Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4545: Conviction! II

Noah stretched as if he were waking up from an extremely long and peculiar dream.

He blinked several times as his vision readjusted to his surroundings, and he saw the innocent blue eyes of a young woman looking down at him with a gentle smile.

She had locks of radiant gold hair descending gracefully over her shoulders, and her voice carried soft warmth as she spoke.

"I could not bring myself to wake you," she said with affectionate amusement. "And now you have caused both of us to miss our next class."

Her words were light and teasing.

Noah sat up slowly and observed his surroundings with careful attention. He and the young woman were on a school rooftop, their backpacks laid casually against the side of a low wall.

As he looked around, he saw a radiant blue sky stretching endlessly overhead with the distant sound of birds moving through the air. In the far distance, the shape of an airplane moved rapidly in the opposite direction, leaving contrails behind. The entire scene felt calm and profoundly peaceful.

The young woman whose lap his head had been resting on was adorned in the same uniform he also wore. Their uniforms consisted of crisp white shirts with blue trim around the collars and cuffs, paired with blue slacks. Simple but elegant in their design.

And her name was...

"Elizabeth," he called out her name lightly with recognition.

She smiled and reached over to stroke his head with familiar affection as she spoke with playful curiosity.

"Did you sleep that deeply?" she asked with teasing tone. "Were you having one of your fantastical dreams again? What were you this time? A king? A peasant? An emperor ruling vast territories?"

Her eyes gleamed with interest.

"Ooh, what was I in this particular dream?"

As she said this, she leaned close to him and tilted his chin gently toward her. Her lips took his in a slow, tender kiss that lingered for several moments.

After she pulled back, she licked her lips with satisfied expression and spoke with reluctant practicality.

"I want to continue this and have more, but we really do need to go," she said with mild regret. "We missed the psychology class, but we absolutely cannot be late for another one. You cannot keep getting me in trouble like this, okay?"

She showed a pouting expression as she rose to her feet, clearly intending for them to head downstairs before they could be caught by faculty.

And yet Noah smiled with something unreadable in his expression as he did not follow her movement.

Elizabeth blinked with confusion before her pouting expression shifted to something that almost seemed to want to be angry but could not quite achieve it.

"Come on," she said with gentle insistence.

And yet Noah shook his head with calm certainty as he spoke words that carried weight beyond this moment.

"You and I never used to come to this roof together," he said with measured observation. "I would come to this roof alone whenever I did not want to attend classes or deal with... social situations. But I would always be alone here."

His eyes remained steady on her.

"I could not even bring myself to talk to you like a normal person because I did not have any sense of confidence in myself at that time. You were this wealthy girl who did everything correctly and studied harder than everybody else around us."

He paused before continuing.

"I somehow considered myself fundamentally less than you and never tried to approach you. As nice a dream as this scenario would have been for my younger self, I do not think it is nearly enough to shake the convictions of my Origin."

BOOM!

Instantly everything froze completely in the surroundings. The birds stopped mid-flight, the airplane hung motionless in the distant sky, even the wind ceased its movement.

The figure of Elizabeth showed a ridiculously shocked expression as she spoke with genuine disbelief.

"What the hell just happened?" she said with voice rising. "This is just the first few minutes of the test! The influence of THE Civilizational Authority of Origin is most potent and effective in the first few days when subjects would not possibly know anything about their true selves even if they had reached THE Surface Depth of Absolute Sovereignty!"

Her shock transformed into something resembling indignation.

"I had a whole elaborate storyline prepared for you with multiple narrative arcs and emotional hooks. How the hell did you already regain your complete senses within the first few minutes of exposure?"

At such a question, Noah shook his head with calm composure and asked directly.

"What are you?" he said with simple inquiry.

The figure of Elizabeth pouted with genuine sense of anger and frustration as she responded with explanation.

