Chapter 581 – The Awakening of the Dreamer
In the silent, vast arena floating in the void, the seal around Cthulhu began to tremble.
For the first time since Alex had brought Atlantis into space, the pulse of the seal changed.
The rhythm quickened, deep vibrations spreading through the ruins, and cracks of pale green light began to snake across the massive bindings.
Alex floated above, waiting.
The moment he had been preparing for had arrived.
A low, incomprehensible sound rolled out from within the seal, like an ocean pressing against the walls of reality. The green cracks widened. Space itself twisted slightly around the seal as the weight of Cthulhu's presence pushed outward.
Then the trigger activated.
The ion bomb, which Alex had embedded into the seal days before, recognized the strain and detonated.
There was no time between the cracks and the blast.
The explosion erupted silently in the void, a star born at point-blank range. The detonation wasn't just heat and force—it was a synthesis of countless Laws: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Darkness, Earth, Wind, Poison, Consumption, Sleep, Web, Strength, Concealment, Light, and Mana. All of them burst outward in one vast, blinding wave.
But the destructive energy didn't spread into the surrounding barrier of the arena.
At the moment of detonation, the entire force of the blast bent unnaturally.
The Saturn-like constructs surrounding the arena flared with runes, redirecting all of the ion bomb's explosive power toward a single focal point.
Alex.
It wasn't an accident—it was part of his design.
He had woven the laws of space within the arena so that the devastation would not be wasted, nor risk damaging the field.
The destructive power converged on him, compressed into a single point.
A blinding column of force engulfed him. The blast should have been enough to pulverize mountains, flatten planets, and scatter debris for millions of kilometers.
But Alex did not move.
The destructive tide hit him like a wall—and stopped.
The full weight of the explosion pressed against his armor, but his body did not flinch. His END, strengthened to a level that far exceeded mortal or divine limits, absorbed everything. The sea of Laws that composed the explosion washed over his form, but it could not pierce him.
His visor dimmed for a moment under the blinding storm.
When the blast subsided, Alex floated exactly where he had been, the faint glow of the barrier behind him untouched.
"Not bad," he murmured quietly.
Below, the seal was in ruins. The explosion had destroyed the bindings completely, tearing open the cage around the sleeping Great Old One.
From the heart of the devastation, something stirred.
Through the smoke and the collapsing fragments of green light, he saw it:
A colossal, alien silhouette, still rising, wings folded, tendrils and limbs moving slowly as though waking from a dream that had lasted since the first ages.
Cthulhu.
The ion bomb had hit it hard, but it wasn't dead.
Its enormous body flexed as the great head lifted, the countless eyes burning faintly like deep stars.
For the first time, the Dreamer of R'lyeh was awake.
Cthulhu rose fully now, its massive frame towering within the arena. Wings that were more like membranes of living shadow unfolded, creating distortions in the void around them. Its body was alien—flesh that wasn't flesh, shifting, coiling, expanding in impossible directions.
The moment its gaze fixed on Alex, reality itself seemed to shiver. The barrier trembled.
It exhaled.
An invisible wave rushed outward, and the battlefield itself began to blur.
The first clash began.
Cthulhu extended its will.
The Law of Dreams unfolded like an ocean, crashing against Alex's mind with overwhelming pressure, attempting to drag him into a dream of endless madness.
But it shattered on contact.
Alex's Will—honed to a peak no being on Earth could comprehend—rejected the dream entirely. It was as if he had walked through a soft fog and dispersed it simply by existing. His gaze never wavered.
Cthulhu tilted its head, intrigued.
The next moment, its Law of Space bent the battlefield.
Space twisted around them. When Alex struck with a ranged blow—an orb of compressed power or a blade of condensed Law—the attack vanished and reappeared inches from him, redirected perfectly back toward its source. He simply let them hit, each redirected attack exploding harmlessly across his body without leaving a mark.
Dozens of these counterstrikes were returned to him as the battle went on, but he treated them like nothing more than rain.
Then, amid the chaos, something changed.
Alex felt it. A single attack—a strange distortion forming silently in the void—gave him a faint chill. For the first time, his instincts warned him: Dangerous.
His body moved instantly.
He blurred backward, vanishing from where he floated, but as he appeared elsewhere, a scything arc of distorted space swept through the position he had just been.
Even though he moved, he wasn't fast enough.
A thin, perfect cut followed him across dimensions. It sliced through armor, flesh, and bone as if they weren't there.
Alex's left arm separated from his body.
Blood crystallized into floating droplets in the void, sparkling faintly.
Cthulhu's massive clawed hand reached out, and in a single motion, caught the severed limb. Its fingers closed around the arm gently, almost reverently, and lifted it closer to its alien face.
It gazed at the arm, then at Alex.
A sound like a thousand overlapping voices echoed in the arena—a deep, resonant, praise.
Words entered Alex's mind directly:
"Excellent. You moved. Very few can."
