Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse novel Chapter 4988

Chapter 4988: Loyalty II

THE Beholder observed the Infinity-bearer and his army with interest that had not faded since their initial appearance.

It was genuinely pleasant to witness Infinity again after so many eons of its absence from Observable Existence. The blue-gold light that burned within those four hundred Absolutes carried echoes of that age of nothingness, faint glimmers of what had existed before differentiation and undifferentiation learned to produce complex life.

The endless nature that defined what the Infinity-bearer wielded, all of it stirred memories that THE Beholder had not accessed in spans of time that complex life could not meaningfully comprehend.

But as he watched the demonstration against the Undivided One and the Formless Terrors, as he observed how the Infinity-bearer deployed his forces and directed their Infinite authorities toward combat and consumption, THE Beholder found himself experiencing something approaching disappointment.

Infinity... was being used in a very limited sense.

The applications were clever, certainly. The integration of endless defense and endless offense and endless healing into coordinated expression showed understanding that exceeded what most complex life achieved when grasping fundamental authorities. But the scope of what he was witnessing remained narrow, remained bounded by the frameworks that complex life seemed unable to escape, remained constrained by perspectives that treated Infinity as a tool rather than as a nature.

Infinity should be much grander than this.

In that age of nothingness, when potential had no boundary and possibility had no limit, Infinity had not been something wielded. It had simply been the way existence existed before existence learned to differentiate itself into complex expressions.

It had been the canvas rather than the paint, the stage rather than the play, the question rather than any particular answer.

What THE Beholder was watching felt like someone who had discovered an ocean and decided to use it exclusively for filling drinking cups.

Was the one who came to grasp Infinity in their Observable Existence a bit dull?

The thought crossed THE Beholder’s singular awareness with bemusement rather than condemnation. Complex life had limitations that beings of his nature did not share. They processed reality through frameworks of emotion and ambition and self-interest that colored everything they perceived and everything they did.

Perhaps this Infinity-bearer was doing the best that complex life could do with authority that had not been designed for complex life to wield.

Perhaps.

But THE Beholder had hoped for something more impressive given how rarely true Infinity manifested in Observable Existence.

He was about to turn his attention elsewhere, to drift toward other observations that might prove more worthy of his awareness, when the Infinity-bearer did something unexpected. The being sent his weavings out across the corrupted Infinities saturating the nearby region, golden threads extending through connections that THE Beholder could perceive with his singular cognizance.

The Infinity-bearer was searching for something specific, tracking connections that led away from his current position toward destinations unknown.

THE Beholder followed those threads with idle curiosity.

They led to a scene he had already observed and turned away from some time ago.

An armored Primordial Architect was torturing a weak lifeform in a region of THE Wastes that its authority had saturated completely. THE Beholder had perceived this scene during his drift across Observable Existence and had chosen not to watch because such activities held no interest for him.

Torture was a behavior that complex life seemed unable to abandon despite eons of supposed development. It served emotional needs that beings of his nature did not possess and could not relate to.

Some Primordial Architects were decent, in fairness.

THE Beholder had observed a few across his incomprehensible lifespan who approached something resembling Singular Cognizances in their wonder and their detachment from the petty concerns that consumed most complex life.

They observed rather than conquered. They contemplated rather than consumed. They existed in ways that suggested they might eventually transcend the impossible limitations of their differentiated nature.

One or two had actually achieved something approaching true wisdom. THE Creature was a decent one.

But so many more were simply disappointing.

Because why would a seemingly complex lifeform capable of tremendous authority and vast understanding choose to torture? What purpose did such activity serve beyond the gratification of emotional impulses that should have been beneath beings who had existed since before THE Infinite Unfurling?

Emotions were a significant component of complex lifeforms that they could not seem to escape no matter how much power they accumulated or how long they existed. Some held thrills and excitement and sadism that made them lesser than they should be, that reduced them from what their potential suggested to what their impulses demanded.

This armored Primordial Architect, whoever it was, clearly fell into the disappointing category.

THE Beholder was about to dismiss the scene entirely when he noticed something in the Infinity-bearer’s reaction to perceiving it. The being’s expression had changed. The casual confidence that had characterized his observations shifted into something heavier, something more serious, something that spoke of personal investment rather than detached assessment.

Oh?

The weak thing being tortured and the Infinity-bearer knew each other?

What an unfortunate coincidence that was. To know that someone you were affiliated with had their existence likely over and done with, while you were powerless to help.

Complex life formed attachments that created vulnerability, connections that became weaknesses, bonds that led to suffering when those bonds were threatened or severed.

This Infinity-bearer would have to accept that his affiliated being was lost. The armored Primordial Architect clearly operated at heights that THE Youngest, as THE Beholder had identified him through minimal exertion of awareness, could not contest.

The rational response was to mourn the loss and continue with activities that actually had possibility of success.

This was THE Beholder’s assessment of the situation.

But in the next moment, he heard prophetic echoes spreading from THE Youngest’s position.

Words that spoke of adversity and hardship and choices between becoming and unbecoming. Words that his army of Absolutes repeated with weight that pressed against existence itself. Words that suggested intention rather than acceptance, action rather than mourning, confrontation rather than retreat.

THE Youngest... was heading toward the armored Primordial Architect?

THE Beholder’s singular awareness sharpened with genuine astonishment.

Surely the one who had grasped Infinity did not also move based on emotions?

THE Youngest had absolutely no chance against a Primordial Architect at THE Second Scale.

THE Beholder focused his awareness more fully on the armored entity, exerting slightly more effort than his usual minimal observation required. The identity of the Primordial Architect was Beowulf, THE Primordial Armor.

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