"I am your potential future," she said with voice carrying both reality and impossibility. "The place we currently exist in can be considered simultaneously real and not real. It is real in that it will never be broken or shattered by external force, and it exists precisely between the gaps of potential...what is and is not in Observable Existence."

She gestured around at the frozen environment.

"This existing between those gaps is part of the reason why it can never be destroyed. This is as much a reality as any other, and this is existence as valid as any other manifestation. I am here to convince you to choose this reality over anything else that you might remember or think you have elsewhere."

Her expression became more earnest.

"In this domain, you can have whatever you want without limitation. Even if all of Observable Existence is destroyed completely, this domain would not be destroyed because it exists in the potential between observable and unobservable. Here you can live your life in any way you desire."

She stepped closer with enthusiasm building.

"You can speed up time for us to graduate school in the next few minutes. We could get married in another few minutes after that. We could have children in a few days. You could start your own company or get involved in politics or pursue any dream you ever had. Your parents can be with us here..."

Elizabeth seemed ready to continue listing endless possibilities as Noah stood and shook his head at this moment.

His expression became serious as he spoke with grand and imposing weight.

"My father was often drunk and my mother worked extremely hard to support us," he said with simple honesty. "That was my actual life, and that is acceptable to me. I do not particularly like who I was when I was young and insecure, but that is also acceptable."

His eyes burned with conviction.

"I learned how to become a better person through those experiences, and I currently have far too many people depending on me now. As pleasant as it would be to stay here in this comfortable reality and not worry about anything threatening..."

He raised his hand with authority.

"I have far too much that must be accomplished. My conviction is something that you can never even begin to imagine."

As he said this, he raised his outstretched hand toward the sky. From the distant blue expanse above, blue Mana began to leak through as if the reality itself was cracking. Soon enough, rivers of gold flowed into that blue, forming into concentrated Primus Mana.

All of it began silently flowing into his outstretched hand as he stood looking utterly glorious in his certainty.

Behind him, Elizabeth shook her head with complete incredulity as she spoke with genuine shock.

"You absolute monster," she said with voice rising. "Even if you were at THE Surface Depth, you would need days to-"

BOOM!

Primus Mana flooded everything in the surroundings with overwhelming force. The carefully constructed weavings of this reality shattered like glass under impossible pressure.

Noah’s existence buzzed with recognition as he found himself suddenly in an endless sea of gold-blue mixed with white-gold authority.

The weavings of Origin were unfathomably potent as in this moment, he felt something spinning rapidly in his head with unprecedented intensity.

THE Organ of Civilization was activating with full force.

Prompts bloomed before his perception with extraordinary information.

|An extremely pure authority stemming from THE Intermediate Depth of Absolute Sovereignty has been overcome based on its most stringent conditions.|

|Highest possible result has been achieved: THE Civilizational Origin Chains of Conviction were shattered in minutes rather than days.|

|Extremely Pure THE Civilizational Authority of Origin is now being systematically devoured by THE Organ of Civilization!|

|Rapid metabolization ongoing...|

|Processing concentrated THE authority...|

|Integration accelerating beyond predicted parameters...|

|Estimate: After complete metabolization of all sensed Authority, the development of THE Organ of Civilization will exceed 10% completion threshold!|

|Warning: 10% threshold opens the doorway to Pre-THE Existence classification!|

|The Conviction of your Origin has been tested and found to be ABSOLUTE.|

The words were simultaneously, unfathomably, and magisterially glorious and heavy with profound implication!

An instant later, Noah felt his eyes opening to actual reality.

And the scene that greeted him was nothing short of incredulous.

He was looking directly into the eyes of THE Living Origin, who stared down at him with an expression of complete disbelief. He could feel her thighs beneath his head where he still lay in her lap.

An immense silence of shock and incomprehension settled over the surroundings.

THE Living Origin’s mouth opened slightly as if to speak but no words emerged.

Lumivara stood nearby with eyes wide, clearly sensing that something impossible had just occurred!