Its tone was not mocking. It was calm, intrigued, almost delighted.
The severed arm flexed slightly in its grasp, still alive, still connected to the vitality of Alex's body.
Cthulhu tilted its head, as if appraising him, waiting to see what he would do next.
Cthulhu's many eyes stayed locked on him.
Its grip on the severed arm tightened slightly, as if weighing it, testing the pulse of the energy that lingered within it. The distorted space around its form pulsed faintly, each ripple warping light and shadow.
Its overlapping voices, layered like an endless choir, spoke again—not aloud, but directly into Alex's mind:
"Your body… is overflowing with power. This energy is not like the others. Not like gods. Not like mortals."
It tilted its head slowly, as though savoring the discovery.
"I see now why the dream does not touch you."
Without another word, the tentacles around its mouth curled upward, and in one smooth motion, it lifted the arm toward its monstrous, alien maw.
The severed limb disappeared between its jaws.
A deep sound reverberated through the arena, like the grinding of two planets colliding.
As it swallowed, the faint greenish light in its eyes intensified. Its body pulsed once, and a terrifying wave of raw energy burst out from its form.
The power of the consumed arm integrated instantly, spreading through its vast, chaotic form.
Alex could feel it—the creature's already monstrous presence expanding, as if that single arm had given it enough power to rival a god's awakening.
The arena itself trembled, the interference constructs groaning as they struggled to maintain stability.
"Remarkable," the voices said again, almost in awe.
"With just a fragment, I feel strength returning. You are… a feast. A feast walking of its own will."
The enormous body leaned forward slightly, the countless eyes narrowing.
"If your arm alone grants this… what will happen when I devour all of you?"
Cthulhu's wings began to unfurl again, warping space and folding dream fragments into reality as its power surged, now stronger than when it first awakened.
Alex didn't waste a heartbeat.
The moment Cthulhu's voices fell silent, light gathered around the stump of his severed arm. Magic and Law intertwined, and in less than a split second, flesh and bone regenerated seamlessly. His left arm was whole again, flawless, without a single scar.
He flexed his fingers once as if testing them, then raised his gaze back to the towering figure.
Cthulhu's voices resonated once more, cold and analytical:
"Regeneration at that speed… interesting. But your fortress cannot restrain me as you hoped."
Its wings unfurled completely, and the arena warped.
"This cage prevents me from leaving, yes. It does not strip me of the Laws of Space. In here… I am still free."
The void trembled.
Space itself folded around Alex—layer upon layer of jagged distortions, as if reality was being shredded into ribbons. Dimensional fissures crisscrossed around him like invisible blades.
This time, it moved faster than before.
One instant, Alex stood ready.
The next, a sharp slice cut cleanly across his lower body.
Pain flashed—brief, sharp. His legs separated from his body.
Even as the blood crystallized into floating drops, a distortion appeared next to Cthulhu's head. Through that rip in space, Alex's severed legs emerged, already caught in one of its massive claws.
The creature didn't hesitate.
It swallowed them whole.
A second surge of power rippled outward. The strength within Cthulhu's alien body climbed again, even heavier, even more oppressive than before. Its form became denser, the dream aura thicker, while its voice echoed once more, pleased:
"Yes… more. This vitality. This essence. Every piece makes me stronger."
But before the last syllable faded, the lower half of Alex's body reformed in a burst of white-gold light.
Bone, muscle, skin, and armor regenerated instantly, returning him to perfect condition.
His expression didn't change.
His black eyes fixed on the creature, his stance solid once again.
The swallowing had given Cthulhu more power, but it had not slowed Alex in the slightest.
The alien deity lowered its head slightly, countless eyes staring with a mixture of hunger and curiosity.
"You endure. Let us see how much you can endure… before nothing of you remains."
The spatial distortions multiplied, the next wave of attacks forming around him.
Alex had seen enough.
Every ranged attack he had used so far had been bent back toward him. The Law of Space in Cthulhu's hands was absolute; anything thrown at a distance would be redirected.
There was no point in continuing that approach.
His expression hardened slightly.
He shifted tactics.
In a single movement, he vanished.
Teleportation—silent, instantaneous. But this time it wasn't ordinary. He fused it with the Law of Mana, accelerating and sharpening the spell beyond anything a normal user of space magic could achieve.
His figure blinked into existence directly at Cthulhu's chest, fist already drawn back.
Cthulhu's many eyes widened a fraction as Alex's fist crashed forward. The impact sent a pulse of force rippling through its massive body, shoving the creature back through the void, space folding and tearing around the impact point.
Before it could fully recover, Alex blinked again.
Then again.
And again.
Each teleport was cleaner, faster, more refined—flashes of movement too sharp to follow. Each arrival was accompanied by a devastating strike: fists, elbows, knees, hammering blows that churned Cthulhu's flesh into rippling waves of alien matter.
The arena shook with every collision.
