL: 33.44 Quintillion Purity|

BOOM!

Noah felt his power explode upward.

It was not the gradual accumulation of harvest. It was not the methodical advancement through training.

His complexity skyrocketed from 22 to 33 Quintillion in an instant, and the Mana that flooded through his existence threatened to spill out, to cascade from every pore and paint the surrounding reality in his authority.

He contained it through sheer will, but it was a near thing.

Kael floated ahead, his blue-winged form blazing with pride and joy. His voice boomed outward, projected authority carrying his words across the entire expanse of this isolated realm so every being could hear.

”Hear me, Citizens of Mana!”

His declaration made the sky itself tremble.

”After eons of isolated development, after generations born and raised within the boundaries of this realm, after perfecting our techniques and refining our understanding of the Way we were give...He has returned!”

Kael’s form blazed brighter.

”I present to you the Architect of Mana himself! The Origin Point of our existence, the one who gave us infinite power and the principles we have spent millions years elaborating upon! The Ancestor who established this Civilization and then granted us the honor of independent development!”

His voice carried reverence that made the surrounding mana resonate in sympathy.

”He is The Early Creature, Osmont! The Tyrannical Architect who defies every limitation existence tries to impose! And he stands before us now, not as distant Leader, but as the head of our Civilization, come to witness what we have become in his absence!”

HUUM!

Kael spread his arms wide, his gesture encompassing all the floating beings, all the grand structures, the entirety of what they had built.

”Welcome home, Ancestor. Welcome to your Civilization of Mana, refined through time and desperation into something worthy of your vision. We are yours to command. Our power is yours to direct. Our existence is yours to guide as you see fit.”

He bowed deeply, his form radiating absolute loyalty.

”And now, if it pleases you... perhaps you would address your people? They have waited so long to hear your voice.”

...!

Silence pressed in. Millions of beings floating in the sky, all attention focused on Noah with intensity that made the air compress.

Noah’s perception swept across them, and prompts materialized as his enhanced senses catalogued what he was witnessing.

Random samples, but telling.

|CITIZEN ANALYSIS - SAMPLE DATA|

|Individual 1: Complexity 50 Quintillion, Purity 50 Quintillion|

|Classification: Council Member, Original Seed Generation|

|Individual 2: Complexity 47 Quintillion, Purity 47 Quintillion|

|Classification: Council Member, Original Seed Generation|

|Individual 3: Complexity 30 Quintillion, Purity 30 Quintillion|

|Classification: Second Generation, Advanced Practitioner|

|Individual 4: Complexity 28 Quintillion, Purity 28 Quintillion|

|Classification: Second Generation, Combat Specialist|

|Individual 5: Complexity 12 Quintillion, Purity 12 Quintillion|

|Classification: Third Generation, Researcher|

And there, peeking out from beside their parents...children. Actual young beings whose forms hadn’t fully matured yet, who looked at him with wide eyes full of wonder and confusion.

Their status sheets read 1 Quintillion. 2 Quintillion.

Children with power that exceeded most ancient beings in the Earliest Folds.

It was ridiculous.

It was magnificent.

It was his.

Noah looked at them all...at the millions of beings who carried his Way, who had refined his Mana through countless generations, who represented the fruit of isolated cultivation writ large across an entire Civilization.

And he spoke!