“When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
Tremors of force rattled at the edge of his aura, folded water turned crystalline under tremendous pressures. Giant’s advance slowed, stomach filled with almost too much energy. Mouth opened, he bellowed a challenge to the oppressive being that remained hidden beyond his perceptions.
A single tentacle rose in answer, pitted black and filled with an ancient wrath. Vast chunks of pressure frozen water sheared from its surface, turned to dust as the beast reached for the bull headed Giant.
His aura met the lightning fast attack with the muted toll of a gong. The tentacle held fast against the hungry storm, locked in place as Giant feasted on the immeasurable kinetic energy. Cracks opened on his ink-black flesh, only to seal and open again. A grunt forced itself past upturned lips as he screamed another challenge to the creature below.
Pain held no meaning, impulses of the flesh that served as little more than a way to target his focus. He would consume his pain, alongside the one who created it. Twin moons blinked open, almost lost to the water’s depth. Soulless, calculative orbs that cast a hollow light upon the world.
“Titan… and more…” mountains clashed in a mockery of speech, vomited from the hideous face connected to the captured tentacle. An octopus headed behemoth pushed aside the oceans with the mildest twitch of demonic wings. “Little abomination… have you come to pay respects to an elder, or do you actually intend to eat me?”
Giant ignored the monster’s amused questions, hungry gaze set on the creature's flesh. Deep, concentrated power. The roll and crash of energised chaos, packed into every cell. Saliva pooled in his mouth, swallowed in anticipation of his feast. He gathered the clouds of his aura, pushed them outward toward the bemused monstrosity.
“Mindless and hungry…” the beast snorted as it scratched an itch with massive claws. “It has been a long time, since I last saw a newborn Old-One… though your blood is far from pure!”
A vast, taloned fist stretched lazily toward the determined Giant, wrapped in a strange grey light. It replaced the ocean and laid a blow upon Giant’s aura, an explosive impact it couldn’t ignore.
Flung back at impossible speeds, Giant’s body ripped through layers of space. Driven by a wave of kinetic force, far more than his aura could handle, he let his grin open wide. Joyous and wrathful, Giant halted his flight. Here was a worthy meal, an opponent that could help him grow!
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“Still alive?” The lovecraftian horror tilted its massive head, tentacles sent into a strange vibration. “Interesting little thing… but you’re not really doing it alone, are you?”
The cthulhu pressed closer, wrapped around Giant’s aura until no ocean remained. Only twisted flesh, held firm to the shadowed storm. Cold, golden eyes, lit with inhuman intelligence, pushed deeper into the clouds.
“I can feel a connecting force… a pathway for thought and will,” A smile opened on the Old-One’s face, a hunger to match the Giant. “It has been long, very long, since I have scented other realms than this!”
Cracks formed on Giant’s skin, feedback from his overloaded aura. No blood fell, each wound a tear in space. More shadows leaked through to join the clouds of his aura, reinforcement that slowed his enemy’s advance.
“Very impressive!” The Old-One laughed. His tentacles tightened, a surge that pushed past the new resistance. Carried on a wave of raw muscle, the cthulhu brought one massive eye in line with Giant’s face. “Continuous adaptation… signs of an exponential curve in your growth…” he tightened his grip further, a strangulation that forced more shadows from Giant’s wounds. “What else can you do, besides eat at my power like a hungry dog?”
“What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?” Giant’s ridged smile turned to a frown as a familiar voice resonated in his head. Ven’s will poured into his mind, more than had ever been present before. “Is that a cthulhu…”
“I AM Cthulhu, there is only one!” The Old-One squinted, deep into Giant’s eyes. “Someone’s in there with you… another Old-One?” Cthulhu sniffed and recoiled, face drawn in disgust. “But also a god… one that holds the seed of a concept, no less!”
“I am Vendak Soth…” Ven peered from behind his Giant’s eyes, straight into the self titled Cthulhu’s gaze. “I’m afraid I can’t let you devour my foolhardy friend here… I don’t suppose I could convince you to let him go?”
The Old-One barked out a thunderous laugh, hollow eyes bright with mirth. He trailed a claw through the Giant’s aura, tentacles held in place.
“I’m afraid not, distant god,” Cthulhu extended his hand toward the Giant, mouth opened to bare his needled teeth. “Even our blood connection cannot erase your sin… no Old-One shall partake in the faith of mortals…”
“I’m not an Old-One, and I won’t be bound by oaths taken by others,” Runic light blossomed from the Giant’s heart, spellwork channelled from Ven’s true body into the stubborn copy’s form. Ven let his consciousness settle in, side by side with his frustrated Giant. “You’re also wrong…”
“About what?” Cthulhu smirked as runic scripture wove a dense web over the Giant’s skin. His talon’s closed, unopposed, toward the Giant’s much smaller body. “I can see all within this unusual abomination's skin…”
“You’re wrong about me being a distant god,” With his consciousness fully focused into his Giant’s form, the normally stubborn beast stepped aside. Ven stretched their body and let his own aura flow from under his skin. “Wherever he goes, I go… we’re both standing right in front of you…”
Dense shadows rebelled against the Old-One’s grasp, a bottomless tide that inverted their struggle and clenched Cthulhu’s tentacles in an iron grasp. Concern replaced the behemoth’s smile as it summoned a layer of ash-grey fire.
“An avatar?” Cthulhu shook his head, a rejection of his own words. “No… a part of your own soul!” The Old-One placed his palms against Ven’s aura and squeezed. “You have divided yourself and granted the division its own life…”