For the first time, Cthulhu laughed—or something like it. The sound was a low, resonant vibration that crawled through the bones of reality itself.
"Interesting."
Its countless eyes tracked his every movement.
It allowed the attacks to land, studying them.
"You warp yourself through space with pure will, not just magic. That… is new."
Another punch connected with its jaw, twisting its massive head to the side. Still, it spoke, unshaken:
"Your space magic, enhanced by this strange Law of Mana—hundreds of times superior to the little magicians of this world. But…"
The wings spread again, and the void itself convulsed.
"…it is still nothing compared to me, who is the Law of Space."
Reality around Cthulhu collapsed inward, as if all directions bent toward it at once. It no longer waited to redirect attacks; now, even Alex's teleportations began to drag slightly, space tugging at him with invisible resistance.
Alex blurred in close again, fists crashing like meteors against Cthulhu's vast, coiling form. Each impact sent ripples through the monster's alien body, but before the next strike could land, the space around them distorted violently.
The creature vanished.
A ripple of pure Law of Space folded reality, and in that instant Cthulhu reappeared behind him. There was no sound, no warning—only the sudden presence of its massive arm swinging down with a clawed slash.
Alex twisted at the last possible moment. His reflexes saved him from complete decapitation, but even so, the strike was impossibly fast.
The air split open.
A thin, perfect cut of distorted space carved straight through his head, from his right temple down across his face to the left jaw.
For a moment, his vision doubled. The top half of his head slid aside, the lower half lagging a fraction of a second behind. His consciousness blurred into static.
Blood crystallized into the void, then floated apart.
Cthulhu's claw reached forward, catching the diagonal section of his severed skull in one enormous hand. With a slow, deliberate movement, the alien deity pulled the piece toward its mouth.
It swallowed.
The moment it did, a surge of energy rippled out from its massive frame once again.
The voices echoed through Alex's recovering mind:
"This part… yes. This part is the most delicious yet."
At the same time, its calm tone carried a quiet acknowledgment:
"An attack imbued with the Law of Space makes your defenses irrelevant. There is nowhere to hide from the blade of reality itself."
Even as those words vibrated through the arena, Alex's healing magic surged. The golden-white light poured through his body.
In less than a heartbeat, the destroyed half of his head regenerated. His eyes cleared instantly, no pain lingering as if the injury had never existed.
He stared at Cthulhu once again.
Cthulhu flexed its claws slowly, savoring the sensation of the absorbed energy, while its wings stretched out farther. Its voice echoed once more:
"Do you understand now? No armor, no shield, no defense stops space."
The void thickened around them, thousands of invisible spatial cuts forming like a cage, each one pulsing faintly, waiting to strike.
Chapter 582 – The Storm of Space and Dream
The arena went silent for an instant.
No sound, no motion.
Only the faint shimmer of warped space around Cthulhu's colossal form.
Then everything collapsed inward.
With a sudden twist of its wings, Cthulhu tore open the battlefield.
Thousands of distortions bloomed around Alex like invisible flowers. Each distortion folded both space and dream together—every cut not only sliced reality but also tried to drag his mind into fragments of hallucinations.
Blades of warped reality appeared at every angle. There was no warning, no light, only the tearing of existence itself.
Alex moved.
The first strike grazed his chest. Even with his WILL blocking the dream, the physical cut ripped through his armor like paper, opening a deep diagonal wound.
The second one came from beneath, but he shifted sideways, letting the distortion slice through empty space where he had been.
Cthulhu's voice followed him, patient and endless:
"You run. You dodge. But you cannot escape. Every corner of this arena… bends to me."
A new series of attacks followed.
Space folded around his legs, cutting and twisting at the same time.
Dream distortions layered on top of them, showing flashes of memories, possible futures, fragments of false lives, all designed to slow his reactions. But his WILL burned through them like mist.
He teleported in rapid succession, appearing at random points in the arena to avoid the barrage.
Each time, a claw of distorted space swept through where he appeared—always just an instant later.
The pace increased.
Dozens of distortions became hundreds.
Hundreds became thousands.
The battlefield itself was no longer stable. Every patch of void now contained thin, hairline cracks of warped reality.
Even the interference constructs surrounding the arena groaned under the strain.
One of the slashes caught his side. Flesh and armor tore apart. Blood scattered into the void before his regeneration sealed the wound almost instantly.
Another strike came from behind. This one cut deep across his back, nearly severing his spine, but he twisted just in time, his healing magic closing the damage before the next hit landed.
It was relentless.
Every attack was a combination of Space and Dream, perfectly aimed, perfectly timed. Even with all his abilities, he was on the defensive, unable to find a clear opening.
And yet, throughout the storm, Alex's expression never changed.
His eyes remained calm.
Cthulhu's overlapping voices deepened:
"Do you see now? This is my realm. This is the truth of space. No distance. No safe place. Only inevitability."
One claw rose slowly, its movements deliberate.
The entire arena tightened.
