Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 5099: Information Is Critical!

Nakatsukuni’s deepest reaches.

Erwin stood before the structure where Sadakar resided, his beggar-like attire seeming almost offensive against the refined architecture surrounding him. Moloch floated beside him, golden plates spinning with consideration.

Both of them had paused before the doorway where Sabayne and Ba’alzan sat guard, their attention directed not at the entrance but upward toward the sky that stretched above this hidden domain.

The broadcast had been dispersed.

Grimvault had shattered the illusory screens that had been displaying his confrontation across Observable Existence, denying most beings the ability to witness what had occurred in THE Wastes. Very few possessed the capability to observe through such disruption. Very few could pierce the veil that a Calymmian Tier Primordial Architect had thrown across the event.

Moloch was one of them. His nature as a Singular Cognizance granted perception that others couldn’t imagine.

And Erwin was another.

His existence as THE Information Paradox allowed him to consume information that others couldn’t access. Even when that information was scattered, even when it was hidden, even when powerful entities actively worked to prevent its spread, the paradox he embodied could draw fragments toward himself through sheer contradiction of the principle that hidden things should remain hidden.

He didn’t see the full picture.

The details were incomplete, the sequence of events fragmented in ways that made comprehensive understanding impossible. But he saw enough. He saw Grimvault’s Silurian Light crash against an existence that should have been erased by it. He saw that existence survive. He saw a Pulse emerge in response, blue gold flames that made even his paradoxical perception struggle to process what they represented.

And he saw Grimvault flee.

Erwin smiled brilliantly.

His lips curved upward! Even with limited information, even with gaps in his observation that would have frustrated lesser beings, he could affirm one undeniable fact.

Osmont had somehow managed to push away a Calymmian Proterozoic Scale entity.

He had forced an entity who had existed since before most current powers learned to crawl to tear open THE Interstices and flee rather than continue the confrontation.

This made him tremendously happy.

Since his conversation with Osmont in that space between spaces, since revealing his nature as THE Information Paradox and watching his Infinite Seals interweave with the corrupted proto-matter of THE Fallout, before all of it had been erased with multicolored rain, Erwin had made a decision. He had changed his target for information gathering. Where before he had focused his paradoxical consumption on THE Creature, now his attention had shifted.

To Osmont.

Not because he believed Osmont was grander than THE Creature. That couldn’t possibly be true. Or rather, he couldn’t really know that with certainty.

THE Creature had existed for far to long and done far too much.

But his paradoxical intuition told him to make this change.

That intuition, which had guided him through eons of cultivation and consumption and contradiction, whispered that Osmont represented information worth gathering. Worth focusing on. Worth making the center of his attention rather than an entity whose patterns he had already observed across countless spans of existence.

And now, confirming what Osmont had just accomplished...

Erwin spoke commandingly, his voice emerging with authority that pressed against the stillness of Nakatsukuni’s deepest reaches.

"Harvest all the information of how Osmont has affected Observable Existence since then."

His words weren’t directed at anyone present. They were directed at himself, at the paradox he embodied, at the violation of information conservation that comprised his fundamental nature.

"Gather every fragment of how much potential he has taken and displayed in the surrounding existence. All the weavings that carry his signature. All the effects that trace back to his actions. All of it."

HUUM!

His body shone internally with paradoxical light.

The brilliance existed and didn’t exist simultaneously, illumination that was also darkness, visibility that was also concealment. Information began flooding toward his existence in torrents that made even his eons-refined foundations tremble. He felt the consumption begin, felt the paradox draw in everything related to Osmont’s effects on Observable Existence.

And what flooded toward him almost made him shudder.

The amount was ridiculous. The density was overwhelming. Information about Osmont’s Infinity spreading across realms. Information about his Seals now interweaving with THE Fallout. Information about Civilizations and Undivided Ones and Formless Terrors who had been affected by his emergence. Information about The Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity he actually formed alongside THE Creature, and so much more!

Instead of releasing this information outward as he normally would, instead of letting it spread as weavings that carried his signature alongside their original essence, Erwin released all of it into...himself.

He sat down in a meditative position.

His beggar-like form settled against the ground before Sadakar’s structure, legs crossing beneath him as the paradoxical light within his existence intensified. Sabayne and Ba’alzan watched him with expressions that mixed confusion and wariness, clearly uncertain what THE Living Paradox was doing at their doorstep.

But Erwin paid them no attention.

His Civilizational Anchor was settling.

He could feel it happening. The information he had just consumed, the sheer magnitude of Osmont’s effects on Observable Existence, provided the final weight needed to push his paradox past the threshold he had been approaching for so long.

Apart from this, endless paradoxical Observable Force began flooding into him.

Golden light mixed with the contradictory brilliance already burning within his foundations, power that came from sources he couldn’t immediately identify but didn’t question. His cultivation accelerated in ways that felt almost unfair!

Erwin opened his eyes with wonder that he rarely allowed himself to feel.

Just what was Osmont?

How was merely the information related to him and his effect on surrounding existence this grand? He hadn’t consumed Osmont himself. He had only gathered information about Osmont’s effects, about how his existence rippled outward through Observable Existence, about the changes his emergence had created across existence.

And that alone had been sufficient to push him past the threshold of Civilizational Anchor.

Erwin shook his head slowly. He focused on his rapid elevation of power, on the forces flooding into his existence with intensity. His paradox burned brighter than ever, contradiction and confirmation dancing within foundations that were transforming into something grander with every passing moment.

Above him, Moloch floated with golden plates spinning faster than normal.

The Singular Cognizance seemed thoughtful. Only now did Moloch seem to truly notice Erwin, attention shifting from whatever he had been contemplating to focus on the entity sitting in meditation below him.

A heavy power was erupting from THE Living Paradox.

Moloch’s plates slowed as that power pressed against his perception, as the advancement occurring within Erwin announced itself to everything nearby. The Singular Cognizance had brought Erwin here to make difficult allies, to secure partnerships with entities who had rejected conflict. He hadn’t expected his companion to achieve a breakthrough on the doorstep of their destination.

And neither Moloch nor Erwin knew what waited just beyond the doorway they stood outside of.

On the other side of that entrance, within the stellar darkness of Sadakar’s structure, another body of Noah Osmont stood. The very entity whose information had just catalyzed Erwin’s breakthrough was right there, separated from them by nothing more than wood and stone and the power of Sadakar who separated them!

The Peasant and the Infinity-bearer, about to meet again!