Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4876: Last Gamble! II

The Primordial Serpent was moving languidly and basking in the glow of undifferentiation brought about by the Spark Fragment of THE First Cause.

Its power was mighty and its being was heavy to the point that its senses perceived all the countless changes occurring across this region of molten proto-matter. Every shift in the Mobius strips that curved around its domain registered against its awareness. Every fluctuation in the undefined potential that comprised its home was catalogued and assessed.

Nothing escaped its notice.

Nothing had escaped its notice for eons!

And at this moment, it felt like the proto-matter in the surroundings felt distinctly different.

The undefined substance that should have flowed in familiar patterns was behaving strangely, its currents shifting in ways that spoke of external influence rather than natural variation. Something was here that shouldn’t be here. Something was approaching that didn’t belong in this place.

But the moment it felt this, the moment its countless eyes began to turn toward the anomaly with attention that had ended the existence of many intruders across the ages...

BOOM!

Blue-gold light exploded across its domain.

Radiant seals erupted like a field of beautiful flowers blooming in impossible synchronization, each one manifesting from the proto-matter storm that had been concealing Noah’s existence. They spread outward in waves that multiplied infinitely, their petals burning with the devouring light of Infinite Hunger and the destabilizing quality of undifferentiation that this place had taught them to carry!

The devouring light of Infinite Hunger reached toward the Primordial Serpent with appetite that transcended normal consumption, seeking to break down its ancient existence into fuel for Noah’s ever-growing foundations. The undifferentiation quality pressed against the Serpent’s defined form with pressure that made even this native of THE Prima Indifferentia recoil in shock.

The Primordial Serpent was pushed back!

Its countless eyes widened with surprise that it hadn’t felt in eons, its massive form retreating from the field of infinite flowers that burned with authority it couldn’t immediately counter. For a single moment, its attention was entirely focused on the seals rather than what the seals were concealing.

And in that moment, the humanoid visage of Noah appeared right before the Spark Fragment of THE First Cause.

Something that a native of THE Prima Indifferentia had been holding onto and enjoying its constant boon for years beyond counting now had a thief standing before it, blue-gold light burning around a figure whose wings spread wide with infinity blazing through every feather.

What would Noah do to it?

Without even a delay, time seemed to slow as Noah flung his body forward with movement that committed everything to this single action. His jaws opened wide, wider than should have been possible for a humanoid form, stretching to accommodate what he was about to consume. His mouth wrapped around the entire area where the grain-sized Spark Fragment of THE First Cause spun in perpetual rotation.

And it disappeared down his throat!

...!

Consumed in a single gulp after the Primordial Serpent had spent eons savoring its emissions rather than devouring it whole.

The Primordial Serpent saw this scene.

Its countless eyes, which had been watching with shock just moments before, now melted with sheer rage and lividity!

This was the fury of something that had just witnessed its most treasured possession, its companion across eons of existence, its source of joy and enrichment, eaten right in front of it by an intruder who had no right to be here.

As if an intruder had stripped his lover and taken them whole right before his eyes!

How dare he? How dare he?!

BOOM!

The molten proto-matter around them responded to its rage by churning with violence that made the Mobius strips shatter and reform in patterns of pure chaos.

A crimson pillar of undifferentiation erupted from the Primordial Serpent’s form.

The pillar wasn’t an attack in the conventional sense but rather a release of everything this ancient creature was, its full Depth and Immensity manifesting as a column of authority that made Noah’s infinite seals seem like flowers before a hurricane. The Serpent charged forward through the field of blue-gold petals, and where lesser beings would have been consumed by the Infinite Hunger quality or destabilized by the undifferentiation, the Primordial Serpent used its pure Depth to simply push through.

The infinite seals multiplied to replace those destroyed.

The Serpent destroyed them faster than they could multiply.

Its Depth was simply too immense, its existence too heavy, its rage too absolute!

The seals that could devour and undifferentiate attacks were being swept aside like leaves in a storm, pushed sideways by authority that had been accumulating since before THE Infinite Unfurling!

The Primordial Serpent appeared before Noah in an instant.

Its tail, a appendage that stretched for hundreds of miles and contained the concentrated weight of an existence older than the Earliest Folds itself, smashed into him with force that should have ended his temporal traversal immediately.

But Noah’s visage was valiant as he waited for this strike.

He didn’t try to dodge. He didn’t try to block. He used the force of the impact and his own Immensity to accomplish something that pure defense could never achieve.

He flung himself far back.

The tail strike that should have destroyed him instead became a catapult, launching his existence away from the enraged Serpent at speeds that turned him into a streak of blue-gold light. His velocity fuly attained the speed of Absolutes as he rocketed away from the molten region, away from the creature whose treasure he had just stolen, away from a fight he couldn’t possibly win!

He was making a run for it like any good thief should.

But at such a time...

"Found you, slippery thing."

WAA!

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere simultaneously, formed from concepts that hadn’t fully differentiated into sound.

"Come here."

BOOM!

Bazuman materialized in the space between Noah and freedom.

THE Undivided One’s entry was heralded by the cessation of all normal motion in the region, reality itself pausing to acknowledge the arrival of something that predated reality’s existence. Its form had shifted since their last encounter, now appearing as a mass of flesh and undefined potential that stretched across miles of space, but its million crimson eyes remained constant.

Those eyes were all focused on Noah.