"I will carve you apart until nothing remains but power for me to consume."
The next wave came, faster, sharper—every strike converging on him at once.
The storm of space and dream did not relent.
Each passing moment, the slashes became more precise, more invasive, twisting through reality to reach him no matter where he stood.
Alex's movements blurred as he teleported again and again, but even with his speed, he could not avoid everything.
A sudden tear in space cut through his right shoulder, severing his arm entirely.
The limb floated for a split second before another distortion folded it away, delivering it directly into Cthulhu's outstretched claw. Without hesitation, the Great Old One swallowed it whole.
Energy surged through its massive body like a tidal wave.
The countless eyes glowed more brightly, its aura swelling.
Another moment passed—a strike from below caught Alex's waist.
His legs were cleaved away a second time, this time torn into pieces that Cthulhu dragged through a rift before consuming. Again, its body pulsed with a sickening, otherworldly light as its power deepened.
Even as the creature grew stronger with every mouthful, Alex's regeneration remained flawless.
Blood transformed into golden-white light, flesh and armor reforming almost as soon as they were lost. Each piece of him was restored faster than the void could claim it.
But the pattern repeated.
A slice across his chest tore out ribs and heart.
Regeneration.
A distortion cleaved his skull from behind, splitting it in half.
Regeneration.
An invisible scythe of warped reality took both arms in one strike.
Cthulhu devoured them, drinking in the energy.
The more it ate, the more its form stabilized, as if every piece of Alex was fuel.
And every piece made it faster, sharper, more oppressive.
The interference constructs shuddered as the entity's growing presence pressed harder against their barrier.
Its voice was calm, layered, inexorable:
"Every fragment of you strengthens me. Piece by piece, your power becomes mine. Soon, there will be nothing left to resist me."
The next cut severed an entire section of his torso, only for him to recover once more in a flash of light.
No matter how many pieces it took, he came back.
Yet for every regeneration, Cthulhu grew more and more massive, its tentacles extending farther, its spatial distortions sharper and faster.
The arena was shrinking. Not physically, but perceptually—Cthulhu's reach was beginning to dominate everything inside it.
And still, Alex stood, restoring himself each time, his calm unbroken.
Cthulhu's aura had swollen to a monstrous level.
Its form loomed over the arena now, larger, denser, more solid with every fragment of Alex it had consumed. The void quivered under the weight of its presence, and the interference constructs strained to hold their formation.
The next strike was coming.
Alex could feel it—the space around him folding into a single, sharpened point. This one was different.
This was not a cut meant to wound him or consume another piece.
This was meant to end him.
For the first time, Cthulhu gathered everything.
Its dream domain merged fully with its command of space, twisting the void into something indescribable. The combined force concentrated into one ultimate distortion, a perfect severing of all dimensions aimed directly at Alex.
The creature's countless eyes fixed on him, its voice deep, final:
"This ends now."
The slash came.
But just before the distortion collapsed, it stopped.
Completely.
The entire arena froze.
The infinite claws of space that had been converging on Alex flickered and dissolved, as if the Laws themselves had hesitated.
Cthulhu's massive form remained still.
Its wings froze mid-motion.
The pulsing greenish light in its countless eyes dimmed, then flared, and for the first time, uncertainty rippled through the alien god.
"…What… is this?"
Its voice carried confusion, not triumph.
The claws lowered slowly, unfinished.
Its tentacles curled inward slightly, hesitating.
For the first time in this battle, the Dreamer looked at Alex and did not attack.
Chapter 583 – The Hidden Law
The void remained silent.
Cthulhu's countless eyes glimmered, searching for something it could not see.
For a being that embodied the Law of Space, there was no such thing as "unknown."
And yet, what it felt now was foreign.
Alex, still floating in the center of the arena, opened his mouth for the first time since the battle began.
His voice was calm, level, almost casual:
"Do you want to know why you suddenly stopped?"
The Great Old One tilted its massive head, the deep, overlapping voices rumbling with curiosity.
Alex's words cut through the stillness.
"I have the Law of Parasites."
The arena went utterly silent.
For a long moment, Cthulhu said nothing. Then, slowly, the overlapping voices returned, but now tinged with something almost unheard of in those tones: shock.
"…Impossible. That cannot be.
I consumed every piece of you. I searched them. I inspected each fragment with my own Laws.
Nothing entered my essence."
Alex's expression didn't change.
"You searched," he said, "but you never found anything… because I also have the Law of Concealment."
The words sank in like a heavy weight.
Cthulhu's massive form stiffened.
"You…"
The realization spread through its mind, and in the next instant, the voices deepened:
"…You concealed them."
A ripple of comprehension rolled across its body. Its tentacles coiled tighter.
"Every piece I took, every fragment of your body that I consumed… was seeded."
Its countless eyes narrowed.
"You have hidden parasites inside me."
The confusion that had frozen it a moment ago solidified into cold clarity.
