Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse novel Chapter 4731

Chapter 4731: All Things Live and Die V

Okay.

So, fighting against an entity like THE Living Spirit was not an easy task.

His power was already constrained in ways that should have made this battle decisively one-sided. From Noah’s established Thesis, he had no access to The First Tongue as his Genesis Principles were closed off from the linguistic foundations that powered them.

His regeneration of authority was locked out, unable to draw upon the ambient Mana that should have been replenishing his reserves with every passing moment. His connection to the very language of reality had been severed, leaving him fighting with reserves that depleted without refilling.

His power was also no longer Absolute as he stood only at THE Fundamental Depth now, dragged down from the Half-Step heights he had occupied before the Fragment of THE Axiom of Mayhem had done its work. He faced two Fundamental Depth Muspeli Lifeforms whose Ways burned with the authority of beings who had protected The First Tongue since before THE Fallout.

He faced Noah, whose Formless Depth defied conventional measurement and whose flames billowed with intensity that matched the eternal fires of Muspelheim itself. He faced THE Infiniverse, whose weight carried the accumulated mass of an ever-expanding realm that was even now devouring the very territory they fought upon!

And he faced multiple other THE entities from THE Infiniverse, each one adding their authority to the assault from the periphery in an unrelenting storm of Assertions and Impositions.

And yet...

More than ten seconds passed as this being actually did not fall!

10 Seconds!

Noah looked at him with an imperious gaze that seemed to ask one simple question: how fucking dare he?!

Ten seconds might have seemed like nothing to lesser beings, but in a battle between entities of this caliber, ten seconds was an eternity. They moved in femtoseconds, thought in attoseconds, and exchanged blows at speeds that would have appeared as frozen stillness to anyone observing from outside.

Ten seconds meant ten quadrillion femtoseconds of continuous combat, ten quadrillion moments where attacks landed and Declarations clashed and Ways pressed against Ways in contests of absolute authority.

And THE Living Spirit endured it all.

The reason for his unbeatable stance and stature right now was of course his Depth, even reduced as it was, and his Way of Spirit that had been refined over eons beyond counting. But more than either of those, it was the Fragment of an Axiom he wielded that kept him standing when he should have fallen long ago.

The Scythe.

It hung in his grasp like an extension of his will, its blade curved with promises of endings that transcended normal death and its handle wrapped in chains of spiritual essence that writhed with tortured awareness. The power of THE Living Spirit wrapped around it heavily, merging weapon and wielder into something that was more than either alone.

Even Lens of Civilization didn’t reveal his status sheet nor the identity of the Fragment he carried, the Axiom from which it had been taken remaining a mystery.

But the effects were clear enough.

THE Living Spirit would wave this Scythe, and any Assertions made by Khor or Ra’Zan or the others from the periphery would simply be nullified as if they had never been spoken. The jaws of hunger that should have devoured his defenses dissolved into nothing. The storms of bone and poison that should have corroded his Way scattered like mist before morning sun.

The weight of their combined authority, which should have pressed him down into submission, slid off his existence like water off stone.

THE Infiniverse, who swung her legs like imperial primordial hammers with force that could have shattered lesser realms, was pushed back with every exchange. Her weight drained with every strike she landed, the Scythe somehow siphoning the very immensity she brought to bear and turning her own power against her.

And as Noah formed a new Thesis, speaking it into existence with authority that only someone who had claimed The First Tongue could muster, it smashed onto THE Living Spirit with impact that would have smashed any normal Fundamental Depth entity. The Thesis hung around him like chains of linguistic law, his heavy Depth pressing like an unrelenting hammer that sought to crush him into submission!

But THE Living Spirit stood strong.

He made grand Declarations of his own, his countless mouths speaking words of power.

Some of those Declarations targeted the forces on the periphery, seeking to one-shot kill Sigrid or Ra’Zan or any of the others whose Depths were insufficient to withstand direct attention from someone of his caliber.

But Surtra and the other Fundamental Depth Muspeli Lifeform brought down their own terrifying immensity in response, their Ways interposing between THE Living Spirit’s Declarations and their intended targets with the practiced coordination of beings who had fought together for eons.

Surtra had held back THE Living Spirit even when he was at Half-Step Absolute Depth with her unique Way, her sandy flames somehow capable of diffusing and redirecting authority that should have overwhelmed her. She was not stronger than him, had never been stronger than him, but her Way was perfectly suited to defense and delay in ways that made raw power comparisons irrelevant.

Nothing passed past them.

And all that was left was a glorious scene with Noah and THE Infiniverse surrounding THE Living Spirit with their Depth and immensity, gradually wearing him down as one singular factor revealed itself at this moment that would become a defining feature many would come to realize in the very near future.

As THE Living Spirit took on all these attacks, all these Depths, Noah’s random Thesis constructs and THE Infiniverse throwing her weight around like a fat primordial realm seeking to crush an insect beneath her mass, he was actually waiting for something.

He was waiting for a gap in their attacks.

He was waiting for...exhaustion to hit them.

Because they were not only throwing their Depths at him with reckless abandon, but his Fragment of an Axiom was actively nullifying and even draining them of their Weight with every exchange. The Scythe was designed for exactly this purpose, to turn extended battles into wars of attrition where his opponents expended themselves against his defenses while he conserved and even grew stronger from their efforts.

It was a strategy that had worked countless times before.

It was a strategy that should have been working now.

Yet...

It didn’t seem to be doing anything?

They didn’t look any more exhausted now than they had ten seconds ago. Their attacks came with the same ferocity, the same weight, the same relentless pressure that had characterized the opening moments of this battle. In these ten seconds, they had all attacked and moved in femtoseconds, exchanging quadrillions of blows and Declarations and Assertions without any visible sign of depletion.

They had been attacking for a relatively long fucking time.

They had been asserting, imposing, and declaring their Ways again and again against his Spirit, hammering at his defenses with authority that should have been diminishing with every exchange but somehow remained constant.

As if they held an infinite backing behind them.

"Ah..."

He thought he saw faint blue-gold lines extending from THE Youngest Claimer and onto all his people here, threads of connection that pulsed with Mana flowing in only one direction. They reached all the others, and through those lines, their Depths were being replenished endlessly.

Infinitely.

"Ah..."

Was this the perk behind THE Youngest Claimer?

Infinity?

When he felt his own Way that continued to deplete, when he noticed his weight and immensity not refilling because he remained locked out from The First Tongue by the established Thesis, he understood with perfect clarity that this battle was...lost.

There was no path to victory here.

After all, this was just his other Half-Step Absolute Depth Spirit Body.

In Spirit Shelter of THE Loom, another remained! His true existence, or at least a more complete version of it, waited in safety beyond the reach of THE Youngest Claimer and his infinite backing. Even if this body collapsed here, even if this portion of his existence was destroyed and harvested, he would continue.

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