The Primordial Record

The words of light drew an angry chuckle from Time, as two more hands erupted from his side which he used to grab the skull, exerting more force in his attempt to crush it, Demon made a move to stop him, but was held back by Light,

"You are making a mistake Time, this is the best path, for you and us all. You should be grateful to carry such a burden"

"By blinding me to my fate, and leaving my life in all of your hands? That burden? I was never made to walk with my eyes closed, Light. I am Time! You all are not giving me any chances. I have never cared for eternity, only your trust. If I was a coward, I would have left, I would have gone so deeply into the Nothingness that you could never find me, yet I stayed behind, and yet, none of you were willing to allow me to complete my vision. Tell me, who betrayed who?"

Light shook his head, "We do not do this out of hate, fear, or spite, but necessity, do not think you are the only one to be making a sacrifice, we all would pay. By blinding your reach into the future, this inevitably means the end of all our sights was marked also. We also shall not know what comes after the Primordial Era, this is a sacrifice that we must all make. In taking away your eyes, we did the same to ourselves, the board is now balanced and change can begin. This is the right path."

Time began to laugh, a sound that was so violent that his featureless face tore open, revealing a gash that became a grisly sort of mouth,

"Forgive me Light if I don't see the equality in our sacrifice. I am Time, of everyone here you should understand how much was taken from me by the acts of all of you. I do not fear pain or desolation of living an existence that is eternal damnation, what I do fear is betrayal." Demon stepped forward, his thousand eyes focused on the skull that was about to be shattered, clearly not listening to the words of Time, with his focus more on the skull,

"We have no reason to betray you, Time. Unless you give us one. Have I not promised multiple layers of my Abyss for your bloodline alone? Your light shall be most prevalent in all of creation, what more do you seek from us? We all pay a price for our goals. If you were such a coward, why did you choose to become Time, when you knew what was to come? You could have faded into nothingness and allowed another to take your mantle."

Time shook in anger, "Know the future? I was not even aware that the future was my Aspect because it was hidden from me until you sprung this plan to aid you all in your great work. I was content to roam the Nothingness for eternity, yet you all drew me from my peace and gave me fate worse than death."

"Heresy!" Demon roared as the air around them became charged with power, "How long do you think you can sleep and dream of Nothingness? We gave you purpose!"

Time shook his head and whispered, "You gave me nothing but nightmares! It is already too late, I shall not suffer alone."

"Don't you dare!" Demon roared in anger, his fury so great Rowan thought he was about to destroy Time on the spot yet once more his anger was calmed by a touch from Light,

"It is too late, go and summon the others, especially Chaos to begin the process of creating The Great Darkness, we must recover as much essence of the Torch Dragon before it is all gone."

Demon groaned in anger, took a final look at Time and he vanished. There was a sickening crack as the skull of the Torch Dragon finally gave way under the relentless pressure of Time as he tore it into four parts.

Rowan was expecting an intense explosion of energy, but what emerged from the skull of the Torch Dragon were fine white clouds of dust that emerged slowly for a short while before exploding in volume, and despite Time and Light being at the epicenter of the explosion, the white dust could not come near them.

The dust rose to the heavens where it met the wind that was Rowan, and it tore into him, and it was all Rowan could do to focus on what was happening below because the white dust held the screams of pain and rage of the Torch Dragon.

The cries continued increasing in intensity until Rowan could no longer hold and his consciousness was frozen by the sheer mental weight of the cries and everything went blank, but reality snapped around him suddenly, taking him to a new scene.

Somewhere deep in his soul, he felt a new weight and he understood that the transformation of his soul and the emergence of his new bloodline was almost complete, these memories were the remnants left of the Primordial of Time.

The new reality that was revealed was different from the last, and in this memory, there was only one Primordial here, and he stood at the edge of the greatest waterfall that Rowan had ever seen.

It was a waterfall that was so large it could fit nearly the entirety of the Great Darkness, which was Chaos's Fourth Dimension that held all of the third-dimensional universe in existence.

Time appeared nearly the same as he once did, except this time he was no longer a featureless face with only eyes, now he had lips and a nose, and his skin was incredibly pale like white marble.

He looked upwards and Rowan, still holding the shape of the wind, looked upwards too and discovered they were not as alone as he thought, there were four other figures standing in the distance.

To measure this distance with miles would be useless for they were many multiple universes away, but their present size was so massive, that Rowan could see only their head, like four large moons looking down at Time.

Time looked down with regret before walking towards the edge of the massive waterfall and he stepped off, but he did not fall, he gestured with his hands and a silver ring appeared in front of him. Time seemed to hesitate before he took the silver ring and he turned once more and raised it to the air as if he was showing the other watching Primordials before he slowly placed the ring on his right thumb.

Doing so he sat down crossed-legged in the air and closed his eyes, and Rowan felt a sense of finality around Time, as if he had just made a decision that would mean he was not moving from this place for all eternity.

It was then that Rowan heard the sounds of chains coming from a distance, and at first, Time seemed not to be aware of the sound, but a frown crossed his face and his eyes slowly came open, but Rowan could see that even this action seemed difficult for him to do, as if the ring was suppressing all of his energy.

His gaze turned to the bottom of the waterfall and his pale features nearly turned translucent as he whispered, "So you still betrayed me."