Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse novel Chapter 4999

Chapter 4999: Research III

The words of THE Beholder were always heavy to hear.

But right now, Noah seemed to be hearing them in passing, as if they were distant echoes rather than direct address. He was lost in the sensation of utilizing all Four Aspects of the Oldest Paradox of Existence simultaneously.

Chaos bloomed around him in that black dahlia of obsidian rivers.

Existence rotated above his left hand as that multicolored Dyson sphere of Civilization.

THE First Tongue stretched behind him as that endless Grimoire of Phonemes.

Paradox twisted through impossible geometry as that gold and obsidian Mobius strip.

All of it powered by Infinity that emanated from his finite form like light from a star.

And as he maintained this ridiculous display, he actually felt some form of strain. A sensation that came from something he had not actively sensed since he made his admission.

The strain came from his Depth.

When he truly looked at his existence, his Depth was still there. Even though he had declared himself finite, even though his external radiance had dimmed and his presence no longer pressed against reality with the weight it once carried, his Infinite Formless Depth remained.

But it was an odd thing.

Even though his Depth was there, paradoxically, it also was not there at the same time.

It seemed to have truly lived up to its name as his Formless Depth. Present and absent. Defined and undefined. Finite in nature while remaining Infinite in potential.

And when he dug into his existence further, when he examined the source of the strain he felt from doing this ridiculous action, he understood.

His weavings were still Countable.

Countable.

As immense as the jump he had made was, as unprecedented as his new ability to conduct rather than contain had become, the power he was currently utilizing remained Countable Infinity. Sequential. Numbered. Endless in progression but bounded in density.

Whenever he made that elevation toward Uncountable Infinity, whenever he achieved that density where infinite points existed between any two moments, what he would be able to do would be even more immense than this.

This was hit limitation as a finite being, not a limitation of infinity itself.

He could not even say this when he had not fully grasped what he could do currently.

He had to research and understand just what his current limits were. He had to explore what he could truly accomplish with the power he now held before reaching toward the next threshold.

So he opened his eyes and looked at THE Beholder in the distance.

The ancient entity looked back calmly.

Those geometric fragments maintained their expanded configuration, the luminous eye at the center tracking Noah’s attention with patience that spoke of eons of practice. There was no urgency in that gaze. No demand. Simply observation of the same quality it had maintained since before differentiation taught existence how to have boundaries.

Noah could not particularly get a read on this entity.

And the way THE Beholder was looking at him suggested that it also could not get a read on him.

He had many things that he wanted to ask. Questions about Infinity and THE First Cause and that age of nothingness and what exactly it was and why this being had chosen to speak to him during his confrontation with Beowulf.

He felt like even if he did ask, this being would not really answer.

He was about to ask anyway, because there was no harm in trying, when THE Beholder spoke first.

"What do you think about Civilization and adversity?"

...!

"Civilization and adversity..."

"They are a unique thing. I am learning more and more about it, and as I learn, I want to question. Why adversity? Why must I struggle?"

"I want to change this. Struggle seems to be inherently built into existence. No matter what I do, I have to throw myself into struggles to make sure that I have enough power for when the next struggle descends. I dislike that cycle. I want to break that cycle."

"And yet, if I do, it would feel like my Civilization has stalled and would not rise again. It feels like conflict and struggle and war is rewarded by Vakochev’s Scales. As if adversity itself is the fuel that drives advancement."

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