Chapter 187: GOD
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(Davian's P.O.V)
I whistled.
The pressure the entity brought with it was immense.
The film of Cosmic Authority covering my form flared up, pushing back against it's weight.
It wasn't even here yet!
Chesha Neko's handle was firmly held within my hand in preparation for a fight.
More and more of the being's form was revealed, shocking me to my core. It was...even larger than a universe.
And most of it's mass was still hidden under layers of obscure space. The only reason I could perceive it's actual size was due to the shape of it's soul.
The soul provided the template for the body. And vice versa.
Speaking of which... The soul itself was weird. I couldn't exactly pinpoint why, but it felt like...even with my absolute control over souls, this one was out of my reach.
As the being got closer and closer, so was my vision completely obstructed from the view of the void behind it.
Judging from its shape, it resembled a dragon. A violet colored dragon with scales that glowed with infernal power.
It had a huge head, with completely yellow eyes that I couldn't tell whether they were looking at me or through me.
The head led down to a long neck, a distinctly feminine Torso with long powerful limbs topped with sharp claws, and massive wings that spanned the length of several universes.
Finally it's tail was a long serpent, topped with mishappen purple and Black spikes on it's spine. The spikes climbed down to the tip which was a terrifying cobra like head.
The head danced in the void behind it, caught in a mind numbing choreography with the beat of it's wings.
Speaking of wings, they blanketed the whole void, a shadow actually forming under it!
"Impossible."
I murmured to myself.
The void rejected anything and everything. Including me! The only reason I could stay was due to Cosmic Authority.
Yet this thing was capable of casting a shadow in a place with no concept of light, except it's own.
I tensed.
Was the difference in power that great?
As if I wasn't wary enough, a storm of sound exploded out of it's mouth, displaying sharp teeth that at the bare minimum had to be billions of miles long.
I won't lie, I gulped.
Cosmic Authority flared up as the storm of sound reached me even at my distance.
"I am the Ultimator! Personification of the 10th dimension! The Ultimate Dimension of All!! Tremble at my Power!!"
The storm of sound turned into intelligible words.
The Ultimator? Personification of the 10th Dimension? There was a tenth dimension?! What the fuck! How did I not know that?!
"I am the material manifestation of Implicate/ Explicate reality. I am what was, what shall be, what can be, what should be, what would be, what might be and of course...what IS!"
Another storm of Sound reached me, this one blowing my hair back.
This time I had a response for it.
"I. Don't. Care! Death God Arts first Stage: Non-existence!"
I twirled Chesha Neko, it's sharp edge glowing with an ebony energy.
Then I swung it, unleashing a wide arc that slightly resembled a getsuga tensho, only impossibly larger (longer than 2000 Burj khalifas stacked together) and more powerful.
The attack sailed the length of space between the Ultimator and I. I diverted a little of the energies I was sending into the marble within me, shooting forward at impossible speeds.
Non-existence reached Ultimator, splashing across its scales harmlessly. But I knew that attack wouldn't have worked, which is why I was right behind it, ready to perform my coup de grâce.
"Death God arts Second Stage: Void-"
"You're a feisty one!"
The Dragon like being whispered in a distinctly feminine voice. Even it's whisper contaimed enough power to throw me back, disrupting my focus.
"Survive this! Ant!"
Energy gathered at the space in front of both it's mouths, the draconic one and the serpentine one.
I jumped back, a shunpo barely bursting out of my heels before the space I was in was blasted to kingdom come by two massive violet suns.
I strafed to the right, running along the Entity's side without looking back. Reikaku aready informed me of what I would find...twisting chaotic space as the void tried to expell the energy of both attacks.
Slightly clicking my tongue, I unleashed another Non-existence slash, knowing fully well that it wouldn't be effective.
But it wasn't supposed to be. I. Just needed cover.
The attack headed for it's neck. Once again there was an impact that produced a shockwave, one that rippled out into the void as whisps of black energy.
Ultimator swept out it's wings, producing a powerful gale of energy that I leapt over, Shunpo depositing me one top of its head.
Every creature despite its size or power had a major weakness. The eyes.
"Death God Arts Second Stage: Void Thrust!"
The attack activated seamlessly, and a sharp anavoidable beam shot out of Chesha Neko's tip, crossing the distance quite quickly.
"Let's see you dodge that!"
I couldn't help but laugh in glee.
There was nothing I couldn't reap! Nothing I couldn't kill!
"And fast too."
Another storm of sound left its mouth.
Then the beam landed on its eyes, and it pierced right through, attacking the core of its soul.
Through Reikaku...I felt something shift.
The attack had undoubtedly connected and a Soul had died, it's threads of existence cut off from reality as a whole. Yet...
That soul was merely one in an infinite number of souls within Ultimator.
