"They're impressive, aren't they?" Alexander remarked, glancing at the kneeling void creatures. "Although I don't get why they held back so much."
He furrowed his brows thoughtfully as he mulled over the potential reasons behind their actions. But then, he tossed the thoughts aside a split second later, their reasoning not significant in the grand scheme of things.
"But this fight is far from over…" Alex shifted his gaze towards the Enforcers once more.
Through the Nexis Radiant his friends utilised, he extended his senses and picked up more void creatures incoming. Moreover, the Enforcers had picked up on the new batch of void creatures long before he did, prompting them to prepare.
In a void that held nothing but limitless energies, a white radiance was hard to miss. And where there was activity, there was some kind of life.
'Guys, you'd have to sit back on this one.' Alex's voice echoed in the minds of his friends. 'There are more void creatures incoming. Leave them to the Enforcers to take care of.'
'What are we supposed to do then?' Ross asked, not liking how he felt useless once more.
He and the others had failed to see anything pertaining to the fights the Enforcers had. The fight had barely lasted more than five seconds.
Even with their heightened perception of time that allowed them to experience seconds like hours, the Enforcers were even more monstrous, their battle lasting and feeling like minutes.
'I'm sorry, Ross.' Alexander apologised, sensing how his best friend felt. 'But those void creatures are beyond you. It's not a matter of energy type, but of your physiology. Moving or even perceiving at their speed would break your body. Gods are of a different breed that you can't simply overcome.'
The redhead gritted his teeth in frustration, knowing his best friend was right. He had given his all to reach the level that he was today. Even then, it took him thousands of years in an accelerated temporal field to do so.
'Some things cannot be rushed, huh?' Ross muttered almost dejectedly.
'Yeah…' Alex added. 'You can use this bit of time to continue your cultivation. I'll speed time around you two while Cassandra keeps watch.'
Ross and Julia looked over to Cassandra, who nodded in agreement. She was at the peak of what the demigod level had to offer. Unless she self-ascended or bonded with a universe's core, she was going nowhere.
'Very well…'
Left with no choice in the matter, Ross could only sigh and sit cross-legged in the void, closing his eyes to continue where he left off.
Julia, on the other hand, didn't immediately follow in Ross's steps. Although she felt as helpless as Ross was, she was more willing to leave everything to Alexander. The very fact that she was accompanying him was all that mattered to her.
'Don't slack off, hon.' Alex's voice resounded only in her mind. 'I want you to get as strong as possible.'
'Yeah…?' Julia inwardly giggled. 'I thought I was your damsel in distress.'
'You are… But there are some things only a god's body is capable of.' A few vivid images implanted into her mind made her blush deeply.
Very quickly, she sat cross-legged and began cultivating, her heart and core throbbing with obscene purpose. Had Cassandra been paying attention to her, she would have noticed the blush on Julia's face.
'I'll be out soon.'
Alexander said to Cassandra, who nodded while her gaze followed the Enforcers. The void creatures were almost upon the Enforcers, the true monsters at the forefront, while the minions followed behind.
This time, however, the Enforcers did not wait around for the void creatures to arrive. Drakmor was the first to make a move, his companions a split second behind. A few million kilometres before he met the creatures, the dragon lunged his right hand towards the void creatures.
Drakmor's companions followed his lead, as they all targeted the army of weaklings behind the true monsters. Before the weaklings could react, they began disintegrating into energy particles, leaving only their cores behind. Without so much as a word, the Enforcers eradicated the endless sea of weaklings!
BOOM…!!!
The god tier void creatures, however, were not so easily affected by the law principles the Enforcers used. They disregarded their armies and clashed with the Enforcers with ruthless momentum, meeting them at the halfway point.
'Haha… Of course they did.' Cassandra subconsciously raised her hand to shield her face from the shockwaves that crashed into her protection sphere. She had barely seen what had happened, but the outcome was clear to see.
As the Enforcers once again exchanged universal-level destructive clashes with the void creatures, this time numbering in the fifties, Alexander turned his attention back to the receding oceans of corruption. His guests were still with me, struggling with no success in sight.
