One had to be crazy to do what Alexander did. There was no guarantee it could work. What if he was wrong about his thoughts? Maeralith couldn't fathom how Alex did that.
"It still doesn't explain how he is going against the will of the Supreme One." Nulrex added with an unsettling feeling in his gut. It got worse the more time passed.
"..."
Aurion had no response to that. He may have figured out what was happening, but how it was happening was beyond him. Nothing he knew about the universe could explain what he was seeing.
'Just who is this human?' Aurion pondered. This wasn't the only universe with humans. The other human Veilwalkers he met were nothing like Alexander.
From the little he had seen of Alexander, Aurion realized Alexander had taken what it meant to be chosen to a different level.
Suddenly, the dimming core turned completely dark and stopped rotating. This caught everyone's attention. But then the core produced an invisible outward pulse.
It was instantaneous and unexpected, blasting the Veilwalkers, refiners and the energy waves back to the very first barrier, crushing them into it.
"Ugh!"
The refiners groaned in agony, their very foundation shaken from the blast. They bled from their orifices, suffering existential injuries.
The pulse was too much for simple vassals to handle. Four of the seven refiners died a moment later while the others passed out, completely crippled.
The Veilwalkers didn't come out unscathed either. All three bled from the corner of their lips, the blood dissipating as energy. They couldn't believe what they were going through. When was the last time they suffered an injury?
They couldn't remember.
"What the hell jus--" Before Maeralith could voice her thoughts, another pulse hit them, jerking them forward and straight into the final barrier.
"Ugh!"
This time, the Veilwalkers were the ones to cry in pain, spewing blood.
The dead and passed-out refiners had their bodies erased completely, disappearing before they could collide with the final barrier. The energy bearing the will of the Supreme One?
Gone.
'Impossible!' Nulrex shuddered in dread, floating away from the barrier. He couldn't believe a pulse from the core or wherever it came from did that.
The first pulse could be said to have taken them by surprise. Even then, they failed to react. They couldn't even sense it coming. Then what of the second pulse?
After the first pulse, Nulrex became more guarded, paying attention to the core and his surroundings. Failing to sense the pulse coming should have been impossible.
And more impossible was the will of the Supreme One. It couldn't just be gone. The Veilwalkers couldn't sense the will anymore. It no longer existed in this universe.
"This is bad…" Nulrex muttered.
"No shit!" Aurion added, dread filling his very existence. "We have to leave, now."
Aurion was the first to attempt to make a way out of the universe. However, the swipe of his hand didn't tear the veil.
"Fuc--" They were trapped, and before he could even curse, the dark core suddenly shook and brightened, coming back to life. When it did…
"Mm!"
All three walkers almost broke down. They had to channel their energy just to be able to stand in the void. Even still, it was a chore. Their own existence was unable to stand against it.
A tyrannical and overbearing presence they had never experienced in their long life fell on them, threatening to flatten them.
"Damn it!" Nulrex hadn't cursed this much in a while. "What is this…?" With great difficulty, he managed to lift his head to see what was happening to the core.
"You came, so you stay." A voice resounded all around them, sending cold shivers down their spine.
They knew exactly who that voice belonged to, and it came from nowhere in particular. However, the tone of the voice and the authority within nearly brought them to their knees.
The core continued to increase in brightness, beginning to spin once more. This was followed by another invisible pulse, blasting the Veilwalkers back.
"Ugh!"
At this point, they were just being beaten, having no way to offer resistance. With no idea how different Alex's ascension was, they didn't know what to expect.
The pulse was already putting them in their place. What it was exactly, they didn't know.
'Is this the expression of his existence, or are we missing something?' Aurion pondered with a groan. 'This is not the same as what we went through.'
"Stay there while I complete my evolution." The voice came again, the pressure disappearing completely.
What should have been a relief to them was more of a blow to their pride. They had come here to teach a stubborn walker a lesson, only to inadvertently trigger something big.
Nulrex had no intention of waiting around. If they couldn't leave the central area, there should be no problems doing it outside. The veils were weaker there.
The walker attempted to interact with the barrier but encountered the same issue as his companion.
"What?" He echoed in disbelief. "I can't interact with it!" He turned to the others, drawing their attention away from the core.
"I figured as much." Aurion wasn't surprised, already deciding to wait. "It's like we've been locked out of a system."
They could see the fundamental fabric of the universe, they could see the flow of its laws, but they couldn't interact with it.
"So we're just going to wait around?" Nulrex refused to accept the reality.
"What else can we do?" Aurion shrugged. "Instead of wasting our energy trying to do the impossible, let's see how different his evolution would be. Maybe we can learn a thing or two."
"And if he intends to kill us?" Maeralith shivered. "In case you haven't tried it already…"
"I tried." Aurion replied with a head shake. "But he should be able to tell something is wrong. After all, his will was somehow erased.
"As for killing us…" He left that part hanging. He couldn't make assumptions, not while he knew so little about Alex.
Resigning to their fate, the three Veilwakers stood at the edge of the core space, watching as the core continued to spin.
Another pulse erupted, and this time they sensed it coming. The three walkers promptly reacted, creating an unbreakable barrier reinforced with laws.
However, what they expected wasn't what happened. Instead of a killer pulse they half expected would break their barriers, the pulse phased through them.
"Huh?"