Alexander knew Cthulhu would be powerful, even for a Faux-Absolute entity. However, experiencing the Master of Horrors' power definitely drove the point home.
The creature was nothing like the ethereal abomination he dealt with when he returned as an absolute. Even the nigh-infinite vile creatures he had just dealt with were no match.
Alex could have argued that the heavy suppression on his body played a part in what had just transpired, but he knew his existence best.
The weight of his existence was not something any creature or entity could casually push aside whenever they desired.
Moreover, the Master of Horrors simply sent a gaze his way. Who would have thought that gaze of his would pack such power?
Alexander was unceremoniously pushed back when his gaze clashed with Cthulhu's. Had it been a simple step he took back, it wouldn't have been so shocking.
He was forced several million kilometres back!
Maybe Alexander was exaggerating, as a few million kilometres was nothing to beings like him. Even so… that should not have been possible.
'Was that small piece it devoured that significant?' The embers of the shock he felt swiftly dispelled. 'And his gaze wasn't just pure force…'
Imbued in that gaze was a truly sinister power. That monster had attempted to forcefully invade his existence to cripple his very nature, to corrupt his psyche and essence.
Unfortunately for the Master of Horrors, an existential chasm of difference separated them. Alexander was an Existential Absolute, while Cthulhu was at best a Semi-Absolute.
One could not simply bypass that chasm without being one themselves.
This had resulted in a situation in which the power of the monstrocity's gaze violently clashed with his existence, pushing Alexander back rather than bypassing his defences to invade him.
Alexander took no time to regain his bearings, and when he did, his focus shifted to the vile creatures surrounding the invisible field around the Omnisoul.
The abominations he had erased so far could be considered the soldiers... the weaklings… relatively, of course. For anybody else, however, they were terrors of unimaginable proportions.
Alex counted five abominations unlike anything he had faced… generals of the Master of Horrors, so to speak.
Earlier, he had ignored their existence and focused on the Omnisoul and Cthulhu. And unlike their master, these 'general-class' abominations had been idle, seemingly acting as guards.
They only began moving after Alexander and Cthulhu 'exchanged' glances.
Alexander's gaze roamed over the grotesque forms of the abominations, his face tinged with disgust. Getting used to their macabre forms was not easy at all…
From his left was a vast, slug-like bulk that dragged itself across the void, its skin made of pulsing, translucent membranes.
Dozens of circular mouths spiralled along its body, letting out intelligible whispering as it fed on the void itself.
From the little bit he allowed himself to pick up, Alexander felt a dreadful level of disorientation that attempted to unravel the framework of his existence.
'Such sinister power!'
He swiftly snuffed out the creeping power of the abomination, turning to the other nightmarish void creatures.
The next creature was not even a creature, but a distortion given shape, eerily similar to the shadowy entity he erased soon after his transcendence.
Its form flickered like a broken reflection in the void. Long limbs at impossible angles, bending in ways that defied the order that governed the creation of biological creatures.
The abomination had the thickest of the vile essence swirling around it. Wherever it moved, vast patches of the Chaosveil were devoured… erased entirely.
Looking at the creature at the centre, however, made Alexander pause for a moment. Like the other abominations, the creature was towering… a towering silhouette to be exact.
But what made the creature stand out was the glowing ribcage-like structure. It looked to be submerged in some ghostly light that barely pushed the darkness away.
The abomination had a smooth head and eyeless orbs dripping with misty corruption rolling into the void like a waterfall. Within the glowing ribcage, muffled ghostly apparitions tried to break out.
'...'
Just looking at the abomination enraged him. Those were souls of living beings the apparition carried. Even in death, those killed were not freed.
Alex didn't bother asking himself the obvious, as he already knew how those souls got in there. Not that it mattered… he would be freeing them.
The fourth abomination was a six-winged, corpse-pale entity that moved through the cloud of corruption. Its wings were thin as sheets of skin covered in shifting runes.
A quick read from him unravelled their purpose.
They were connected to the flowing stream of absolute time, showing visions of how worlds and universes were brought to destruction.
