Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse novel Chapter 4989

Chapter 4989: An Impossibility!

Noah arrived in a region of THE Wastes where everything felt wrong.

The corruption here was different from corruption elsewhere, carrying weight that pressed against his existence in ways that the proto-matter mixed with his Infinities had never managed. The very fabric of reality answered to something other than the principles that normally governed Observable Existence, bending and warping according to will that operated on levels his perception could barely comprehend.

Information barely flowed from the Infinities here to tell him a few things. The identity of the enemy, but only because they freely permitted their identity to spread.

THE Primordial Armor stood before him.

Beowulf was massive in ways that made the Tetras Apeiron seem like children’s toys arranged for play. Platinum armor that had been forged from proto-matter convinced to become metal covered every inch of a form that dwarfed mountains, each plate shifting with patterns suggesting awareness distributed across the armor itself rather than contained within it.

The hammer in its grip was equally colossal, condensed metallic proto-matter churning within its head with eagerness for targets to unmake.

The gaps between those platinum plates revealed nothing but darkness.

No body. No being. Just the armor itself, existing as entity rather than equipment, consciousness without flesh that had persisted since before THE Infinite Unfurling.

And before that armored titan, suspended in the corrupted air like a specimen prepared for examination, was Alexander Asmodeus.

THE Primordial Armor’s visor oriented toward Noah with attention that felt like weight settling upon his shoulders. The armor did not possess visible features, yet somehow, expression communicated itself through the arrangement of platinum plates, through the angle of the helm, through presence that spoke of amusement where amusement should not have been possible.

And the first thing this Primordial Architect uttered out...

"Tell me, Infinity-bearer. Do you know... what Existential Nociceptors are?"

Beowulf’s voice emerged with calm that made the words more disturbing than screaming rage could have achieved.

"Of course you do not. Those at your Scale cannot perceive them. Those like you experience pain as sensation, as signal, as warning that something has gone wrong within their existence. But they do not see what I see. They cannot perceive the architecture that underlies all suffering."

The armored titan shifted slightly, plates rearranging in patterns that suggested settling into comfort.

"Every differentiated existence possesses Existential Nociceptors woven into the fabric of their being. These are the fundamental receptors through which all suffering flows. But they are merely the foundation. Branching from them are the Civilizational Afferents, pathways that carry agony through one’s entire Civilization simultaneously, ensuring that no aspect of the self escapes what is being inflicted."

A pause, as if savoring the explanation.

"Then there are the Delta-Threads of Existence, which transmit sharp and immediate pain with speed that allows no preparation. And the C-Fibers of Being, which carry slow, burning anguish that accumulates over time without relief. Most beings possess these without ever knowing they exist and how they connect to their Civilizations. But at THE Second Scale, I perceive them as clearly as you perceive the corrupted proto-matter around us."

The visor tilted slightly.

"And perception, O Infinity-bearer, permits manipulation."

The words hung in the corrupted air with weight that pressed against Noah’s consciousness.

"One can isolate individual Nociceptors and stimulate them with precision that lesser beings cannot achieve. One can flood the Civilizational Afferents with signals that make every fiber of existence scream simultaneously. One can activate the Polymodal Agony Receptors, those rare structures that respond to multiple types of suffering at once, creating symphonies of pain that finite minds cannot comprehend."

The armor that served as Beowulf’s form seemed to settle with satisfaction.

"But the true artistry lies in Hyperalgesic Amplification. By manipulating the Weavings that sensitize each receptor, I can increase their responsiveness by factors that have no upper limit. Pain that would normally register as discomfort becomes agony. Agony becomes something for which no word exists. And through temporal dilation around these amplified receptors, I can stretch nanoseconds into subjective eternities."

The helm oriented toward the suspended figure behind the armored form.

"Within a single nanosecond of objective time, one can create millions of years of accrued suffering for the one experiencing it. Every Delta-Thread firing without cessation. Every C-Fiber burning without relief. Every Polymodal receptor screaming with multiple agonies simultaneously. All of it stretched across spans of perceived time that would break any normal existence."

Beowulf’s voice carried something approaching pride.

"I isolated every Existential Nociceptor within THE Peacemaker here. Alexander Asmodeus, he calls himself. I mapped his Civilizational Afferents with precision that left no pathway untouched. I activated his Polymodal Agony Receptors while flooding his Delta-Threads and C-Fibers with stimulation that exceeded anything his existence was designed to endure."

A pause.

"I applied Hyperalgesic Amplification until his receptors were sensitized beyond theoretical maximums. And then I dilated his perception of time until each moment of torture stretched into spans that would reduce civilizations to begging."

