Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4106: The First Folds! II

Through Ozymandias, Noah felt his Inevitability body’s response...recognition of another predator, evaluation of potential consumption, calculation of effort required versus likely gain.

The tentacles that formed his other self’s body writhed with anticipation that was purely mechanical, without emotion to color it.

Through his primary body, Noah gripped the Goad tighter, feeling its weight shift in response to threat. The Kleos Glyphs on his forehead and arms pulsed, ready to call upon the authority of the Goad and Principle when needed!

”Well,” Khor’s voice whispered with what sounded like genuine interest, ”this should be educational. Either you’re about to learn how combat worked in the First Folds, or you’re about to become part of this creature’s meal. How strong are you, Outsider?”

...!

The frozen Allosaurus took a step forward, the ground cracking under weight that transcended physical mass.

Its approach was neither rushed nor cautious...it moved with the certainty of something that had never met anything it couldn’t eventually consume.

The first minute in the Breeding Grounds of the First was shaping up to be exactly as dangerous as Khor had predicted!

Noah and Ozymandias stepped forward in perfect synchrony, both bodies radiating tyrannical confidence that made the frozen air crack with anticipation.

”So what?” they said in unison, voices overlapping in harmonics that shouldn’t exist. ”It is merely a creature at the cusp of Duke level. There are... two of me.”

Merely!

The Allosaurus tilted its massive head, intelligence flickering in those frozen galaxy eyes.

It had never encountered prey that multiplied its presence while maintaining singular intent.

At this moment, Noah began walking ahead!

|Tremendous Effort Initiated Against Superior Enemy|

|Enemy Complexity exceeds yours by factor of 12.7|

|All Glyphs and Resistances engaging autonomously|

|Principle of Perpetual Harvest is recognizing....SIGNIFICANT effort|

|True Absolute Existential Resistance of Perpetual Harvest burns with glory|

|Passive Effect: Attacks against you require 100x normal effort|

|Active Effect: Your attacks amplified by effort invested|

|Current effort multiplier: Rising...|

The battle began without ceremony! Noah’s Goad materialized fully, its simple wood containing truths that predated complexity.

Simultaneously, countless tentacles erupted from Ozymandias, each one reaching with hunger that could never be satisfied!

HUUM!

The Allosaurus moved with speed that betrayed its massive size. Glacial authority erupted from its form in waves, each pulse dropping the temperature of concepts themselves. Trees thousands of miles tall began cracking from cold that went beyond physical.

Noah swung the Goad with intent to educate, to impose existential truths that would rewrite what this creature understood about reality.

The wood connected with the barrier of swirling frost, and for a moment, his truths began penetrating...telling the Allosaurus that cold was merely slow, that ice was just stubborn water, that its authority was borrowed rather than owned.

But the creature had so much authority that the truths couldn’t reach its core!

The coldness froze the very concepts Noah was trying to impose, crystallizing education before it could take root. His Goad struck again and again, each impact sending shockwaves through space and dimensions, but barely managed to crack the outermost layer of the creature’s defenses.

”Its authority is old,” Khor’s voice advised calmly. ”Accumulated over years of survival here. You’re trying to educate something that’s been teaching others extinction for longer than you.”

HUUM!

|Effort recognized: Attempting impossible education|

|Complexity gained: +1,000,000,000|

|Purity gained: +1,000,000,000|

Such prompts came and went every few seconds.

Effort was applied, and effort was rewarded!

Ozymandias’s approach was different...pure hunger attempting to devour everything. The tentacles reached through the frost, consuming the cold itself, eating the concept of freezing.

Noah felt the euphoria of that first taste through their connection...Living Elemental Authority of such purity that it predated elements he had known.

|Ozymandias consuming Living Elemental Authority|

|Purity gained by The Purest Hunger: +10,000,000,000|

|Purity and Complexity your main body gained: 2,500,000,000|

|Conversion efficiency at maximum due to pure existence|

...!

Such prompts kept on coming!

But even as the tentacles gloriously devoured everything they touched, they still began freezing. Not just becoming cold but having their hunger itself crystallized.

The tentacles could consume the frost but couldn’t advance fast enough to reach the creature generating it!

The Allosaurus watched this assault with what might have been amusement. It had been attacked before, challenged by creatures seeking to claim its territory or its genetic material. This coordinated assault by split existence was new, interesting, worth observing before ending.

”Are you ready, Outsider?” Khor’s voice carried warning. ”It’s now going to really attack.”

Noah’s eyes widened. Only now? Then what had they been facing this entire time?!

Behind the Allosaurus, reality began reorganizing itself. A radiant illusory structure materialized...white-blue crystalline patterns that formed something almost like a Glyph Fold Garden but more primitive, more powerful for its simplicity. The creature’s eyes blazed with brilliance that made looking at them painful!

Then the avalanche came...of snow, ice, and of authority itself. Coldness and frost elevated to conceptual weapons, falling with the weight of absolute zero given intent!

The attack froze and also insisted that warmth had never existed, that movement was illusion, that all things should be still forever!

All things should be still.

HUUM!

|Catastrophic Attack Incoming|

|Effort required to survive: TREMENDOUS|

|Enemy has paid massive cost to generate this attack|

|Your resistance requires equal payment in effort|

|Preparing all defensive capabilities...|

Noah raised the Goad horizontally, using it as a shield against concepts rather than force. His entire body shimmered with the light of every authority he had accumulated, each one contributing to a defense that shouldn’t hold but did through sheer stubborn effort!

Ozymandias took a different approach....he let his hunger run completely free.

Every tentacle opened into a mouth, every mouth opened into an abyss, attempting to devour the entire avalanche regardless of consequence!

The tentacles froze solid almost instantly, but they kept consuming even as ice, eating through dimensions that didn’t understand they were being eaten.

The attack lasted seconds that felt like hours. When it ended, the landscape had been transformed into a wasteland of crystallized existence. Everything within miles had been frozen so thoroughly that time itself moved slowly through the area.

But in the center of devastation, two figures remained standing.

Noah’s form was partially covered in frost that seemed to be trying to convince his atoms to stop moving. Ozymandias looked like an ice sculpture of hunger, frozen tentacles still twitching with insatiable need. But they had survived.

”Strike while it’s hot,” Khor advised philosophically. ”Or in this case, while it’s cold but you’re not completely frozen.”

...!