But something changed about the shifting runes as soon as his eyes fell on them, the change putting a slight smile on his face.
The last of the five 'generals' was a colony of small, black, centipede-like creatures fused into a single torso-shaped cluster.
They produced a soft hum that caused the void to quiver. Once again, allowing himself to listen to the hum, threatened to hypnotise him into approaching the abomination to be devoured.
'No one… not even the primordials could ever retain their sanity, much less survive if they beheld the presence of these abominations. Scratch that… they wouldn't even survive the soldiers.'
The creatures were the epitome of grotesque and insanity. Even with his claircognizance, he couldn't understand the logic behind their creation.
Maybe it had to do with himself as an outlier… after all, he was an existence that shouldn't exist in the first place.
'Doesn't matter…'
Alexander pushed his wandering thoughts aside and brandished his spear for a fight. How easy it would be for him to obliterate the vile abominations.
'Tsk, your suppression better not cause your own fall, Omnisoul.'
His speed and physical strength had been suppressed so much that he needed to get in close to deliver his killing blows.
Sparing another glance in Cthulhu's direction, Alexander spotted the cracks that were slowly expanding, spreading like a web across the invisible dome.
He glanced below, following the massive bundle down to the multiverse, where he once again saw the entirety of the multiverse like he did when the Omnisoul chose him.
It was like staring down on a city at night from orbit, truly mesmerising. A sea of universes spread across the dark void, going as far as his eyes could see.
However, from time to time, universes would flicker out of existence, or their light would be snuffed out entirely.
And whenever that happened, the effects spread through the threads connecting the multiverse. The darkness of the corruption continued to spread at an alarming rate.
'Even with their help, universes are rapidly falling.'
He shuddered at the thought of how things would have been had his friends and vassals not been around.
Alexander, inwardly calming his rising rage, focused on the approaching abominations.
From the time he 'exchanged' glances with the Master of Horrors to the time he looked down at the multiverse, the five 'generals' had been on the move, swiftly closing in on him.
… And they were almost upon him.
The trembling of the surrounding void suddenly increased in intensity, a skin-crawling whisper weaving into the Chaosveil. Alexander's eyes fell on the abomination responsible for the change and lunged at it.
Their failure to affect or influence Alexander with their vile abilities did not stop them from trying.
'Shit, I'm slower than they are.'
Alexander was forced to change his attack into defence when the distortion given shape lunged one of its vile limbs at him from the side.
The whip-like limb met the shaft of his spear in a cataclysmic blow that sent him flying… flying into one of the eyeless orbs of the towering abomination with the trapped souls.
Knowing things would be difficult for him otherwise, Alexander did not bother resisting and allowed himself to be swallowed by the apparition.
A split second later, the massive creature began convulsing, its form collapsing in on itself. The already grotesque body distorted even more, pulling in the ribcage-like structure and trapped souls.
However, before it collapsed entirely, it exploded in a rain of corruption, freed dissolving souls and gore, the shockwaves causing the void to tremble even more, and blasting the other four abominations away.
Before the shockwaves even subsided, Alexander shot out of the eye of the explosion and closed in on the nearest apparition — the colony of centipede-like abominations.
The vile creature let out an ear-grating screech of its hypnotic sounds at the approaching Alexander as it tried to regain its balance.
However, Alexander swung his spear in a seamless stream of streaks that cut through the disturbing sound waves with ease, creating a path towards the creature.
With a serious expression on his face, Alexander spun around and brandished his spear in a throw.
A moment later, the spear flew out of his hand, cutting through the sea of hypnotic sound-induced essence towards the fused centre of the abomination.
A few centipede protrusions of the abomination attempted to intercept the spear's path. However, the momentum and destructive power of the spear tore through them with apparent ease.
The spear arrived at its destination almost instantly and disappeared into the creature's fused region. A split second later, the colony of centipede-like creatures violently convulsed and exploded.
Alexander turned to the other abominations while he extended a hand out for his spear. The creatures had managed to dispel the shockwaves and were ready to pounce once more.
'Three more to go…'