Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4135 Hunger and Suffering! I

Silence reigned on the golden sands, a heavy, somber quiet that was more profound than any noise.

The Shore, a place of perpetual vibrancy, had been muted by the shock of the attack and Khor's sacrifice. Yet, at the heart of this stillness, a whirlwind of power was beginning to form.

Noah stood before the bisected body of the Primordial Stone Ape, which now had a writhing, obsidian-gold lower half made up entirely of Ozymandias's tentacles.

Thousand of tentacles, each one a tendril of insatiable hunger, wrapped around Noah's form, not to harm him, but to serve him.

Their purpose was singular, their hunger absolute: to devour the curse placed upon their master by The First Leader, Gilgamesh.

Others watched from a distance, their faces a mixture of solemnity.

The memory of the terrifying white light, of Khor's sacrifice, was still too fresh, too raw, for them to fully comprehend what was happening.

They saw the tentacles surrounding Noah, and while they knew their purpose, the sight was still a terrifying reminder of the thin line between this Shore's life and the ever-present threat of oblivion.

Noah's eyes, however, were not on the crowd, nor on Ozymandias.

They were on the runic prompts that had been waiting for his attention, prompts he had put on hold to focus on the immediate, tangible danger.

Now, with the threat momentarily abated, his gaze, burning with a furious, untamed tyranny, fell upon them.

|The Seed of the Principle of Perpetual Harvest has witnessed the tremendous effort that the natives of your Early Veiled Shore put in when faced with an unprecedented attack.|

|Such an effort, a collective bond forged in the face of annihilation, is deemed a rare and critical harvest. It is the perfect soil for a Principle to grow in.|

|Due to this, the percentage of maturation for the Seed of the Principle of Perpetual Harvest has jumped from 3% to 10%!|

The number, ten percent, buzzed with the force of an existential declaration.

In existence where progress was measured in infinitesimal increments, this was a leap of astronomical proportions.

It meant that Noah's ability to manipulate the fundamental principle of effort and reward was no longer a trickle, but a veritable torrent.

|At 10% Maturation, new capabilities have been unlocked.|

|The Resistance of Perpetual Harvest has also reached 10%. Your existence is now ten times more expensive for reality to oppose. Attacks against you require an additional 1000% effort from the aggressor. You are a walking paradox of defensive endurance.|

|You can now forge up to ten Glyphs of the Seed of the Principle of Perpetual Harvest, up from the previous three. The cost is being scaled up to a heavy 500 billion in Complexity and Purity, but the boons will be amplified a hundredfold.|

|The Perpetual Growth Field can now cover the entire Shore and beyond, reaching into adjacent Folds, its power to accelerate development growing with every second.|

|You have been granted a new distinction: The Shield of Unity. You are recognized as one who can foster an unbreakable bond in the face of existential threats. This distinction amplifies the effectiveness of the Perpetual Harvest Principle, especially in a collective setting.|

Noah's tyrannical gaze deepened as he absorbed the information.

The boons were staggering, a reward so immense it dwarfed the pain of the curse still burning within him.

But he knew, with a cold certainty that transcended emotion, that he could not enjoy them yet.

The curse had to be dealt with first. A parasite, a limitation imposed by an enemy he hadn't even met, could not be allowed to fester. It had to be unmade.

He focused again on a new set of prompts, a different kind of reward, one born of Khor's sacrifice.

|Due to the extraordinary effort done by Khor, The First Hunger, the Symbolic Heart of Hunger within you has been enriched further.|

|The Nine Seals of The First Hunger are now capable of being visualized. When all nine seals are released, the true, undiminished power of The First Hunger, held since the Earliest Folds, will be unleashed.|

|Due to the recent devouring of the degraded authority of The First Leader, the first seal is nearly broken. The only remaining condition is the swallowing of the Everything of an Entire Fold.|

|The First Seal, The Seal of Primordial Appetites, yearns for a meal that defines its hunger. It seeks an essence of life so vast, so complete, that its consumption would shake the very foundations of existence.|

A Fold. A single, entire Fold. The thought blazed in Noah's mind.

The complexity, the sheer scale of such a task, was astronomical. It was a meal that would break a normal being's mind, a consumption that would make other's feeding look like a child's snack.

But Noah knew exactly where to get a meal of that scale.

…!

The Nullvein Gravewake Folds!

This was a Fold that had already been moved by a Royal Living Existence!

A Fold he could reach as he was in it, a Fold he could provide. Od course, he would see to it that her Hunger could encompass the Fold, but not the countless lifeforms and Wheels inside of it.

Those could simply be relocated into the vast Osmontian Shore!

He would not just feed his hunger, he would unleash a primordial appetite that would make the Foldless Ones tremble!

The endless hum of Ozymandias's hunger permeated Noah's mind, a ceaseless, ravenous drone that now sought the very thing that was causing its master's pain.

It located the markers of the curse, the tiny, insidious threads of Gilgamesh's authority that had woven themselves into Noah's very essence.

The hum became a roar, a silent, all-consuming bellow of "Food."

Noah looked out at the others, his gaze burning with a profound tyranny. He was almost harmed. His family alingside him.

And his body…how dare The First Leader think he could impose such a thing?!

He would not stand for this. His existence was his own, his body his own temple, his authority his own law!

No mere authority, especially one that had been dormant for eons, could curse him and remain so.

He bellowed, a roar that shook the very foundations of the Shore and the Infiniverse itself.

"Feel the hunger! Be devoured! Begone!"

BOOM!