The universe trembled as Superman crossed beyond the last light.
Behind him, galaxies burned like fading candles, their glow swallowed by the eternal dusk ahead. The air—or what passed for air in this void—was dense with silence. Even photons hesitated here. This was not darkness; it was the absence of existence itself.
He had entered the Absolute Core, a place older than time—where the first light of creation once ignited and where it now returned to rest.
His cape drifted around him, dissolving into particles of gold. His body began to waver, not from weakness but transformation. The laws of the multiverse could not define him anymore.
Every step he took resonated through dimensions. Space folded, reality twisted, and yet, through it all, Superman walked with calm purpose.
---
A voice echoed—not from outside, but from within him.
> "Kal-El of Krypton… you seek the source of all suns. Why do you come here?"
He closed his eyes, feeling the vibration deep within his chest. "Because I've seen too many worlds die. Too many civilizations crushed by their own darkness. If there's a way to rekindle hope… I must find it."
> "Hope…" The voice was ancient, layered with cosmic fatigue. "Even gods have lost faith in that word."
"Then let me remind them."
For a moment, silence. Then the void rippled, and light began to form—a sphere of unimaginable radiance, larger than galaxies, brighter than thought itself. It pulsed gently, as though breathing.
Superman floated toward it. The Heart of the Absolute Core.
---
The sphere spoke again, not with words, but through understanding. Images flooded Superman's mind—visions of the first creation, when energy was born from nothing. He saw the birth of stars, the rise of gods, the endless cycles of birth and destruction.
Then, he saw something else—the fading.
Light was dying across every realm. Not from battle or entropy, but from forgetfulness. Civilizations had stopped believing. They no longer looked up at the stars.
That was the true death of creation.
Superman's hands clenched. "Then I'll remind them what light means. Even if I must burn myself to do it."
The sphere pulsed brighter, testing his resolve. Waves of pure existence struck him—each one capable of annihilating reality.
But Superman did not falter. He let the waves pass through him, his essence adjusting, adapting. Every particle of his being restructured itself, synchronizing with the rhythm of the Core.
His thoughts slowed. His heartbeat merged with the pulse of creation.
He saw it then—every sun, every spark, every soul. They were all connected by a single thread of consciousness. And now, that thread ran through him.
---
He remembered the first time he saw Earth's sunrise as a boy—how simple light could fill a world with warmth and hope. Now, that same light was infinite, burning within him.
His body began to change.
The blue of his suit deepened into the color of collapsing stars. His emblem—the legendary "S"—flared into a radiant sigil of living energy. His eyes blazed like twin cosmic furnaces, reflecting every color of existence.
He had become something no being had ever achieved—The Absolute Prime Superman.
Not just powered by suns.
But become the essence of all suns themselves.
---
The Core's voice whispered once more:
> "You carry the light of eternity. But remember… light brings life—and judgment."
Superman looked into the Core. "Then I'll be both. The hand that protects… and the fire that purifies."
With that, the sphere exploded—not in destruction, but in liberation. Energy cascaded through all realities. The darkness recoiled as new stars ignited across infinite planes. The sound was the music of rebirth, echoing through the multiverse.
Superman hovered amidst it all, glowing brighter than creation itself. He could feel existence bending around him, acknowledging him.
Every being that ever lived—across countless worlds—felt a warmth deep within, even if they didn't understand why.
Some whispered prayers.
Some lifted their eyes.
And for the first time in eons… hope returned.
---
But in the farthest reaches of the void, something stirred. A shadow older than light itself—watching, waiting.
> "The Light has found its vessel," it hissed. "Then so must the Darkness rise again."
Unseen by all creation, the Oblivion Entity awoke—an ancient counterpart to the Absolute Core. It had slumbered since the first dawn, biding its time.
And now, it had felt fear.
---
Superman turned, sensing it—a flicker of cold that even his newfound radiance couldn't banish completely. His eyes narrowed.
"Then the balance begins again," he whispered.
The light around him intensified, shaping into wings of plasma and gravity, spreading across the horizon of creation.
> "If darkness is eternal," he vowed,
"then so is the light that stands against it."
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