It could feel them now—not directly, but like faint invisible threads buried deep inside its vast form, each one dormant, waiting.
"You dare—"
The voices vibrated through the arena, a mixture of fury and awe.
Cthulhu's massive form pulsed, its wings folding inward as if to steady itself. The overlapping voices resonated, deep and cutting:
"When…? When did you do this?"
Alex's answer came without hesitation, his voice as calm as if he were explaining something ordinary:
"From the very first moment."
Cthulhu's countless eyes focused sharply on him.
"The day you cut off my arm."
He raised his freshly regenerated left arm and flexed his fingers once, slowly.
"I didn't activate the Law of Parasites constantly," he continued.
"That would have been pointless. You would have sensed it instantly and destroyed the infection before it took hold."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"I only used it when you were about to cut me. Just before the blow separated my flesh, I triggered the Law. The instant your attack touched my skin, I let the parasites slip into that piece of meat. And the moment it left my body, I concealed it—buried it so deeply that even the Law of Space couldn't feel it."
The blackness of the arena seemed to grow heavier.
"Every time you cut me," he said, his voice calm but absolute, "you took another seed inside you."
For a moment, there was silence.
Then, slowly, the monster spoke again:
"You hid them… at the moment of impact. In that infinitesimal instant… you seeded me."
Its tentacles curled inward tighter, the countless eyes narrowing in something like reluctant admiration—and deep anger.
"Every cut. Every bite. You turned your own body into a weapon."
The power within Cthulhu's vast frame pulsed, and for the first time since the start of the battle, there was a note of caution in its voice.
"…You would infect me, parasite, even as I consume you."
Alex slowly raised his right hand, palm open, as if grasping an invisible thread.
"And now," he said quietly, "they all wake up."
The instant the words left his lips, something shifted inside Cthulhu's vast alien form.
It felt it—not on the surface, but deep in its core.
A million invisible sparks ignited at once.
"What—?"
Cthulhu's massive voice faltered as an unfamiliar heat began to spread through its body.
The seeds that had lain silent within every consumed fragment of Alex suddenly bloomed.
"All of those parasites," Alex said, his voice steady and cutting through the void, "are stuffed with magic. Offensive magic I designed only for you. And I reinforced them with every Law I have mastered."
Inside Cthulhu's body, the hidden parasites pulsed like miniature stars.
The Law of Fire burned, the Law of Ice froze, the Law of Poison corroded, the Law of Strength crushed, the Law of Darkness ate away at its essence. Every single parasite carried a condensed cluster of destructive forces, wrapped so tightly in Concealment that they had remained invisible until now.
And now, every single one of them was active.
Cthulhu roared, the sound not in the ears but in the mind, shaking the arena to its core.
Its body writhed as explosions erupted within its flesh.
Tendrils tore outward from its own frame as entire sections of its alien mass were ripped apart from the inside.
Its wings snapped wide as distorted space raged uncontrollably around it, the creature struggling to hold itself together.
"You dare—!" the voices boomed, this time filled with raw fury.
Each parasite detonated in waves.
Some struck like concentrated blades, others like tidal waves of burning poison.
Even the Law of Sleep triggered inside it, slowing its reflexes just enough for more of the destructive storm to spread.
Alex did not move, his calm expression never wavering.
"This is the price of eating me."
For the first time since the battle began, Cthulhu staggered.
The void was filled with Cthulhu's roar, a sound so immense it warped even the barrier of the arena.
Its body writhed, trying to use the Law of Space to carve out every part of itself infected with Alex's parasites. But there were too many. Tens of thousands of them were buried deep, hidden in folds of alien flesh, wrapped in concealment that no space distortion could isolate in time.
Alex slowly closed his hand into a fist.
"It's over."
The words rang clear in the trembling stillness of the arena.
At that moment, all the parasites ignited at once.
Every single one of them.
Inside Cthulhu's body, a thousand different Laws went critical.
Fire erupted, consuming its mass from within.
Ice froze entire sections of alien flesh, only to be shattered from inside by Strength.
The Law of Darkness devoured parts of its essence, while Poison spread like black lightning.
Even the Law of Light flared, cutting through the dream-layer that clung to its mind.
All of them went off simultaneously, perfectly timed, detonating in one colossal chain reaction.
For a brief instant, the arena was brighter than a star.
The explosion tore outwards from within, expanding violently as Cthulhu's body was ripped apart. Its massive, tentacled frame shredded from the inside out. Spatial distortions and dream fragments collapsed into chaos, unable to stabilize under the combined fury.
The Saturn-like constructs holding the barrier flared to full power, locking the explosion in, ensuring not even a fragment of it escaped to the rest of the void.
In the center of it all, Cthulhu's countless eyes flickered wildly, its voice echoing across the collapsing arena:
"Impossible—"
And then the sound vanished.
The explosion burned until there was nothing left to burn.
When the light finally dimmed, the battlefield was silent.
