Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 5000: Research IV

Noah looked up at the manifestations surrounding him.

"For missiles, they proceeded to go to bombs for their next big advancement. Now a single person held in their hands the power to eliminate tens of thousands. If someone at that Scale of power were to meet with those who only fought with their fists and swords, they would be untouchable, would they not?"

His eyes flickered with understanding.

"Maybe that is what THE Second Scale of Existence considers those at THE First Scale of Existence. But I digress."

He continued, his voice building with the weight of what he was expressing.

"Continuing with my analogy, from explosive bombs filled with gunpowder, they then elevated their technology to nuclear bombs. Now a single person of that so-called advanced Civilization could carry a single weapon, a single Atom Bomb, and they could decimate tens of millions. Go even further and make Hydrogen Bombs, and now your advanced Civilization could kill billions."

Noah’s hands fell to his sides.

"All of that. For the sake of adversity and conflict and warfare. To continue advancing Civilization."

He became quiet after talking for such a long time.

He did not remember the last time he had talked so much.

But at this moment, his eyes were shining with profundity as he spoke again.

"I wonder which stage in that example I gave I am at? Am I still using my fists as THE First Scale of Existence? Can the power I have right now be considered a sharp sword or projectile?"

He looked at the Four Aspects surrounding him.

"From now on, should I proceed my Civilization in building something to get ready for the coming adversity? To make my Civilization into a weapon that could destroy thousands of Absolutes with a single push? To make my Civilization akin to a bomb I can throw at Primordial Architects and obliterate them in an existential fallout?"

His voice softened with something approaching weariness.

"Just at which point will the struggle and adversity end? I want to decide this. I want to change this. I want to advance my Civilization in peace. Farming. Fishing. Cooking. Just grasping the nature of existence itself. The nature of Infinity."

Noah raised his hand up as if he was reaching out to a distant, distant dream that he would never grasp.

"If I could sit in peace just studying Infinity..."

All he saw above him were those vibrant waves of Existence, Chaos, Paradox, and THE First Tongue. Beautiful. Magnificent. Representing everything he had achieved and everything he could still become.

But to keep them, he had to fight.

To protect them, he had to struggle.

To advance them, he had to face adversity.

He became silent.

He became reflective.

And in this silence...

"It seems you are on the right path."

THE Beholder’s voice emerged with that same calculated precision, that same ancient composure that betrayed nothing resembling emotion.

"Your path is yours to figure out. I cannot do much. I am an observer. I have always been an observer. I will simply watch as you walk whatever direction you and many others choose."

The geometric fragments contracted slightly.

"But I will warn you."

"Your biggest strength will be Infinity. And your biggest weakness... will be Infinity."

...!

The statement hung in the Wandering Territories with implications that Noah could not fully process.

"Learn Infinity. Understand it. Conduct it. Become whatever it allows you to become."

THE Beholder’s eye focused with intensity.

"But everything comes at a cost. Everything has a cost. And the cost of Infinity is not something that can be paid in Mana or Harvest or any of the currencies that complex life has invented to quantify value."

A pause.

"You will learn what that cost is. Eventually. All who touch true Infinity learn it eventually. The desperate ones at THE Second Scale get to learn just as well..."

...!

HUUM!

With these words, Noah looked up to see THE Beholder flicker.

The geometric fragments scattered like petals in wind that did not exist. The luminous eye at the center dimmed and faded. The presence that had existed since before differentiation withdrew to wherever ancient observers went when they decided they had seen enough.

And then THE Beholder was simply gone.

Noah’s eyes became heavy as around him, the manifestations of Existence, Chaos, THE First Tongue, and Paradox began to disappear. The black dahlia collapsed into wisps of obsidian that scattered through the Wandering Territories. The multicolored Dyson sphere faded into light that had no source and no destination. The endless Grimoire closed and compressed until it vanished entirely. The Mobius strip untwisted and dissolved into gold and obsidian motes that drifted away on currents only they could perceive.

He was left sitting on a chair of condensed Infinity in the middle of the Wandering Territories.

Silent.

But thinking of far too many things.

There were also so many things that he wanted to try.

He thought about the example he gave. Civilizations advancing from fists to nuclear weapons. If everything was adversity and conflict, for the budding model of his Civilization, what should he do to scale it up to be as lethal as possible?

Because until he had the power to change it, the name of the game remained Adversity.

Conflict and War remained paramount.

Might made right.

If he faced a Second Scale Primordial Architect and lost, if Noah Osmont perished, his grand fable from the beginning until now could be rewritten by whoever survived to tell the story. History was written by the victors. Always had been. Always would be.

So he could not lose.

He had to continue being victorious again and again.

And for this, he needed to innovate. He needed to grow. He needed to take this new understanding of Infinity and forge it into something that could answer any adversity that descended upon him.

So...

Noah rose from his chair of condensed Infinity.

His entire finite being seemed so mundane at this moment. No blazing radiance. No crushing weight of presence. Just a man standing in the chaos of the Wandering Territories with eyes that held depths they had not held before.

But he carried an unfathomably glorious purpose.

He took a step.

And he disappeared.

He had a lot of work to do. A lot of research to conduct. A lot of limits to test and boundaries to explore and innovations to design.

So he left to do it.

And in the back of his mind, the names of enemies were already written. THE Entity occupied the prime position it had always occupied, that unified horror spreading across Observable Existence with hunger that sought to consume everything he was.

But now, alongside THE Entity, Beowulf occupied a prime spot.

THE Primordial Armor.

THE Second Scale.

The being who had tortured Alexander for millions of subjective years trying to find Noah’s location.

The being who had demonstrated exactly how vast the gap between Scales truly was.

The being Noah had sworn to return to.

He would keep that oath.

But first, he had to become something that could make keeping it possible.