"It is my sacred destiny to ingest all other dimensions and lifeforms. To make them part of myself. Four dimensions have already fallen to me! Yours shall be the fifth!"
The storm of sound blasted into my ears and I finally understood what I was facing.
So that was why it's Soul felt so weird. This creature with a stupid name like the 'Ultimator' was as it claimed, the actual Personification of an entire dimension!
The number of souls it held within it's body was almost infinite. Four dimensions worth of souls. That was like four Multiverses!
And given that dimensions scale up in power...it was strange that I could even perceive it, let alone attack it.
Yeah...I'm outta here.
Without a second thought, I turned tail and ran, pushing my speed to the limit.
Millions of light years were crossed in an instant, the golden sparks of my self produced Speed Force providing me with propulsion.
I could stay and fight but it would be eons before I destroyed the souls within it just to get to it's true self.
And not to mention, I could die in the process!
Through Reikaku, I felt it shift its collosal form, wings flapping as it followed after me.
"Leaving so soon!?"
A storm of sound reached me.
I chanced a look back and gaped, the distance I had cleared in an instant, was cleared by Ultimator in the fraction of that instant!
A shadow appeared above and below me, it's jaws closing in on my body, even at the speed I was going at.
Fuck... I wasn't going to outran it.
"Alright! Let's see you deal with this! Shikai!"
Reiryoku roared within my Zanpakuto, strings tangling and untangling in the air, weaving over a thousand of me.
They stood their ground, each of them releasing the Death God Arts point blank at it's open mouth.
While I couldn't kill it, I could still hurt it enough that I could escape.
What I wasn't expecting was for it to screech. This screech was different from the storm of sound it produced whenever it spoke.
It was cutting, it was targeting and it was disorienting.
Immediately, my mind was rendered numb! And my whole body couldn't move.
Not even to stare behind me, witnessing aa death came for the Reaper.
My thread clones were forcefully unravelled into strings that were then destroyed in the resulting vibrations produced by the screech.
The jaws clamped down on my form and I was swallowed whole.
Death for the first time ever, came to me.
The loss of life was something intriguing. It wasn't a Loss so much as a transition from a physical form into a spiritual one.
And that's what happened.
I closed my eyes expecting pain and unending torment...but it never came.
I opened my eyes and found myself in what appeared to be a wide cavern with glowing violet walls.
Far off, were tall white towers that I recognized as teeth. Which made the cavern its mouth.
The ground was fleshy but even attacking it with Respira yielded no results.
The walls begun to vibrate ominously. I pulled Cosmic Authority around me, enhancing my durability in anticipation of an attack.
It didn't help. Something about this entity and vibrations was strange. It was akin to living sound. The screech from earlier had freezed my movements.
The vibrations surged out, humming through my Cosmic Authority like it wasn't even there...
And then my body simply disappeared, unravelling into a stream of energy that joined the Ultimator's boundless form.
I became just another victim.
(General P.O.V)
"Mmhhh delicious..."
The Ultimator said to itself after swallowing and processing that Upstart.
She had felt his aura and been intrigued by it. It's not everytime that one came across such a powerhouse.
Especially one with the distinct aura of an Endless.
His soul was probably the purest she had ever seen! And that was taking into account that she had devoured countless of them.
All that was left was for her to process the energy from his soul, then she would have enough power to go back after those Imps.
They had dared to push her out. But with her might and the power of the Reaper, the Fifth Dimension would be hers to devour! Then the Fourth and the third, and the second and everything! Including the source.
Oh how she was excited!
She coiled her form onto the ground, smoke escaping her nostrils.
She was running into a slight problem processing the soul, but her prey's body was already dissolved into her.
The soul would follow. It was only a matter of time. Her mouth contained the edict of devour, there was nothing she couldn't absorb.
Though instead of outrightly merging it's essence with her soul, she wanted to burn it, cause it unending torture for thinking it could oppose her.
Months went by as she fell into an undisturbed slumber. This was the reason she enjoyed spending time in the Void. Nothing and no one would disturb her here.
Months turned to years.
Years to decades...
Then something changed.
Ultimator stiffened.
Why was her energy being drained? All of it, the violet light glowing across her scales was dimming, steadily being absorbed by something at the center of her chest.
She tried to stand up, only for her legs to quiver with sudden weakness. She tried to flap her wings, but they didn't respond.
Ultimator raised her head to the empty sky and howled in pain and a new emotion, fear. Pure unmitigated terror.
Because...
It was taking it all!!
She turned her focus within her...and paled!
All her souls! An almost infinite amount were gone!!
(Davian's P.O.V)
Oh yeah.
The feeling of gaining them gainz is...indescribable.
The elation at absorbing my enemy's own power and adding it to my own had never felt this good.