Where Cthulhu's vast form had been, there was only scattered motes of fading green light and drifting fragments of alien matter, disintegrating into dust. No regeneration. No dream. No escape.
Cthulhu was dead.
Alex hovered alone in the void, unmoving, his expression as calm as when the fight had begun.
The seal of Atlantis was gone. The Dreamer of R'lyeh had been completely erased.
The long stream of notifications faded, leaving only the silence of the arena.
Alex exhaled softly, lifting his hand slightly. A faint golden pattern of numbers and symbols unfolded in front of him—the interface of his status.
Name: Alex Elwood
Level: 1,203,030
HP: 8,956,460
MP: 4,478,560
STR: 895,646
END: 895,636
AGI: 895,626
INT: 895,672
WILL: 895,520
Unused Stat Points: 1,154,870
Laws:
Law of Mana (3%)Law of IceLaw of FireLaw of WebLaw of PoisonLaw of DarknessLaw of StrengthLaw of ConcealmentLaw of WindLaw of EarthLaw of SleepLaw of ParasitesLaw of LightningLaw of LightLaw of SpaceLaw of Dream
The interface pulsed softly, waiting.
Alex did not hesitate. With a thought, he sent the unused points cascading into every stat evenly, distributing the total across all five attributes.
1,154,870 ÷ 5 = 230,974 points added to each stat.
As the values adjusted, a rush of overwhelming power coursed through his body. The air itself seemed to bend around him in response.
Updated Stats:
HP: 11,266,100
MP: 5,633,230
STR: 1,126,620
END: 1,126,610
AGI: 1,126,600
INT: 1,126,646
WILL: 1,126,494
The increase was immediate and absolute. His strength felt denser, his movements lighter, his mind sharper. Even the barrier around the arena seemed to hum under the pressure of his presence.
Alex closed his hand, dismissing the interface.
The arena remained silent.
Fragments of alien matter continued to drift and dissolve into dust, but no other presence remained.
Cthulhu was gone.
Chapter 584 – Silence in the Hall
The barrier around the arena slowly faded as Alex dismissed the constructs that held it in place.
The void closed behind him, leaving only the drifting remains of what was once Cthulhu.
A single step through space brought him back into the council chamber.
The hall was as it had been before: gods, immortals, dragons, angels, and elves gathered in a circle.
But now, the moment Alex appeared, every voice fell silent.
He didn't pause. He walked forward, his black eyes steady, his tone flat and without ceremony:
"It's dead."
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
The meaning of those words hit the chamber like a thunderclap.
Odin gripped the arm of his chair tightly. Zeus's usual confident expression froze completely. Freyja's eyes widened as though she had not heard correctly. Even Surtr, whose usual composure was unwavering, leaned forward with a frown that bordered on disbelief.
Murmurs rose almost immediately—disjointed words, half-whispers from gods who could not contain themselves:
"Dead…?"
"Cthulhu? The Dreamer?"
"No one has ever killed it. Not in the Primordial War."
At the far side of the chamber, Nyx stood very still.
Her violet eyes, which until now had always held a calm, unshaken clarity, were fixed entirely on him.
Her lips parted slightly, but no words came out.
She had seen everything in that era—the wars, the seals, the endless terror.
Among all of the Great Old Ones, Cthulhu had been one of the most feared. Its awakening had been the reason entire continents shifted, why entire pantheons came together to chain it beneath Atlantis.
And now, this young man had come back from the void and announced, with a single sentence, that it no longer existed.
"You…"
Her voice was soft, almost a whisper.
"You killed it."
There was no mistaking the weight of her words.
Nyx knew exactly what Cthulhu was, what it represented. She knew how absolute its presence had been.
To her, this was not a boast; it was an event that rewrote history.
All around them, the hall struggled to process what they were hearing.
But Alex only nodded once. His expression was unchanged, his tone as calm as ever:
"Cthulhu won't wake again. It's over."
The chamber was still buzzing with disbelief, voices overlapping, but Nyx did not join them.
Her eyes, violet and deep as a starless night, never left Alex.
Slowly, she lifted one pale hand. The movement was small, graceful—and then the light around her bent.
Darkness spread outward like a living veil, curling over the floor and walls of the council hall. It swallowed color, sound, and air, stretching into a sealed space that none of the other gods could pierce.
The others could only watch as the two of them disappeared into a separate world.
Inside this darkness, there was silence. A silence so profound that even the echoes of thought from the council outside could not reach it.
It was just Alex and Nyx.
She stepped closer, the blackness around her flowing like water.
"I want to speak with you privately," she said quietly.
Her voice, usually composed and almost teasing, now carried a weight that felt older than the stars.
For a moment, she simply looked at him in the dark, searching his expression as if trying to confirm he was real.
Nyx took another step closer.
The veil of darkness around them shimmered faintly, like a sky without stars. Her expression, normally unreadable, was open now—curiosity and disbelief laid bare.
