Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 3979: Choices and Consequences! I

The golden pathways of Aeternitas Concordia hummed with activity as Noah continued his impromptu marketplace, the radiant woks floating beside his tyrannical purple throne like captured stars offering their warmth to any bold enough to approach!

His imposing standing had been established, carved into the very atmosphere of this place.

Word had spread through the crystalline towers and golden boulevards...here sat the Weaver of Existence, a Fold Dweller who traded treasures that even Honored Living Existences would want for herbs that most would kill to possess!

The crowd that had initially gathered in shock had evolved into something more calculated.

They had all lived too long, survived too many schemes and betrayals, to rush headlong into confrontation with someone whose resources seemed limitless and whose confidence was warranted.

They had, after all, truly seen him escorted by an Honored Living Existence as his importance was clear, with a unique Royal Living Existence backing him while likely selling...their wares!

Many looked at him as a representative for another. Others thought differently.

But for all of them...

Even the basest emotional nature that drove all conscious beings toward greed and acquisition was tempered by the harder-earned wisdom of survival.

So they approached with caution wrapped in avarice!

A Prime Living Origin materialized beside Noah’s throne with the fluid grace of liquid authority, her stellar form radiating waves of concentrated power.

In her hands, she held a crystalline vial that pulsed with temporal energy.

”Chronos Petrichor,” she said coldly. ”Harvested from a deep chambers of the Temporal Doorways, where time itself has crystallized into physical form.”

Noah’s eyes lit up with genuine interest as he examined the offering. The herb within the vial seemed to exist in multiple states simultaneously...young and ancient, fresh and withered, as if it couldn’t decide which moment in its existence to manifest.

”Acceptable,” he declared with a nod, his hand moving with casual grace to scoop another generous portion from his radiant woks. The golden bowl filled with Early Living Marine Lifeforms that blazed with their own inner radiance, each piece worth more than most Fold Dwellers would see in lifetimes of cultivation!

The exchange was completed, two impossibilities trading hands as if they were nothing more than common commodities.

The Prime Living Origin gazed deeply before departing, her prize clutched against her chest like a talisman against the uncertainties of existence itself!

Another figure approached...a Fold Dweller whose complexity quotients placed him at the absolute pinnacle of what was achievable at Originus Venerant.

His weathered features spoke to eons of struggle, while his eyes burned with the desperate hope of someone who had finally found what he had been searching for across countless lifetimes.

”Void-Heart Chrysanthemums,” he said, his voice trembling with barely contained emotion. ”Three specimens, cultivated in a Doorway where existence meets Collapse. I... I watched my entire expedition die to harvest these.”

...!

Even observing Living Existences were surprised.

This old Fold Dweller actually had such treasures?

The flowers he presented were beautiful in the way that endings could be beautiful...their petals seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it, creating voids in reality.

Yet Noah could feel the concentrated authority they contained!

He looked at the old man with pity as since he was feeling a bit generous...

”Three bowls,” Noah replied without hesitation, recognizing the sacrifice that had been made to obtain it.

The Fold Dweller’s eyes trembled and filled with tears as he accepted the trade, his hands shaking as he received enough of this sacred treasure to potentially elevate him beyond the limitations of Originus Venerant- and his own Existence was telling him this!

From a distance, many eyes watched this unprecedented display of commerce.

Across Concordia, in towers that stretched toward infinity and corridors that hummed with accumulated authority, Honored Living Existences observed.

Reports flowed through channels of communication, the workings of the Weaver of Existence being noted by some powerful entities!

As Noah conducted another trade, Infinity’s Breath Orchids for two bowls of radiant soup...his eyes shone with bright enthusiasm.

Each exchange brought him closer to his goals, each rare herb another step toward transforming his Early Veiled Shore into something that could rival the greatest achievements of the Earliest Folds.

Yet even as he smiled at a nervous Living Spirit, Noah felt something shift in the fabric of reality around him.

A voice entered his mind, carrying with it the unmistakable authority of absolute power.

|Who are you, really?|

HUUM!

The mental touch was gentle yet irresistible!

Duke Gwendolyn.

Noah’s eyes flashed with recognition as he felt a part of his mental existence being tugged into a different frequency of reality.

The sensation was like being invited to step through a doorway that existed only in the spaces between thoughts, a threshold that led to conversations that could never be overheard.

He could have resisted. His accumulated power, his nature as an Early Creature, his understanding of forces that predated current existence...all of these could have been marshaled to deny this mental summons, to maintain the barriers.

But instead, Noah allowed part of himself to follow that irresistible pull, his consciousness sliding across dimensions that existed parallel to normal Existence.

In an instant, a portion of his awareness found itself standing in a blank white-gold expanse that seemed to stretch toward infinity in all directions.

The space was neither warm nor cold, neither bright nor dark, but something that existed in the perfect balance between all extremes...a place where conversations could occur without fear of observation or interruption.

Duke Gwendolyn stood before him in this neutral ground, her stellar dark hair containing entire galaxies within its depths, her tan skin radiating warmth that spoke to Living Origin Authority refined to its purest essence!

But it was her eyes that commanded attention...dozens of stacked Wheels of Existence rotating at different speeds, each one containing the compressed essence of entire weavings of Existence.

Her power was truly immense!

Those impossible eyes regarded Noah with somber scrutiny, weighing and measuring him.

Noah appeared in this space with the same confidence he had displayed on his throne, his smile deepening as he offered a simple nod of acknowledgment.

He said nothing, offered no explanations or justifications, simply existed in this place between places with patient certainty!

Duke Gwendolyn’s expression remained carefully neutral as she studied him, her ancient mind working through possibilities and calculations.

”The resources you have been displaying,” she said finally, her voice carrying the weight of eons, ”make you someone with more wealth than even an Honored Living Existence who has spent lifetimes exploring the Doorways of the Loom. If they are not yours, understandable. If they are...this is also understandable.”

...!

She began to pace, her movements carrying the fluid grace of absolute authority as she continued her analysis.

”I have observed beings of every conceivable power level across my existence. I have catalogued the mannerisms of many beings. Your bearing, your confidence, the way you dismiss threats that should terrify any rational being... these are not the characteristics of someone who has spent their existence struggling for survival in the outer Folds.”

Her pacing stopped as she turned to face him fully, her expression growing more intense.

”I am not asking these questions out of idle curiosity or petty authority. I am trying to understand you because the Young Miss seems undeniably linked to your existence, and I care immensely for her wellbeing. The pressure she has endured, the trauma she was forced to experience...”

Duke Gwendolyn’s voice carried a note of pain.

”She has lost everything once already. Everything. And now, when she is finally beginning to reclaim what was taken from her, when Order itself begins to stir within her once more, she has become connected to you in ways that could determine her ultimate fate. I simply do not wish for all these grand weavings of existence... to end with her losing everything again.”

...!