Chapter 503 A Single Point.
Asmodeus had been fighting for so long now that he was beginning to wonder if he would be stuck down here endlessly.
Previously he had acted like he didn't understand when his son had told him that he refused to bring more soldiers into this war.
But now, he completely understood it.
He couldn't see any other legion aside from his own being able to keep up with the pace that these creatures attacked in.
Some say Tehom is endless.
Asmodeus wasn't sure about any of that, but he was sure that the farther one strayed from the epicenter, the larger and more ferocious the abyss walkers became.
At first, they were dealing with dogs and humanoid shaped creatures no bigger than two meters.
But now, Asmodeus was engaged in battle with a strange cephalopod creature that was nearly as big as him and significantly more unattractive.
The General of the Black Legion flew around in an unorthodox pattern as he tried to avoid the acidic tentacles that threatened to burn holes in his scales.
"ERREEEEEE!!!"
"Such an impatient bastard...You could at least wait quietly for me to find a way to deal with you..!"
This far out, Abaddon's forces were using their flames less and less.
Asmodeus had already issued the order that flames were only to be used when the soldiers were on the verge of being overwhelmed.
Dragon flames were still their best weapon against the enemy, but prolonged usage and exposure only gave the abyss walkers a building immunity.
They were only to be used in times where soldiers were surrounded.
After using it to give themselves room to breathe, they had explicit instructions to focus solely on sealing techniques and attacks designed to leave their foes incapacitated.
Asmodeus was just about to encase the abyss walker in an ice cube the size of a building when he heard someone contact him directly.
And when he heard how weak she sounded, his heart dropped to the bottom of his tail.
'D...Dad..?'
'Kanami?! What's the matter, why do you sound like this??'
'I, ah... I got a bad hit. I think I've been poisoned.."
'What?! Stay down, I'm coming now!'
'I'm trying to keep my eyes open, but it's a little hard... so sleepy..'
'Stay awake, I'm coming!'
Asmodeus completely abandoned his battle with the oversized abyss walker and flew towards his daughter's position at the speed of light.
In his heart, he was terrified of what would happen if he was too late to reach her.
Kanami wasn't his blood daughter, but sometimes it was easy for him to forget that.
She had all of his best parts without the craven desires that permeated himself and his son.
She was pure, and good.
And if anything happened to her, he had no idea what kind of monster he would turn into.
-
Abaddon's sanity returned to his mind the moment that he watched Jaldabaoth swallow his heart.
He felt something inside of him 'breaking' and suffering damage, but he ignored it for now and spurred his mind into action.
In a single moment, he considered a million probabilities.
He held every promise and commitment to his wives as unbreakable things that must be upheld no matter the circumstances.
However, he also was not a robotic automaton who was incapable of thinking for himself.
He already knew the stakes of this battle.
Allowing Jaldabaoth to consume him here meant that he would never get the chance to go home ever again.
And it didn't take a genius for him to know which the girls would rather keep- their secrets, or their husband.
'Stay loyal, stay kind, stay alive.'
With their marital creed in mind, there was only one logical choice.
Abaddn's flesh and blood is very special.
It provides untold magical applications, rejuvenation, healing, and is capable of bestowing a myriad of abilities of his choosing.
But these abilities are closely guarded.
Just ingesting Abaddon's blood or eating a part of his body does not guarantee you access to the font of his power.
He must give explicit permission to someone who wishes to take his blood or power, otherwise the effect is the polar opposite.
Instead of someone consuming Abaddon, he ends up consuming them from the inside out.
Taking all of their knowledge, memories, skills, and abilities, along with their lives.
For the first time in the battle, Abaddon curved his monstrous face up into a smile.
"Wer maulk tepohaic xkhat wer maulka." (The hunter has become the hunted.)
To hear Abaddon speak in his current form was the most unsettling thing that Jaldabaoth had ever heard.
His ancient blood literally curdled at the sound of his abominable voice in his ears, and for the first time in all of his life, he winced as he instinctively backed away in terror.
But once he'd realized what he had done, he nearly slapped himself.
'W-Wait... I've won, right..? S-So why did he say..'
Just as Jaldabaoth allowed Abaddon's words to sink in, he realized that something was wrong.
He wasn't getting any more power in his body, even though he had just eaten Abaddon's heart.
Instead, it felt like he was getting weaker, second by second.
But that shouldn't be possible!
However, after doing an internal check on his soul, he realized that it was true.