"How?"
Her voice was quiet, but in this space where nothing else existed, it carried with weight.
"I know Cthulhu better than most. I was there when we sealed it, when even gods and primordials together could not destroy it. You came back from the void and told us it was dead. I want to hear it from you. How did you kill it?"
Her violet eyes locked onto his, unblinking.
"I felt its power rise when it woke. I felt the law of space bend around it, and I felt its dream wash over all of us. Even here, in this hall, it was suffocating."
She lowered her voice even more, her tone sharpening:
"And then… nothing. Its presence vanished. Tell me what you did."
Alex stood still, the endless darkness reflecting faintly in his black eyes.
Alex met Nyx's gaze. His tone was as calm as when he'd first walked into the hall.
"It wasn't strength alone that killed it," he said.
"From the moment it cut my arm for the first time, I started planting parasites inside it."
Her brows drew together slightly, listening without interruption.
"I didn't keep the Law of Parasites active all the time. That would have been obvious. Instead, I only activated it in the fraction of a moment before each piece of me was severed. As the attack cut through me, I seeded the parasite into the flesh that you saw separated. And as soon as that part left my body, I used the Law of Concealment to bury it so deep that even the Law of Space couldn't feel it."
Nyx remained silent, but her fingers tightened slightly at her side.
"It ate me piece by piece," Alex continued. "And with every bite, I fed it another trap. Every parasite was designed with one purpose: to stay hidden until the right moment. I built each one around condensed offensive magic, reinforced with my Laws. All of them. Fire. Ice. Poison. Darkness. Strength. Light. Sleep. And more. Each parasite was a warhead."
The darkness around them shifted as Nyx's aura wavered slightly, but she said nothing.
"When the time came," Alex said, "I triggered them all at once. Every parasite detonated from the inside. The explosions tore it apart before it could react. And then, there was nothing left."
The hall's silence seemed to deepen inside the darkness. Nyx stared at him, her violet eyes holding no trace of her usual composure.
"You turned your own body into bait," she said softly. "You let it cut you apart, just to deliver the weapon."
He nodded once.
"I knew it would keep eating as long as I regenerated. So I used that."
Nyx exhaled very slowly. It wasn't often that anything left her unsettled, but what she had just heard wasn't merely a battle plan—it was a level of composure and ruthlessness she hadn't seen in an age.
"You killed Cthulhu with your own flesh."
Her lips curved faintly—not a smile, but an acknowledgment.
"That… is terrifying."
Nyx's violet eyes softened slightly, though the weight of her gaze didn't lessen.
"Then tell me," she said quietly, "now that Cthulhu and the others are gone, now that every Great Old One that threatened this planet has fallen… what do you intend to do?"
Alex didn't hesitate.
"Once all the threats to Earth are gone," he said, his voice calm and steady, "I'll return to my normal life."
There was no pride in his words, no explanation, only certainty.
Nyx tilted her head slightly, studying him for a long, silent moment. The darkness between them seemed to deepen, like the night sky before a storm. Then, softly, she asked:
"And you… the one they call the man in the black armor, the Void Knight. What is your name?"
Her tone wasn't mocking. It wasn't demanding. It was curious, almost gentle, as though this answer mattered to her more than she was willing to admit.
Alex looked at her, unblinking.
And he said nothing.
Seconds stretched out in silence.
Nyx waited, but no answer came.
At last, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touched her lips—a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"…So that's how it is."
She nodded once, as if accepting the weight of his refusal.
Chapter 585 – The Night's Proposal
The darkness around them was still absolute. The council hall outside no longer existed for either of them—only this sealed void where Nyx's voice and presence filled everything.
Nyx tilted her head slightly, and for the first time since the battle began, her expression changed. Her lips curved into a slow, playful smile, her violet eyes glimmering like polished gems against the sea of shadow.
"You really are a strange one," she said softly. "Even after everything you've done… you stand there as if this is all nothing to you."
She stepped closer, no sound accompanying her movement, until there was barely any space between them.
Her voice dropped lower, almost teasing:
"Wouldn't you reconsider?"
Her smile deepened, a trace of challenge in her tone.
"Taking me as your wife?"
Nyx let the words hang there, confident, unhurried.
"You've seen me," she continued. "You know what I am. I am as beautiful as—no, more beautiful than—the current goddess of beauty. And unlike her, I am older than the stars themselves."
Her violet eyes narrowed slightly, playful yet sharp.
"Don't you think you deserve a wife like that?"
Her words lingered in the darkness like a melody, but Alex's expression didn't change.
He looked directly at her, his voice calm, steady, and absolute.
"No."
Just one word.
Nyx blinked. For a fraction of a second, true surprise flickered in her eyes—something so rare it almost looked foreign on her face.
"…No?"
It was as if she hadn't heard that answer in countless eons.
For a heartbeat, the stillness between them deepened.
Then, slowly, the playful curve returned to her lips, but this time with something sharper beneath it.
