A devastating explosion did not accompany the annihilation of Cthulhu. They were outside the flow of time. Moreover, Alexander ensured that the creature's death caused no further harm to reality.
Cthulhu's form simply ceased to exist right then and there, entirely and absolutely erased from existence… And just like that, the architect responsible for plunging reality into chaos, madness and destruction was no more.
For several timeless moments, Alexander did not move, his eyes fixed on the spot where the creature had been moments ago. Then he straightened himself and remained still.
'...'
The fight was indeed over… truly, it was over. However, Alexander harboured some doubt. Cthulhu was an extremely powerful entity, more powerful than any of them had expected.
Granted, he was an outlier himself. But he had to admit, it was all too easy. He had expected a devastatingly powerful battle, one that would put the lives of all Veilwalkers and reality on the line.
He had envisioned the Supreme One taking the lead as they fought the unending mass of abominations, the deaths that would befall Veilwalkers, and the corruption that would plunge their numbers into disarray… and yet, said mastermind was no more.
The abomination was one capable of driving anyone who beheld its existence mad with terror. The vileness of its existence could not be understated.
It was fortunate that almost no Veilwalker had been exposed to the void creatures with that kind of harrowing powers. Even so, the corruption they harboured was just as dreadful, if not more morbid.
Had he not manifested his own essence capable of fighting the corruption, he might have been no different from the other Veilwalkers.
The corruption — something that greedy Veilwalkers had realised as a way to acquire greater power — had accelerated reality's doom. It was as though the Omnisoul abandoned all other life forms in favour of just one, providing no means of resisting the corruption.
But reality, as ironic as it sounded, was vastly different. Cthulhu — the Cosmic Terror — had chosen to flee at the last moment. Cthulhu — the mastermind of their nightmares — had died too easily, and by his hand.
Alexander lowered his head and stared at the hand that had killed and erased the abomination, as though he could not believe it had ended the terror for good.
He — a boy from a low-level universe — had been the one to end the master abomination's reign of terror. He had been the one to ultimately do what the Omnisoul had initially intended, even if he wasn't the chosen one.
But the corruption that the abominable creatures bore was still very much around. It had seeped deeply into the veil of reality, corrupting and eroding everything and everyone that it touched.
Lowering his hand and lifting his head, Alexander looked around. Indeed, the fight had been short, but the level of destruction left in its wake was anything but.
Everywhere he looked was in a frozen state of destruction, simply waiting for him to return into the Omnisoul's flow of time to fall apart. It was a harrowing scene that cut deeper than any wound he had ever sustained.
Universes were torn asunder, the tears in the veil of reality running freely through them. Most of the affected universes were high-level and mid-level. But that was only because there were fewer than low-level universes.
As for Universe Prime… Universe Prime had a massive tear that sliced right through, thanks to Cthulhu and Alexander's intense speed battle.
Most champions of reality were now a memory as well. Even if some could survive the destruction, the veil of reality was torn apart, exposing the sombre and desolate abyss of nothingness.
Without the trait of nothingness, the Veilwalkers, Primordials, Gods and their retainers had no chance of surviving. Only nothingness could survive in nothing.
His figure disappeared, and when it reappeared, he was standing close to the broken body of a Veilwalker in their true form. Turning his head to the side, Alexander somberly looked at the remains of Drakmor.
The dragon had been one of the unfortunate Veilwalkers caught in his fight with Cthulhu, the veil of reality torn apart around and through his draconic body. From his perspective, everything and everyone seemed to exist in a 2-dimensional plane.
It was as though the universes and Veilwalkers were drawn on paper, and the tears in the veil of reality were akin to tears running through the drawings.
Drakmor was one of the few Veilwalkers he respected as one of a kind, a dragon close to his heart. What's more, he wasn't the only Veilwalker he recognised.
Even some of the primordials and gods he had interacted with were in similar shredded states. Seeing Drakmor and the others in that state stung more than he would have liked to admit.