With furrowed brows and guard raised to the absolute limit, Alex patiently waited for the purification process to come to a close. As for the absolute spots of nothingness, there was nothing he could do about them.
'Even with every existential principle I've designated my essence, I can't close the patches…' He grimly thought to himself. 'What worries me is the fact that none of us is equipped to deal with this thing. Maybe the Supreme One could have done something. But with him AWOL, I can only hope for the best.'
After more than half an hour had passed, all the oceans had dissipated as energy, leaving the portions that surrounded the abyss and the original ripples.
These ocean remnants were left behind on purpose, as Alexander prepared himself for the final closure. He first called back all his secondary bodies, leaving only his main body and the one drawing the surrounding void energy.
On the outside, most of the radiance had died down, the white void barely the size of a galaxy. The radiance was akin to seeing a single bright star in the night sky, barely enough to attract further attention.
The fighting, however, raged on as more and more void creatures appeared to join their brethren in suppressing the Enforcers. Unfortunately for the void creatures, their numbers did them no favours.
'I thought you'd be done by now…' Cassandra asked, her attention on the insignificant spot of white in the distance.
There was no trace of the universe's boundaries, as they were completely erased. Alexander had done exactly what he said he would, leaving the catwoman feeling nostalgic and remorseful.
'I'm a bit worried about what might be lurking in the depths of the corrupted essence.' Alex replied, sending a visual feed of what he meant, along with his considerations.
'I see…' Cassandra muttered grimly, her core throbbing nervously. 'You can't allow the essence to exist because of its nature. And without a clear understanding of what the corrupted essence could do, leaving it could spell greater doom.'
'Exactly…'
'But there is only one choice you can make.' Cassandra knew Alex well enough to know what he would choose. 'The question is… will we survive the consequences if it's what you fear?'
That was the dilemma Alexander faced. He, more than anything, hoped that the depths of the corrupted essence held nothing but emerging abysses. After all, it was a much better option than the alternative.
It was why he had put so much distance between himself and the absolute patches of nothingness. At the same time, that experience of losing his hand was the premise for his other theory.
'Deadly zones of absolute nothingness… or deadly creatures of absolute nothingness.'
Alexander mused, going over every bit of knowledge he received from his universe's core. 'Any sane person would hope for the first. At the very least, the zones won't be going anywhere. But does it make it better? What if they continue to grow despite the corrupted essence?'
Looking over his shoulder, he wondered if the void creatures would be somehow connected to the ones he was imagining. 'Would their boss be something like that?'
Recalling the vision that had begun his journey as a Veilwalker, Alexander saw the similarities between that monstrosity fusing with a piece of the multiverse's heart and what the Enforcers did with the god tier black core.
'We're seriously doomed…' Alex gulped with a heavy heart. 'Unlike what we have here, that thing has been with the broken piece for who knows how long?
'The Supreme One might have been on to something as well… Perhaps the creation of the Veilwalkers was to find the ones who had that missing drive.' The more Alexander thought, the more his core thumped. 'And so far… the Supreme One and I are the only ones who qualify.'
Along with these thoughts, another possibility as to why the Supreme One disappeared came to mind. This possibility was a good one. At the same time, it made him realise something.
'My Nexis Radiant grants me the power to resist the black and corrupted void cores. One could say my energy is the bane of their essence. But that is as far as it goes… and this might not change even after I become truly independent.'
Alexander turned his attention back to the horrors before him, swallowing the fear creeping up his spine. He closed his eyes for a moment, gathering the courage to do what had to be done. Abruptly, he reopened his eyes as they shone a brilliant and overwhelming white.
The galactic-sized brilliance increased several fold, drawing the attention of the Enforcers and the void creatures they were battling, prompting them to separate just long enough to see what happened next.
The brilliance lasted less than a second before everything went back to the absolute darkness that the true void was known for. Along with the brilliance was the purifying power of the radiance.
Almost as if the void creatures were waiting for that very moment, they abandoned their Enforcer opponents and closed in on Alexander. Their target, however, had his attention entirely focused on the scene before him.