"So words won't work on you…"
Her hands, pale as moonlight, moved to her shoulders.
With one fluid motion, she slipped the dark fabric of her dress off.
The gown dissolved into the shadows around them, vanishing as though it had never existed.
Piece by piece, she removed everything until there was nothing left between them but her bare skin.
Her body was flawless, sculpted as if the night itself had shaped it—a form that had once caused wars in an age before gods.
The darkness clung to her curves like silk, but there was nothing left to the imagination.
She stood tall, unashamed, her violet eyes burning as she met his.
"And if I stand before you like this?"
Her voice was low, filled with a strange mix of pride and challenge.
"Would you still say no?"
Nyx's smile deepened when she saw that even her nudity didn't shake him.
"Still nothing?" she whispered.
Her hands rose, pale fingers brushing over her own body, tracing down from her neck to her chest. Slowly, deliberately, she cupped her breasts and pressed them together, her violet eyes never leaving his.
The shadows around them clung tighter, isolating this moment from all else.
"Do you see this?" she said, her tone low, almost a whisper in the silence of the darkness. "Even after all these ages, untouched. Pure."
Her fingers trailed downward, sliding across her perfect form.
She revealed herself completely, parting the shadows that veiled her most private place, baring everything in a way that no other living being had ever witnessed.
"I am still a virgin, Void Knight," she said softly.
"No man, no god, no primordial has ever touched me."
Her head tilted slightly, a faint challenge in her voice, a spark of pride in her eyes.
"Do you understand what I'm showing you? I could give you all of me. And yet…"
Her smile became almost sharp.
"…you still look at me as though none of this matters."
The Void Knight stood silent for a moment, unmoving. Then his voice came, calm and steady, cutting through the darkness like a blade.
"Why?"
Nyx paused, her mouth still open, but she slowly lowered her head to meet his gaze again.
"Why do you want this? Why do you want to gain my trust badly enough to offer your body as a vessel for my parasites?"
For the first time since this conversation began, her flirtatious smile faded into something quieter, more serious.
"Because," she said softly, "I want to know more about the Law of Darkness."
She straightened, closing her mouth and letting her hair fall around her shoulders, her body still bare, her eyes solemn.
"Long ago, I tried to forge it for myself, but I discovered that the purest form of that Law belonged to something else. Something not of this world. I could only shape a shadow of it."
Her fingers curled lightly against her chest.
"If I remain as I am, I will never move forward. Even after all these eras, my Law remains incomplete."
She stepped closer, her voice dropping even lower:
"I believe that by following you, Void Knight—by watching how you use your Laws, how you grow—I can advance, even if only by less than a single percent. Even if it is just a fragment, it is worth it to me."
Her violet eyes shone in the blackness.
"I am willing to give everything if it means I can finish what I began ages ago."
The Void Knight stood silent for a moment, unmoving. Then his voice came, calm and steady, cutting through the darkness like a blade.
"Why?"
Nyx paused, her mouth still open, but she slowly lowered her head to meet his gaze again.
"Why do you want this? Why do you want to gain my trust badly enough to offer your body as a vessel for my parasites?"
For the first time since this conversation began, her flirtatious smile faded into something quieter, more serious.
"Because," she said softly, "I want to know more about the Law of Darkness."
She straightened, closing her mouth and letting her hair fall around her shoulders, her body still bare, her eyes solemn.
"Long ago, I tried to forge it for myself, but I discovered that the purest form of that Law belonged to something else. Something not of this world. I could only shape a shadow of it."
Her fingers curled lightly against her chest.
"If I remain as I am, I will never move forward. Even after all these eras, my Law remains incomplete."
She stepped closer, her voice dropping even lower:
"I believe that by following you, Void Knight—by watching how you use your Laws, how you grow—I can advance, even if only by less than a single percent. Even if it is just a fragment, it is worth it to me."
Her violet eyes shone in the blackness.
"I am willing to give everything if it means I can finish what I began ages ago."
The Void Knight regarded her quietly for several seconds.
His voice, when it came, was even and without hesitation.
"There are other ways for you to become my follower," he said. "I don't need to use parasites to bind you. That's not how I prefer to do things."
Nyx tilted her head slightly, her hair sliding across her bare shoulders.
"Other ways?"
"Yes," he replied. "If that's truly what you want, there are oaths, contracts, and bonds that don't involve planting something inside your body. I don't particularly want to use parasites unless there's no other choice."
For a moment, silence filled the darkness again.
Then, unexpectedly, Nyx's lips curled back into a slow smile, softer than before but tinged with amusement.
"And that," she said lightly, "makes me like you even more."
Her voice carried a faint laugh, low and almost melodic, before she added:
"The fact that you could take advantage of me right now and yet refuse? It only makes me want to know you better, Void Knight."
Her violet eyes gleamed brighter, and she stepped close enough that the faint whisper of her breath could be felt through his helmet.