Alexander closed his eyes and pushed down his rising guilt and sorrow. When he reopened his eyes, the guilt and pain that shone in them were gone, replaced with absolute calm and determination.
He turned his gaze to the Omnisoul, and a moment later, appeared before the heart of reality. The cut Cthulhu made in the Omnisoul was extremely thin compared to the core's overall size.
He lowered his gaze, staring at the massive bundle of threads. The bundle of threads connecting the multiverse to the Omnisoul was also in tatters.
Alexander had tried as much as possible to avoid damaging the threads connecting to the multiverse. Unfortunately for him, Cthulhu had no such concerns, and he made things worse when he let go of all considerations.
The multiverse might as well be on its own now, barely connected to the Omnisoul, not that being connected to the Omnisoul would have mattered. In all honesty, reality and the multiverse were done for.
It would have been challenging to save reality before, but now, it might as well be impossible, not when void essence and nullion were two different essences.
Alexander had planned to defeat Cthulhu, refine the creature to recover the piece of reality it had taken and return it to the Omnisoul. And even that was a long shot at best. But with the Omnisoul crippled, that little hope wasn't going to happen.
That left only one option… claim all universes as his own.
Alexander gradually increased his size to cosmic proportions while he descended to the bundle's level. With his increased proportions, he could encompass most of the bundle and sever the multiverse from the Omnisoul.
But therein lay the tricky part.
To sever the multiverse, he would have to make contact, interact with its essence and wrestle control from the Omnisoul. The core might have been crippled, but it was still the heart of the multiverse.
That, however, meant returning to the flow of time.
When he became the source of his universe, Cthulhu's abomination of a will did the difficult part, making things easier for him.
But now…
'Damn that creature.'
Of course, he was just as responsible for the destruction as Cthulhu was, and he accepted that. But things rarely went the way we wanted them to… such was the nature of an existence beyond our control.
An unimaginable number of lives were going to be lost in that span of time he would wrestle the Omnisoul for control, and that… that was what he dreaded.
Alexander momentarily closed his eyes and took an imaginary deep breath, and then opened his eyes. Without hesitation, he sharply drove both hands into the bundle of threads.
Rumble…
Reality shuddered as his hands vanished into the bundle. At the same time, normal temporal flow caught up with the destruction left behind.
Alexander flinched as all of reality crackled and exploded in a catastrophic, apocalyptic blast, the destruction whipping out torrential waves of essence shockwaves.
He dared extend his senses out to witness the scale… it was inconceivable.
Universes and lives were erased in an instant, devoured by the abyss of nothingness. Veilwalkers, Primordials, and Gods attempted to escape, but were caught by the ruthless shockwaves and subsequently thrown in the cracks in the Chaosveil.
Alexander's existence would have ached had he allowed himself to feel emotions at that moment. The scale of death and destruction was beyond anything a living entity could imagine.
Reality was falling apart, and rapidly at that.
But Alexander had to focus on the task at hand. Withdrawing his senses from the ongoing destruction, Alexander raised his head to look at the rippling and tainted Omnisoul. It seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
However, Alexander could feel the resistance it put up against his actions.
The moment he made contact with the threads connecting all of reality, he channelled his infinite essence through them, swiftly purifying the corruption while pushing against void essence.
In the span of a few microseconds, Alexander managed to fight back the essence of the Omnisoul and established a connection with the surviving life forms — sentient or otherwise.
Now came the most important part… severing the connection the surviving life forms had with the Omnisoul. He did not need to take the universes along with him.
He had expanded the size of his universe to inconceivable proportions, all to accommodate the life forms he claimed from the Omnisoul, going as far as demarcating various regions for all the different life forms and their resource needs.
Gritting his teeth, Alexander pushed against the Omnisoul's resistance and forcefully severed the connections, simultaneously erasing any hint of corruption within their existence.
In an instant, Alexander stripped every surviving life form of their universe-shaking might, replaced their essence with the essence of his reality, and put every single one of them to sleep.
But then, the moment he succeeded, the Omnisoul's rippling abruptly stopped.
And then…