Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4991: Finite I

An existence he could not touch.

An existence he might not be able to see.

By all means, Noah had hit a brick wall. His Geodesic Negation had passed through the armored titan like wind through empty space. His Maws had phased through platinum surfaces without finding purchase. His most devastating offensive forces had proven meaningless against something that existed on levels his authority could not reach.

And yet no despair took him, for he had to keep moving forward.

There was always a path. There was always an angle. There was always something that Infinity could find when bounded powers declared impossibility. He simply needed to discover what that something was, and he could not do that while standing still and accepting defeat.

This gaze of defiance burned in his eyes as he looked up at THE Primordial Armor.

Beowulf saw it.

The massive armored form rose from its position beside Noah, platinum plates shifting with amusement that communicated itself through their arrangement. The helm tilted as if examining something mildly interesting, and the visor oriented toward those defiant eyes with appreciation that bordered on mockery.

"As expected, there is that gaze of defiance."

"Well, if you wish to make things difficult, I can also take the easiest path."

The armored titan gestured casually toward the broken figure of Alexander still suspended in corrupted air behind its massive form.

"The Peacemaker. The one you came to save. I will collapse him in the next few seconds if you do not open yourself up to me."

A pause.

"Do we want to have that melodrama?"

...!

Noah looked ahead with expression that had gone somber, his blue-gold eyes taking in the scene before him with calculation running beneath their surface. The threat was clear. The leverage was obvious.

But Noah’s voice, when it emerged, carried words that seemed incongruent with reality.

"But you no longer have the Peacemaker."

...!

The statement made no sense.

Alexander’s broken form still hung in the corrupted air behind Beowulf, cellular fragments twitching with the aftermath of torture that had lasted eons in subjective experience. The Peacemaker was exactly where THE Primordial Armor had placed him, suspended like a trophy, like leverage, like bait that had successfully drawn the Infinity-bearer into confrontation.

But the moment the words were uttered, something changed.

SAA!

A neon light flashed across the corrupted Wastes with speed that made Absolute perception seem slow.

At Noah’s side, a certain space had become empty.

Skoll was no longer there.

The loyal companion who had stood beside his master throughout this confrontation, the very good boy whose Infinite-enhanced form had waited with serious expression while impossible odds accumulated around them, had moved.

And the lifeform that had been as fast as an Absolute when it was not an Absolute, now carrying Noah’s Infinities burning in its foundations, could traverse across those Infinities even faster than Noah himself.

This was why Noah had brought Skoll along.

For this moment.

"Ho?"

THE Primordial Armor turned to look behind itself with visor communicating appreciation through platinum arrangement. The space where Alexander had been suspended was empty. The broken Peacemaker’s cellular fragments no longer hung in corrupted air behind the armored titan.

Beowulf actually nodded.

"A decent surprise, Infinity-bearer."

The acknowledgment carried genuine respect!

"But..."

The word hung in the corrupted air with weight that pressed against Noah’s consciousness.

And then the whimper reached his ears.

From the endless stretches of Infinity where Skoll should have been far away by now, carrying Alexander across connections that spanned Observable Existence, the sound of a dog being hurt echoed through pathways that only Infinite awareness could perceive. Pain and confusion transmitted through bonds that Noah had established with his loyal companion, and his expression became heavier as he understood what that sound meant.

He moved instantly.

Noah appeared at the edge of the region where his Infinite Absolute Seals scattered throughout the corrupted proto-matter marked the boundary of Beowulf’s influence. From one of those Seals, from a connection that should have led to safety, Skoll and Alexander were spat out as if their traversal across Infinity had been rejected. The loyal companion’s neon form tumbled across corrupted ground while the broken Peacemaker collapsed beside him.

Noah arrived beside them in the same moment.

His hands moved without hesitation, pulling a lotus petal from his authority and forcing it into Alexander’s shattered existence. The Sacred Herb’s power began integrating with the Peacemaker’s cellular fragments, Bounded Countable Infinity flowing into foundations that desperately needed reinforcement.

But Skoll...

Half of the loyal companion’s body was missing.

The neon light that usually blazed with eager energy now flickered weakly across a form that had been torn apart by whatever had rejected their escape. The remaining portions were deteriorating rapidly, existence unraveling as corruption from Beowulf’s authority ate through Infinite-enhanced flesh.

Noah released beams of blue-gold Countable Infinity directly onto Skoll’s failing form.

Multiple Primus Inevitabilities arrived around him simultaneously, the entire army repositioning to surround their master and his wounded companions. Their massive tentacled forms created layers of protection while the Vital Chorus Absolutes added their green-gold-blue healing light to Noah’s efforts.

The deterioration stalled.

Then it began reversing, flesh reforming where flesh had been torn away, neon light stabilizing where neon light had been fading. Skoll completely healed.

But when Noah looked around at his defensive forces, the cost of that single escape attempt became horrifyingly clear.

His Infinite Bulwarks, the Absolutes who had sacrificed all offensive capability for defensive perfection, stood in formation around him. But nearly all of them were torn in half. Their crystalline plates of obsidian-gold had been shattered. Their layered tentacles had been severed. Their Infinite defenses, which had absorbed the combined assault of an Undivided One and three Formless Terrors without yielding a single inch, had been ripped through like paper.

One hundred eighty-nine Absolute Infinite Bulwarks had been collapsed.

The damage that had reached Skoll had first passed through nearly two hundred Absolutes designed specifically to prevent damage from reaching anything behind them. Beowulf had not seriously attacked. Beowulf had not even seemed to move. And yet a single casual gesture to prevent Alexander’s escape had torn through defenses that should have been impenetrable.

An instant later, the collapsed Bulwarks were Infinitely revived where they stood.

Their forms reformed from the Bounded Countable Infinity burning in their foundations, flesh and plate and tentacle reconstituting according to patterns that could not be permanently destroyed. The Infinite Hunger Stacks they had accumulated, the stored damage from the earlier demonstration, fueled their restoration alongside the authority Noah invested in their continued existence.

But the message had been delivered.

Even without having seriously attacked, just a single move Noah had made to save Alexander, to bring the Peacemaker to his side, had collapsed multiple Absolutes that needed to be revived again.

THE Primordial Armor looked over from a distance with visor that communicated brilliant satisfaction.

"That was nice."

The words carried appreciation that made them worse than mockery.

"But this entire place now falls under my weavings."

Beowulf’s helm tilted slightly.

"Nothing here may leave."

WAA!