Infinite Mana in the Apocalypse - Chapter 3686

Chapter 3686: The Breaking of the Wheel VI
After the First Breaking of the Wheel, there was a disappearance of everything within the Infinite Ravines, and nothing appeared again for countless years that followed.

When it seemed like the Witness was about to continue speaking on his own accord, Noah stopped him gently with a question.

“In the previous records I observed,” he said softly, “it was mentioned that there was a defense against both the Living and the Dead in the Infinite Ravines. Why is that?”

It was a critical question.

The Witness smiled before responding.

“Even we did not understand it then. We would battle Harmonized Sourcebound Icons… and occasionally Converged Architects and Monads—brimming with life—who had crossed the Nullvein Gravewake Folds. They seemed drawn to our Infinite Ravines. Many of them fought with everything they had, saying they simply sought entry into the weavings of the Wheel. But we allowed neither the Living nor the Dead. For even the Dead could mimic the Living… and corrupt all they touched. Yet the reason both were drawn into the Ravines… was due to the brilliant complexity the First Wheel of Existence emanated.”

…!

The Nullvein Gravewake Folds.

Scattered memories of that place—collapsed weavings and folded threads of existence—had already begun budding within Noah, even as he shredded records and purified Dead True Sources in the present.

And the Witness’s voice pressed on.

“Before its First Breaking, it drew every entity toward it simply because of the immense Purity it held. Before the Breaking. Before the failed transformation. Afterward… there were no more visitors in the Infinite Ravines. It was as if the light from the Wheel was no longer strong enough to draw in anything from the Folds. Only after millions of years—when the Wheel’s complexity and purity began rising again—did Dead Things start appearing. No Living ones. And even the Dead were weaker. This… along with my Witnessing of the Second and Third Breakings of the Wheel… allowed me to form a few undeniable conclusions.”

…!

Noah’s expression shifted at the mention of the Second and Third Breakings.

It hadn’t happened just once. It had happened again—and again.

The Witness continued.

“By the time the Dead began being pulled into the Infinite Ravines, new True Sources had begun to bud and rise. They kept the Dead at bay. And because I knew so little at the time, I even descended into the Infinite Ravines myself to ensure all remained as it should. After the First Breaking… the number of beings who could attain the level of Monad or Converged Architect was pitifully small compared to those who existed before the First Breaking. Then came a time I sensed a change. Others sensed it too. They came to the core weavings of the Wheel to observe—curious, but unaware of what was coming.”

The Witness’s blindfold seemed to grow heavier, his burden too great to name.

“And I was there… when the Second Breaking of the Wheel occurred. And again—I was the only one left. All others were scattered and sent away. The defenders and Dead Things within the Ravines were also expelled. The crimson Wheel cracked and broke… and in its place, a Violet Wheel of Existence bloomed. It was less pure, less complex than the First Verdant Wheel. This time, it took many more millions of years for its purity to rise again. And again, weaker Dead Things came. Even fewer entities could rise to the level of Monad or Converged Architect. None—not a single one—came close to that being who exceeded even Monads before the First Breaking.”

Noah remembered.

The green-haired man—the one Monad Romulus had pointed to. A man whose gaze carried the weight of sadness and inevitability, as if he knew what would happen to the Wheel of Existence.

No entity like him had ever risen again.

The Witness’s blindfold buzzed softly as he spoke.

“The Third Breaking. The Fourth. The Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. Eighth… They all occurred, one after the other. And each time… the Wheel of Existence lost more of the purity and complexity it had once held during the era of the First Verdant Wheel. Every transformation it attempted afterward failed. I came to understand something: the transformation had to succeed the first time. If the Wheel undergoes a Breaking… then the chances of transformation succeeding after that are nearly nonexistent. And the more it Breaks… the more impossible it becomes. Until…”

He swept his arms across the golden sea around them.

And Noah’s eyes widened as he looked out at the countless shattered pieces of the Wheel floating across the horizon… and the distant, white-gold brilliance of the current Wheel of Existence.

“We never knew what the transformation would’ve brought. But it had to succeed the first time. Since it didn’t… I understood that the Wheel was doomed to repeat Breakings. Again and again. And not long ago, I felt it again. The level of complexity and purity of the Wheel behind us… has once more reached a threshold. One that is calling transformation. It could occur in a million years. A thousand. A year. A month. I don’t know.”

The words he said next nearly made Noah curse aloud.

“I do not know when it will happen. But I do know this—after all the Breakings I have Witnessed, one truth has become clear. This coming Ninth Transformation of the Wheel… is the final one.”

HUUM!

“If this transformation is not passed successfully—and I say again, it is nearly impossible—then the Wheel of Existence will Break for the ninth time. And when that happens… it will no longer be a Living Absolute Complex True Source.”

…!

“It will finally—and irrevocably—become a Dead Absolute Complex True Source. No more chances. No more transformations. No more Living.”

BOOM!

The words were horrific even to hear—and yet, they were spoken.

Noah’s eyes gleamed with a fierce, terrifying light as a question surfaced again in his mind.

The question of the Living and the Dead.

Where did the Dead come from?

They were the same.

They were all the products… of the Breakings of the Wheel of Existence!