Infinite Mana in the Apocalypse

Yes.

Veltraxis could feel it.

Noah was both here, and not.

Noah nodded slowly.

"A Paradox, isn't it? I may be here. I may not. My threat still stands, and I'll act early since you all did not listen. I cannot yet challenge your Mawbearers. Your Complexity…it's beyond me for now. For...now. And you…"

He turned his gaze to the 9th Mawbearer of the Dissonant Echo.

Melodrass.

"You, who stands even further beyond was a heavy enigma. But I am redefining myself. And it seems I must learn more- about True Sources. Mine, yours, and everyone elses."

His expression hardened.

"You ignored my threat. So now, I'll use your forces as experiments to understand, starting with you Harmonized Sourcebound Icons and Converged Architects. O Mawbearers of the Hollow Concord of Nullity."

…!

He would use their Harmonized Sourcebound Icons and Converged Architects to understand!

Veltraxis and the other Mawbearers heard this as their Complexities exploded- thundering toward Noah's figure. Yet Melodrass… did not move.

As if he could see through the illusion laid before them.

And Noah, seeing this, gave the powerful being a nod of recognition.

"This guy gets it. The slight weavings of Paradox."

BOOM!

Multiple complex Dead True Sources thundered where Noah's body should have been- yet they flickered through him, as if he wasn't truly there.

Melodrass alone remained still, as if aware that an attack here would be meaningless.

For the first time, he raised his hand- commandingly, as if issuing an order to the other Mawbearers.

His voice, rarely heard, emerged not from his lips, but from the instrument his fingers played. And through it, a voice tinged with weight echoed out.

|This Favored Living Thing Veltraxis has found is... somewhat unique. Just now, he retracted all his Weavings of Existence deep into the Wheel. What he left behind are Paradoxes- among the most difficult True Sources to grasp, whether Living or Dead. To capture his Weavings, we must find the place where he converged everything. Spread into the Frequencies of this Wheel of Existence. Corner him. Let us draw out his true self, free of Paradoxes. But for now, some of you...|

He glanced at the distant figures- Dead Things bearing complexity at the Harmonized Sourcebound Icon level, and others not at the level of Mawbearers yet, but still at the Converged Architect stage.

He looked again, and in that moment, multiple figures resembling Noah appeared across the ruptured Infinite Ravines, their Weavings surging.

|Try and protect the others.|

TRIING!

He struck another chord.

A terrifying Complexity bloomed.

And a distant Noah watched with cold eyes as another 9th Mawbearer of the Dissonant Echo appeared- Melodrass.

Two bodies.

|One of me will claim the Wheel. The other shall remain here. I've summoned Old 6th in case we need his help securing and locking down particularly difficult True Sources—of which this entity...has many. This is of great interest to us as of now. Veltraxis, well done.|

…!

One Melodrass spoke before vanishing in a streak of light, like a dead star streaking across the rending Frequencies of the Wheel.

The other struck another chord, sending waves of deathly brilliance crashing into Noah's multiple bodies that flickered in and out of existence.

BOOM!

More than half dispersed.

But more bloomed instantly.

One Noah now stood before a Converged Architect resembling a skeletal centipede.

His eyes were serene.

He spoke.

"O True Source of the Singed… how have I been using you? What... are you?"

HUUM!

His bodies buzzed.

Each one erupted in white-gold flames.

No Pillars of Concordance. No Mythic True Signatures.

Just flames.

Just a Source.

Others declared Ordinances that aligned with their Weavings of Existence- paths they believed were true to them. They then underwent Amalgamation- becoming one with that Ordinance.

Only then did they sever it from Existence.

Only then did they pioneer their Pathways, complexity rising until they formed their Source.

Lesser. Greater. Prime. Some so undeniable they became... True.

Once True, one no longer needed a Wheel. Their True Source alone sustained them.

Their True Source became the core of their Origin, Body, and Soul.

Its greatness and its limits defined them forevermore.

But Noah... didn't walk that path.

He never underwent full Amalgamation.

Before severing, he never unified with his Ordinance.

When he did sever, he did so 81 times.

His path? Unfathomably unique.

By the time he completed his Pathway, he already had a Source that was True.

But it wasn't fully his. Not in a True sense.

At this moment, he located the Singed relative to his Living Wheel.

It was anchored- not amalgamated, to a Cornerstone.

Its purity and complexity were his. Yet his whole existence didn't express it, only a part of him did.

He had other True Sources anchored to other Cornerstones of his Living Wheel.

So when he used the Singed, he wielded only a part of its power. Not all of him expressed it. Not all of his Wheel expressed it.

If it had been amalgamated before the Living Wheel formed, it would have dominated his entire being.

Others would never have surfaced.

Infinity. Cheats. Quintessence. Manadynamics. All would have dimmed under the first Amalgamated True Source.

That... was the reality of existence minutes ago.

But now?

Now, with the emergence of Veritarch, the Truthborne Continuum.

With the Living Wheel.

With the Autognosis Living Engine, whose Spokes reached into his Wheel's Cornerstones.

Now, as he became the Developer of the Absolute Complex Atlas Living Wheel!

Now, Noah could amalgamate a True Source into himself and...not.

He could both unify and not unify.

He could amalgamate others.

Living Paradoxes let him answer the paradox of Amalgamation.

The answer to the question posed by the Autognosis Living Engine...

Was the Engine itself.

It was the answer... to its own question.

It asked him.

What is a True Source?

And now, Noah opened his eyes and answered.

"I do not possess a True Source. It's not about possession. A True Source... is what becomes inevitable through the expression of Existence itself."

WAA!

As he spoke, he allowed the Singed to move.

To spread from its Cornerstone.

To flow into the Autognosis Living Engine at the heart of the Wheel.

To paradoxically amalgamate, and not amalgamate.

This was the birth of something few could even imagine.

And the moment it began...

The white-gold flames surrounding Noah changed.

Their makeup...broke down before they formed again, made from countless particles that looked like miniature white gold Wheels!

And they burst forward- appearing instantly on nearby Converged Architects.

One Dead Thing howled, its Mythic True Signature beginning to form.

Beginning… to rise.

But...

It never did.

The flames born from countless particles of white gold wheels consumed it as it bloomed.

Not a Pillar of Concordance. Not a Signature.

Just the Singed.

Its expression on the path of Amalgamation was enough to tear through the high complexity and average purity of a Converged Architect.

And now, multiple Noahs stood before Converged Architects.

Even though Melodrass had destroyed half, more remained and more formed!

Their white-gold flames surged.

Over a dozen Converged Architect Dead Things were caught in the blaze.

Their Dead True Sources which were budding with their massive Mythic True Signatures…

Burned.

Burned like paper.

And Noah...

Was just getting started!