Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse novel Chapter 5417

Chapter 5417: Veris-Gloom!

Noah appeared in skies unfathomably far from THE Hallowed Demesne, surrounded by the nine women of the Dora Shath’yar.

He was turning over the words of THE Queen Regnant as he arrived, the talk of Those Who Remain, the lineage older than the oldest things, the insistence that anyone True was no longer alone. He shook his head at the memory of it. He was himself. He had clawed his way up from nothing with no inheritance handed to him by anyone, no ancient bloodline, no faction at his back, and whatever the Queen had felt looking at his eye, he was not in the habit of accepting a heritage just because a powerful being insisted he had one. He was himself, with no connection to another, and that had always been enough!

And as he thought it, he glanced up at the tentacle-like Estuary Eye turning slowly above him, the lemniscate pupil drinking in unfathomable waves of existence, elevating his Intent and his Osmontian Source Infinity with every silent revolution. It did feel ancient. It did feel grand!

But then, he was ancient and grand too. So that settled nothing.

As he studied it, one of the Dora Shath’yar drifted close to him and began to sniff.

She leaned in and breathed him in like a hound taking a scent, and a dangerous smile spread across her face, a smile that looked one wrong word away from devouring him.

"THE Great Ama had so many praises for you," she said. "Osmont. The New Sword....THE Great Ama does not praise. So you must be something." Her swirling black-hole eyes flicked upward, to the fleshy star turning over his head, and she pointed at it. "I am Eir. And I have to ask. Are you like us?"

Eir was tall, muscular, her bronze body carrying the easy power of a Mesozoic Scale being, and her face was extremely beautiful in a way that did nothing at all to soften the hunger in her smile. She waited for his answer with that smile, pointing at THE Estuary Eye as though it were the most interesting thing she had seen in ages.

"I don’t know," Noah said. "I’m like me. And I’ve found it’s very hard to find anything like me at all."

As he said it, another of the Dora Shath’yar came over, and this one carried herself like a leader. She reached out and pulled Eir back by the shoulder with a heavy, imposing force, hauling her away from Noah, and fixed him with a stern look.

"THE Great Ama has deemed you to be Veris-Gloom," she said. "One of those who can strip away the illusions of existence and remain true always, no matter what the dark throws at them. It is not a designation she gives lightly. I have great hopes for you in these chaotic times, if she is right about you, and she is rarely wrong." She inclined her head. "I am Astrid. Leader of these useless Dora Shath’yar. We will arrive at THE Effluvium Sanctum shortly. After that, by THE Great Ama’s own instruction, we listen to you. Where you go, we go."

...!

Eir struggled against her grip the entire time, and Astrid manhandled her without breaking eye contact with Noah, holding the squirming Mesozoic Scale being in place the way an older sister pins a younger one, and the other seven Dora Shath’yar shook their heads at the pair of them with the long-suffering patience of beings who had watched this exact scene play out a thousand times.

Noah looked up, his eyes flashing, and THE Estuary Eye vanished completely from view. He hid it from all of them in that instant, so that even if some new being appeared now, they would see nothing at all above his head, only a new Sword standing among the Queen’s Daughters. The eye kept drinking. It simply did so unseen!

A moment later, Astrid pushed her spear downward, and a radiant obsidian river formed beneath all their feet, and they shot out toward the distance at speeds no Triassic Scale being could ever have matched, the obsidian current carrying them across the vast dark toward their destination.

Partway through the journey, Astrid released a frustrated breath and let Eir go.

Eir shot to Noah at once, delighted to be freed, and fell into pace beside him.

"So," she said. "Your Pantheon. What is it? I want to know what I’d be up against. Show me a little. You show me yours, and I’ll shown you mine..."

"I haven’t forged one yet," Noah said calmly.

Eir’s smile dropped into open shock.

"But," she said. "But that’s...no." She shook her head. "I can always sense which beings I can dominate and which I can’t. It’s a thing I have. And my sense is telling me I would not be able to completely dominate you. That at most, I would have to try really really hard. So how is that possible? How could you possibly have the power to stand against domination if you don’t even have a Pantheon? A being without a Pantheon is supposed to be open! Reachable! You’re not. You’re a wall, and walls are made of Pantheons!"

Noah answered her grandly.

"Most beings believe a Pantheon is needed to match a Pantheon," he said. "That to stand against a Mesozoic being’s dimension, you need a dimension of your own. And it makes sense, as far as it goes. But it isn’t necessarily true. It’s just the road everyone agreed to walk." He looked at her. "I decided, for myself, that I don’t need a Pantheon to match one. So I don’t."

...!

"Haha!" she crowed. "This fucking guy! Oh, I like you. I want to fight you right now. I want to find out exactly what ’I decided I don’t need one’ means when I put a spear through it. Come on, just a little, just a quickie, I want to-"

"We’re here," Astrid said flatly, as Eir flailed in her grip.

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