Chapter 4974: The Shadow He Cast II

The words were shocking to Alex.

His expression became heavy as implications pressed against his consciousness with force that exceeded the brand’s cultivation commands.

Connected to him? Infinities?

The only one Alex could think of was Osmont. The man whose Infiniverse he had departed from. The being whose protection he had rejected in favor of his own path!

This thing wanted Osmont?

This Primordial Architect, this armored horror that felt similar to Horus himself, was hunting the origin of Infinities that Alex had been connected to through his time in THE Infiniverse.

Alex looked at this ancient entity with defiance.

His eyes burned with conviction that his forced cultivation could not extinguish.

"I do not know anything regarding Infinities."

His voice emerged steady despite everything.

"And even if I did, I certainly would not share with something that is the same as Horus."

...!

At these glorious defiant words, the armored Primordial Architect’s armor did something that should not have been possible.

It smiled.

The platinum plates shifted and rearranged themselves into configuration that displayed amusement where no features should have existed. The visor curved. The helmet’s structure bent. The armor itself expressed emotion through metallic proto-matter that responded to the entity’s will.

"Little guy."

The voice held warmth that contradicted its earlier weight.

"Horus has you bound forever now. Even a thing at THE Second Scale of Existence won’t be able to get you out of it."

The hammer shifted again.

"But me? I may just be able to. I can talk to Horus. We go back quite far, he and I."

The smile widened.

"What say you? Your freedom for this origin of Infinity."

A pause.

"And oh, I forgot to mention. I can also extract what I want very, very painfully from you."

The hammer rose slightly.

"So, what choice will it be?"

...!

Alex gritted his teeth with defiance.

His eyes reddened with emotion that exceeded mere anger!

Frustration, grief, and rage. Rage at himself, and at existence itself for placing him here, for making him choose between betraying someone who had once offered him shelter and suffering at the hands of a monster who could make pain last for eternities.

But he shed no tears.

He would not give this thing the satisfaction.

He thought of Osmont.

Alex had made his choice when he left THE Infiniverse.

He had chosen his own path over Osmont’s shadow, but that didn’t mean he would betray the man who had offered him a place when he had nothing.

For the first time in unknown eons, Alexander Asmodeus became the first entity to look at a Primordial Architect and say words that no one else had ever dared to speak.

"Fuck...off."

...!

BOOM!

The words echoed across THE Wastes with weight that exceeded what a being at Alex’s Depth should have been capable of producing!

...!

The armored Primordial Architect’s smile became brilliant.

The platinum plates rearranged themselves into expression of genuine delight that made the previous smile seem restrained. The visor curved further. The helmet’s structure bent into configuration that displayed anticipation, excitement, eagerness for what would come next.

"I was...hoping you’d go that route."

The voice held joy that contradicted the horror of what it promised.

"Makes things much more exciting."

...!

In the next moment, devastation bloomed across THE Wastes!

The armored Primordial Architect waved its hammer with casual motion that belied the destruction it would produce. The weapon moved through the air with speed that Alex’s Absolute perception could barely track, its head of condensed metallic proto-matter leaving trails of undifferentiation in its wake.

The wave struck everything behind Alex.

All the Early Creatures that had been cultivating against their will, their existences burning to fuel Horus’s purposes, their brands blazing on their foreheads with crimson light, all of them disintegrated instantly!

All the Living Elementals that had been sitting in meditative positions, their Depths reaching heights they had never achieved through their own effort, their consciousness trapped within bodies that served another’s will, all of them disintegrated instantly!

The opened Shelter of THE Loom that had stood behind them, its massive structure that had protected beings before Alex had broken it open, its walls and defenses and accumulated resources, all of it disintegrated instantly!

A terrifying might of undifferentiation burned everything that the wave touched!

Nothing remained.

No bodies, no structures, no evidence that anything had ever existed in that space.

Just...Alex.

Just the brand on his forehead.

Just his Enneagram spinning with silver light that held those he loved within.

Just him, alone, facing a Primordial Architect that now had no reason to show restraint.

The massive armored entity loomed above him.

It was hundreds of times larger than Alex’s form. Its hammer alone exceeded his size by magnitudes that made comparison absurd. Its presence pressed down upon him with weight that should have crushed his consciousness entirely.

And yet Alex gazed up at it defiantly.

His existence still burned from Horus’s brand. His cultivation still continued against his will. His situation was hopeless by any rational assessment. He faced a Primordial Architect alone, without allies, without escape, without any power that could meaningfully resist what stood before him.

But he would not give up Osmont.

He would not betray someone who had never betrayed him. This was...his Peace.

"COME ON THEN!"

Alex bellowed upward at the armored horror with voice that cracked from strain but did not waver!

"COME! ON!"

BOOM!

His words echoed across THE Wastes with defiance that exceeded his Depth.

He was small.

So small compared to the monster that loomed above him.

So small compared to the forces that had shaped his fate.

So small compared to the ancient entities that now moved across Observable Existence.

But the shadow he cast over THE Wastes right now was unfathomably vast.

It was a ridiculous contrast to see a Primordial Architect and someone as small as him...seem almost as large at this moment.

Almost!

The armored Primordial Architect raised its hammer.

And Alex did not look away.

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