Lowly Ascent

There was no grand entrance of Nihil's limbs, they secretly crept through the soil and into the cities where his prize was kept.

As the cities fell to chaos, they slithered about the rubble, checking the living and dead alike. They swept streets in a matter of minutes and buildings in under ten. No stone was left unturned because to find the Fruit, every stone had to be flipped, every grain noted, and checked off.

It was impossible to know what the fruit exactly was. 

The chaos made it harder, but it was needed to hide his true motives, and it was working. Nihil just needed time, more time.

...

"So...what say you?" Leon's hand was held out still, he patiently waited for Cromwell's answer.

Cromwell coughed out more blood, slowly raising his hand. He unraveled his middle finger.

Leon frowned. "So you choose the life of a slave."

"Aren't you no different?" Cromwell chuckled.

Boom!

Cromwell was sunk into the ground, Leon above him, hovering silently.

"You should die now." The ghost raised his crimson spear.

"Dad no!" Abruptly, from the east, a young child surrounded by a group of cultists sprinted forward.

Cromwell laughed, "So you made it back from the summit." He coughed more blood. "Good....good."

The child's tongue glowed gray. He screamed, "Stop!"

Leon felt the power of the boy's words, yet such power was easily shaken off.

He released his spear from his grasp.

"Noo!"

The weapon made of blood crashed into Cromwell's skull, his lips and voice had no time to utter the words that would save him.

Crunch!

Moving as if it were alive, the spear greedily took the blood of Cromwell, turning his corpse even more deformed than it was after being stuck with a force that could destroy buildings.

"No no no...." Cromwell's Child fell to his knees, weeping as he clutched the dry earth, the smell of it not taking away the stench of blood.

The beasts surrounding the city snickered in some form of understanding.

Leon did not laugh, he did not move to kill the boy either. He watched, he let the child grieve.

"This is the world we live in, a cycle of hate and despair. My lord...I do not know what your plans are now, but I still hope you will take away this cycle, it has no place in your kingdom..."

His ear pricked, he looked over into the city where the walls crumbled and saw small black tendrils move about.

"My job here is done." Leon took no time to dispel himself and return to his lord's side.

The child of Cromwell remained with his guards, crying and lashing out at the dirt. The black beasts watched for a while, but they soon began to lick their lips.

...

"Search our cities?! You're doing all this to search our cities?!" Hysteria couldn't understand it, but the others could. Most of the gods long understood Nihil was looking for something, and that something was in one of their domains.

The Kaiser was the first to raise the question, "It's the Fruit of Doom right?"

Silence.

Nihil stood still, his face unreadable. He took a step back, and the darkness hid him away.

Still, his voice was as clear as ever, coming from every direction. "Say, let's play a game. If you can beat me, I'll let you go, maybe you can find what I'm looking for before I do."

The gods had no choice but to agree anyway, they all waited for Nihil to reveal himself, and reveal himself the Monarch of Black did. His form manifested beyond the god, Shadow, the only among them that could pose a threat in this setting, the threat of escaping.

Shadow was one with the darkness, but it was Nihil's darkness he hid in. Hundreds of dark webs latched onto the god and tightened around its neck.

"What is this?!" The god was confident in its abilities, it never expected to be caught so early.

The gods didn't know that the place they were in was Nihil's inner world. It was dangerous for him if they knew that, but they didn't, and so victory was on his side.

Nihil appeared before Shadow, a blade of condensed darkness in hand.

The god held its breath as the feeling of danger crept up its shadowy spine. In an instant, it was forced to use its trump card.

The webs dropped to the ground, the prisoner in their grasp gone.

"Oh? Teleportation? No, you fully exist with the darkness now, it's not mere invisibility." Nihil could feel the god moving, it was like having insects under your skin scurrying about.

He had already locked onto where Shadow was, he just needed to catch them off guard to finish them off once and for all.

Nihil was certain the other gods wouldn't help each other. If they did, Nihil would never be able to get the chance to kill one.

The gods were evil, they did not care for their fellows, and they were all enemies with one another. Because of this, Nihil had the chance to kill a few before the remaining caught on and started defending each other, starting with the god known as Shadow.

Moving through the darkness, Shadow no longer stayed close to the group, he planned on running as far away as possible. This wasn't good, because after a certain point, he would enter Nihil's true mindscape, not just the area where he prepared to kill the gods.

"Can't have you leaving now can I?"

In the darkness, hundreds of eyes opened, and with them, thousands of arms reached out from the abyss. Although Nihil could not touch Shadow, other shadows could.

With sight and touch, it was already decided. Shadow was found and soon he had thousands of limbs pulling at him, moving him back into his enemy's mouth.

"How can you do this?! Why do you have so many powers?!" It couldn't understand this turn of events.

Nihil did have many powers, but what gave him a feeling of limitlessness was his dream core. To think, he was lucky enough to gain a power that could create or distort anything.

Truly, he was blessed. Still, everything had a price, and Nihil didn't plan to be a puppet for the world, and Fate. No, he would be much more.

Shadow was dragged back, he was on the ground resisting the thousands of limbs.

"Dispel it, let me see you."

Shadow continued to struggle, but once the arms materialized weapons and started carving his flesh he gave in.

"Fine! Fine!"

His figure entered Nihil's eyes once more. Of course, Nihil could have given himself the ability to see Shadow, but he still wished to preserve his energy. He was using almost all of it in this ambush.

"Good. Now I can enjoy you!" His mouth crept upwards, revealing jagged teeth fit for eating larger prey.

"What?" It still didn't register for Shadow, he was a god, how could he understand the concept of death?

What came next was like watching a beast eat a baby.

Nihil lifted the god, the many arms still restricting him. Then, his jaw opened and took a chunk of its soul.

Painful wails echoed in the darkness, the other gods watching in horror but not coming to Shadow's aid. Nihil was hoping for this, and now that it was confirmed he didn't hold himself back.

Multiple arms sprang from his body as he replaced the arms he summoned with his own, clutching Shadow tightly as he tasted his food.

There was no blood, no gore, but it was horrifying nonetheless. A god was being consumed bite by bite, their soul losing pieces of itself as its voice broke more and more.

"Please! No! Stop this, I beg of you!" The shadow cried and screamed.

Pain. All it felt was overflowing pain. The pain was new, it was scary. Pain to the soul was something no one could understand until they experienced it.

Piece by piece, the monster known as Nihil enjoyed the meal. Holding down a god as he ripped at its soul.

Soon, the screams became groans, and after that, turned to ragged low breathing.

"Enough of this, seems I still have my dramatic side. I should just devour you in one bite." Nihil stopped playing, his mouth enlarged to that of a massive monster as he ate the rest of Shadow with one crunch. His stomach gurgled as it digested yet another god.

Nihil turned to the others, seeing hints of horror, but they mostly revealed pleased expressions seeing the competition die.

"Gods will be gods." He spoke with Shadow's fingers still hanging from his mouth.

With another time bomb entering him, Nihil felt the need to finish everything faster than he had planned.