Beyond the Bloodline

Chapter 425: The Hybrid’s Journal: Reflections on a Paradox

"Creation. Space. Time. Reality. Destruction."

The five most fundamental Concepts that make up the Cosmos.

"I’d dared to claim that I was Space itself, and that I could embody the Cosmos because space exists throughout the Cosmos.

But I didn’t know that my understanding of ’Space’ as both a ’Fundamental Concept’ and a ’Power to Wield’ was never meant to be what I believed it was."

It was a misconception I didn’t even realise I held, and the day I discovered it was the day I nearly lost every bit of power I’d built over thousands of years.

I still remember it like yesterday, the day of the event that pushed me into cosmic fame.

The day I aimed for the peak of the Cosmos and failed completely, nearly losing myself in the process.

My rise to power had been fast. I reached the peak of the Zenith Haven realm at record speed, and naturally, I wanted to push past that and reach Ultimate.

Having witnessed the power of Ultimate Realm existences many times before, it was only natural that I wanted to become one.

Most people were usually stuck at the peak of Zenith Haven until the end of time or until their untimely deaths, but I was confident I’d surpass it.

Why? I was talented.

A Grade 7 Singularity whose mere existence distorted surrounding universal laws. I also wielded the rare power to control true nonexistence—the Void.

I’d expanded my existence into the fourth and fifth dimensions before even becoming a Lesser Supreme, and I attained in mere millennia the power, Authority, and Influence that others needed millions of years to reach.

Having moved through different universes and acted as high-profile as always, I naturally gathered a certain level of fame and influence across the Multiverse.

But that influence existed only within this Multiverse, not across the unimaginably large Cosmos.

"My attempt to cross the near-infinite gap between Zenith Haven and Ultimate was what put me in the cosmic spotlight, and the reason why I am now the first face that came to mind when people hear the name ’Jamie Westley’."

It was also the reason people started calling me a Crazy Immortal."

What I’d done was something everyone knew, but only a few understood the real reason behind my actions.

I challenged an Ultimate Realm Existence to a fight.

My target? Naturally, it was the one Ultimate who detested me the most across the Cosmos.

The Eternal of Death and Darkness, the Ancient-Breed Angel who bore the name "Julio."

My intention in challenging her wasn’t for fame, and I didn’t even dare to dream of winning.

Defeat was the only outcome.

But I still challenged her, or rather, I provoked her until she got pissed off and attacked me.

In the aftermath, many first believed I was ignorant of the true power of Eternals, but once they realised I was completely aware of this, they decided I had to be crazy to still dare to challenge one.

However, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Only two others knew besides Julio and me.

Ranus, the Eternal of Reality, who had been the one to set the stage for our battle, and Dulio, Julio’s twin, who had rushed to the scene after sensing his sister’s anger.

Julio’s anger toward me that day was less about me poking her sore spots and more about the moment she realised I was trying to use her as a stepping stone to reach greater power.

"The age-old technique of using the pressure of a greater power to force and stimulate a breakthrough to the next Existence Realm."

But I failed.

I failed and had my soul core cracked and scarred permanently.

"My plan seemed to work at first, and I was ecstatic..."

But midway, I realised my path was flawed.

I was missing something I didn’t even know, and because of that, I would’ve ended up stuck in the limbo between the Zenith Haven Realm and the Ultimate Realm.

More commonly known as False Ultimate.

I would’ve still had the raw energy capacity and efficiency of a real Ultimate, but the increase in strength of my Aspects and Dictums, the deeper Integration of my Existence Declaration, the amount of power I gained from my Cosmic Influence, and my level of Dimensionality...none of those would’ve changed even the slightest bit.

My Existential Magnitude would’ve been lower than the bare minimum value required for a True Ultimate.

I couldn’t have that.

"So I damaged my own soul with the power of the void to cut off my ascension."

What had looked like me ’losing’ the battle was really me harming myself to break my own ascension, with the price being all my Zenith Haven Realm power.

As my energy cores cracked open one after another and my power spilt out, Julio, who’d been filled with anger at the thought of being used as a stepping stone, cooled down immediately and simply shook her head with a pitying gaze.

It was a chance for her to be rid of me for good, but she’d pitied me enough that she completely passed it up.

"How miserable I must’ve appeared in her eyes."

My world crumbled, my confidence shattered, and my power dissolved.

I was reduced to the Grand Supreme level once more as backlash for cutting off my path to Ultimate.

Recovery took millions of years.

I also lost the advantage of my accelerated Realm Progression speed brought to me by both my innate talent and Singularity nature.

I was even slower than the Cosmic average Realm Progression speed.

In that time, I pondered the reasons why I’d failed to reach Ultimate.

What was I missing? What did I not understand? What did I not comprehend?

’Space’ was my attribute.

It was the root of my power.

It was what I’d Declared I was and had Integrated into my being.

