Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse novel Chapter 3766

Bob stood there, silent, massive, and absolutely shaken.

How?

How could he be here?

Noah Osmont, someone who, just days ago, hadn't even stepped into the arena of True Sources, now sat calmly at the entrance of the Middle Wheel Platform of a place that could not be sought.

As if he had been waiting.

As if he had known.

Bob's mind buzzed, his massive form twitching almost imperceptibly as thoughts collided, unraveled, and stitched themselves back together as he tried to make sense of it all.

Why was Noah here?

Why now?

And why was he sitting exactly where he needed to be, where they would land, as if he had anticipated it all?

As Bob struggled for coherence, the titan of a being beside him moved.

Thauron.

The Null Monarch.

The being who had guided Bob's ascent with a patience and mystery that even now felt unfathomable.

Thauron stepped forward.

Each step echoed, not just on the ground, but through the folds themselves.

His vast Null Form, a crown and throne of obliterated paradoxes, moved with him like a throne carried by the weight of endless collapse.

And then...

He spoke.

Calm. Patient. Amused.

"You must be the Stranger those below spoke of."

Thauron's voice rumbled, low and rich, as he tilted his head ever so slightly.

"The one with the small Null Form."

Opposite him, Noah smiled.

A calm, tyrannical smile.

How he wore it, like an emperor humoring a stranger, sent faint vibrations through the Middle Wheel Platform.

His words followed.

Measured and heavy.

"How can I be a stranger," Noah said, "when I already know a bit about you, Thauron?"

WAA!

Bob's existence twitched again.

His tentacles curled tighter.

Noah knew The Null Monarch?

How?

The massive Null Monarch chuckled.

A deep, cavernous sound.

"Do you now?"

Thauron moved closer.

And so did the tension.

Like two titanic storms slowly circling.

Drawing closer.

Their Null Forms flared faintly, the contrast being utterly glorious as one was three inches while the other was 1,000 inches.

"Paradoxically," Thauron said, voice still a rumbling tide, "you both have and do not have something that I may be interested in, Stranger."

He glanced back at Bob, who was still frozen, his mind racing.

"Based on Little Bobby's reaction, you are…"

He paused.

Amused.

"…and you are not what we have been moving toward."

…!

You are, and you are not.

He lifted a hand, a massive appendage that seemed to brush the very seams of reality.

"It is Paradoxical," Thauron finished.

And then, he asked a question.

"But...what do you know about Paradox?"

WAA!

The air stilled.

The gathered Resplendent Monads, the Primarchs nearby, even the collapsed folds nearby themselves, seemed to pause, holding their breath and watching expectantly.

The question wasn't just a question.

It seemed like a challenge of one's very being, as if it couldn't be answered, one's True Source might be affected and eventually collapse.

If their conviction was little. If they could not even explain what they stood for.

It was shockingly one of the only hidden methods to attack in the Null Cradle of Fold-Breaking Ascension, and the Null Monarch used it right away.

Noah's smile deepened.

Not wide, no, he didn't need to grin like a fool.

Just enough.

Enough to command the silence all around.

Enough to assert dominance without theatrics.

"I know," Noah said, voice low, "that Paradox is the breath of impossibility given structure."

The breath of impossibility given structure.

Thauron's eyes, hidden though they were, gleamed.

"I know," Noah continued, "that it is the line where existence dares not cross, and yet must."

He rose then from his seated position.

Slowly.

Gracefully.

A man with a three-inch Null Form, so small, so infinitesimal, and yet he carried himself with the weight of a collapsing quintessence.

"I know that Paradox," Noah said, stepping forward, "is the edge where certainty collapses. Where reality folds because it refuses to bend."

He stopped.

Facing Thauron now, the difference in their size laughable.

But no one laughed.

The platform was silent, utterly, reverently silent.

Thauron chuckled.

"And yet," he said, "Paradox is also that which makes all things humble."

He stepped closer.

Their proximity should have been absurd, a titan beside an insect.

It was not.

"You speak of collapse," Thauron rumbled, "but collapse is the after-effect."

"Paradox is the invitation."