The Veilwalker-Chapter 580: Aurelionth (2)

"Aurelionth, snap out of it!"

Right after deflecting another heavy strike from the dragon's claws, Alexander exploded with greater speed, his right hand shooting towards Aurelionth's jaw.

A sickening crunch echoed across the shattered void, the uppercut forcefully shutting the terrifying maws of the dragon while sending a few fangs flying.

Aurelionth's head snapped back with a furious draconic roar. Barely shaking off the disorienting blow, and without waiting to heal the damage, the Supreme One lunged at Alexander again.

'Tsk, his consciousness is too far gone.'

Alexander scowled as he distanced himself from the feral dragon while brandishing his spear to parry the frenzied assaults.

The Supreme One's power continued to grow as they battled across the broken multiverse. Moreover, the corruption that had integrated with the dragon's body seemed to be growing and manifesting as a slowly spreading disease.

'The corruption is more than a corruption now…'

Alexander narrowed his eyes as he noticed the similarities between the dragon and Cthulhu. More than corrupted, it looked like the corruption had become a part of Aurelionth's existence.

'There will be no purifying…'

The realisation didn't bode well, deepening the frown on Alexander's face. His mind spun rapidly, trying to come up with something that did not involve killing the Supreme One.

But killing an absolute, as he had just realised, was nothing like erasing their essence in its entirety. Cthulhu was a faux-absolute, disqualifying the abomination.

Aurelionth, on the other hand, was a representation of the Omnisoul, despite not being whole. That was why his powers were slowly growing as he battled Alexander.

'No… I'm not absorbing corruption into my existence.'

Alexander refused to have anything to do with such vile and twisted essence. There had to be another way. However, the intensity of his fight with Aurelionth continued to increase at an alarming speed.

He had failed to retaliate with the right amount of force a few times already, resulting in him being blown backwards.

Left with almost no room to think of a solution, Alexander decided to take a break. After successfully evading a swing of Aurelionth's tail, Alex abandoned all pretences and closed in on the Supreme One.

With speeds that defied all reason, Alexander ran a complete sphere around Aurelionth, ending when the tail returned to rest. He targeted the Supreme One's head, neck, limbs, back and finally, tail.

When he distanced himself, Aurelionth let out a roar filled with fury and indignation. The Supreme One struggled with mad fury as it tried to break the invisible bindings on its body.

Rooted in the very abyss of nothingness, Alexander had bound the Supreme One in place. In his eyes were the unbreakable threads imbued with the might of his abilities as an absolute.

'It won't hold for long.'

Alexander noted as he watched the Supreme One madly tussling and doing everything in his power to break free. Spreading across its divine golden brilliance was the corruption.

Aurelionth's power continued to grow exponentially as the corruption spread across more of his radiant body. Alexander had a grim suspicion that the Supreme One would reach complete absolution when golden became all misty and murky black.

'No matter…'

Sitting down cross-legged in the shattered void that was now more nothingness than Chaosveil, Alexander placed his spear beside him and took a moment, expanding it for as long as he needed.

Time itself was broken, following no set pattern of progression. The source of it had gone mad, after all. Regardless, Alexander was his own time, and as such, the broken time did not affect him.

Suddenly, the madly roaring and struggling dragon slowed down to a crawl, almost frozen in place. But that was an illusion… an illusion that would break the moment the Supreme One fully transcended.

With his eyes locked on the frozen Supreme One, Alexander pondered deeply, going back to take a second look at what had transpired so far.

Cthulhu was erased from existence and from nothingness… that much he was certain. And while he had his own assumptions of why Cthulhu did what it did to the Omnisoul, was it simply out of something as outlandish as pettiness?

Cthulhu must have known it stood no chance of surviving after briefly clashing with him. So that begged the question… Was the Master of Horrors simply crippling the Omnisoul because it couldn't have it?

'An ancient and powerful entity like that wouldn't do something that preposterous.' Alexander narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. 'Not when it had done everything to break free of the Omnisoul…'

Shifting his focus, Alexander looked at the now slightly faster dragon that continued to intensely struggle against his bindings, specifically the spreading darkness of the corruption.

