Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4127 Seek Failures! I

The prompts of everything ending appeared without flourish or commentary, simple statements of fact that somehow carried more weight for their

plainness.

Noah read them in silence, feeling the absence of that quadrillion-level power like a missing limb... phantom strength that his body remembered but could no longer access.

His two bodies positioned themselves back to back as they traversed through time, each gazing in opposite directions through the temporal flow.

The silence between them was heavy with unspoken understanding...they had tasted what they were working toward and found it both magnificent and terrifying.

Through this contemplative quiet, Khor's voice resonated with unusual gentleness.

"Why do you move with such drive, Outsider? You will always have another chance."

Noah remained silent for a long moment, watching eons flow past like memories of futures that might never be. When he finally spoke, his voice carried exhaustion that had nothing to do with physical tiredness.

"Because of threats I always knew existed but met today. Creatures who by sheer aura alone can make me unable to move. Can reduce everything I've built to meaninglessness with their presence." He paused, both bodies' fists clenching with remembered helplessness.

"I hunger for power to avoid that situation. I move with desperation for more- constantly, endlessly, to never again stand with absolutely no agency over my own existence."

His answer prompted a sigh from Khor that seemed to contain eons of experience.

"How has your journey been so far?" she asked, though her tone suggested she already knew.

"Has it been smooth sailing? Have you been jumping from one success to another?"

She didn't wait for his response.

"Because that's not how true existence works. Real existence- the kind that matters, is built on failures. Layer upon layer of them, each one teaching something that success never could."

Her consciousness fragment pulsed with emphasis.

"Outsider, you need to prepare yourself for many, many failures as you reach toward Early Creature strength. At that level, existence becomes unfathomably unfair. Not difficult- unfair. There's a difference."

Noah listened as they continued their traverse through time, the weight of her words settling into his Existence.

"You will fail so often that if you keep thinking of them as failures, you'll drown in them. The weight will crush you before any enemy could. You'll have to reframe them- see each failure as an opportunity, a lesson, a step on stairs made of broken ambitions. You should even seek these failures"

HUUM!

She paused, and when she continued, her voice carried warning that felt like prophecy.

"If things have seemed manageable until now, expect the difficulty to exponentially increase. There will be times when nothing goes your way. Times when you traverse to the Folds and die or flee within seconds- not occasionally, but repeatedly. Times when ultimate prizes stand right before you, close enough to touch, and you still won't be able to claim them."

The temporal currents around them seemed to slow, as if time itself wanted to ensure Noah heard this clearly.

"Things will get unfathomably hard from here, Outsider. Otherwise, why do you think someone like me- The First Hunger, who consumed impossibilities for breakfast, had their existence collapsed so long ago? If power alone guaranteed survival, I would still be in my original form."

Her voice carried melancholy that transcended simple sadness.

Her words beared repeating.

Power alone...did not guarantee survival!

She had immense power!

THE Living Order had immense power!

And yet both had collapsed.

Power. Did not. Guarantee. Survival!

"Sometimes, existence is just like that. You can account for every variable, prepare for every contingency, accumulate all the power you can grasp...and still lose. Not because you failed, but because existence decided that today wasn't your day."

She laughed, but the sound contained no humor.

"Do you know what the hardest lesson is? Sometimes there is no lesson. Sometimes you don't fail because you weren't strong enough or smart enough or fast enough. Sometimes you fail because existence, at its core, doesn't care about fair. It doesn't care about effort. It doesn't care about deservingness." Noah felt both bodies pulse at these words, his nature rebelling against the idea of meaningless and endless failure.

"I can see your existence rejecting this," Khor observed. "Your Principle of Perpetual Harvest suggests effort always yields results. And mostly, it does. But there will be times when you put in tremendous effort and receive nothing. Times when lesser beings succeed where you fail, not through merit but through blind, stupid luck. A Principle, at its core...tries to go against this. Tries to go against the unfairness of existence. But even then, Outsider...be watchful" The traverse continued, reality beginning to solidify around them as they approached their origin point.

"The question isn't whether you'll face these failures...you will. The question is whether you'll survive them. Whether you'll maintain drive when Existence seems actively opposed to your advancement. Whether you'll keep moving when every step forward results in two steps back. I've heard glimmers within your weavings of existence of...the concept of the Protagonist? Infinity? Quintessence? They are grand, Outsider. They are heavy. When existence itself comes to oppose them, be ready."

...!

She paused, then added with unexpected softness:

"The fact that you're listening to this without arguing suggests you might. Most beings at your level would be insisting they're different, that they'll be the exception. That they are...the one that exitence will bend to. Was THE Creature the one that Existence revolved around? Was it THE Living Paradox? The Early Creatures? Inevitabilities? Me? Where are they now? Where am I now?"

A heavy silence settled.

Noah finally spoke, his voice steady despite the weight of what he was acknowledging.

"You're saying I should expect to lose. Repeatedly. Meaninglessly. That no amount of preparation or power guarantees success."

"I'm saying more than that," Khor corrected. "I'm saying you should expect to lose even when you should win. To fail even when you do everything right. To watch others succeed through luck while you fail through competence."

"Then why continue?"

"Because occasionally...rarely, but occasionally, you'll win when you should lose. You'll succeed through absurd persistence rather than worthiness. You'll claim victories that shouldn't be possible simply because you refused to accept defeat. That will be true effort. That single win backed by countless failures... will propell you truly towards what you deem...QUINTESSENTIAL"

BOOM!