The way it ends.

True Body POV

"The operatives have returned with them all." The 23915, no, the monster clone reported. My memories from being the infiltrator clone are slowly being reintegrated into my mind and now it feels weird to call him by a number. Great. At least my feelings for my adopted children didn't get left behind. I think. That part of my memories hasn't been integrated fully yet. It'd be much faster if I just absorbed the clone but it takes a while to absorb it. And just getting the weapons ready and loaded took most of the day. Still, I'll adopt them. It's not like it costs me anything and they're good kids who deserve a family. Besides, they're good research assistants and I haven't quite finished research on chakra. As they say, it's not child labor if it's family.

I chuckled darkly.

"All of them? Even 23916?" I asked.

"It seems like it-no, wait that's not 23916."

Oh I don't like the tone on that.

"Fine. Confine them to quarantine zone 3. Then, commence assault on the old gods."

"Aye aye, captain. Deploying Singular Conceptual Field nodes."

An array of perfect spherical nodes shot out of the docking bay and various portside chambers, surrounding the entire region of the void surrounding the magicians multiverse.

The Singular Conceptual Field.

Inspired by the SCP Foundation's Singular Conceptual Bunker they used to defeat the Black Moon, I created a bigger better version of it that was mobile and easy to deploy. Using conceptual tech, ancient magic and soul technology, I engineered a field that could annihilate even the souls of conceptual entities of a higher realm than me, wiping them from existence.

And as a bonus, it didn't take till the heat death of the universe to work, unlike a certain foundation's admittedly valiant efforts. Mine could even shift between concepts at will.

Once deployed, it would outright wipe out the old gods' souls via the Concept - Denial Of All Existence, leaving behind only the delicious, delicious powers of the old gods.

Unfortunately, it would also wipe out my higher dimensional chainsaw chain around the multiverse so I had to wait to activate it, even though it was the first to deploy. Because if the old gods still had their physical forms or mental resistance, they would fight it with their own conceptual powers and I don't have confidence in beating a civilization of multiversal conceptual thought-beings in their homefield.

It will have to wait. I'll have to destroy them in order - body, mind and finally soul.

"Alright. Begin the assault. Shred them all." I ordered.

"Finally! I've been dying to try this baby out!" The monster clone smirked, and disengaged the safety on Azathoth's Bane. In an instant the 11th dimensional wire mesh descended on the multiverse, ripping through it like a million chainsaws, slowly tearing it apart. It was a horrendous sight to those with greater sensory capacities, watching as the destructive mesh pushes them into retreat, closer and closer, like lambs to a slaughter. I could hear the old gods' screams this far out in the void, and they were music to my ears. It won't be long now, soon the multiverse will be shredded like Bill Clinton's flight records to Epstein Island.

I watched with glee out of the dock, floating in the void when suddenly a bright light burst through the aperture of the antiverse, pushing into the multiverse's surface layer.

Is that a ... Tree?

I looked at the development, dumbfounded.

Yes. A tree, large as the multiverse itself, with a bark of shining gold and a vast black expanse of creation, littered with galacies emerged from the antiverse, tinged monochrome. It's branches were vast, unbounded and impossible curves, wrapping up entire worlds in their nestled embrace. The leaves shone like great suns and lit up the void with a blinding light. It curved around the event horizon of the 5th dimensional superstructure that was the old gods' realm, pushing ever further. For a moment I was worried it would save the old gods. Perhaps it was a final security measure?

I almost considered making a move myself before it got too bad.

Can't have this little thing ruin my ten year plan, now can I?

However, all my worries were washed away as I observed what happened next. The tree moved into the old gods' realm, crashing through the floor, breaching their entire dimensional security system. It's encroachment came as a surprise to everyone involved, and stopped the old gods' mid retreat as countless hanging vines whipped up and lashed out at the old gods, surrounding them like prison grates, knitted tight and inescapable. Usually this wouldn't have been able to stop them, but coincidentally, they were all in a panic, their physical forms had been ripped apart and they had yet to rally any actual physical strength. And just with their incorporeal abilities, they were unlikely to make much progress against it. It was no ordinary tree after all. I could feel some very familiar concepts imbued into it. It was tailor made for catching them. A trap.

It took me barely a second to realize what had happened. What he had done. This traveler clone.... Seriously. Such a troublesome brat. I sighed.

I'll deal with him later. First...

"Begin phase two." I ordered.

Now that the multiverse was shredded and the old gods were trapped, I had the perfect opportunity to end them.

Immediately the system and the monster clone acted. A massive causality defying portal made with a crystal of xanthenite attachment opened up in the void before the ship and a FTL slingshot lined up with it. This would make sure that there was no escaping the next attack. Causality would bend to make sure the attack would land. I called it my Gae Bolg Protocol.

Within a fraction of a second, the portal, a string of thought destruction bombs shot into it, disappearing into the old gods' realm. In the distance I could see their realm fluctuate as the bomb detonated, sending a psychic pulse out into them, pulverizing their consciousnesses. The threads that made up their thought-being selves began to unravel like yarn from an old sweater, slowly falling apart as the pained and panicked psychic shrieks echoed out into the void. They began to pool together, merging, melting into each other as they tried desperately to reknit themselves into whole existences to no avail.

