The Primordial Record

Although the fact that he was standing upon what he assumed was an Anima of a Primordial was surprising, it was not as startling as the realization of what was happening inside his soul before he was dragged into this place.

Rowan had enough experience in this subject, perhaps more than anyone because he owned a treasure that could grant such a thing and he was very familiar with this process, however, what was happening was still unexpected and it took a few moments for him to come to terms with it.

He was gaining a fourth bloodline, or rather, he was awakening his fourth bloodline!

It turned out that all this while, he could not get access to a bloodline that he felt should be intrinsically connected to him for one simple reason only; he needed a soul, and from the hurdle he had just scaled through just to reach this point, an extraordinary one that would automatically eliminate majority of all participants.

Not even the Shadows of the Primordial with their newly gained souls could gain this bloodline because, unlike any other bloodline that Rowan was familiar with, the bloodline of Time was not encoded in the flesh, but in the soul.

Rowan had tried not to think about the reason why for all these while he had not yet received a bloodline related to Time, chalking it as the fault of a dead Primordial, who was bitter about his death and defeat.

Among the many things he was sure could happen when a Primordial dies, locking away his bloodline so it could not be accessed by anyone seemed standard enough, or he had thought that the bloodline of Time had been banished by the other Primordials to stop any chance for the Primordial of Time to be resurrected, who knew the steps that could be taken in order to kill a Primordial and make it permanent.

Despite the powers he could gain from the bloodline of Time, he knew that such a bloodline like the ones related to souls must be under intense scrutiny, and he had enough on his plate already.

As far as he could tell the greatest threat against the Primordials was the Primordial of Time and they would certainly place stringent restrictions over anything that concerned this matter, he had to be extremely careful, but now the matter was out of his hand, as the bloodline of Time had just dropped on his lap.

Previously, Rowan had slight regrets for not obtaining the bloodline of Time, because as far as he could tell, except for the Shadows of the Primordial that could display some of the powers of Time, no one else in all of reality had the bloodline of Time.

Everyone else could only control Time due to the fact that it was prevalent in the higher dimension, and the act of gaining Will was obtaining the authority or the chains that could suppress and control a portion of the power of Time.

In the past, the Primordial had most likely created the path to reach the higher dimensions by using the body of Time itself as the foundation.

Rowan did not think that this was a strange thing, because the Supreme Era and its Supreme Circle were created in a similar fashion by the Primordials. They had shattered the entire Primordial Era and used it as the foundation of creating the Supreme Era.

What Rowan had just come to understand was that in another previous Era in the past, the Primordials in order to create the pathway to a higher dimension for everyone else had most likely used Time itself.

From the few actions of the Primordials that he could comprehend, they seemed to be finding ways to disseminate power to all. What could be the purpose behind their actions? Was it as Old Man Seed had said; that the Primordials were finding a candidate that could stand beside them?

Rowan knew there were threats that could battle Primordials, like the Primordial Beasts in the past, or the strange Primordial of Time who seemed to have another Will, which was Evil, or the vision he had seen of a terrible place called Limbo which could be the originator of the Primordial Record itself... These were all great mysteries and Rowan was sure that in this place he was one step away from finding it.

This did not make him happy, at this time he had too much on his plate, and more knowledge meant more danger, yet he knew that he required every edge he might need to stand ahead in the confrontation ahead. The only thing he was worried about was if his actions here would cause a huge deviation from the plan that his past self would have made.

Rowan was sure that there was no way he would have factored gaining the Bloodline of Time in this place, and if that was to be true, then anything he did here would throw the future into uncertainty. He did not know if he had only one chance to make this thing right and if his actions here would cause consequences that would haunt him forever.

His body was already moving even before his soul came to terms with what was happening.

Why should Rowan care about the changes he was about to make? Life was chaos, and everything could change at the drop of a hat. If his previous self could not factor in such drastic changes in the overall plan, then Rowan would have to just take the lead and see where he could channel the ship.

There could no longer be any hesitation at a stage like this. There could only be an endless forward momentum. If his previous self had understood the need to free up a channel of soul energy to Rowan despite his dormant dimension, then that meant he had given himself a universal lock pick to be used in any situation he found himself, and it was up to him that he made sure that he was the one who came out on top in the end.

Looking back at this massive creature before him, Rowan began to notice many things that he had once missed. It was hard not to notice something like this when you stood on the Anima of a Primordial, but Rowan was anything but normal, and a second look was all he needed to assess this Anima thoroughly.

This Anima seemed on the edge of destruction, apart from its size which could scare anyone else but Rowan whose true size was close to a universe's. He pushed past its flimsy facade of power and saw that there was something lacking in this being, it had no soul.

The six squared-shaped eyes were like dead gems and there were massive cracks throughout the body of the creature that exposed its internals, and when Rowan peered within, he could not see bones or muscles, instead, it was filled with rusted pistons, gears, and several pieces of machinery that seemed equally simple, yet frightenedly complex at the same time.

He was suddenly swept with a feeling of sadness as he looked at the remnants of this Primordial. No being of his stature should have to suffer such a fate, death would have been a mercy for him, instead, his shattered corpse had been screaming for an endless eternity.