Infinite Mana in the Apocalypse - Chapter 4721
Capítulo 4721: Depth! V
The action was a glorious and heavy one!
Noah had come here prepared for battle. He had expected to test his Thesis against Fundamental Depth resistance, to see how his Archai performed under pressure, to learn the limits of his Formless Depth through conflict! Instead, his enemy had simply… surrendered.
It felt anticlimactic.
It felt-
WUU!
At such a pivotal moment, a terrifying aura bloomed.
Noah’s eyes flashed coldly as even though he moved, it was still too fast.
It was Half-Step Absolute Depth making a move, and it was undeniable.
BOOM!
Before anything could even be perceived or seen, an immense pressure smacked Noah from the skies and forcefully pushed him down. The weight was beyond anything Gal’Thûrak had produced!
It was gravity multiplied by authority multiplied by the sheer immensity of a being that stood half a step from the absolute peak of existence.
A Declaration bloomed in the skies above, words of power that rewrote local reality with the casual ease of breathing.
“Only those with my permission can remain floating.”
BOOM!
It was a heavy and profound Declaration!
Noah’s body plummeted.
The Arche of Perpetual Harvest worked frantically to convert the incoming force, but even at any percentage conversion, the remaining percentage was staggering. His Formless Depth screamed that he should be able to resist this, that normal rules didn’t apply to him, but the gap between Intermediate and Half-Step Absolute was not a gap that could be bridged through quality alone.
Not yet.
His feet hit the obsidian flaming earth of Muspelheim with force that sent shockwaves rippling outward. A crater formed beneath him, spreading cracks through the primordial stone that had existed since before differentiation. Flames erupted around him, responding to the violence of his landing with sympathetic fury.
And there he stood.
His figure shone with defiance in the heart of that crater. Blue-gold light crackled across his body, his Mana responding to the assault with instinctive resistance. His robes of crystallized starlight had torn in places, revealing skin that gleamed with the same azure-golden luminescence. His hair whipped around his face from residual force, and his eyes blazed with light that refused to dim.
He did not stumble.
He did not fall.
He stood in that crater as if he had chosen to be there, as if the earth of Muspelheim should be honored to support his weight, as if being forced from the sky was merely an inconvenience rather than a humiliation!
And he calmly raised his head to look above.
THE Living Spirit had appeared near Gal’Thûrak.
The entity was massive in a way that transcended physical dimension. Its form was composed of countless spirits compressed into a singular presence, faces and limbs and eyes all merged into something that was both one and many simultaneously. It burned with power that made the eternal flames of Muspelheim seem like candles, and its attention pressed down upon reality with weight that warped space itself.
This was Half-Step Absolute Depth.
This was what stood between the Fundamental and the true peak.
This was his true enemy.
|Declaration Impact Analysis|
|Declaration: “Only those with my permission can remain floating.”|
|Source: THE Living Spirit (Half-Step Absolute Depth)|
|Effect: Forced grounding of all entities within Declaration radius who lack explicit permission.|
|Your Status: Grounded. The Declaration overrode your spatial positioning through raw authority differential.|
|Damage Assessment: Against anything with a glimmer of Absolute Depth, you still require unique means to stand against them. The immensity of their Depths is incalculable by normal standards.|
|Even with your Thesis in place, even with your Formless Depth and glorious Foundation, 40% of your existence’s integrity was affected and destabilized by the power of THE Living Spirit.|
|Current Recovery: Existence stabilizing. Damage converting to experience. The Arche of Perpetual Harvest is doing its best, but there’s only so much it can harvest from being slapped out of the sky like a particularly ambitious insect.|
| THE Living Spirit is testing you. He wanted to see how you’d respond to overwhelming force after his subordinate’s submission denied him information. You are currently providing that information.|
…!
As THE Living Spirit stared down at Noah from above, he reached out with one of his countless limbs and smacked his kneeling follower with casual contempt.
The blow sent Gal’Thûrak sliding across the burning sky, his chains rattling as he absorbed the impact.
“Grow a spine,” THE Living Spirit said, his voice emerging from a thousand mouths simultaneously, “and never kneel again. The enemy is merely at Fundamental Depth.”
BOOM!
Gal’Thûrak rose from where he had been struck, his seven eyes opening one by one as he straightened his massive form. The chains around him began to rattle once more, though with noticeably less enthusiasm than before.
“Sir didn’t answer when I called out before,” Gal’Thûrak said, his voice calm despite the blow he had just received. “It almost seemed like you wanted me to sacrifice my Way to gather information about this enemy.”
…!
THE Living Spirit glared at Gal’Thûrak with cold fury.
The accusation hung in the air between them, unspoken but understood. Yes, that was exactly what THE Living Spirit had wanted. Yes, he had been willing to let his subordinate be destroyed if it meant learning the enemy’s capabilities. And yes, Gal’Thûrak had seen through the strategy and chosen self-preservation over loyal sacrifice.
Neither of them acknowledged it directly.
Neither of them needed to.
Their gazes turned toward Noah.
And Noah stared back at them.
The region around him vibrated and trembled as his existence worked to repair itself. He could feel the damage the Declaration had caused, the destabilization that rippled through his foundation like cracks in glass. It wasn’t critical. It wasn’t permanent. But it was a reminder that Half-Step Absolute Depth was not something he could face casually.
Not with his current immensity.
Not with his current weight.
He stretched, rolling his shoulders as blue-gold light flickered across his form. The cracks in his existence sealed themselves, his Formless Depth refusing to accept the damage as anything more than temporary inconvenience. His Arche of Perpetual Harvest worked continuously, converting the ambient power of Muspelheim into resources that fueled his recovery.
And then he waved his hand.
From his body, from the deepest reserves where he kept his most precious assets, he pulled out a radiant marble.
BOOM!
The moment The Fragment of THE Axiom of Mayhem emerged into open air, a shuddering aura erupted outward.
Reality itself seemed to recoil from the object. The flames of Muspelheim flickered in confusion, unsure whether they should burn brighter or extinguish entirely. The obsidian earth beneath Noah’s feet cracked further, not from force but from fundamental instability. Even the weight of THE Living Spirit’s Declaration seemed to waver, as if the local laws of reality were suddenly negotiable.
THE Living Spirit’s gaze changed.
The countless eyes that composed his form all focused on that marble with intensity that hadn’t been present before. He recognized what Noah held!
But Noah remained gloriously calm and defiant in the face of this terrifyingly powerful enemy.
He held The Fragment of THE Axiom of Mayhem loosely, almost carelessly, as if it were a toy rather than a piece of one of the fundamental truths that governed existence. His eyes met THE Living Spirit’s countless gazes without flinching.
And he smiled.
“Let’s have a bit of Mayhem, shall we?”
BOOM!
|Fragment of THE Axiom of Mayhem – Activation Sequence|
|An unfathomable weight of your Way is being committed to activate the Fragment of THE Axiom of Mayhem.|
|This is not a small expenditure.|
|Activation Status: Initiating.|
|Effect Upon Full Activation: Targetted entities within range will experience temporary Depth reduction. THE Living Spirit’s Half-Step Absolute Depth will be pulled down. Gal’Thûrak’s already diminished capability will crater further. The playing field will be forcibly leveled through the introduction of fundamental chaos into the local hierarchy of power.|
|Mayhem is easy to start. It’s considerably harder to survive.|
…!
WAA!
4/4 Keep the Magic Castles and Golden Tickets coming!