If Jaldabaoth's soul was a bright red ball, there were now golden parasites crawling all over it, chewing like their lives depended on it and erasing his entire identity.
This was backwards!
This is exactly what should have been happening to Abaddon!
"Vhisir tilsin! Svabol tepoha wux authot ekess ve!? Rannox sia vers ba-" (Cheating lizard! What have you done to me?! Give me my power bac-)
Abaddon ignored all of Jaldabaoth's taunts as he basked in the overflowing power being fed into him.
Magical knowledge was just the tip of the iceberg.
Jaldabaoth had over 4,000 different abandoned worlds that he kept inside of him; like trophies and highlights from his conquests.
But now, Abaddon was being transferred those things, one by one.
He was slowly gaining knowledge about the makeup of the multiverse that they lived in, and what exactly it was.
He could see why Jaldabaoth thought of himself as the 'shadow' now.
Since he also had these things inside of him, why should he not be dubbed the creator's equal?
Apparently the answer was because he was missing something.
An integral thing; necessary for creating souls and new dimensions out of nothing.
But the current ruler of the abyss didn't have that.
But Abaddon felt like he knew someone who might have, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
'You're getting too close.'
This small voice inside of his mind made him pause and cease his consumption of Jaldabaoth.
If numerical terms would have been applied, one could say that he had been stopped devouring him at around the forty percent mark.
Jaldabaoth finally realized that he was no longer dying slowly, and he turned his head to the side in confusion.
"Y-You... What did you do...?"
Abaddon stared at Jaldabaoth with his unholy red eyes and he searched for several things to say in the moment.
Finally, he opened his monstrous muzzle to speak.
"I understand you now... You crave significance. It is all that has ever driven you, and all that has ever given you purpose. For someone like that, death is too kind. It would make you a legend. A myth.
We cannot have you resting in oblivion with that as your long lasting reward, can we? More thoughtful measures must be taken. And I think.. a prison would suit you just fine."
The very notion of being imprisoned seemed to infuriate and terrify Jaldabaoth to no end.
Because he knew that among everyone else in the heavens, this being in front of him absolutely had the power to follow through with his threat.
"W-Who do you think you are!? You act as if you know me when you know nothing! You are nothing! You are unfit to think of imprisoning me, or any other!"
The desperate struggling of the enemy who had given him so much anguish was like music to Abaddon's ears.
He almost didn't want this glorious day to end.
But he was a bit excited too, since eating a portion of Jaldabaoth had given him the necessary magical know-how to pull off something no other god could even attempt.
Using his spacial manipulation, Abaddon crafted up a giant sphere of cosmic energy, and hurled Jaldabaoth inside.
He sealed the space so that there was no way out and locked the god of creation and destruction inside like it was a hamster ball.
It was impenetrable, but that didn't stop Jaldabaoth from pounding on the barrier in an attempt to get himself out.
"ABADDOOOOONNNN!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE DOING! LET ME OUT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"
With a single thought from it's maker, the bubble started to compress.
It became smaller and smaller, to the point where it seemed like The Mad God was about to be crushed inside.
But alas, the purpose of the bubble was much different from that.
"ABADDON, I AM YOUR MAKER! YOU OWE EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAVE TO ME AND EVERYTHING THAT YOU ARE! YOU MUST..."
Gradually, the voice of the abyss god became smaller and smaller as the seconds ticked by.
Eventually, he was so small that even spacial dust dwarfed him.
And then, he had finally reached the limit.
He became the smallest, most insignificant thing in this universe or any other.
He became a single point in the galaxy.
Occupying exactly that much space, with an inability to break out and occupy any other space than his own.
He was incapable of hurting anyone.
He was incapable of budging even a single inch.
He could no longer have anything or anyone other than himself, nor would he be able to observe any of the happenings within the outside world.
He was trapped in the 0th Dimension, with no hope of escape.
All that he had was his own self.
His words, his, thoughts, his own noises.
In time, he would become mad beyond all description.
Truly, this was a fate worse than death.
When space was quiet and Abaddon stood all alone, he took a moment to bask in it.
He felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he all but laughed at the sudden relief.
This was no different from when he was in school and finished his projects at the last minute!
A dry chuckle almost escaped his throat, but he realized that there were still more that had to be done before he could relax.
In an instant, he teleported from here back to Tehom, where the battle still raged on for his people.
As soon as he arrived, he turned his head up towards the sky and let out a defining roar that shook the infinite realities above for the second time.
Unsurprisingly, every living creature in the domain came to a dead stop before turning their head in his direction.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om