So why had it failed me when I needed it the most?

After pondering, I changed my approach.

Maybe ’Space’ was not the way to go. What if ’Void’ was the path I was to take?

When I recovered all my power, I immediately reattempted to reach Ultimate through the ’Void’ path, and I ended up with cracks in my immortal soul.

It was a failure.

But I didn’t give up.

I referenced the powers of the Cosmic Force I possessed.

I reattempted to reach Ultimate using an equal combination of ’Void’ and ’Space’.

"And I failed again. A failure that nearly drove me mad."

Each failure came with a great loss of power that I had to spend millions of years recovering due to the backlash that reduced my Realm Progression Speed.

I couldn’t understand why I’d failed time and time again.

I knew my path lay in either one or both, and I’d tried all of them, but I failed.

My fourth attempt was made in anger.

If a perfect combination of the two with perfect balance failed, then I’d do the opposite.

An uneven combination, filling my soul with more ’Void’ than ’Space’ and even changing my Existence Declaration.

As for the result...

"Well, let’s just say I nearly got pulled into the real void beyond reality."

I gave up after that.

I acted like I didn’t, I smiled and laughed like always, but deep down, I’d already given up.

Any ’effort’ I made to reach Ultimate after that had been nothing more than a display, an elaborate act of self-deception.

"I have all the time in the Cosmos," I told myself. "No need to rush. Take your time."

With words like that, I fooled myself to distract my mind from my repeated failures.

But every once in a while, I’d sit down and ask myself,

"Why did I fail?"

I didn’t understand what I was missing.

There was something about my own existence I didn’t fully understand, even after several hundred million years of living.

So I went back to the roots.

I questioned not ’Why’ but ’How’?

Not why I possessed the power of ’Space’, but how?

I knew the ’How’, of course.

It was because of the Singularity Core that the Zanerth Universe had embedded in the blank soul that eventually became me.

So I decided to study the Singularity itself, to delve into its roots and understand what even the Universe had failed to understand about it.

And there, the answer I sought revealed itself to me.

It turned out that my third attempt at reaching Ultimate had been the closest I’d ever been to the answer.

"I had achieved the perfect balance of ’Void’ and ’Space’, but I didn’t know the real reason why I needed that balance."

I didn’t know the true scale of the event that sparked the beginning of my existence.

"For I am a Cosmic Singularity born of a paradox between the fabric of space and the void layer beneath it."

I’d been treating my ’Void’ and ’Space’ manipulation abilities as isolated powers, not realising I could only become Ultimate by embodying their interdependence.

"A paradoxical, self-sustaining loop existed between the two, but I’d ignored that possibility because of what it was...a paradox."

A sigh escaped my lips as I thought about the realisation that had eventually dawned on me.

"Space enabled Void, which in turn enabled Space."

When I used my power to manipulate the Void, I created microfractures in the fabric of spacetime and reality to channel true nothingness from outside the Cosmos.

"Space enabled my Void, because without the manipulation of spatial fabric, there would be no rupture, no gateway, no channel through which Void could enter and manifest.

Void enabled Space because the void was the blank backdrop against which space could even exist, for without void, space was without boundary, contrast or definition."

The void outside the Cosmos that had Space as one of its fundamental Concepts was the nonexistence that gave space its outline, as without the canvas of the Void, space wouldn’t expand, dimensions wouldn’t take shape, and the Cosmos wouldn’t have a place to form.

"Embodiments of the same paradox, two sides of the same truth."

With that understanding, the path to Ultimate opened once more for me, and all I needed was the cosmic energy to fill that gap.

It was an amount that would normally take a long while to gather, but who said I had to do the gathering myself?

"A bet I made with Ranus over 300,000 years ago about the fate of a Titan god in a distant universe called Valmone.

I won that bet, and for my reward, I took a portion of Ranus’ accumulated cosmic power.

His energy was Chaotic in nature since he was an Eternal, but that wasn’t a problem since I’d already acquired an item with the Ordered equivalent from his twin shortly after coming to the realisation that my path had opened up once more.

With my Balance, the Trio was complete, and all I now needed was the same thing I’d sought from Julio years ago.

The Pressure to stimulate my ascension."

I opened my palm and looked at the curved, broken handle resting in my hand, watching as it slowly crumbled to dust, signifying that ’tool’ had now completely recovered its ANNIHILATION.

"You shall be the one I’ll use to get that pressure."

As the last specks of cosmic dust were swept away by the wind, I got up from the pommel of the giant sword of spatial cosmic energy that I had stabbed into the heart of the still-twitching Cosmic Horror beneath me, one of the beasts drawn to Zanerth by Angela’s awakening.

Gazing at the universe I called home, I spoke.

|This is an order for all Estean Intergalactic Forces. Ready the Armadas.|

Returning the corpse to the void from which it came, I declared.

|It’s time for war.|