Infinite Mana in the Apocalypse - Chapter 4400
Chapter 4400: You! II
Noah looked at Ozymandias, whose form had remained silent throughout the revelation.
His other self’s body was changing, transforming more completely into The Way of Hunger, tentacles of obsidian-gold writhing with barely contained appetite.
He turned to Kael and the assembled Seed Members, his voice carrying command.
“Keep watch over things here. Maintain order. Do not let anyone leave the Isolated Civilization until I return.”
He prepared to depart when Riya materialized beside him, her expression showing confusion mixed with determination.
“What the fuck is going on, Ancestor?” she demanded. “Whatever it is, I’m coming with!”
Noah didn’t even reply.
Blue-gold Primus Mana erupted around both of them, wrapping their forms in concentrated authority as they vanished from the Isolated Civilization.
Behind them, Kael and the others stared in stupor at the titanic body of Ozymandias, which now dominated the sky with its impossible fusion of Mana and Hunger.
—
In the Transcendent Quantum Folds.
In a region covered by veils of silent Paradox, existence itself seemed uncertain…present and absent simultaneously, observable and unobservable in ways that made perception uncomfortable.
A Principle steeped in Paradox covered the entire region, making everything seem absolutely normal to observation while hiding profound abnormality beneath.
But within this veiled region, four beings resided.
Three were absolutely identical with only minor variations in their features…different aspects of the same existence manifested across compatible frameworks.
The fourth was Leonore Rureaux.
The three identical beings were all bodies of Schrodinger.
At this moment, two of them…a Living Concept Schrodinger and a Living Quantum Schrodinger, gazed outward toward distant regions beginning to fill with hazy white flames.
A Justiciar was decimating an entire Citadel of Living Quantums with systematic efficiency, its massacre proceeding exactly as expected.
The Living Paradox body of Schrodinger was with Leonore Rureaux in a more intimate configuration. They were embracing, veils of paradox covering their naked figures as Schrodinger stroked her hair with gentle affection.
Leonore tapped on his chest thoughtfully, her voice carrying concern.
“Should we really be doing this right now? Even if we cannot help it for the grander plan, Living Quantums are being killed…”
At such words, Schrodinger smiled and shook his head.
“No, they’re actually not real Living Quantums. That Osmont is even more obscene than we initially assessed, he should be watching from nearby, but that entire domain is empty of life. Sophisticated illusions that took me considerable time to see through.”
His smile widened.
“And hey, if we all might collapse soon in The Fallout, would you rather not have been doing this with me a few million more times?”
Leonore smiled at his logic, laying her head on his chest and feeling immense warmth radiating from his existence.
She nodded with contentment.
At such a time…
“YOU FUCKER!”
BOOM!
Existence above them split.
A terrifying aura descended with force that made the surrounding paradoxical veils shred like tissue paper.
…!
Leonore and Schrodinger looked up in shock to see existence peeling around them like an onion, layers of reality being consumed by obsidian-crimson flames of Hunger that rapidly devoured the paradox protecting them.
They gazed upward to witness the visage of Khor descending.
They had seen her before around Osmont…small, diminutive, seemingly constrained. But not like this.
Now she looked down at them with a gaze so terrifying, so absolute in its murderous intent, that Schrodinger and Leonore understood immediately… this was the gaze of someone set on killing and collapsing, and such a gaze was directed exactly toward Schrodinger.
The moment he registered that callous, implacable stare, both he and Leonore felt terrifically oppressive power cascading down like a mountain about to crush them.
Not metaphorical pressure…existential weight that made their beings scream warnings of imminent termination.
Multiple Principles pulsed around the Paradox, Concept, and Quantum Schrodingers simultaneously as they mobilized defensive capabilities.
A collection of Quintillions in Complexity and Purity erupted around them!
Schrodinger’s voice echoed out with desperate reasonableness.
“Whatever this is, there must be a mistake. Can we talk?”
…!
An eruption of Principles and words, defensive authorities manifesting with speed that showed panic beneath calm exterior.
Yet against what descended from above, against an enraged Khor carrying dozens of Quintillions of Complexity and Purity alongside a fully realized Way of Existence refined through eons…
Khor gazed down with interminable rage.
She looked at Schrodinger.
And took a bite.
…!
A single bite.
And in the next instant, Schrodinger’s expression transformed from reasonable negotiation to shocked rage as his Living Quantum and Concept bodies stumbled backward paradoxically.
While his Living Paradox Body…
CRACK!
Split in half.
The entirety of that body’s existence…its paradoxical nature, whether it was alive or dead, whether it could return from death and deny termination however many times through its fundamental frameworks…everything that represented it was consumed in a single bite.
The body that split in half was merely a husk, emptied of all essential nature, falling back into Leonore’s horrified grasp.
One of Schrodinger’s bodies, the most enigmatic and fantastical manifestation of the beggar known across existence, faced instant collapse as the wrath of The First Hunger descended without mercy.
Leonore Rureaux bellowed toward Khor with her own rage erupting, grief and fury mixing into something primal.
The two remaining bodies of Schrodinger gathered around her protectively, both seeming under immense strain from losing their third aspect so suddenly, so completely.
They gazed up at Khor.
Khor gazed back at them with eyes promising only continued violence.
And only at this moment…
From above, Noah and Riya materialized to witness the devastating scene.
One of Schrodinger’s bodies collapsed, nothing but empty husk.
Khor floating above the survivors, gazing down coldly.
Her hands raised as her voice boomed across the region with authority that made existence itself tremble.
“You seem to enjoy plots. Machinations. Schemes within schemes within schemes.”
Her crimson eyes blazed with accumulated rage of eons.
“It is good to see you again, O Existential Plotter… O Architect of Calculated Collapse… O Weaver of Predestined Catastrophes!”
The titles crashed down like judgments, each one carrying weight of accusation refined through endless suffering.
“I remember how you killed billions of Inevitabilities… slaughtered for your grand designs. I remember how you killed me, took my Heart, stole my Primacy, used everything I was as components for your precious Loom.”
Her form blazed brighter, Hunger manifesting as physical force.
“From now on, I will collapse all remnants of you, THE Living Paradox. Every body. Every fragment. Every echo of your existence across all frameworks. You will know what it means to be devoured completely.”
…!
Her words crashed down with finality that suggested this was not threat but inevitable prophecy!