One might call it cheating, I call it... Yeah it's cheating. But who gives a shit? I was ready to burst with power. Literally.
The ball of energy within my Saketsu had finally reached critical.
After feeding it my energy for 1000 years, then absorbing Ultimator's numerous souls, converting them into power by energy transference...the ball had changed from golden to a pure white sphere the size of a grape.
And now I knew what to do.
The reason I had been stuck here for a thousand years. Alone in the endless void.
It was to create.
The seed had matured.
And all I had to do was...let it bloom.
Thank you, Ultimator for devouring my body, otherwise this would have hurt like a bitch. Your fault for allowing a master of souls access to your endless amounts of them.
I had been biding my time. And now, this is payback.
Right at the core of Ultimator's self, I reached into my Saketsu, pulling out the matured seed of the fifth World.
My world.
"Bloom."
The energy within went erratic.
I didn't look away for even an instant. I wanted to watch the whisps of white as they surged out, hear the void as it trembled, crying out in alarm at the power I was outputting.
It's hard for humanity to grasp something on the scale of galactic, let alone universal.
It was sudden.
A big bang.
With me at the epicenter.
Ultimator's body was immediately shredded into nothing as potent power filled the void, changing its structure, giving it meaning, expelling the void as the energy imposed itself onto space that shouldn't exist.
The void was torn away by the power, leaving true nothingness around me. No white space, no void. Just a soul with intent floating in the aftermath of Great Destruction.
For one single second, I felt it.
The Space above all space, the gray Void.
A dimension a few steps higher than where I was. The space the Land of the UnLiving occupied was as stated before, a spiritual one.
And so was my own Inner World. The fusion of both resulted in something similar, only instead of calling it spiritual, I termed it as 'Unphysical.'
That was because I could still bring it out, by imposing my Cosmic Authority into the material world.
And within that field, I was God. The only way to defeat me would be to directly suppress my Cosmic Authority with your own.
And even with that, I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. Bankai gave me control and destruction over the Grid, the Web of existence.
Using Bankai in tandem with Cosmic Authority and I would be hard pressed to think of someone who could defeat me. Maybe those monsters who had millions of years on me.
That was not adding the endless amounts of soul energy at my disposal, left over from devouring Ultimator.
All in all I was powerful. The most powerful I had ever been.
BUT.
The gray space I briefly sensed in the wake of the Big Bang...it was something extraordinary.
Something not just anyone could touch upon.
It felt...empty for most of its endless area. As if in wait.
The Void above the Void. The highest dimension.
And just before my perception was pushed out, I felt him.
The Lord of All Balance.
And then I blinked. The memory of what I had seen was scrubbed from my mind and call me cautious...but I wasn't eager to figure out whatever that had been.
All too soon my perception was pulled back into what was happening around me.
The pressure wave from the big bang overtook the light, clearing trillions of light years all around, stealing area from the void.
Following the shockwave, blinding light erupted, tearing through the fabric of nothingness. I beheld the birth of a universe.
My Universe. A spectacle beyond comprehension.
Through Reikaku, nothing was hiddden from my gaze.
Streams of energy danced in chaotic harmony, giving rise to particles that ignited the cosmic canvas.
Explosions of unimaginable force echoed through the vastness, creating galaxies, stars, and nebulae.
Time itself seemed to shudder as the universe unfurled its magnificent tapestry.
I watched as space expanded, stretching like a cosmic symphony.
The dance of matter and energy played out in a cosmic ballet, each movement leaving a trace in the fabric of existence.
Gravity emerged, afirve I felt even as a soul. It weaved the threads of reality into intricate patterns, a symphony of creation, a celestial masterpiece unfolding before my ethereal senses.
In those first fleeting moments, the laws of physics wove themselves into the very fabric of the cosmos.
Forces intertwined, matter coalesced, and the elemental building blocks of reality crystallized.
I wished Chase was here to see this.
The universe, in its nascent glory, unfolded its wings, embracing the potential for infinite possibilities.
As the cosmic chaos settled into a delicate order, I felt a profound sense of awe.
The beauty of creation, the elegance of the unfolding cosmos, resonated with a harmony that transcended understanding.
The melody of birth, of Tairyoku in naked pride, the dance of particles, and the grandeur of celestial bodies, all came together and formed a breathtaking spectacle.
And as I lingered in that cosmic vantage point, witnessing the birth of the universe, a whisper echoed through the vastness.
"It's beautiful."
The words escaped my essence, a simple acknowledgment of the pinnacle my journey had taken me to.
My own reality.
My own Universe.
My own existence.
Cosmic Authority roared out now that the void wasn't actively trying to supress me. It filled the entire, newly created space.
And I could finally sense everything, control everything.
I was truly GOD.