I smiled.

Mind and body destroyed.

Now for their souls.

With a snap of my fingers, the SCF activated. A wave spread throughout the many nodes surrounding the multiverse as they lit up in response and shot out a shimmering barrier of an unidentifiable shape and color, covering the entire multiversal superstructure. Past the barrier I could only faintly perceive it, but the feeling of nothingness slowly creeping across the multiverse was a dead giveaway. The old gods were being wiped out, one by one, their corpses littering the immaterial ether of the leftover multiverse like trash on a local river.

Over time, the shrieking from the thought destruction bombs stopped as the old gods died an inglorious death. A bit anticlimactic, I know but it was well prepared, well researched and a long time in the making.

Just to be sure, I still sent in a couple of probes to check on the situation before I made a move.

Fortune favours the bold, but rewards the cautious. I didn't want to make a mistake now, after coming this far.

And what do you know? There was a survivor. Tentacles and shapeless, it writhed outwards, it's body clipping through dimensions, glicthing with the sheer overwhelming eldritch might it possessed.

The alarms rang out as it jettisoned out of the portal I had used for sending out the thought bombs.

Hm? Didn't I make this a one way portal? Did they adjust to it already?

Impressive. I'd expect nothing less from a level nine civilization.

Too bad I'm not a weakling anymore. I couldn't have won against them all, but just one? I could crush it easily.

With a thought, the portal snapped close, severing the creature in two.

Analyzing it at a glance, it was revealed to be a clusterfuck of code, slapped together in a hurry. A last ditch attempt at saving the civilization by congealing all their data into one being. I snorted in amusement.

"Flip a layer of the SCF." I ordered, and the A.I. complied. The shimmering SCF layer at the topmost edge over the multiverse flickered and immediately curved out wards, extending it's influence into the void. It didn't have a long range, but this was enough.

[DEATH] It communicated.[REVULSION]

You want to kill me?

Heh, you're a billion years too young.

I had spent the past two years in the body of the infiltrator clone researching them, testing out every single theory I could come up with about the old gods. And I had finally figured out their true nature.

That whole caboose about the magic being their blood and Nyarlathotep's curse? Utter bullshit. The firmer was something I planted in my own head to give them the wrong idea about me, making them think that I'm no threat. A misinformation campaign from my side, all planned years ahead of time.

As they say, to decieve your enemy you must first decieve yourself.

And that's exactly what I did.

Not that it stopped their automated defense systems from lashing out at my clones. Hence that hocus pocus about the curse of Nyarlathotep. An elaborate ruse to lure me in. To misguide me into thinking of them as something greater.

Of course, it was all clear as day to me. I knew all about it and had planned around it from the start. They were always bugs dancing in the palm of my hand.

Just as planned.

You see, their true nature wasn't giant energy beings, though their bodies still were made of higher dimensional energies. No. They were beings of thought not unlike Akasha. Just that instead of being shaped by the unconscious of humanity, instead they were the ones who shaped humanity. The closest analogy would be a simulation experiment.

Why they did it, why they made such a big multiverse, it was a ... well it was too complicated to explain in words. But it boiled down to a simple concept. Fun. Not just day-at-the-beach fun, but also exploration-and-research thrill-seeking type of fun. Champagne socialists, the lot of them.

They had fun shaping humanity with their thoughts. So what happens when the shoe is on the other foot? Shall we find out?

"Concept - Akashic Inversion." I coldly announced.

[Caterpillar] I relayed a concept to it. My imposition on it's existence.

And instantly there was no more eldritch monster, just a tiny little caterpillar, giving off a feeling almost as if it had always been a caterpillar.

I laughed, and plucked it out of the void and looked into it's eyes. The eyes of the last hope of a higher civilization. It whimpered pathetically, begging me to spare it.

I just grinned savagely, and with a pinch, I crushed it into goo.

Just like that, the old gods were gone. Forever.

Another run with the probes revealed it. The probes detected nothing. It was over.

I sighed in relief at the news and returned to the ship as we rejoiced.

"Whoohooo! Baby! Finally done! Who's da boss? It's meeee! Yeah, its-a meee!" The monster clone jumped up in cheer, doing a little dance and I couldn't help but laugh.

It's been too long.

"Let's not count our chickens before they hatch now. We'll need to do a couple of rounds to see if the probes missed anything, later. For now, pack up the multiverse. Make sure nothing goes in or out of it. Especially that pesky little tree. Meanwhile, I'll deal with the little rogue clone situation we have here."

"Sure, sure... " He ignored me but I just shook my head and let it go as I teleported to the quarantine zone.

____________________

The extra chapter for 400 powerstones as promised. A bit late cuz I had to do some research on dimensional physics and got lost in a youtube rabbithole.

Sorry.

Anyways, the old gods are dead.

The clone saga ends next chapter.

And then, the epilogues.

Man, it feels weird to be ending this story.

So many chapters, so many plot points left behind.

But the end cometh when it cometh?

I guess.

Next chapter coming soon!

Thanks for reading.

Donate your powerstones!

At least get this fic back in the top ten for the finale, my dudes.

See ya!