Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4950: Defector III

"You could do everything right in existence. You could plan for all contingencies and possibilities. But sometimes, shit just happens." -THE Genesis Monarch, Unknown Time.

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At this time, near a Shelter of THE Loom that had its massive door struck open, a scene unfolded that showed conquest dressed in the robes of salvation.

Early Creatures and Living Elementals were situated in neat rows, their forms pressed against the barren ground of THE Wastes in postures of submission that their existence had never been designed to assume. They knelt with heads bowed, their authorities diminished, their pride extinguished by force that exceeded their capacity to resist.

They all looked toward the man responsible for breaking into their Shelter and dragging them out here.

A young man with dark hair and a silver robe stood before them with the bearing of one who believed himself right!

His features were handsome in the way that sculptures were handsome, beautiful but cold. His eyes burned with conviction that had long ago ceased questioning itself, faith that had calcified into certainty, purpose that had forgotten how to doubt.

He was surrounded by the allure of Law.

Silver light emanated from his form in patterns of order imposed rather than order discovered. After an Embodiment from THE Creature, he, or really the weavings of THE Living Law within him, had allowed his Immensity to rise almost past Fundamental Depth. He stood at heights that most beings couldn’t reach across eons of cultivation, elevated not through his own effort but through the investment of another.

And at this moment, he was laying down peace with force.

For he was THE Peacemaker, Alexander Asmodeus!

With the Early Creatures and Living Elementals bowing to him, his Enneagram spun like a heavy wheel on his chest, its nine points burning with silver light that absorbed the weavings of those who knelt before him. Their existences flowed into his construct, their authorities becoming fuel for his ascension, their potential becoming foundation for his growth.

This was peace as he understood it now. Not the absence of conflict, but the presence of submission. Not harmony achieved through understanding, but silence achieved through dominance.

As he did all this, in his mind, a voice echoed out with warmth that belied its calculations.

"Once we finish with this Shelter, we can go on to progressively more fortified ones. As you enact your version of peace and Law, we can continue building up your foundation until Absolute is not far away..."

Alex nodded at these words as he was about to continue his harvest of submission when...

HUUM!

Everything around them began to shake.

The ground of THE Wastes, which had no true ground, trembled with vibrations that exceeded physical causation. The air, which held no true air, grew thick with pressure that made breathing an act of will rather than instinct. The light, which had no true source, flickered with uncertainty of something ancient stirring from slumber that had lasted since before THE Infinite Unfurling.

Alex’s eyes widened as he felt his silver authority waver against pressure that exceeded anything he had prepared for.

Not from above.

Not from the sides.

But from below!

In THE Wastes of THE Fallout, direction held no meaning. What was below could be above. What was left could be right. The corruption that permeated this region had long ago unmade the certainties of spatial orientation. And yet, somehow, what was happening was definitely happening from below them all.

Two massive eyes opened in the depths beneath existence itself.

They were gigaparsecs in size.

The scale of them exceeded comprehension, exceeded the frameworks that mortal minds used to process magnitude, exceeded even the elevated perceptions of beings who had touched THE Civilizational Scale.

Each eye was larger than clusters of Wheels of Existence or Folds, larger than anything that had manifested in Observable Existence for quite some time.

The eyes were crimson, but not the crimson of blood or fire or passion. This was the crimson of undifferentiation given visual form, the color that existence wore when it forgot what color meant. Their surfaces swirled with spirals within spirals that seemed to drill into the consciousness of anyone who looked upon them.

And they held light.

Terrifying light of undifferentiation that made THE Living Paradox’s corruption seem like a child’s painting beside a masterwork as at this moment...they held corruption, and they held glimmers of infinities!

When they opened fully, that light erupted outward!

For an unfathomable distance, a cataclysmic crimson radiance spread like a tide that knew no shore. It washed across THE Wastes with speed that exceeded the concept of speed, illuminating everything it touched with undifferentiation that seeped into the very fabric of what it illuminated.

Shelters that had stood for eons found their walls suddenly uncertain of whether they were walls. Beings that had defined themselves across countless moments found their definitions wavering.

The light was so pervasive and widespread that nothing could escape its reach.

Countless Gigaparsecs away, the figure of Alex found himself bathed in crimson radiance that pressed against his silver authority with weight that exceeded anything THE Living Law had prepared him to face.

His Enneagram, which had been spinning with confident purpose, now stuttered and slowed as the light of undifferentiation challenged the very concept of Law itself.

The Early Creatures and Living Elementals who had been kneeling to him, their submission complete and their resistance broken, now found themselves covered by this light as well. But where Alex struggled against it, they simply received it. They had already been defeated. They had already given up their autonomy. What was one more master to beings who had already accepted mastery?

It was like being branded by horror itself.

On their foreheads, insignias began to form with heat that exceeded physical temperature. Crimson light carved itself into their existences with authority that couldn’t be questioned, that couldn’t be resisted, that couldn’t be bargained with.

The insignia looked like a crimson circle with a line crossing diagonally through it.

Simple. Ancient. Absolute!

Oh!

It was the mark of ownership that predated the concept of ownership, the brand of servitude that had been old when THE Infinite Unfurling was young, the signature of a being that had existed since differentiation itself first emerged from the proto-potential of what came before!

Around Alex, illustrious silver light flashed with desperate intensity!

He sought to resist this terrifying power of undifferentiation with everything THE Living Law had invested in him. His Enneagram spun faster, trying to impose order upon chaos that exceeded order’s jurisdiction. His silver robes blazed with authority that declared him protected, declared him invested, declared him backed by powers that should have been sufficient.

It did not work.

The crimson light pressed through his silver defenses as if they were suggestions rather than barriers. THE Living Law’s investment, which had seemed so grand against Early Creatures and Living Elementals, revealed itself as insufficient against authority that had shaped existence itself. Alex’s resistance was not even acknowledged. It was simply bypassed, as one might step over an insect while walking toward one’s destination.

The insignia formed on his forehead with the same inevitability that it had formed on all the others.

Crimson circle. Diagonal line!