The Primordial Record

Rowan felt the flame of his soul begin to vibrate rapidly and it began to lose mass because he could no longer hold himself together in pain like he had experienced only once before when his soul was previously under threat of dissipation from the Primordial Keepers, but this time it was a million times more pronounced.

However, this was all distant as the screaming from Time ravaged him to the core.

The voice that was both familiar and utterly alien pierced through Rowan's Soul and before he could comprehend what was happening, the entire stream of time arose from the higher dimensions, and they gushed towards his flame.

Rowan tried to pull back, to leave this space where the dimensions held away, but he was too late. Time curled around him like a snake, and then without any fanfare, it plunged into his flame.

His heart had once described Time as music that was soft and lilting, yet heavier than a universe. Rowan was finding out how much he had understated this weight.

"BOOM!!!"

Time filled up his soul and Rowan screamed as he was torn apart at the seams, no matter how powerful his soul was, equal to the Ascendant suns in this realm, Time was so much more. The calculating part of his mind that could never be shut off despite the ungodly pain as his soul was rent to pieces rapidly went into play, as a million possibilities were created and discarded until he arrived at the only conclusion, and no matter how insane this conclusion had now turned out to be, Rowan knew it was his only chance for survival.

The crazy plan was simple, bear the weight of Time.

It sounded insane but Rowan knew that he was about to be torn into pieces, but he was still holding, and that meant he could make his soul stronger to match the intensity of Time pouring into him.

Without access to Soul Energy, such a thing would be considered insanity, but Rowan had not been using the full power of his Soul Energy to grow his soul, because he never placed all his eggs in one basket, danger could erupt at any moment and in a snap, he would need to have an infinity tool that he could use when the moment called for it.

Presently he was using just ten percent of his total allotment of Soul Energy Flow to beef up his soul constantly, and now he increased this channel seventy percent at once.

His screaming stopped and his soul seemed to expand rapidly before compressing and this time the white of his Soul Flame acquired a tinge of blue.

Time still rushed unceasingly into his soul, but Rowan had now become a container that could never be filled up, it did not matter how much Time poured into his soul, he could handle it. The pain was horrendous, and he was at the edge of dissipation, but standing at the edge was no longer something new for him, he thrived in this place.

With the threat of death handled, it was not surprising that Rowan's fury erupted, but he did not allow it to consume him, as he knew that what was happening was not considered normal.

Allowing his mind to go cold, he began watching every single change happening inside his soul as Time entered it.

Every change was being rapidly deciphered although it was extremely difficult because the massive flood of Time vanished the instant it entered his soul, entering a place he could not find.

Rowan furiously dug into his soul, something was changing within and he needed to find what it was, the flood of Time that had entered his soul was enough to fill up multiple infinities and if not for his perverse ability to keep the growth of his soul equal to the load he was carrying, he would have been dead a long while ago.

He must have scanned his soul a billion times at this point before he detected the first changes, and he zoomed into it. It was a clump of bluish-white flame that did not behave the same way as the rest of his flames, it flowed differently, not like flames, almost like a liquid, he frowned and his perception entered into the flames and a sickening sweet taste filled his perception, almost as if he was tasting... blood?

Before he could come to terms that his soul was beginning to carry the characteristics of a fleshy body, the liquid flame his perception was touching transformed into a hand and seized his perception and he was wrenched into another world.

The first thing Rowan discovered was that in this place there was no air, and somehow his perception that had been transformed into a fleshy body found itself struggling to breathe.

Rowan gasped and sucked in air to no avail, and when black spots were beginning to crowd his vision, he felt the touch of soul energy deep in his heart and he quickly transformed a bit of it into oxygen that filled his lungs and enriched his cells.

Regaining his vision he struggled to his feet and looked around him in puzzlement because except for the bare earth beneath his feet that smelled like clay, everything around him was empty.

Empty in the sense that it was nonexistent. There was no light nor darkness, there was just an absence that was impossible to describe, it was as if there was no memory of his surroundings and only his alien mind could comprehend what it was like to be surrounded by nothingness.

Suddenly he felt a change in the surroundings and he looked up to find the nothingness was no longer empty, instead a large four-sided purple eye gazed down upon him, and then another four-sided eye appeared out of the nothingness and another, until there were six large eyes gazing down at him.

Slowly a massive face began to appear out of the nothingness, and the earth below his feet shook as massive tentacles appeared below the eyes, each of them defying the concept of size as he knew it.

The shaking of the ground grew worse and the earth transformed into a purple rock that began to ascend closer to the twitching tentacles above, Rowan discovered that this earth was nothing but a palm, he was standing on the right hand of the Primordial of Time and Evil and it slowly brought him up until they were face to face.

There were many things Rowan expected to face when he stood before a Primordial, one thing he was not expecting was the ability to even stand and look at one of them in the eye. There was no unfathomable pressure crushing him into dust, he had not run mad at the sight of the creature, everything was unexpectedly anti-climatic.

Rowan cocked his head to the side because the creature before him had not made any move after bringing him up to face him, in fact, it almost felt as if he was not looking at a living creature, but a machine and finally it all clicked for him, what he was looking at was an

Anima...

An Anima of a Primordial.