Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4938: Temporal Infinity IV

In THE Interstices.

Noah sat at his desk, his blue-gold pen moving with a rhythmic grace that seemed to hum alongside the fabric of existence. Beside him, Amser Modred stood in a state of quiet contemplation, his purple temporal currents now shimmering with the blue glimmers of his new allegiance.

With a casual wave of his hand, Noah manifested a second throne opposite his desk. It was a massive construct of crystallized authority, reaching nearly the same height as his own throne, though it remained just a fraction shorter...a subtle, physical reminder of the hierarchy that now bound them.

Amser stared at the discrepancy for a long moment, his eyes tracing the blue-gold veins running through the seat before he silently sat down.

Now that the immediate threat of infection was gone, the grandeur and immensity of THE Living Temporal began to return. He settled into the chair with the ease of a being who had occupied thrones for eons, the weight of his presence pressing against THE Interstices with renewed dignity.

Across from him, Noah didn’t immediately speak, his focus remaining entirely on the golden pages before him.

The scene was one of glorious, quiet power. With every stroke of the pen, infinite swirling galaxies of Absolute Seals erupted from the tip, orbiting Noah’s hand in a storm of linguistic authority. He wrote calmly, drafting Embodiments and Apophasis that crackled with the potential to reshape reality, the scratch of the pen on the golden paper being the only sound in the vast silence.

Eventually, the silence became too heavy for the newly bound Absolute to bear. Amser leaned forward, his ancient face illuminated by the radiance of Noah’s work.

"I sought you in Ginnungagap because I felt someone moving across time who may not understand the dangers involved in doing so," Amser said, his voice holding the weight of eons of chronological stewardship.

"I sensed multiple movements. Each time, I waited for existence to unravel, for the threads of causality to fray beyond repair. But it never happened. I thought that maybe, the one involved was truly proficient enough with time to avoid disaster. But maybe it was something else entirely."

Noah didn’t stop writing. He didn’t even look up, though his hand slowed just enough to let the ink settle into a particularly complex Apophasis.

"The past is the past, and it will never change," Noah replied, his voice calm and imperious, carrying a resonance that made the gray void tremble.

"It is a self-contained causality cycle where travel to the past does not change history because the actions taken there... were ALWAYS part of that history. You and I simply did not know it."

He finally looked up, his ancient-young eyes locking onto Amser’s. "Days ago, I did not know that I would be in Ginnungagap eons before this, even though it had already happened. I simply closed that loop of time when I actually experienced it afterwards. Time flows as an unchangeable line where all events, including temporal traversal, are set in stone. My traversals across time were part of what created the timeline we remember. You never caught me during my earlier traversals when I was at my weakest... why?"

HUUM!

The sound of the pen tapping against the desk echoed like a thunderclap. Noah stopped writing, his posture straight and demanding an answer. In both of their eyes, Undifferentiated Temporal Infinity buzzed, a shared language between a master and a subordinate who both held the keys to time.

Amser Modred’s eyes flashed with a heavy, leaden solemnity. He realized then the true depth of the trap he had been in long before the infection ever touched him.

"My Temporal authority and weavings... were always under your First Tongue," Amser whispered.

"They always had been, and they were always going to be. We... just did not know it. I... did not know it. I never caught you because... I never planned on it. You... never permitted it."

BOOM!

The realization of temporal fuckery hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. Noah smiled brilliantly, a look of profound calculation crossing his features as he leaned back against his throne. The paradox was perfect; it was a masterpiece of existence even as, well...even he did not know it before now!

Amser Modred, however, looked much more affected, his foundations trembling as he grappled with the implications. "But if that is the case, why did I make that traversal across time to Ginnungagap? Why did the threads of my life pull me there if the hunt was never mine to win?"

Noah’s gaze turned sharp, his eyes filled with immense profundities. "Maybe you were never there for me. Remember your words about how you kept the infection, THE Primordial Mycelia, at bay. The past records who you were before the infection began. Every moment of your existence prior to contact remains inscribed in time."

He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial hum. "If this is actually a viable solution and you or I proceed to go through with it, we would need... past records of those infected. And one of the core infected beings I may try to restore... would be someone who had actually been in Ginnungagap at that time that you nor THE Primordial Chaos, who were seemingly there to get me, did not know was there. Someone that only THE Creature knew was there."

...!

Amser Modred’s eyes opened wide, his purple temporal light fluctuating wildly. "Who?"

"THE Secretive Eon," Noah replied, his voice cold and steady. "That is the only point in time I met her, without knowing she was there. THE Primordial Mycelia has its roots within her. If I seek to restore her, I would think of obtaining her past records there. Maybe you... were never there for me to begin with, but for her. Maybe. Maybe. Or all of this is bullshit and I am wrong, who knows."

Amser Modred found himself thinking, the wheels of eons turning in his mind. And Noah... found himself thinking too!

—

When there was an overabundance of crazy things happening all around existence, one had to find a shred of sanity just to make sure their state of mind remained golden. Noah was keeping himself sane while simultaneously planning, plotting, and moving across multiple fronts.

THE Primordial Mycelia had made a deadly move, taking over the four Strategoi of THE Agora of Primordial Judgment while he and Paradox were occupied with Bazuman. He had dealt a counter-blow by cutting Amser Modred from the collective and bringing him into the folds of Infinity, but the path ahead was still a razor’s edge.

He needed to breathe. And in a different corner of his existence, another body was doing exactly that.

In the Early Veiled Shore of THE Infiniverse, the air was tranquil, smelling of fresh earth and the ozone of gathering power. It was fairly empty now, as the majority of Noah’s people had been sent off to the "fun times" of THE Yggdrheim to struggle for their lives.

Noah stood in the middle of a lush field plot, his hands buried in the soil as he held golden shoots. He was filling them with radiant seas of Infinities, feeding a sacred herb the weight of an entire civilization’s potential.

He sought to make these plants experience eons of growth in moments, aiming to harvest Absolute Everythings or even Infinite Everythings from the very soil.

Behind him, the miniaturized figure of THE Mnemonic Leviathan floated serenely. In the form of a pink dolphin, the ancient entity was surrounded by a unique aura of deep, accumulated memory that made the air around it feel heavy with the weight of forgotten epochs.

"When the Youngest walks where the Oldest slumber, Existence shall tremble and the Weave shall fray. He who holds infinity in mortal palms shall stand at the crossroads where all rivers end..." Noah recited, his voice steady as he channeled power into the golden shoots.

"When Chaos speaks with the tongue of Order, when Existence questions its own being, when the Tongue falls silent and the Hunger consumes itself, then shall the Era of Undifferentiation begin...".

He paused, the golden light from the plants reflecting in his eyes as he looked back at the pink dolphin.

"You are knowledgeable in many things, Leviathan. What could any portions of these words mean to you?"

The gaze of the pink dolphin became heavy, its playful form momentarily forgotten as the weight of the prophecy settled into its consciousness. It floated in a slow, thoughtful circle.

"You...seem to be in trouble, Youngest of THE Five," the Leviathan said, its voice resonating with an ancient concern.

"You all should be in trouble. When Chaos speaks with the tongue of Order... the only way Chaos can be ordered is if it has already joined the Unity. Or Chaos is already compromised but does not know it."

WAA!

The dolphin’s eyes fixed on the golden plants.

"The Era of Undifferentiation may already be underway. This infection... THE Primordial Mycelia... it may already be far more pervasive than you all believe. If one of The Four Keys of Civilization has already fallen to it without knowing it... then undifferentiation is not coming. It is already here."

BOOM!