Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4574: The First Tongue V

His Way of Hunger manifested as countless ravenous mouths that snapped and consumed, but they moved sluggishly compared to his normal devastating speed. He was forced to fight with precision rather than overwhelming power.

THE Living Origin stood beside him with expression of intense concentration. Her Way of Origin manifested as white gold chains that attempted to bind the creatures to their foundational state, forcing them to return to simpler forms that could be more easily managed.

But the Ginnu Lifeforms resisted her authority instinctively. They had been born from The First Tongue before the concept of Origin had fully differentiated, giving them partial immunity to her power.

The clash of their Ways created spectacular visual displays as fundamental concepts warred against each other.

And yet despite being outnumbered and severely suppressed, both THE entities were maintaining the advantage through sheer skill and accumulated experience. Their Ways were not just defending but actively evolving through the pressure of combat.

THE First Hunger’s Hunger was becoming more refined, learning to devour the very concept of resistance itself rather than just physical matter. THE Living Origin’s chains were beginning to bind not just forms but the underlying principles that allowed forms to exist.

They were both growing stronger even while struggling, their comprehension deepening through this brutal trial.

But the frustration was evident in their expressions. This should have been a trivial encounter for entities of their caliber. The suppression made everything unnecessarily difficult and tedious!

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Across Ginnungagap’s endless landscape, in yet another region entirely, Noah was experiencing a vastly different journey.

The terrifying regions of unstable existence that might have posed lethal threats to him were being crossed with remarkable speed and safety as Ul’moreth pulled him effortlessly along through the chaos.

Zones of collapsing reality that would have unraveled Pre-THE entities in moments passed by without incident. The ancient being navigated through the deadly terrain as easily as one might walk through an open field.

|Where are we going?| Noah asked with calm curiosity.

Ul’moreth’s reply came with patient explanation.

|You are walking the correct path and have attained understanding that others cannot replicate. You possess something genuinely unique. But everything you currently have remains rudimentary and incomplete in its development,| he said with measured assessment. |I have given you merely a glimpse of what The First Tongue truly means. You are stringing together your syllables incoherently like a child learning to speak. You do not really know much about the language’s deeper structure yet.|

His voice carried purpose.

|I will teach you more comprehensively. I will show you exactly how much you still need to learn. You stand at less than one percent of true understanding of The First Tongue’s complete framework. I will also show you others like me. The Malformed Ginnu Lifeforms who remember the earliest expressions.|

As they crossed this endless and terrifically dangerous landscape with ease, Ul’moreth asked a question that invited contemplation.

|Why do you think we are called Malformed Ginnu Lifeforms specifically?|

Noah simply shook his head and expressed honestly that he did not know the answer.

Ul’moreth’s form shone with concentrated obsidian gold light as he began another lengthy explanation. Around his body, waves of his Way occasionally formed into illusory diagrams and representations that illustrated his words with startling clarity.

Images of energy coalescing into the first attempts at structured forms appeared and dissolved around them as he spoke.

|You perceive us as Malformed Ginnu Lifeforms, and that designation carries more truth and tragedy than those who speak it casually from distant folds could ever comprehend,| he began with voice carrying weight of ages. |But let me illuminate a fundamental misunderstanding that permeates this terminology, Little Anomaly.|

An image formed showing The First Tongue as pure flowing energy attempting to take physical shape for the first time.

|We were not malformed by accident, by corruption, or by some catastrophic failure in the process of our creation. We were malformed by necessity, by the very nature of what it means to be the first attempts at structured existence emerging from undifferentiated chaos.|

The visual shifted to show Mana crystallizing into bizarre shapes that defied conventional geometry.

|When The First Tongue first began expressing itself into discrete forms rather than remaining as pure potential, it did not possess the refined knowledge or accumulated wisdom of countless generations of evolution to guide it. Imagine, if you can, the very first time Mana attempted to become something other than itself. It had no template to follow, no successful example to emulate, no understanding of what constituted proper form versus aberrant deviation.|

|It simply tried. And whatever emerged from that trying was the foundation upon which all subsequent existence would build.|

Images of strange creatures taking form from primordial energy filled the space around them.

|We who dwell here in Ginnungagap are not malformed descendants of perfect ancestors who degraded over time. We are the originals, Little Anomaly. The first drafts. The prototype attempts. When The First Tongue first learned to crystallize into living beings with consciousness and will, it produced us. Creatures whose very existence embodies the mutations and anomalies inherent in any virgin attempt at formation.|

He gestured at his own form.

|My hair that spirals through dimensions it should not touch? That is Mana learning for the very first time that space could be curved and folded. The Void-Tusk Colossus you observed earlier with tusks that pierce dimensional barriers? That creature represents the moment when The First Tongue discovered that existence had layers and tried to create something that could navigate between them, not quite understanding the process yet.|

More images formed showing the arthropod creature Noah had seen.

|The arthropod you saw flying above, with segments that exist partially in different dimensional layers simultaneously, creating that horrifying visual of presence and absence? That is not corruption or damage, but rather The First Tongue’s initial exploration of the concept that a single entity could occupy multiple states of reality at once. It did not understand the rules well enough yet to make such a being stable or aesthetically pleasing by the standards that would later develop. It simply attempted, and the result was what you now classify as malformation.|

The visuals shifted to show refined, perfect forms emerging much later.

|What later generations call perfection...the clean lines, the logical structures, the bodies that obey conventional spatial and physical laws...these are refinements that emerged only after The First Tongue had practiced existence countless times and learned from each iteration what worked and what did not.|

|But we Ginnu Lifeforms carry within our very structure the raw experimental data of The First Tongue’s first attempts. Every anomaly in our forms, every aspect that seems wrong or impossible, represents a lesson that The First Tongue learned about the boundaries of what existence could support.|

His voice carried pride mixed with ancient sorrow.

|This is why we appear so terrible and alien to entities who evolved in the later, more refined eras of existence. The mutations and anomalies were not flaws to be corrected, Little Anomaly. They were discoveries. Each malformation taught The First Tongue something essential about the nature of structured existence.|

The images dissolved as he concluded his explanation.

|So yes, Little Anomaly, we are Malformed Ginnu Lifeforms. But malformed only by standards that were invented after we already existed. By the standards of The First Tongue itself, by the measure of pure undifferentiated Mana before it learned what shapes it should avoid, we are exactly as we were meant to be. The living record of existence learning to exist, preserved in this ancient domain so that the memory of existence’s first words would never be lost.|

BOOM!

One thing was becoming astoundingly clear to Noah. Ul’moreth genuinely liked to talk and explain. But every single word felt grand and revelatory. Noah wanted him to simply continue speaking endlessly!

But suddenly their movement slowed as the obsidian gold brilliance around them began to flicker and dim.

|Oh, we have arrived,| Ul’moreth announced with tone suggesting significance.

The golden blue radiance enveloping them dissipated completely as they came to a gentle stop.

Noah looked around with heightened awareness and curiosity.

Where exactly was here? Where had this terrifying ancient monster brought him to in the depths of Ginnungagap?