On a plane of Laws beyond time and space, one mortals could not perceive.
Link's consciousness was serving as the universe's "firewall," carrying out his final duty.
His existence had merged with the entire universe. He was Gravity, the speed of light, entropy, and causality. He silently watched the universe turn, civilizations rise and fall, and life flourish and die.
It was a state of supreme grandeur and supreme loneliness.
Over the long years since becoming "One," he had sensed threats from beyond the "wall" several times.
Sometimes, an ancient god from a higher dimension tried to reach into the universe and sow the seeds of madness. Link's will, embodied in the Laws, would act automatically, "deleting" the intruding tendril on a conceptual level as though fixing a bug.
Sometimes, a visitor from a parallel universe who toyed with time tried to create a paradox in this universe's timeline. Link's will, embodied in the Laws, would trigger automatically, "resetting" the corrupted timeline as though straightening out tangled code.
He was like the most faithful, unfeeling system administrator, maintaining the stable operation of this vast server day after day.
He had thought he would go on like that forever, until the universe reached its final heat death.
But gradually, a trace of "noise" that should not have existed appeared in his divine consciousness, cold as Absolute Zero.
A memory. A smile. A voice.
"Hello, Lil' Puddin'."
Harley Quinn.
The imprint of her soul, which he had forcibly reclaimed from Void and hidden in the deepest reaches of his "cosmic heart," had become the sole human "anchor" in his divinity.
That anchor kept him from fully merging with the universe's perfectly rational Laws. Like a rope, it bound him tightly to that distant mortal world, so full of life.
He began