The Primordial Record

Rowan had less than twenty decades until his shelter was lost and he would have to come to terms with fighting all these battles, the prospect of peace was too far ahead in the future for him, yet he could only look forward and proceed, step by step.

If he survived this battle between him and his father, then he was ready to challenge whatever was waiting for him outside the universe.

Untying the knot over the box, he opened the folded piece of paper and it contained a simple message;

"USER99990756XCTYN5#–Thank you for your patronage. Spend a thousand more Labyrinth Coins to upgrade to a member and unlock special perks and bonuses."

Rowan kept the paper and looked inside the box, which turned out to be a unique Interspatial Storage device. Altogether he had purchased well over seven hundred thousand exotic treasures the box only contained 711,231 pieces of square yellow paper.

The picture and the descriptions of the item he brought were recorded on each sheet of paper, and Rowan was able to confirm how the gods of Trion like Boreas had been able to build such elaborate treasures like this Spirit Guise.

The creation of the Spirit Guises was sloppy work by Rowan's estimation, but with the proper description of the treasures Boreas had been able to acquire, he would have been able to figure out how to put them together.

Each paper held the treasure it described inside a unique space inside each yellow page, and Rowan was pleased with this arrangement when he easily retrieved the treasure he wanted without any interference to his forging operation.

Confirming he had everything he needed for his Forge, Rowan sank into a sort of daze as he continued his careful manipulation of each component of his Forge, taking note to integrate what he had learned from the world below.

Billions of parts and materials worked together as the Forge began to take shape, some of the treasures were melted, others frozen, some had their state changed from pure energy to solid mass, and even some of the treasures were given life in order to fit his needs.

He used hundreds of forging techniques at once and sank so deeply into his work that he barely had any awareness of his surroundings. Working like this was something that he found not only relaxing but oddly pleasurable.

The stress he was going through using just a single consciousness was stimulating, pushing him to make his forging techniques more polished so he would use the entire energy available to him without waste.

All these processes took place in a Forge that was smaller than the head of a pin.

His delayed evolution was like a heavy block on his mind. Rowan had not gone so long in his new life without evolving, and this was the longest he had spent while he was still in the same level of power.

However, he knew he had to become used to situations like this in the future as he grew stronger. The requirements for him to evolve would become increasingly strenuous in the future. It was a good thing that he had so many abilities that he could draw from.

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Maeve had appeared a few hundred feet behind him as she watched the stars, protecting him from any dangers or distractions, she had felt the ripples in space as whatever item her master had summoned arrived, and she became extra vigilant when she noticed that Rowan had began his craft.

She could not help now and then and peek at her master. Her perception was not enough to understand the entire process that Rowan was creating and manipulating, but the little she could grasp nearly made her intellect collapse into chaos.

The mysteries surrounding her master went deeper than she could imagine and as she caught glimpses of such a massive amount of energies being controlled so precisely leaving little to no waste and remembered Rowan telling her that this was just a small part of his entire capabilities, she wondered if his parent knew the sort of monster they had created.

This face before her was the form her master and friend had in her memories long ago, but Maeve began to wonder after seeing the frightening display of power and dominion from Rowan if, like everything he was doing, this body was nothing but a suit worn by him in order to make her more comfortable.

She had detected it in his smiles and the way he touched her hand. She was a goddess and yet Rowan had held her hand as gently as a newly born as if he was afraid he would break her.

Her great powers did not seem to phase him as he barely acknowledged her strength. Every move from him seemed calculated, and she felt like a child anytime he was near.

"Elura, you gave birth to a true Emperor."

Although she tried to deny her instincts, it was clear that this person sounded like her master, walked like him, looked like him, but after a million years of torture and other grave indignities too grave for her to comprehend, what was left was somebody so different, they could as well be two different individuals.

He was not only mentally powerful but physically as well.

Maeve wondered if it was considered a betrayal of the memories of her master that she admired this version of Rowan more than his previous self.

Romion as he was named by his mother had been a boy who loved life, and it was difficult to imagine that he would be able to harm even a single ant. Such a person would not last a single second in this world. Romion was dead, and Rowan had taken his place.

She would weep the gentle ruler that could have been. But she embraced the tyrant that was present.

Their bloodline was sacred and venerated, and the desecration it had suffered demanded a more than equal retaliation.

Maeve sat and watched as the glow in front of Rowan grew brighter, as more mystical materials were added in dazzling amounts, and various heavenly apparitions were created and swallowed into whatever monstrosity her master was forging.

During the forging, Maeve had noticed that the body of Rowan would vibrate before calming down. She focused on this enigma, and she noticed that the power for this forging process was emerging from his body. But he was using so much energy it was destroying the body he was using and every time she noticed his body was vibrating, it meant that he had just changed a new body after exhausting the previous ones to nothing.

Maeve discovered that in less than six hours, Rowan had changed his body 13,000 times!

Finally, with a sigh from Rowan it was over.

Rowan, her lord turned to her and smiled. "Watch over my Forge, I should not take long."

His body turned to smoke and vanished into the tiny spot of light in front of him.

Maeve rushed over and covered the spot of light with her wings and she eagerly waited for his return.

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The internal appearance of the Forge was simple. It was just a vast and empty landscape with a few small hills dotted around.

There were a few stars in the sky and several planets and moons were so close to the surface of the world that it was almost as if you could touch them if you stood on your tiptoes.

Rowan disregarded the form of the child he had been wearing and appeared as he truly was—A single line that seemed to be a few feet long but also appeared to extend to infinity at the same time.

He looked inside himself and everything was still. His gaze had made time stop inside his body. His gaze swept towards the area where the Primordial Record rested and he tensed in expectation because its evolution was finally complete.

Shedding himself of every Wills in his bloodline and finally controlling the Primordial Record inside his body was the catalyst that led to this evolution.

"It had been too long," Rowan muttered to himself, and with a long cry that pierced eternity. He released the holding he had over his evolution.

The silver line that made up his body began to vibrate and suddenly collapsed to the ground before its bright colors began to fade.

It suddenly resembled a thread that had been left to the elements and was on the verge of decay.

That was before a loud boom was heard, and cracks began to emerge from the line.