Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4277: The Astral Codex and Everythings! I

Noah and Elara were escorted through the great, golden gates of the city, their every move watched by the calm, ancient eyes of the Early Creatures who lined the streets. There was no hostility, only a profound, almost academic, curiosity.

Kael, their guide and captor, gestured to the sprawling city around them. "This is Aethelgard," he said, his voice a smooth, cultured tour guide’s narration.

"Not a city, in the way you might understand it, but a living organism of power. To the east, you have the Spires of Contemplation, where our philosophers and historians reside. To the west, the Fields of Proving, where strength is tested and wills are forged. We are currently passing through the Great Concourse, the very heart of our civilization."

Elara remained silent, her expression a mask of cold animosity.

She knew she was in enemy territory, a lamb in a den of very old, very powerful lions.

Noah listened calmly, his gaze sweeping over everything, RUIN/EDEN’s Architect’s Eye documenting, analyzing, and storing every detail.

"We are heading to the Forges of Creation," Kael detailed, his tone intricate.

"A location where the most important research and workings of Aethelgard take place. It is a place of art, of science, and of a certain... pragmatic acquisition of knowledge."

They entered a new sector of the city, a place where the air itself seemed to hum with a contained, creative energy.

Here, the beautiful, ornate architecture gave way to more functional, yet no less grand, structures.

Massive workshops, their walls of black, star-absorbent stone, were connected by a network of glowing, golden conduits.

Noah could see powerful Early Creatures moving within, their forms silhouetted against the brilliant light of what looked like captured stars being used as forges.

Some were 500 Quadrillion in Complexity and Purity. Others 600, 700, 400 Quadrillion...it was waves and waves of terrifying monsters!

|Master, my capabilities are being greatly diminished here.|

|A terrifying, city-wide authority, likely a Principle of Dominion or a similar concept, is consciously keeping all other authorities contained at their source. I can still observe and record, but my analytical and projective functions are being... suppressed.|

|Analysis: We are in the belly of a very large, very powerful beast. It would be wise to not make any sudden movements.|

WAA!

They arrived at their destination, a vast, circular structure at the very heart of the Forges.

And as they stepped inside, Elara’s breath hitched. Noah’s own gaze, behind the calm mask of his face, sharpened with a cold, dawning comprehension.

The place was a graveyard of their ambition.

Broken and semi-completed designs of Justiciars and other Living Existential Armors were scattered throughout the vast workshop, mounted on display stands like the trophies of a successful raid.

The technology, their secret, their grand project... had been stolen.

Kael led them in calmly, his expression unreadable. "I have already sent word ahead," he said, his voice a low, almost conversational, murmur.

"News of a seemingly successful existence, the first to bind with a Living Existential Armor, and one who displayed such great power at that... you have made many of us very interested."

He said this while bringing Noah even further into the workshop, past the stolen skeletons of their dreams, to a place where one of the true power of this city resided.

Here, in the inner sanctum of the forge, powerful Early Creatures were abundant, their auras a silent, suffocating sea of Quadrillions.

They were the master craftsmen, the architects of this stolen future, and they all turned their ancient, starlit eyes towards the newcomer, their gazes a mixture of professional curiosity and a predator’s cold assessment.

One of them, a being whose form was a perfect, crystalline lattice of pure thought, floated over to Kael.

His voice was a series of harmonious, resonant chimes that echoed directly in their minds. "New acquisitions, Commander Kael? Your hunt was fruitful, it seems. The others apparently faced heavy firepower..."

Kael smiled, his fiery hair a stark, vibrant splash of color in the otherwise monochromatic workshop.

"New potential, is more like it, Master Theorem," he replied, his voice a smooth, cultured buzz.

"One of the Commander of the Laboratories, Elara. And an Elderborn who... has successfully bonded with a Living Existential Armor."

The crystalline creature turned its multifaceted gaze upon Noah, a new, more intense level of interest in its silent appraisal.

It was a look that stripped away all pretense, a gaze that saw not the armor, but the being within!

Elara’s jaw tightened. She was a Commander, a being of 500 Quadrillion in complexity, and she was being discussed as an ’acquisition,’ a footnote to the true prize!

She remained silent, her rage a cold, hard knot in the pit of her being. This was not her laboratory. Here, she was not a commander, but a curiosity.

To speak would be to reveal a weakness they would undoubtedly exploit.

Noah, for his part, met the gazes of these ancient, terrible beings with a calm, unreadable silence.

He had transformed.

His Aegis was in its inactive form, a simple, elegant necklace, but the Innate Omnichalcum Aura Field was a constant, invisible shield, and RUIN/EDEN was a silent, ever-vigilant observer in the fortress of his mind.

Kael led them further in, his voice a low, engaging narration. "As you can see," he said, gesturing to the rows of mounted, skeletal armors, "we have been... studying the designs of THE Living Concept for some time. A noble ambition, to be sure. An armor to make the weak strong. But their methodology is... flawed. Too much caution. Too much sentiment."

He stopped before a new, more advanced section of the forge. Here, the power was even more palpable, the air so thick with contained authority it was like breathing liquid starlight!

Powerful Early Creatures, their auras in the high hundreds of Quadrillions, were at work, their hands weaving threads of light and matter with a grace that was both beautiful and terrifying.

He brought them to the very heart of the forge, a vast, circular chamber where a single, colossal figure was at work.

It was an Early Creature of such immense scale and power that his very presence seemed to bend the space around him.

He was a giant of a being, his skin the color of burnished bronze, his muscles like the roots of an ancient, world-sized tree!

He was bare-chested, a simple, golden kilt around his waist, and his hands, each the size of a small moon, were currently working on... a Living Existential Armor.

It was a masterpiece, a suit of obsidian and gold that seemed to pulse with a dark, hungry light. It was almost complete, and its power was a thing of terrible, beautiful malice!

Kael approached the giant with a reverence that was a stark contrast to his earlier, arrogant demeanor. "Forgemaster Vulcan," he said, his voice a respectful, almost hushed, tone.