The corruption had indeed been firmly woven into the essence of the Omnisoul. Where there should have been one essence, there was now a mixture of two different but similar essences.

After all, the corruption had its root in void essence — the core essence of the Omnisoul. Even so, that was two wills becoming one, and from what he was seeing, that looked nothing like a mixture.

'Shit!'

As the realisation hit him, Alexander's eyes widened as he abruptly stood up. Cthulhu had not simply done that to cripple the Omnisoul… it had succeeded in planting its will in the Omnisoul!

Without hesitation, Alexander closed the distance and plunged his right hand into the dragon's chest. His hand met a little bit of resistance before it phased into Aurelioth's chest, his forearm disappearing into the dragon's chest.

A primal roar erupted from the dragon as the moment Alexander took and expanded, then shattered. Aurelionth was not happy with Alexander violating his existence.

Ignoring the dragon's cry, Alexander tried to invade the woven wills in an attempt to add his own. It was a long shot, but the Omnisoul was losing to Cthulhu.

And just as he had feared, the moment his will left his existence, he was ruthlessly blown backwards, his plunged arm violently recoiling. Separated from the dragon, Alexander's eyes flickered with shock and resignation.

His will was devoured and assimilated the moment it left his existence, slightly increasing the spread of the corruption through Aurelionth's existence. Invading the shell of the Omnisoul was one thing, while invading the core was another.

Despite taking an uncountable number of lives that equalled an unimaginable amount of essence from the Omnisoul, recovering the lost essence was only a matter of time. But therein lay the problem…

While the Omnisoul was recovering the lost essence, Cthulhu's will was assimilating itself into the Omnisoul's essence, making it its own.

There was no way for him to stop what was transpiring. Aurelionth's body had become ground zero for two wills battling for control.

'No… Cthulhu's will is winning.'

Alexander did not want to admit it, but the Supreme One was done for. Aurelionth's will was already a piece of the Omnisoul from the very start. He had been nothing but a vessel the Omnisoul prepared.

'...'

The dragon had never been his own person from the very start. Although Alexander was thrown out as soon as his will invaded the dragon, that short moment was more than enough for him to determine the main players… and the Supreme One was not in it; he was not even present.

'There was never a saving him…' The grim realisation left a bad taste in his mouth. 'And his actions of gathering the cores to collect his lost personalities might have been guided by the Omnisoul all along.'

Silently watching the darkness spread over Aurelionth's body… spreading over the Omnisoul's body, Alexander was not sure how to feel about the whole situation. For a split moment, he felt a wave of anger.

However, that emotion swiftly faded. He had no reason to be angry. Even he had once upon a time been a piece of the Omnisoul… but a rebellious one, so to speak. The Omnisoul was simply doing what it could to save itself… and its creations were meant to do just that.

The Omnisoul gave them everything… it gave them a part of itself so that they could all be unique… it gave them the power to resist… it gave them time so that it could perfect its vessel.

'Unfortunately for you, nothing went according to plan.' Alexander let out a resigned sigh. 'There was never a win for any of the Veilwalkers. And Aurelionth…'

Alexander closed his eyes and slowed down his racing thoughts. He had done enough… he had saved what truly mattered, and Aurelionth had been a collateral all along.

'... I'm sorry. You did so much to protect the multiverse, even when you had your suspicions. But looking back now… all of it might have never truly been you. Even so, you were aware enough to make room for my rebellion… Thank you.'

He might be unwilling to devour what the Omnisoul had become, but there was one thing he could do to make sure the process never came to an end… Cthulhu would not win.

Abruptly opening his eyes, his existence unleashed a tyrannical wave of essence that shook what was left of reality. His spear flew into his hand as he put a vast chasm between himself and the struggling dragon.

With a serious expression on his face, Alexander pulled his hand back and aimed his humming spear at the dragon. The surrounding void spanning countless light-years seemed to quiver in anticipation, violently twisting and tearing apart.

Finally, before the spear left his hand, it produced four distinct hums.

'And goodbye…'

When the spear left his hand, reality as everyone had known it came to an absolute and eternal end, forever and existentially erased from the void of nothingness.