The armor that served as Beowulf’s voice carried satisfaction that made Noah’s blood pulse!

"And... all I have managed to get out of him is his name. He will not say a thing about you. But after bearing through all that pain to avoid giving you up, to save you from what would come if I found you..."

Laughter built within the armored form.

"You just show up. Just like that."

"Haha! HA!" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The sound boomed across the corrupted Wastes with weight that made the proto-matter tremble.

"What a thing. Hey, Peacemaker, is that not crazy?"

Noah’s gaze moved past the armored titan to the figure suspended in corrupted air behind it.

Alexander Asmodeus.

THE Peacemaker.

His humanoid body had been broken down into countless small cellular components while somehow still maintaining humanoid form. And yet his eyes, those segmented, shattered eyes, still found Noah across the battlefield. Still recognized him. Still held something that looked like relief mixed with horror, as if Alexander was simultaneously grateful that Noah had come and devastated that his sacrifice had been rendered meaningless by that very arrival.

It was as if someone had taken his existence apart piece by piece and then arranged those pieces in the shape of what he had once been, a mosaic of suffering that approximated the man without actually being whole. Weavings of undifferentiation flowed through the gaps between those cellular fragments, corruption serving as mortar holding the broken pieces in their agonizing configuration.

He was twitching.

The movements were involuntary, spasms that spoke of pain so profound that his existence could not contain it despite the torture having paused. His skin, or what remained of it in fragmented form, had gone gray with stress that exceeded what color could survive.

His muscles, segmented into countless portions that moved independently of each other, contracted and relaxed without his control. Every pain receptor within him had been stimulated beyond their capacity to recover, leaving him in perpetual aftermath of suffering that continued echoing through his shattered form.

And yet his eyes still held defiance.

Those eyes were also segmented, broken into pieces like everything else, yet somehow they still functioned. Somehow they still gazed toward Beowulf with refusal to break that transcended the physical destruction that had been inflicted upon him.

Somehow, after everything, after millions of years of subjective torture compressed into moments of objective time, Alexander Asmodeus still looked at his torturer with expression that communicated nothing but contempt.

On his chest, the Enneagram that had been his partnership with THE Living Law showed damage that exceeded everything else.

A line of fracture extended through the middle of the nine-pointed construct, splitting it nearly in half. The silver light that had once blazed from those nine points now flickered weakly, barely visible, barely present, barely anything at all. The construct looked shattered beyond repair, destroyed by deliberate action rather than external assault!

Noah looked at this scene with eyes so heavy they felt like they might sink into his skull.

He did not say anything.

He only looked toward Alexander as their eyes met across the distance that separated them, across the armored titan that stood between rescuer and victim, across the impossibility of the situation they now shared. Complex emotions passed between them in that moment of connection.

Slight guilt, for Noah had spread the Infinities that led Beowulf to Alexander.

Gratitude, for Alexander had not given him or THE Infiniverse up despite suffering that would have broken any normal existence.

Grief, for the man suspended in corrupted air was clearly not the same man who had walked away from THE Infiniverse with pride of independence.

"This Alexander had inside of him another weak thing. THE Living Law, it called itself."

"That consciousness partnered with your Peacemaker, invested in him, believed it was building something worthwhile through their connection. But THE Living Law had much weaker conviction than its host."

"When I isolated its Existential Nociceptors, when I showed it what Hyperalgesic Amplification truly means at THE Second Scale, THE Living Law could not bear it. The suffering was simply too great. It was about to spill everything. Your location. Your nature. Your vulnerabilities. Everything I wished to know."

"It is not pain that any existence can bear, what a being at THE Second Scale can inflict upon those below it. THE Living Law was normal in that regard. Its Civilizational Afferents could not handle the stimulation I was applying, and it was about to break completely."

"But this Alexander is actually an abnormal one. When he realized his partner was about to give you up, when he understood that THE Living Law would betray you to escape the agony flooding through its receptors, he made a choice that I did not anticipate."

"He shattered his own Anomalous Mutated Weavings. His little nine-pointed star. He collapsed that consciousness inside of him before it could speak, destroying his own partner to protect you."

"Ah! What sadness. What horrors. What magnificent conviction from such a small existence."

"But again. All of that done, all of that suffering endured, all of that sacrifice made, only for you to deliver yourself to me. And I have been looking, O Infinity-bearer."

"If you would sit still, I wish to open you up and dissect you a bit. I am curious what Existential Nociceptors woven with Infinity look like. I am curious how Hyperalgesic Amplification would interact with endless regeneration. I am curious about you and Infinity."

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