Cid walked.
Not through space.
Not through dimensions.
He walked through the absence of those things.
A place older than the First Reality, yet younger than any possibility.
A place known only in forbidden texts as:
"The 0th Layer."
The layer before creation.
Before stories.
Before meaning.
A layer that shouldn't exist.
And only one being could stand here without collapsing into paradox
Cid.
He took a single step.
A ripple exploded in the empty void.
The ripple became a realm.
The realm became a multiverse.
The multiverse became a hyperverse.
The hyperverse became a story.
All created
from the sound of his foot touching nothing.
Cid tilted his head.
Oh. I made another one."
With a snap, he absorbed it into the infinite abyss within his body.
A trillion civilizations disappeared not destroyed, but safely stored as energy he could use later.
Ancient Primordials of the 0th Layer noticed him.
These beings were not gods.
They were not concepts.
They were not anything definable.
They were forces the raw metaphysical currents that shaped all future existence.
When they saw Cid, they collapsed.
Not from fear.
But because their definitions stopped working.
"Mass"
"Form"
"Consciousness"
"Identity"
"Purpose"
All impossible to maintain in front of a being who existed outside the reason they exist.
Cid opened one eye.
Lines, formulas, runes, fate-scripts, destiny threads, and meta narrative data spiraled before him.
Tengen evaluated the Primordials.
And returned a single error:
TARGET: UNDEFINABLE."
"REASON: YOU EXIST IN A PLACE ABOVE THE CONCEPT OF DEFINITION."
Cid nodded.
Makes sense."
Even his ability couldn't categorize beings here
because he was above the layer the ability itself originated from.
A creature of the 0th Layer approached.
Its body was made of pure Law
the foundational principles that future universes would use.
It swung a fist containing:
The Law of Motion
The Law of Identity
The Law of Existence
The Law of Logic
Cid looked at the punch.
The Laws dissolved.
The creature's arm vanished.
The entire being unraveled into harmless mist.
Cid had not attacked.
He simply witnessed it.
And witnessing something while having Power Nullification meant:
anything contradictory to him ceased to function.
Cid stretched his hand.
His shape dissolved into pure possibility.
He became:
A line
A sphere
A fractal
A shadow
A godly humanoid
A pure concept
A story
A void
A dimension
And finally… himself again
His form was irrelevant.
He existed beyond the meaning of "shape."
Cid focused.
Suddenly, he was aware of:
Every timeline that would ever exist
Every reality that might be born
Every dimension that could be written
Every story yet unwritten
Every being who might threaten him
Every future Primordial who would rise
Then he noticed something else.
Something… watching him.
Something not from this layer.
Something from beyond the end of everything.
Something that shouldn't be able to perceive him.
Cid smirked.
"So there is something up there."
His voice shook the 0th Layer.
And that unseen watcher recoiled.
Cid had found it.
A being outside the story.
Outside the layers.
Outside the omniverse.
Something that dared observe him.
A challenge.
His eyes opened fully for the first time.
A cosmic quake spread across the nothingness.
…Let's see who's looking at me."
He stepped upward
into a direction that should not exist.