Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4329: MANA! I

The scene was a paradox of glorious, terrible power.

A single, defiant figure stood wreathed in a sea of his own boundless Mana, surrounded by a pantheon of six colossal, spectral guardians. Before him, an army of endings waited, their silent, orderly ranks a testament to a power that had transcended the chaos of death!

In the span of an instant, a silent, lightning-fast conversation, a torrent of pure, conceptual data, flashed between Tatiana and the Prime Dead Early Creatures behind her as they communicated together simultaneously!

Tatiana’s thoughts were a blade of cold, precise logic.

"The enemy is utilizing a system similar to our own Living Astral Codex. The manifestations are potent, but they are temporary. All such abilities have a cost, a cooldown. He has played his hand too early."

Valerius, his half-skeletal face a mask of regal amusement, sent his own thoughts in reply.

"His power is impressive, for a fleeting moment. His Codex must be of a high grade, but it cannot be limitless. He may have ten, perhaps twenty Arcana at his disposal. Once their timers run out, he will be a firefly against a sun."

...!

Tatiana’s mind was a whirlwind of calculation as she nodded.

"He who is hasty in the hunt, who shows his full strength at the first rustle of leaves, will find his arrows spent when the true beast emerges from the shadows. The patient hunter, who waits, who observes, who understands that time is a weapon... he is the one who feasts."

She paused, a flicker of something almost like caution in her thoughts. "But treat this one with extreme care. He was capable of capturing and restraining THE Living Order. That is not the mark of a fool."

HUUM!

Another of the Prime Dead, a being whose form was a beautiful, grotesque fusion of bone and shadow, interjected.

"And what of The Living Order, Ashen Queen? If he falls, what is our protocol for her?"

Tatiana’s reply was a cold, absolute command. "While I hold him down, I will give the word. You will penetrate that protective domain. You will procure THE Living Order. And you will treat them with the respect they are due. They are a prize, not a prisoner."

The Prime Dead nodded in silent, unified assent. The plan was set. Tatiana’s gaze, now a thing of pure, unadulterated focus, settled on the defiant, flame-wreathed figure across the void.

"Child," she asked, her voice a demeaning, almost bored, inquiry, "what is your name?"

Noah did not answer. He simply stared at her, his expression a cold, unreadable mask. The six glorious, tyrannical manifestations behind him... the Badger, the Mountain, the Wheel, the Shark, the Saber Cat, the Shell... they stared back at her, their collective gaze a silent, crushing weight.

She did not wait for a reply she knew would not come.

She changed her tactics, her voice now a sharp, probing question. "Early Creature, what is your name? How did you get your hands on a Codex after the purge? Do you know that your actions are going against your Ancestor right now? Against THE Creature?"

...!

She knew the words were a potent weapon. All Early Creatures, in their own way, held a deep, almost instinctual, reverence for THE Creature. What was this one’s Origin? His Lineage?

But the entity opposite her simply looked on, his expression one of arrogant, almost pitying, amusement.

"I’ll be sure to check with my Lineage," he said, his voice a low, dangerous hum that was more terrifying than any shout, "but I can’t recall any time THE Creature came down to give a damn about me or anyone else. But... I truly don’t feel like talking right now. You talked a damn lot earlier. I feel like fighting right now. I feel like killing."

...!

Tatiana smiled at his words. She laughed. A silent, terrible, and utterly genuine laugh.

At her amusement, the legion behind her moved. The Prime Dead Early Creatures and the few hundred Dead Existential Armors began to line up, a billowing, obsidian wave of absolute, ordered power against a single, defiant entity.

"You don’t feel like fighting because you have hastily used up your Arcana and they will expire soon," she said, her voice a condescending, almost instructional, lecture. "Use up a few more, and you will be done. All you will have left will be your Haki, your Glyphs, and your Complexity. This is why you feel like fighting right away. I thought of wasting time to put your Arcana to waste, but let me stretch my muscles here a bit. I haven’t truly moved around in a while."

...!

At her words, a billowing, obsidian light erupted from her, covering the right half of her body completely.

Her entire figure was now wreathed in shimmering, obsidian flames. She closed her eyes, and she felt her power.

Her Existence. Her Way.

Her Way was... the Way of Dreams.

She was a Dreamer. She was THE Creature’s very Dream. And she... was mighty.

BOOM!

In the next moment, the already terrifying power radiating from Tatiana rumbled, and when she opened her eyes again, her entire aura, her very complexity, had more than doubled.

Doubled!

For this was her Way. This was her Principle.

The Principle of the Waking Dream!

A Principle that allowed the wielder to pull the ’dreamed’ or ’ideal’ version of their own existence into reality, superimposing it upon their current form!

It was an act of making a potential future into an absolute present.

And this was her Dream. Her Way.

She opened her eyes. The left was its usual, cold, crimson light. But the right... the right was now a swirling, obsidian-gold vortex, a gateway into a realm of pure, untamed dreams.

She looked at the defiant figure who had dared to keep THE Living Order from her, and she whispered, her voice a final, absolute verdict.

"I won’t even transform you. You... are not deserving of such a blessing."

She took a single, graceful step. "Do you understand?"

She said the words not from across the void, but from inches away from Noah, her form having crossed the impossible distance in an instant.

She was there, a queen of dreams and death, her power a suffocating, absolute presence.

But shockingly... the entity surrounded by a sea of mana was already looking at her, his expression calm, his gaze cold!

Even her Quintillions of Complexity and Purity that had just erupted from her... he did not seem phased!

Oh!