Chapter 677: The Horror of Horrors
Out of the masses of bone, flesh, and a discolored brain, a creature formed within the space of boundless darkness.
How does one even begin to describe such an unnatural thing?
Bi-pedal in stature, with dingy grey colored skin that was both unclean and undesirable.
It was in possession of the standard two arms and two legs, but it's 'head' was just a lengthy, slender tentacle.
Occasionally, this would change as his body seemed to be in a constant flux.
Sometimes he would grow an extra arm from his 'chest'. At others, extra tentacles would sprout from along his legs, arms, or just about anywhere else.
Not even the creature seemed to be capable of stopping this change, nor did it seem to be doing it intentionally.
Perhaps it was just in it's nature to be ever changing.
All that remained constant on it's body was the crooked mouth on it's 'face'. It was filled with crooked teeth and sinister lies that were just waiting to be told.
The creature touched it's body all over as if it were missing a pair of keys.
Or something much more important.
"My blood... Where is my blood..?" His voice was dark, sharp, and hard to listen to. Like nails on a chalkboard.
"Nyarlathotep. Will you get back inside on your own? Or must I force you there myself?"
The creature focused it's 'vision' onto a creature beneath it.
It was... odd.
Of it's kind, but not of it's kind.
There was no doubt this was an entity of the same ilk as it was, and yet they were not imprisoned together at any point in the past.
This one also spoke in a language that was not their native tongue. Draconic to be specific.
And there was something else... the aura it felt was eerily familiar, yet so intrinsically different from anything he had ever come across before.
The occurrence was so jarring that the entity did not notice at first that this distant relative had called him by name and spoke of returning him to the prison dimension.
But once it did, it developed an understandable headache.
"No… no, no, no, no, no, no.."
It muttered the very same words over and over again as if they were stuck in it's mouth on repeat.
Abaddon was unamused by the creatures descent into madness.
"How could you possibly hope to deny me when you aren't even fully formed. You will get back inside whether you want to or not."
A bladed forelimb lashed out and impaled the ancient elder being in it's chest.
And then it noticed a sensation that it'd long thought itself used to.
Pain.
The occurrence that mortals are all too familiar with, yet was beneath creatures like him, had now returned in full.
For Nyarlathotep, the experience of agony was truly a novelty one.
It struggled to free itself from the grasp of the creature; for as big as a fan as the creature was of novelty, it was not a fan of the premise of returning to that dark prison world at all.
But as he began to fight, Abaddon's eight dragon-headed tails came from behind him and bit wherever they were able in order to hold the creature in place.
Abaddon used his free arm and pulled open the gate as if it were a simple door.
Inside there was a world beyond description. Unnamed horrors clawed and hissed just on the other side of the gate. The desperation and need they felt to get out was almost palpable.
But they stayed put because there were not just one, but two named ones on the other side.
And the one covered in exoskeleton seemed to be expressly hostile to them.
Crossing the threshold for freedom came with consequences for those trapped inside.
They would be so, so much weaker when crossing the boundary compared to how they were inside of it.
If they left, their demise would swiftly follow.
All that they could do was sit there and whisper; louder than anything Abaddon or Audrina had ever heard before.
It was a sensation and experience incomprehensible to the mortal mind and thus difficult to describe.
Listening to it would drive even the wisest god insane. A human would find their brains melted from just hearing a syllable.
Abaddon began forcefully shove the creature back inside of the gates.
Unholy screeching left it's maw as it lost bitterly in a contest of strength.
It was worth noting that the named horrors are beings whose strength is difficult to match or measure.
They have no real agreed upon hierarchy, and the strongest among them are closer in power than one might think.
They generally cannot just manhandle one another like this.
Even though Nyarlathotep was missing an approximated fourth of his power, that still didn't explain Abaddon's monstrous strength.
It took Abaddon little time to shove the disagreeable elder horror behind the gates. It's wailing persisted for what felt like an eternity as it tried in vain to escape it's fate.
With one last forceful shove, Abaddon stuffed the creature behind the threshold to end their tiresome struggle.
The mouths on his tails tore bits of the flesh of the creature for his own consumption.
Finally, the serenade of screaming and whispers ended as Abaddon shut the doors dramatically. Returning the first of the released horrors to it's rightful place.
When the doors were finally shut, Abaddon pulled himself and the others back out of the space and into the room above.
From the time that he reverted back to normal, his wife's hands were all over him.
"H-Husband, you're okay, right?? N-No internal injuries or anything??"
"No, I -Urk!"
Audrina held open her husband's mouth so that she could check to see if he was going to cough blood.
She also checked his ears to see if there was any blood about to spill out of those either.
"My love, I can assure you that my condition is quite fine…" Abaddon smiled bashfully.
He grabbed Audrina's trembling hands so that she wouldn't latch onto any more of his body parts.
"Why so nervous, hm? You're not usually the one who gets worked up over things like this."
Audrina seemed just the tiniest bit offended by this as she bit him on the hand.
"I may not be quite as excitable as the others, but I will always fret over your wellbeing. You are my husband.
And I've every right to ensure that the same darkness that plagued you before never troubles you again."
No man was truly immune to such warm concern. If he was then Abaddon couldn't begin to imagine them.
What he didn't tell Audrina was… he felt fine when he threw the gate open fully. It kind of felt like he was standing in front of an open refrigerator.
But more than that, something new happened that he was pretty sure wasn't supposed to be possible.
He could actually see the world inside the gate.
As for why he could do this… he did not know.
Perhaps it is because that world was so similar to oblivion. A place where physics were nonexistent and the scenery was incomprehensible to the mortal mind.
But it wasn't often that cool, calm, and collected Audrina acted as a doting helicopter wife. He wanted to enjoy the moment while he still could.
"I promise you that I am quite fine, my love... Though if you wanted to check me in a few more places, I would surely not object."
Audrina had always been easily seduced in their relationship and required little provocation.
"Oh? Well get undressed for Nurse Audri and let her give you a proper check up~"
Abaddon was now vividly remembering the sexy nurse cosplay that Valerie and Audrina wore for the group a couple of weeks back.
The memory alone was exquisite enough to almost make him undress without needing to be told twice.
"O-Overlord… Please pardon me for interrupting."
Abaddon's growing erection became limp once more, and Audrina's delectable river dried up in a second.
The pair glared at Maliketh in annoyance, but he seemed not to be capable of noticing at the moment.
"Never in all of my wildest days did I imagine that I would witness a scene such as that… So grand and inspiring..!"
Maliketh dramatically fell to his knees and prostrated fully in front of the couple.
"Allow me to re-swear my fealty to you, master. If only to thank you for showing me such a deliriously exciting scene..! I shall overturn the entire multiverse for you if you should only ask it!"
'I'd like it more if you lot would sit patiently in the confines of the sun…' Abaddon thought.
However, he at least was capable of realizing that he shouldn't say those things.
"…I'll accept your vow of service for now. If you'd like to see something grander, then bring me the rest of the creatures you and the others released before they return to their maturity."
"Right away, Overlord. I will not fail you."
The embodiment of cruel death vanished in a cloud of dark smoke; leaving to fulfill his duties faithfully.
Once the couple were alone, they found themselves against the wall and nearing the exit.
"So… shall we return to the bedroom for that check up?" She asked.
Abaddon's lips started to curl into a smile when suddenly his jaw went slack.
And soon, Audrina's expression mirrored his own.
A stunned and somewhat gleeful expression took the two of them by surprise as they whispered to each other in unison.
""She's back…""