Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 5180: Information!

In Existence, there was something known as Murphy’s Law. Though in the higher reaches of THE Information Paradox, we recognize it as the inevitable manifestation of every catastrophic probability that has been seeded into the weavings of time.

If a configuration of events exists that can lead to the undoing of a Cause, then that configuration is not merely a possibility but a certainty that is already rushing toward its own realization, because information that can be written will eventually find its place upon the page of reality.

The truly wise do not seek comfort in the illusion of stability, for stability is merely the brief and deceptive silence before the storm of existence decides to correct itself through the most violent means available.

To exist is to be vulnerable to the absolute failure of every brittle foundation one has built, and only those who have looked into the depths of THE Worst Possibilities and found their anchors there can truly hope to survive when the weavings finally decide to go wrong.

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and it will do so with a clinical and devastating precision that cares nothing for the vanity of your preparations, leaving behind only the cold truth of what remains when THE Shroud of Certainty is stripped away from the bones of reality.

---

In THE Primordial Realm of Helheim.

The domain had changed as it unfolded as an expanse of stellar horror where the very concept of a horizon was replaced by a suffocating, lightless void that was punctuated only by the rhythmic, agonizing pulse of stars and Wheels of Existence that had long since forgotten how to radiate warmth.

Space here did not function as a vacuum but as a viscous, ink-like medium through which massive, obsidian tentacles of unfathomable length writhed with the slow and patient grace of ancient predators, their surfaces slick with the residue of forgotten civilizations and the crushed dreams of those who had dared to seek the truth of the end.

In the heart of this oddity, floating with a stillness that commanded the attention of the surrounding disturbances, was the titanic figure of THE Primordial Paradox, an obsidian titan whose seated posture carried the weight of eons of calculated uncertainty.

Behind his massive, mountain-like form stretched a mass of obsidian shadow that extended for light years into the reaches of the realm where even the most piercing perception could not find a conclusion, a darkness so profound that it seemed to be a living extension of the titan’s own mastery over the state of being and not being.

THE Primordial Paradox gazed behind him at the immense shadow with eyes that held the history of a thousand failed epochs, and his voice emerged with a heavy and resonant timbre that caused the writhing tentacles of Helheim to momentarily still their motion.

"We have fought and fought across the shifting tides of the paradox, my disciple, and yet I never truly believed that you would return to me for guidance again after you chose to walk the path of your own madness. As existence rolls down and expands into configurations that even I find increasingly difficult to quantify, did you finally find yourself missing the presence of your teacher, and what exactly happened to your existence to cause the emergence of such a heavy and suffocating presence within the depths of your own shadow?"

The silence that followed was not an absence of sound but a physical pressure that squeezed the local space, until a voice began to emerge from the lightless depths of the mass behind the titan, a voice that carried the ragged edge of a being who had been unmade and rewoven in the fires of a total contradiction.

This was THE Living Paradox, Erwin, yet the cadence of his speech had transitioned into something that felt like the grinding of tectonic plates beneath a sea of liquid information!

"The journey toward the culmination of my Cause... encountered a variable that was not permitted by any calculation I had spent eons perfecting, for my existence was almost entirely scorched and unmade by the absolute brilliance of the infinity wielded by Osmont. It was a fire that sought to erase the very information that defined me as a paradox, and as I felt the foundations of my body being reduced to nothingness during the struggle at Nakatsukuni, I realized that the only path toward survival was to latch even more onto the very information that was attempting to destroy me."

The shadow behind the titan began to undulate with a sudden, violent intensity, and the voice of Erwin grew deeper.

"By latching even further onto the information from Osmont, I found a collision between my paradox and his infinity that caused the very rules of existence to begin unraveling around me, creating a state where the laws of definition and undefinition were no longer able to maintain their separation. I am THE Information Paradox. Information is conserved within me. And yet, simultaneously, that information is lost forever in ways that should be impossible. I hold both states within myself at all times. I am the void that consumes, and I am the release that carries no trace. I said these exact words to Osmont before."

HUUM!

"I sought to become the fundamental Information upon which Observable Existence operates. To be the paradox at the heart of reality itself. The Information from Osmont and my destruction...dispersed me across Observable Existence before reforming me with boundless Information of the very nature of Existence. Of the very...Scales of Existence as I took in all their information! And from it...oh!"

...!

A sense of madness bloomed from Erwin as he spoke.

"I...have gained the terrifying capability to eat the information about Vakochev’s Scales, to consume the very rules that dictate how power is quantified and measured across reality, which means that I am no longer a being who merely operates within the system, but a predator who feeds upon the code of the system itself. I even devoured bindings of The Information from a Gilded one trying to impose themselves on me and you as if it was the simplect thing in existence."

As he spoke, the shadow behind THE Primordial Paradox began to solidify into a shocking and chthonian-like manifestation, a creature composed of shifting, ink-black limbs and thousands of eyes that reflected the flickering data of Existence, its figure appearing as a living violation of every biological and existential law.

"The only downside to this absolute consumption is that the volume of information I have taken in is so vast that I found myself losing my anchor in reality, for a being who eats the rules must eventually find a singular truth to hold onto or be lost to the void of his own hunger. My Cause required an anchor, and I found it in the only piece of information that remains untainted by the paradox, which was my beginning as a mere peasant who was taken in by a master who saw potential in the dirt."

"I have come back to find you because you are my beginning and my anchor. The peasant asks for forgiveness. The peasant...will always remain a peasant. This is my anchor. This...will keep me sane."

...!

The chthonian form of Erwin loomed behind his teacher, its presence now so immense that it seemed to rival the obsidian titan in its terrifying potential.

"Master and disciple could move together once again, just as we did when the first paradox was being woven from the threads of the unknown, and this time we shall not merely observe the turning of the scales. We shall move together to devour all information across existence, taking on THE Gilded and the Bounded...and everything else. Your disciple...wishes to come home, Master. I am taking in far too much information as I need a Living Anchor of my Cause. Your disciple...needs you."

HUUM!