Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3672: Ashes VII

Nascent Source-Bearer Complexity, Harmonized Sourcebound Icon Complexity… and then, Converged Architect or Resplendent Monad.

Levels that correlated low to average degrees of Complexity and Purity… to moderate levels… and then to heights of High Purity and Complexity.

The Great Beyonder had just taken her first steps into the realm of a Resplendent Monad-forming what she now called a Mythic True Signature.

But… what did that truly mean when observing the True Sources of the living and the dead?

—

In the Infinite Ravines.

Inside a Gateway Domus that held… ten Wild True Sources of Existence.

Ten Wild True Sources.

That meant nine other Gateway Domus had collapsed and been merged into this single one. Such a place should have been impossible to hold and terrifying in its Complexity and power.

It begged the question- who could possibly be standing at its forefront to defend it?

Across the inestimable waves of warped distance, the auras of more than twenty Dead Things sprawled throughout the chaotic Domus, this entire structure swirling with fractured color and brilliance as the Wild True Sources seethed, ebbed, and flowed all around.

There were crystal mountains in one direction. Layers of fiery, hellish landscapes in another.

Seas of silver and gold shimmered to one side. The skies in another blazed with purple flames.

The mere expression of ten Wild True Sources would be enough to cause any Nascent Source-Bearer to falter and collapse, even. But here, in these volatile weavings of existence, every single entity present was a Harmonized Sourcebound Icon.

Well… almost every entity.

One would expect countless defenders stationed at a Gateway Domus holding ten Wild True Sources.

But there was only one.

A single figure who stood alone against more than twenty Dead Things.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with dark hair and sun-warmed skin hovered above a gray sea of ash. His figure was wrapped in a billowing robe of smoke and shadow, his entire presence emanating a serene, unshakable grace.

He appeared… relaxed.

As if the chaos didnʼt exist.

He floated lazily in the sea of gray-ash brilliance, utterly absorbed in the Senet board before him. He didnʼt even glance toward the monstrous Dead Things moving slowly, devouring and surviving within this terrifyingly converged Domus.

Above this man, seated calmly upon the gray ash sea, were over a hundred glowing Pillars of Concordance- shimmering structures designated to various points across the Domus.

Each pillar released waves of unending gray ash, carrying a sense of absolute finality.

A memory of what once was.

It felt like… if even a single fleck of that ash touched oneʼs True Source, that Source would begin to collapse- transformed into nothing more than what the ash represented.

Untold ruin. Irrevocable destruction.

The many gray ash pillars stretched in every direction, creating a stabilizing force that hindered the Dead Thingsʼ movements.

But even they werenʼt the true reason for the terrifying stability of this space.

Above the ash-draped man playing Senet, an illusory figure shimmered brilliantly in the skies.

An enormous figure—gray and luminous—hovered high above, and it looked exactly like the man seated in the sea below.

But this illusion… was colossal.

Larger than even ten Omniverses combined.

Compared to his true two-meter frame floating calmly on the ashen tide, the contrast was almost absurd.

And yet, the massive being projected above wasnʼt just a visual trick.

It was his Mythic True Signature of Existence.

So vibrant. So vastly complex.

Its eyes alone were the size of entire Omnverses, and they gazed coldly and unforgivingly at every single Dead Thing present.

The moment any of them dared to move…

That would be their death.

There would be collapse. There would be ash.

This was the terrifying True Source of Asche, and it wrapped itself around a single man.

Still focused on his board, he smiled faintly and spoke, seemingly to no one.

”Hey… Iʼm hearing a different tune of existence after all these millions of years. Sounds like somethingʼs coming.”

…!

He spoke, but there was nobody around him!

And yet, right after…

He nodded, as though receiving a reply from someone or something only he could hear.

His head tilted toward a shifting reflection forming in the gray sea.

It showed a different Gateway Domus, one from elsewhere in the Infinite Ravines.

Multiple such reflections rippled around him- screens showing other Domus, many of them trembling, merging with one another in real time.

The man bearing the True Source of Asche gazed into them all. Then sighed.

”Take it easy on these kids. If any more doors need merging, just bring them here. And… oh?”

He paused.

One of the reflections caught his attention—the fourth door he recognized clearly.

His brows lifted.

”Thatʼs the door of the Little Singed… why did he abandon it? And youʼre merging it into…”

His eyes lit with sharp brilliance.

He leaned closer.

”Thatʼs…” he muttered, entranced as he watched an obsidian-gold Signature bloom above a certain Great Beyonder.

”What a pleasant surprise… another Mythic True Signature on the rise. Thatʼll ease a few burdens.”

He paused.

”But… much more will be needed if the tune Iʼm hearing turns out to be real. Iʼll need to step in just a bit more.”

As he said it, his seated form began to rise slowly from the gray ash sea.

Immediately, the Dead Things stirred.

Their auras flared. Their Dead True Sources of Existence surged outward in response.

But before they could act, the man wrapped in the True Source of Asche tapped a single finger toward one of them.

A creature shaped like a million-legged insect, its body jagged and grotesque, shrieked and flew backward in terror.

And yet…

With that one tap…

A Signature, an identity of a very profound existence flickered!

And the ash came.

A wave of swirling gray- final and unfathomable, wrapped the creature in a sea of ruin.

Even as its Dead True Source screamed in defiance, its body and being destabilized, breaking down…

Until it became ash.

Within a second, a Harmonized Sourcebound Icon Complexity-level Dead Thing was reduced to flickering dust.

…!

All other Dead Things paused mid-devouring.

They roared, not in triumph, but in dread.

And the one bearing the True Source of Asche narrowed his gaze, his voice cutting through the chaos.

”Youʼve eaten up so much… stay behind for me.”

WAA!

He had killed more Dead Things than he could remember over the eons.

And now…

He was simply adding to his tally.