「我以萬物為砥石，試圖砥礪我之意義；卻不知萬物是水，我消逝其中，正如水消逝在水中。」
—悲悼伶人蓮禱，凝視虛空後寫下的唱詞
宇宙萬物並無意義，人類在星神眼裏亦不值一提。如果星神當真凌駕眾生、高高在上，又怎會在乎凡人的愛恨苦樂？「自滅者」是不慎踏入「虛無」IX的陰影，因此失去存在意義的人群。
「虛無」的影子平等地遮蔽星空，自滅者可能在任何一個世界誕生。若將之稱作「派系」，他們彼此之間過於缺乏社會性的聯繫；但若視之為「現象」，這群可憐人又都具有一種共性：他們的種種存在屬性：軀體、認知、記憶…會在自滅的旅途中逐漸消亡。
這些現象往往難以用自然規律解釋，混沌醫師的手記如此形容：有些人的皮膚變得像是腐爛的枯木，佈滿傷痕和孔洞；有些人的內分泌系統開始錯亂，不分快樂與痛苦，變得對一切麻木；有些人失去了記憶，有些人喪失了感官…他們仿佛被某種存在剝奪了生命的意義，只能在夢境和幻覺中不斷看見自己的身影消失在一處地平線盡頭的黑洞裏。
但一些自滅者會萌生反抗的想法，他們加入「混沌醫師」，誓在有限的時光中盡力醫治他人的虛無，以換取自我的救贖；更有甚者以強烈的信念為支柱，試圖從根源上斷絕「虛無」的詛咒，通過殺死那位沉眠在深淵中的星神。
天才俱樂部#64「原始博士」曾在失蹤前發問：倘若IX真的對宇宙視若無睹，「虛無」的命途何以存在至今？也許當自滅者茫然地行於星海，同時也是在將祂的陰影投向宇宙各地。而那寥寥少數能以自身存在承受「虛無」浸染的行者，他們的自滅之旅被拉得無限漫長，走出的道路也如同IX在世間的一道側影。
Self-Annihilator — Nihility
"I aim to refine my significance by employing all as a whetstone, oblivious to how all beings are but water. I fade into them, like water dissolving into water."
— Lyrics of a song written by the Mourning Actor, Lotusprayer, after gazing into the void.
Everything in the universe is meaningless, and human beings are worthless in the eyes of Aeons. If Aeons are truly above all beings, why would THEY even care about the emotions of mortals? The Self-Annihilators are individuals who have inadvertently stepped into the shadow of IX the Nihility and from that moment have lost the meaning of their own existence.
The shadow of Nihility covers the stars equally, and Self-Annihilators may form in any world. If we call them phenomena, these poor souls do share one thing in common: Their various existential properties — such as corporeal body, mental cognition, and personal memories... will gradually fade away in their journey of self-annihilation.
These phenomena can hardly be explained by the laws of nature. As described in the handwritten notes of the Doctors of Chaos — Some Self-Annihilators have their skin turn into something like rotten wood, full of holes and scars. Some have their endocrine system disrupted, becoming unable to distinguish between pleasure and pain and turning numb to everything. Some lose their memories, others lose their senses... It is as if they have been deprived of the meaning of their lives by some entity, and can only keep watching in dreams and illusions as their own forms disappear into a black hole at the end of the horizon.
However, some Self-Annihilators would conceive the idea of fighting back. They join the Doctors of Chaos, vowing to do their best to cure others of Nihility in what little time they have left in exchange for their own redemption. Moreover, some of them rely on their strong convictions to try to break the curse of Nihility at its root — by slaying the Aeon that slumbers in the abyss.
Dr. Primitive, No. 64 of the Genius Society, once asked before his disappearance: If IX is truly unresponsive to the universe, how could the Path of Nihility exist to this day? Perhaps, as the Self-Annihilators aimlessly traverse the cosmos, they are also casting the shadow of the Aeon around the universe. As for the few who can single-handedly withstand the encroachment of Nihility on their existences, their journey of self-annihilation is drawn out to infinity, and the road they walk is like a shadow of IX cast in the world.
