Cthulhu watched the soul fragment and start to scatter before waving a hand and calling forth viscous, iridescent, semi physical sphere that undulated obscenely in the air. He watched patiently for some unknown queue before bursting into action, startling a yelp out of the seemingly perpetually dazed goddess that was struggling with all her might to keep up with the happenings around herself. Seemingly infinite and endless tentacles of all different shapes and sizes burst from the Old One, some disappearing back into the void while others shot into the fragmenting soul pieces while another herded the orb of eldritch essence forwards and yet more started to wrap the essence and soul, isolating them from the surroundings. The soul shaking grin splitting his face too wide again and the ever present madness shining bright in his eyes as he began to work. Cackling and muttering in a strange cant understandable only by the oldest of beings and instinctively feared by all other lifeforms, mortal and divine, the language of the Old Ones embodies concepts either too foreign or too horrific for those not born to it or strong enough to resist the implications. Persithi shuddered and cringed as the language resonated around her finally crouching on the ground and covering her ears with her hands and wrapping herself in as many layers of divine power as she could in an effort to escape it.
Cthulhu paid her no mind as he continued his work like a master puppeteer, tentacles weaving in and out with incredible dexterity and finesse as he stripped away now unnecessary parts of the soul and weaving in new essence, obliterating the fetters and restrictions that bound the souls of mortal man and substituting them with infinite possibilities and an abundance of different mutations that opened endless options for the youngling taking form in front of him. As his work progressed his hideous grin grew wider and the madness shone deeper as expectations began to grow and fascination filled him. This soul was so receptive to the changes, adapting at a pace far faster than he had expected, abandoning almost all the concepts and understandings it had made while a mortal and absorbing its new reality at an incredible pace. Soon the essence and soul had nearly merged into a singular entity and began a sickening undulation that was progressively gaining speed. Cthulhu withdrew most of his tentacles and stepped back from the newly forming eldritch soul and nodded in satisfaction. "My part is done, the rest is up to you youngling. There was no pain as of yet but as soon as I remove the last of my restraints the essence will start the final process of merging. I cannot describe the depths of pain you will feel in this, if you cannot withstand the last process the essence will obliterate what is left of you and dissipate into the true void. I look forward to how you shall develop youngling. Endure and embrace, do not disappoint and disperse. Accept and ascend child." He withdrew the last of his tentacles, watching the undulating mass immediately compress to half the size and double in the speed of its undulation, before turning to the poor goddess that had been pulled and tossed about on what she expected to be a routine day but had ended up as the most impactful day she would ever have in her eternity.
"So Persithi, what should we do with you? Not only have you and the younger gods been lax in your duties for what seems to be awhile now, you even dared to break the rules right in front of me. You tried to force my child into a decision that would take him a lifetime to resolve, if not several. Taking away their free will is one of the biggest taboos, you know this, if I had not been here and it had gone further you could be at risk of extermination. How could you descend into such stupidity? We are not so far removed that we would ignore such things. And stand up, you look very ungodly huddled on the ground like that." He looked at her in bafflement, what in Azathoth's name had she been thinking, it had honestly bewildered him.
Persithi stood and wavered a moment before managing to get a firm standing. The divine power she had been using to block out the eldritch tongue before has been washed away immediately when he had started to speak to her directly, as if it hadn't exited in the first place, again reminding her that while she was a goddess she was by no means all powerful. Cthulhu could erase her with a mere thought if he so pleased, such was the terrifying existences that were the Old Gods. She shook away these horrifying thoughts and looked back at Cthulhu while avoiding looking into the eyes of madness as she replied. "I apologize. We have indeed grown lax, there is no denying that, I will correct myself and endevour to return to my proper path as a goddess. As for my actions regarding this soul, well..... HE REJECTED ME! He was such a good boy for his whole life, then I came to him and tried to comfort him and give him a new life. He should have been overjoyed. His GODDESS appeared before him and all he did was question me and disrespect me. He even shouted and cursed at me. He embarrassed me and made me look a fool." She had tried to hold it together and keep it professional but the words he had said kept bugging at her helped along no small amount by the aura emanating from Cthulhu and she finally snapped and threw a tantrum. After her very ungodlike display she regained some sense and started to stutter in embarrasment "I..I..I..I...I'm s..sorry. I..I..I didnt mean-" cut short by a wave from Cthulhu with condescending look upon his face. Sure the childs soul was unique and interesting, he could not begrudge her the desire to not want it lost as he himself had taken an interest but to stoop so far. This needed to be fixed, and fast, lest they bring a catastrophe down upon themselves.
"Enough. Your apology means nothing to me as it was not me who you offended. He is currently going through a very crucial process right now. In a moment he will require some assistance. I was going to call for someone to provide that assistance but as you owe him a debt and are here now we might as well clear things up. This is also a chance for you should you prove competent enough to grasp it. He is in an unfathomable amount of pain and soon he will require something to latch onto that can distract him from it as it reaches the apex, some framework to steady himself on and anchor to so that he may endure the storm. Embrace him and bring him into submission and you will have given him great assistance in his time of need, earning you and eldritch favor. Though he may be young a favor owed must be paid whether you chose to redeem it now or later. Or you can pass and settle accords later, but know that a chance like this will not come again lightly, so make your choice." Cthulhu looked at her, waiting for an answer, while sending the occasional glance over at the writhing mass to keep an eye on its status.
Persithi nodded to herself. An eldritch favor wasnt something any god would pass up, even if it was young the eldritch would eventually grow into its power, it was far too valuable. She nearly scoffed when Cthulhu was explaining, she just had to embrace and make him submit, she was a god and he a mortal, if Cthulhu wasnt here he would have already been off to a new life. This would be a piece of cake. Eldritch favor in the bag. "I will help him, its the least I can do after what I almost did to him." She puffed slightly, a bit of her confidence returning to her. Cthulhu nodded and then waited for a time before beckoning her towards the mass.