The rageful Primordial Serpent, which had been charging forward with murderous intent toward the thief who had stolen its treasure, froze in place.

It was scared shitless.

But terror didn’t stop the situation from escalating.

Bazuman stood still, its million crimson eyes opening fully as every single one of them released a terrifying suctioning force that pulled everything in the nearby light years toward its position. The molten proto-matter that comprised this region began flowing toward the Undivided One like water toward a drain. The Mobius strips that had been curving through undefined space straightened as they were drawn toward that central point of consumption.

All proto-matter was being pulled in.

All things were being pulled in.

Even the Primordial Serpent was included in this gravitational nightmare, its massive form being dragged toward Bazuman despite its attempts to resist. Its rage and madness returned as it realized it was now caught between the thief who had stolen its treasure and another Undivided One who would consume them both without discrimination.

It roared toward Bazuman with fury born of desperation.

But its hateful gaze remained fixed on Noah, who was currently being pulled back toward The Undivided One alongside everything else in this region of THE Prima Indifferentia.

He couldn’t run.

The suctioning force was too strong, too absolute, too fundamental to resist through conventional means. His streak of blue-gold light was being dragged backward despite his velocity of Absolute speeds, the pull of Bazuman’s million eyes overwhelming everything he threw against it.

And by all means, he should be scared shitless right now.

He should be terrified like the Primordial Serpent was terrified, facing an enemy that could consume Absolutes without effort and had been hunting him across THE Prima Indifferentia with persistence that bordered on obsession.

But...

DUM!

What he had just swallowed was making his existence pulse with excitement and Immensity that he couldn’t explain.

The Spark Fragment of THE First Cause was dissolving into his foundations, and the echoes of the moment when differentiation began were flooding through his existence with authority that made everything else seem small.

He felt...he felt...! Fuck, he couldn’t even explain how he felt!

He wanted to howl.

He wanted to roar.

He wanted to release the joy and exhilaration of having consumed something that most beings in Observable Existence would never even see, let alone integrate into their foundations.

But... well, he needed to run.

So while gazing at the terrifying Undivided One that he couldn’t beat even if he attained the power of an Absolute, Noah’s existence pulsed as he began to speak...

Gibberish.

The gibberish required to open The Interstices.

The undefined Phoneme that would create a doorway to the spaces between spaces, the routes that could carry him away from this place and back toward safety as he would utilize Temporal Traversal to return.

But as he did...

"Youngest, don’t!"

HUUM!

From a far distance, cutting through even the suctioning force of Bazuman’s million eyes, Noah saw the materialization of THE Primordial Paradox. The ancient Absolute’s obsidian form had appeared at the edge of this region, his expression one of solemnity and alarm as if Noah had done something he absolutely shouldn’t have.

But Noah had already committed.

He sent a message rapidly through waves of undifferentiation that carried his intent across the distance between them, his thoughts pressing into THE Primordial Paradox’s perception with urgency that couldn’t be delayed.

"I will see you soon. Not here, but eons from now."

...!

And as Noah looked over toward THE Primordial Paradox, completing the gibberish that would open The Interstices, he also saw that beside the ancient Absolute there was someone else.

Someone who looked oddly familiar.

Someone whose features seemed to shift between a scholarly explorer and something far older, far more powerful, far more connected to THE Prima Indifferentia than any visitor should be.

Noah blinked as if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

But he had already spoken the gibberish.

The undefined Phoneme had already left his existence.

And in the next moment...

CRACK!

A Crack of Observable Existence appeared where Noah was, tearing through the fabric of THE Prima Indifferentia with force that made even Bazuman’s suctioning eyes pause in surprise.

Noah disappeared into it.

But moments before he vanished entirely, he realized what THE Primordial Paradox had been referring to when he said "don’t."

They had entered THE Prima Indifferentia through the Crack of Observable Existence, not through The Interstices.

It seemed there was a reason for this.

THE Prima Indifferentia couldn’t be reached through The Interstices because it existed in a state that predated the spaces between spaces.

So if one sought to open The Interstices while inside of THE Prima Indifferentia...

"Oh."

Noah only had this thought of understanding before everything disappeared around him, the crack swallowing his existence and carrying him toward a destination that he hadn’t chosen and couldn’t predict.

---

What was left behind in THE Prima Indifferentia was chaos of a different kind.

The Primordial Serpent roared with madness that had lost its target, its countless eyes searching for the thief who had stolen its treasure and finding nothing but the crack that was already closing. Its rage had nowhere to go, its fury had no outlet, and the loss of its Spark Fragment pressed against its ancient existence with weight that would take eons to process.

Bazuman stood silent!

THE Undivided One’s million crimson eyes had stopped their suctioning force the moment the crack appeared, its attention entirely focused on the anomaly that had just occurred.

And at the edge of this region, THE Primordial Paradox and Jack stood together, with the former looking toward Bazuman with a sharp gaze.

THE Primordial Paradox’s obsidian eyes held irritation that burned cold.

This Undivided One had been chasing THE Youngest across THE Prima Indifferentia, had forced him into increasingly desperate measures, had caused him to make a choice that opened a crack that shouldn’t have been opened from this side!

And now THE Youngest was gone.

THE Primordial Paradox stared at Bazuman with eyes that held the promise of consequences, but...who knew how this encounter unfolded and finished as at this moment, a thief was either given a recompense to breathe and enjoy his boon, or he may have just neen extinguished entirely!