Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4321: An Exchange! II

The silence was a taut, humming thing. Schrodinger looked at Noah, and a brilliant, almost dazzling, smile spread across his face. ”I’m going to go out on a limb,” he said, his voice filled with a genuine, almost joyous, wonder, ”and simply affirm that you are, in fact, an Early Creature. Which begs me to question... How did a piece of the weapon of THE Living Law not work against you?”

Noah looked at him, and his expression was a perfect, unreadable mask.

He appreciated the nature of a being like this who did not beat around the bush too much!

His voice, when he spoke, was not loud, but it was absolute. It was the voice of a man who did not need to raise his tone to command a room, for the room already belonged to him. ”As far as I know, the weapon of THE Living Law works against Early Creatures. I am not an Early Creature. I am The Early Creature, Osmont.”

...!

BOOM!

Simply.

Impossibly.

A very straightforward answer was given.

Schrodinger and Leonore’s eyes sharpened, a new, more profound level of calculation entering their gazes. Noah calmly picked up his own glass of Mead and took a sip, his eyes, burning with a quiet, tyrannical fire, still fixed on Schrodinger.

”Now you...” he began, his voice a low, dangerous hum. ”You have been a question in my mind for a little while now. I’ve asked myself again and again, what could that Schrodinger be up to? What’s he doing purposefully accelerating Tears of The Veil? What’s he doing with a corpse of an Early Creature? But now, in the grand scale of things, it doesn’t matter too much. What does matter is my curiosity. As I want to ask... do you remember anything regarding the Early Laboratories? Elderborns?”

BOOM!

The Early Laboratories and Elderborns!

Noah asked such a question simply to see exactly what reaction would bloom from Schrodinger, and he saw it. A flicker of sharp, analytical light in both his eyes and the crimson depths of Leonore’s. It was not him who replied, but the woman who was currently more powerful than him.

”With every word you say,” Leonore began, her voice a low, resonant note that cut through the starlit quiet of the garden, ”you make it clear to us that you know a whole lot more than you are letting on. We can skip any back and forth and get right to business then-”

”Oh, Elderborns! That takes me back!”

Schrodinger interjected, his voice a bright, almost nostalgic, chime that shattered her serious tone. Leonore turned to him, her expression a mask of pure, unadulterated annoyance.

He simply smiled, a mischievous, almost childlike, glint in his ancient eyes, and gently tapped her thigh as if to say, let me handle this.

He kept his gaze fixed on Noah. ”I know a thing or two about Elderborns,” he said, his voice now a conspiratorial whisper. ”Do you know their true origins? Let me tell you a story...”

Leonore rolled her eyes, a gesture of profound, weary exasperation. ”Really? Right now?”

Yet, Schrodinger’s gaze did not waver from Noah.

Noah, for his part, simply took another slow, deliberate sip of the Sacred Mead of Existence, his expression a calm, unreadable mask. He was a mountain, and their words were but wind.

”Many believed,” Schrodinger began, his voice taking on the cadence of a master storyteller, ”that the Elderborns were simply a glorious accident of existence. Beings blessed with a heavily concentrated measure of THE Creature’s Everythings. The First Leader, Gilgamesh, a being of such unyielding ambition that he sought to unite all Early Creatures under a single banner. Tatiana, a weaver of dreams whose power could shape the very fabric of reality. Each a titan in their own right, their power a testament to a glorious, cosmic lottery.”

He paused, letting the weight of the legend settle. Then, his smile turned sharp, dangerous. ”But that... is not the case. The Elderborns did not form naturally. They were not an accident. They were a guided emergence from the hands of THE Living Existences. They were... purposeful designs. Which begs you to wonder, why did THE Living Existences seek to cluster the concentrated Everythings of THE Creature onto a few, specific beings?”

...!

Why?

The air in the garden, once so serene, turned heavy and cold. Noah studied Schrodinger and Leonore, his eyes shining with a brilliant, analytical light. ”Elderborns were always seen around THE Living Existences, carrying out their whims,” he said, his voice not a question, but a statement of fact, a piece of a puzzle he was now assembling aloud. ”Are you going to tell me that THE Living Existences were grooming them as tools or weapons? For their fun? Or against THE Creature?”

BOOM!

At his words, Schrodinger smiled. ”That is a great question. Who can say for sure? One can only be certain if they can track what every Elderborn has done across the Earliest Folds. Well, before they and countless other Early Creatures disappeared, which brings us to the next point... the disappearance of Early Creatures and the implausibility of you being here. I’m going to assume you already know a lot about The Fallout?”

...!

Schrodinger spoke the words with a grand, theatrical flourish. Noah calmly raised his glass of Sacred Mead of Existence and drained the last of the shimmering, white-gold liquid. The cup was empty. In the next instant, Malphas appeared beside him, a silent, graceful specter of perfect servitude, the crude, beautiful bucket in his hand as he refilled the glass without a word.

Noah gave a single, almost imperceptible nod of acknowledgment. ”I know a little bit about The Fallout.”

Schrodinger’s smile widened, a flash of genuine, almost manic, delight in his eyes.

As if he sought to one-up him, to always hold the final, most devastating card, he leaned forward, his voice a low, triumphant whisper. ”We... know where the entrance to a Shelter that can withstand the Fallout is.”

...!

BOOM!