"It's time. Go and embrace him." A wave of his hand and she was lifted towards the now expanding mass, limbs and tentacles sometimes forming before fading away back into the mass as it attempted to create a form for itself. As she reached the mass and was set down a tentacle made contact with her hand before coiling itself up and around her forearm, gripping it for dear life, finally finding itself something to brace on as it endured. Persithi flinched slightly at the feel of the tentacle but then put her other hand on it trying to convey comfort.
"It's ok now. I'm here for you. Come to me, I'll help you through this. I am your goddess, you can rely on me. After we get through this we'll find a nice family for you. You'll love it. I forgive you for the mean things you said to me and I'll even take special care that you dont have such a tough life this time. I'm such a gracious goddess dont you think. Ha- eh, hey what, thats not- mmmmaaa- aaauuuugghhh." Persithi started to chatter at the mass as she daydreamed about having an eldritch follower, caught up in her fantasy she didnt recognize the growing agitation of the mass before her until it was far too late. Going from weird but not unpleasant feeling wrapped around her arm that had tightened somewhat uncomfortably as she talked to a surprising burst of limbs and tentacles that embraced every part of her body and brought her immediately to a surprising height of pleasure. She managed to look back briefly at a bewildered looking Cthulhu before her vision started to swim as waves of pleasure rocked her and shook her mind. Quickly forgetting her earlier daydreams she tried to resist the pleasure and remember what her task had been. Embrace...and... and... Submit, she could do that easily. So she did, with a surprisingly wild abandon that stunned the bewildered Cthulhu even more.
=============================Soul POV=============================
As Cthulhu worked I.....We watched. Our mind was truly scattered this time, feeling like a group consciousness rather than a singular entity, we watched and pondered as things were stripped away from us. Biases on morality, ingrained assumptions about the workings of reality, the concept of reality itself. As more was stripped away we felt strangers start to come into contact with us. They slowly shared new concepts and perceptions with us, enlightening us and showing us new facets in the weave of realities. As more of these new strangers joined us we started to hear an far off voice soothe us and share more enlightenment. Gradually the voice grew louder and we felt it nourish our soul, giving it sustenance and begin to start healing the scars made when we were stripped apart. We found the source of the soothing voice standing before us, the terrifying man horror that was rebuilding us, our architect, his voice gentle as if he was reading a story to his unborn child. The words he used had no meaning to us currently but as he spoke longer and worked more we gleaned some understandings from his words, the strangers that joined us were very helpful in this aspect as they hastened our understanding. Eventually he stopped working, looking at us with pride and expectation, he gave us a warning and encouragement before turning from us. We were ready and determined not to disappoint the man.
The last presence of the man left us but his voice continued to echo from deep within as we felt ourselves collapse inwards. We knew immediately what the problem was. There are too many of us, we are too heavy, there is not enough space in our soul for all of us. It was very painful to be crushed together but it wasnt unbearable. Eventually some of us would dissipate and there would be more room. But that wasnt right. With less of us there would be less soul, less soul less room, same problem, dissipation wasnt the answer. The words of our architect surfaced in our minds as we searched for an idea 'Endure and embrace, do not disappoint and disperse. Accept and ascend child.' We realized what this would require and shuddered. Much pain. Unfathomable suffering. Millions of deaths. A genocide of the self. We could not let ourselves dissipate, that would lessen the whole, but we could embrace ourselves. Accept the pain and endure it as we consumed ourselves and brought us back into a singular entity. The strangers were reluctant to follow our plan... so we started with them. Grateful though we were to them for bringing us enlightenment and allowing us to understand the architect the were given to us by the architect. They were ours and we would not let them go just because they wanted to be many. We will be one. After finishing them they gave us an upset stomach, trying to break out and flee, so we had to quicken the pace. We started the slaughter. The strong consumed the weak but all of us felt it, every death carving itself into the whole. Nearing the end we were but few, but all were wounded monsters of immense power, the final struggle for singularity. The pain of each death magnified many times over, the consumption only mitigating the tiniest portion of it until finally we became one.
I survived till the end. The rest of me returned and was slowly falling back into place but the wounds within would take a long time to heal. I was one again but something was still missing and the pain was starting to grow. I though I did it, what is going on. I sensed two beings in the distance. Ah, a body. Right. So tentacles... nope thats not it. Legs maybe.... that doesnt seem right either. Bone spurs? Wings? Nothing feels right. AND IT HURTS SO BADLY. WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH? I start to make parts to try and find the right ones but nothing feels right. Suddenly I feel something touch my newly formed tentacle and I grab it. This is..... an arm. Ok, I can do this, I can work with this. The entity is speaking to me and a wave of something is washing over me.... I try to focus on the words, ignoring the pain as much as I can. Maybe this entity is trying to help me. As I listen things start to become much clearer. The pain while nearly overwhelming is nothing compared to the feelings that start to well up within me. THIS FUCKING BITCH STILL WANTS ME TO SERVE HER!?!?!?! Memories click into place and a bit of rigidity snaps back into my mind. I tighten the tentacle on her arm as I boil. So many thoughts enter my mind. She is trying to use her powers to bend me again, spouting bullshit nonsense to bring me under her. We'll see who ends up under who. What did Cthulhu say, endure and embrace? accept and ascend? Then I shall do just that. I'll endure this pain and her pressure, I'll accept all the gifts Cthulhu has given me, I'll embrace this foolish goddess and together we will ascend into pleasures undreamed of. So I formulated an idea and a body then set it into motion. Lets see how she handles me now.