Alex had his head lowered while the hulmite stood over him. The savage grin he had on his face was indicative of his intentions--killing Alex without some degree of suffering wasn't going to cut it.
The hulmite wanted to make Alex regret ever crossing paths with him. With that in mind, Trohan morphed his mutated left hand into a battle axe, the dark blade giving off sinister vibes.
With a villainous snicker, the hulmite swung the battle axe as it descended on Alex's head. And right about the time the axe cleaved Alex's head in half, he pushed against the suppression and tilted his head to the side.
WHOOM!
A dark and ominous light swept across space, effortlessly traversing millions of light-years in an instant. Wherever the light moved, space tore and collapsed; it was a truly devastating assault, possessing enough power to obliterate or annihilate anything in its path.
Yet the target of that attack was anything but dead. A clean cut from Alexander's crown, through his right eye to his ear, took a portion of his head.
"Heh~ I'm impressed," Trohan noted with scornful eyes. "You managed to tilt your head under the weight of my existence… Well done."
With a piece of his head gone, Alex was left with only one eye. Had he been flesh and blood, that strike would have revealed the insides of his head with blood, gore and brain matter splattering everywhere.
Gushing out of Alex's head instead, was the white radiance of his celestial body, dissipating as motes of light into space. This would slowly cause him to lose essence, and while not enough to kill him, the injury would weaken him as more essence dissipated.
"Hah…" Alex raised his remaining eye to glare at the hulmite. "That was unnecessary…"
"Oh… pray tell." Trohan grinned, finding the defiant Alex more amusing.
He had all the authority in this domain and there was nothing Alex could do to change that. In that regard, he could be as cocky and carefree as he wanted.
He had taken a part of Alex's head away and would continue to chip more of him till there was barely anything left.
"As a newly ascended god or whatever you are, you should know taking damage like this makes little difference--we don't feel pain if we don't want to." He lied.
He was actually in great pain but showed no signs of it. Under normal circumstances, he should not be feeling pain at all. However, the essence of this abomination was just like with void creatures and their black cores.
Trohan was like a newly designed void creature made to hunt and kill other veilwalkers. Alex would be damned if he let the hulmite know the effects of the kind of power he wielded over him.
"Maybe…" Trohan agreed, none the wiser. "But the process is still fun." His words left Alex dumbfounded.
"I'm going to tear you piece by piece until you are left with nothing but your core." The hulmite's grin widened even more, his aura growing more aggressive. "And there will be no changing of forms with you either.
"Regardless of how condensed this form is, it won't be changing until I'm done with you."
Maybe his words would have made someone else feel threatened, but Alexander simply smirked, leaving the hulmite with a frown.
"Is that so…" Alex replied, his smirk widening. "Then you won't mind if I do the same to you, right?"
"What are y--"
The hulmite's words got caught in his throat when Alex's remaining eye and body glowed a brilliant white, instantly lighting up the surrounding space like a flare.
"Ah…!"
Trohan screamed as he abruptly backed away from Alex. Coming to a stop thousands of lightyears away, the hulmite looked in Alexander's direction with trembling eyes, confusion evident in his gaze.
In that brief moment of exposure to that radiance, he felt his own core tremble in a way that sent shivers down his spine. The feeling was unlike anything he had felt before--it opposed his existence!
That should be impossible.
The radiance a god gave off was the same as the universe's radiance and unique signature. That meant Trohan had no weakness as void creatures were designed to cause the collapse of universes.
"The hell is that…!"
His core continued to thump like a frightened heartbeat, leaving the hulmite very confused and somewhat scared. He observed with trembling eyes as the radiance slowly diminished, revealing the figure of his foe.
"Wh-what are you…?"
Trohan growled in a menacing and dark tone. The Alexander moments ago and now were completely different. The white radiance he emitted before was now flaring around him like celestial flames of death.
His eyes were of the same colour and radiated from every pore in his body. The missing portion of his head was being refilled at speeds visible to the naked eye.
Alex took a moment to appreciate his transformation. He reprimanded himself for forgetting about the white radiance he developed once he unfused with the universe's core.
He didn't project it outward earlier and even forgot about it because there was no need to show it off when his presence could be exerted without the white radiance.
When his core sent that refreshing wave of energy through his body, he realized that the radiance was like a nemesis to anything corrupted that could otherwise lead to his demise.
Alex was not entirely sure if this development was simply a result of his self-ascension or his decision to unfuse with the universe's core. Whatever it was, he was glad one of its purposes was to protect him from corruption.
'I'm still not able to express my will in this domain, but with the radiance around me, I have no trouble moving through it.' He noticed calmly, his gaze studying the surrounding space. 'What's more… I feel like I can expand this radiance outward to create my own domain.'
He knew this had something to do with this space as the suppression was still felt around him--just not enough to keep him in place. That meant he had to rely on physical contact to inflict damage.
'Now then…' Alex returned his focus to the hulmite in the distance, his head fully restored. 'It's time for some beatings…'