Several minutes prior…

Alexander had never been so scared in his life.

None of his life-ending battles ever frightened him the way the thought of losing his universe did.

More specifically, the thought of losing his loved ones.

When his Nexis Radiant surrounding his universe reacted, Alexander had nearly had his core jump out of his chest.

His essence should not have failed, yet those corrupted bastards found a workaround.

Rejecting the beam was out of the equation, but purifying it was not. It made no sense, but that was what happened.

And getting struck by those two blows did a number on his inner realm, fracturing his core in the process.

Alexander had basically depleted his reserves when those two strikes came his way, sending him into the abyss of nothingness.

He barely had time to analyse what invaded his existence before his conscience went dark.

Alex knew what awaited him beyond the abyss, but there was nothing he could do.

When a sliver of his consciousness came to, Alexander had no idea where he was, how he got there or what had happened.

'W-Where am I?'

Alex's consciousness slipped in and out of the dark continuously.

In fact, everything was dark.

He couldn't feel anything. He couldn't see, he couldn't sense, he could do nothing.

'Everything is dark… too dark.'

He tried to open his eyes, but was unsuccessful. When he attempted to move his hand, it also remained unresponsive.

With no way of knowing the state of his body, he focused on himself. He needed to understand his situation.

'What exactly happened to me?'

Digging into his memories, Alexander was finally able to piece together a few things, recalling who he was and how things ended up the way they were.

'Right… The corrupted Enforcers.' Alexander realised somberly. 'I guess this is it for me.'

He should be inside the abyss of absolute nothingness, if that were even the correct way to put it.

'I was too rushed.'

Had he carefully considered what the corrupted Enforcers could do and made additional contingencies, perhaps none of this would have happened.

Here he was now, about to be erased entirely. Any second now, and his consciousness would be gone.

'Wait…'

Suddenly, things did not make sense. From what he knew, he shouldn't even be aware right now.

He should have been gone the moment he crossed that boundary. So then, how?

'...'

Alexander focused on the last moments of his final clash, recalling how those two strikes had fractured his core.

That, in and of itself, should not have been possible. Not when the Enforcers struck his physical body.

'That strange power…'

Diving into his inner realm, Alexander focused on his core and finally came to understand what was happening.

His inner realm was completely dry, blank, and empty, devoid of any trace of essence.

But in the heart of his inner realm, his core remained, albeit smaller than its original size.

The core, a radiantly white and complex icosahedron shape that wobbled in and out like a heartbeat and spiralled every which way, now looked broken.

Alexander's core continuously leaked out the last bits of essence it carried. It phased in and out of existence, glitching like a program about to go out.

'It should be gone by now…'

Alexander could sense it. Within the fractures of his core was the foreign power he felt earlier.

From the looks of things, he concluded that the foreign power was what kept him alive, albeit barely.

He knew he shouldn't be conscious at this moment.

However, given the weakness and instability of his consciousness, Alex knew it had something to do with the glitching.

His core clung to the foreign power for dear life, as if that was the only thing that kept it from vanishing forever, because it was.

The foreign power tethered his existence in place, stopping it from absolute oblivion.

'Absolute oblivion…' the word rang through his being, bringing up something he had heard some time ago.

'True essence of existence…'

That must be what the foreign power was. And the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

'That must be why I couldn't reject that attack, only fight it.' The realisation hit him. 'Rejecting the existence of such a thing is not possible… Not without having the same power, at least.'

But knowing all this wasn't exactly helping his situation.

Alexander had no idea how long the power would last, and with his core glitching, he doubted he had much time.

'What to do…'

With no idea how to extricate himself, Alexander dived back into the universe-worth of knowledge he had.

He recalled everything he had learned and heard from the people he had interacted with. Through his foggy consciousness, he was able to remember the conversation he had with Azarion.

The path to true freedom comes from rejecting what is… from rejecting what was…

And accepting what comes… True freedom is boundless…

True freedom… comes from nothingness… True freedom comes from returning to nothing.

The Omnisoul grants you unimaginable power… but it also keeps you tethered.

You're all an extension of the Omnisoul. You're encumbered by the very power you cling to.

'Encumbrance… Tethered to our reality, huh.' Alexander mused, a particular memory resurfacing. 'I must let go once again.'

But unlike his ascension to godhood, the risks he faced here were several times greater. There was no going back once he let go.

Then again, he was already dying. There was only one choice.

'The very thing that makes me a Veilwalker also keeps me tethered to reality.' His thoughts were racing.

After all, his very existence came from reality. Completely letting go meant letting go of everything.

He had to let go of his body, his power, his consciousness. He had to let go of his will.

'T-This is madness…' Despite his current situation, Alexander felt like crying.

What he had set out to do was an impossibility. In a way, Azarion was right.

But…

Refocusing on his fractured core that was glitching intermittently, Alexander honed in on what kept his core clinging to the foreign power.

'My will…'

Everything that he was came from his desires, his essence. It came from his willingness to be; it came from his willingness to achieve.

And right now, his will strongly clung to that foreign power. It was the only thing keeping his core self from disappearing forever.

'Clinging to this power isn't enough. I must… I must make it mine.'

Alexander focused his will on the foreign essence, trying to comprehend its nature.

However, every attempt he made yielded no results. He could sense it, but he could not grasp it.

'Perhaps I'm looking at it the wrong way…' He thought back to what he knew of nothingness.

'The true state of absolute nothingness is the state of nil; the state of non-existentance… But our reality exists.'

In all honesty, his thoughts were not making much sense. The entire thing was a giant paradox.

For reality to exist, it must have the true essence of existence. But what exactly was this essence?

Where did it come from?

'No, that's not it.'

Something clicked inside his consciousness when he arrived at those thoughts.

Alexander once again focused on his glitching core and the foreign essence within him.

'Nothingness… I'm clinging to nothing.' The realisation was soul-stirring as it was existential. 'My core embodies everything that I am, while my absolute will, my willingness to be, clings to nothing.

'Haha. So that's it. I must let go of every attachment. Power, identity, emotion, and even reason must be relinquished.

'I have to become one with nothingness. I must become an existence without definition.'

As he became more aware of what the trait of nothingness embodied, the more his core glitched.

Unbeknownst to him, he had lost his body, his powers, his very essence the moment he was plunged into the abyss.

The only thing that remained was his core; the embodiment of who he was. That was the final thing he had to let go.

But the trait of nothingness had been slowly devouring pieces of him and leading him to absolute death.

This was what his will was trying to stop, and was also the very thing that kept him conscious, albeit weakly.

With an imaginative sigh on his part, a sigh that defined him as a living existence, Alexander let go without hesitation.

He let go of every trace of himself, every trace of his power, and sought to become one with nothingness.

Almost immediately, his fractured core dissolved, completely erased and forgotten. And right at that moment, all of reality glitched.

Like a system experiencing a temporary malfunction or a sudden irregularity, a piece of reality was stripped away and forgotten, forcing it to undergo a restart.

And in the heart of the absolute abyss of nothingness, a will embodying paradox manifested. An existence that existed in nothingness came to be.

Alexander no longer needed a medium to exist. He existed in and of himself; he was there and he was not.

As his will permeated nothingness, Alexander sensed the only entity that existed so close to him — his reality.

He had no form, no identity and no essence; he simply was. He was part of nothingness and yet remained distinct.

And this state of existence meant he could be, and so he became. Alexander became an Existential Absolute.