Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4092: Oh, Shit I

The massive tear remained open.

Worse, it began to expand.

The edges grew with the steady certainty of infection spreading, each moment allowing more of that terminal space to bleed into the Elemental Folds.

Who knew when it would be discovered by those with authority to act? How many more Dead Existences would step through before someone noticed? What would emerge when the tear grew large enough to accommodate things bigger than cat-shaped endings?

The glacial Wheels far, far away continued their spinning, unaware that their number had been reduced, unable to comprehend that death had learned to walk and had found their cold refreshing.

Somewhere, someone should have been monitoring such things.

Someone should have noticed reality tearing. Someone should have sounded alarms!

But everyone was preparing for the Kleos Concordat, and tears in existence would have to wait their turn for attention.

In these very same Transcendent Elemental Folds, countless distances from where death had torn through reality, lay the Heart of Elementals...a region where the fundamental forces of existence converged in displays of power that redefined grandeur.

In a corner of the Heart of Elementals.

The citadel rose from swirling maelstroms of pure element, each force maintaining its identity while contributing to the whole.

Towers of crystallized fire reached toward skies that burned with frozen lightning.

Spires of solid wind sang harmonies with structures built from liquid earth. Water flowed upward in architectural defiance, forming bridges between platforms of condensed light.

The entire structure exceeded Concordia in scale, housing millions of Living Elementals who cultivated amid auroras of authority that painted existence in colors.

Each tower represented mastery over a specific elemental expression. The Tower of Pyroclastic Rage housed those who pursued fire through anger. The Spire of Gentle Erosion taught water through patience. The Pinnacle of Atmospheric Pressure explored air through weight.

Hundreds of such structures created a city that was less built than perpetually becoming.

In the depths of this impossible citadel stood the Tower of Infinite Depths...a structure of water so pure it transcended the liquid state to become the concept of flow itself.

At its peak, in a chamber where every surface was carved from frozen tsunamis that somehow remained fluid, an entity watched the countless Living Elementals below with paternal satisfaction.

The chamber itself defied description...blue-gold thrones carved from crystallized storms, ornaments of captured rain that fell upward, windows that looked out onto oceans that existed in vertical orientation!

The floor was a single piece of water held in permanent stillness, solid enough to stand on yet transparent enough to see through to chambers below.

Duke Aquarius the Depth-Drinker stood at the chamber’s edge, his form shifting between states of water like an argument about what liquidity meant.

His distinction among Elemental Dukes came from having consumed more varieties of water than any other being...from the tears of dying stars to the first rain that fell on worlds being born.

”Do you look fondly upon all these Living Elementals? As if they are your own children?”

...!

The voice came from nowhere and everywhere, making Duke Aquarius spin with shock that someone could enter his sanctum undetected.

When he turned, power already erupting to address this invasion, he found something that made his liquid form solidify in disbelief.

He did not sense Living Existential Authority, no Paradoxes, not Inevitabilities.

It was...

”Fold Dwellers?!”

The words escaped him as statement, question, and impossibility combined.

Before him stood two figures that shouldn’t exist at this level of power.

A man and woman, so similar they could only be twins, regarded him with expressions of calm certainty. Their white-blue hair caught light. Their beauty transcended physical appearance to become statement...these were beings who had achieved harmony with existence itself.

Yet their clothing told a different story. Simple white garments, ragged but clean, showed the wear of being washed by hand countless times.

And in their hands were not weapons of power, nor artifacts of authority, but farming tools.

The woman held a hoe that looked like it had tilled infinite fields. The man carried a rake that might have gathered the leaves of autumn.

Despite their humble appearance, the power emanating from them made Duke Aquarius feel something he hadn’t experienced in eons...suffocation.

His water-based existence actually struggled to maintain cohesion in their presence.

The woman spoke with calm that made her words more terrifying

”Many years ago, you moved across the Minor Elemental Folds, having an epiphany about water’s true nature. You thought it would lead you to a Principle. During your moment of enlightenment, you plucked water-based Wheels of Existence as if they were droplets to drink, consuming or destroying them to fuel your understanding.”

Her tone never changed, remaining conversational as she delivered devastation.

”You killed an untold number of Fold Dwellers. Countless who simply existed in those Wheels, living their small lives, were extinguished for your moment of clarity. Among those Wheels you consumed... was our home.”

...!

Duke Aquarius’s expression shifted through multiple states...shock, recognition, and finally the dignity of power asserting itself.

”I was operating according to my nature. A Duke of Elementals pursuing understanding. I meant nothing personal by-”

”Sister,” the man interrupted with a sigh that suggested infinite patience finally exhausted, ”do we have to explain why he’s dying? Let’s simply get it over with. No need for all this theater.”

The Duke’s watery features solidified into ice-sharp anger.

His Living Existential Authority erupted with force that should have drowned the entire tower and nearby folds!

He reached out, seeking support from other Dukes nearby...there were dozens within sensing distance.

”Don’t bother.”

The woman’s words carried finality as she gestured to the rake, which had already pierced into the floor.

The simple farming tool stood there, looking absurd in the ornate chamber, yet somehow fundamental.

”We’ve isolated this place entirely. Unless you’re an Early Creature, you cannot leave, cannot call out, cannot be sensed.” She tilted her head with genuine curiosity. ”Are you...an Early Creature?”

HUUM!

Duke Aquarius responded with action rather than words. His existence erupted outward, seeking to transform everything into elemental water....the air, the tower, reality itself, and especially these impossible Fold Dwellers.

This wasn’t an attack but a fundamental assertion... everything was water, had always been water, would return to water.

The woman raised her hoe with the casual motion of someone about to till soil.

She swung down.

Bronze authority erupted from the simple tool...not Living Existential Authority, not Early Existential Authority, but something more fundamental.

The power denied everything about Duke Aquarius....his very nature, his right to impose his will, his assumption that being a Duke meant anything.

His water did fucking nothing!

”That... that’s not any authority you should...” Duke Aquarius’s voice cracked with horror as understanding dawned. ”That’s...the brilliance of a Principle!”

BOOM!