The Primordial Record

Aeris's statement was met with silence before the Watcher frowned before standing to her full height, her appearance was of an older woman with white hair, but at this moment there was nothing frail about her, she appeared to have made up her mind and she began speaking unhurriedly,

"We have been looking at this whole thing through the wrong lenses all this time. This universe was never ours or the Demon's. We were meant to believe that it was. It is clear that someone else had acquired a Nemesis Plate long before now and created deep channels in this universe that are now coming to fruition, and sadly we have all been playing catch up. I am sure the demons would be coming to the same conclusion soon, and so we have limited time to act before the full gaze of the Abyss falls on this place."

Silas Black blinked, "Surely you cannot mean…"

The Watcher nodded, "I do, look around you, remember how strange this universe was from the start. It had too much essence, so much I likened it to the mythical Super universe," she gestured around, "These portals most likely lead to an unknown Supreme World. I don't believe anyone can simply set up such a passage inside a Third Dimension, it would require many Eras of work and a knowledge of the Third Dimension that trumps any I have ever known."

She began to count on her fingers, "The death of the Universe, the appearance and collection of its Will by hidden forces, that energy surge from that cursed planet, this unknown enemy with the ability to break through the barrier of our Magus World's Will and forcefully merge the souls of our Archmages to their bodies. We are in over our heads, and we should call for the Supreme one. I should have taken this matter to Endirius billions of years ago when we detected how strange this universe was. This calamity could have been avoided."

"Hold on Watcher, you forget that the call to the Supreme world is a decision that was always mine to make," Silas Black retorted, "All of us have enjoyed the bounties from this universe, especially you. Don't think I don't know of the vast amounts of Primordial Aether you have harvested from its Isle of Rest. Disregarding that fact, this is a pivotal juncture and at this time, it is still contained, any word from you could shatter the opportunity we have here."

Aeris joined Silas and spoke out, "I have to agree with Silas. The battle has barely begun, and bringing this matter to Endirius would strip us of any ability to profit from this disaster, and it is a disaster, the death of these Mages would raise a lot of eyebrows in the Supreme World and your ability as a Watcher would be called into question on how such a threat was allowed to grow inside this universe unchecked."

Her eyes shone with greed and excitement, "But there is also a great opportunity to be found here. Don't forget the second source of energy we feel inside this universe, the key to becoming Supreme is here Watcher, don't you also crave it? Even if you don't, fleeing to the Supreme Magus without more information would only lead to punishment. Think about it Watcher, we have access to more armies far beyond what is present here that are not Mages, we can control and slow down any ongoing operation here and when we meet Endirius with this news, we will also have results in hand, don't allow a moment of panic strip you of the gains we have made inside this universe for the last six billion years, and a monumental surprise that could be found here in the future."

Aeris grasped a portion of reality and showed it to the Watcher, "From my calculations, this universe can still hold on for another decade. We still have time to take appropriate actions and deal with this new threat."

The eyes of the Watcher gleamed, as she addressed ignored Aeris and addressed Silas,

"Before now the only thing you wanted to do was run, but now you crave this power? Putting that aside for the moment, if I remember correctly I paid for my watch over the Isle of Rest to you and Aeris with a vast amount of elemental resources and the multiple keys to the Labyrinth Space. I have not taken more than I should have and I have no problem with greed, a trait I see that you lack. Your ambitions are self-destructive at best."

Turning to speak to Aeris, "You speak of armies, but you forget something important, no matter how many armies we bring into this problem we are still playing catch up against an unknown force, that is likely a Supreme one. Understand this, for I don't say it lightly, we have lost Aeris but it is not too late, how can you not see it?"

She gestured to the shrinking universe, as more and more of its essence were siphoned into the vortices,

"This universe has no defense against Endirius at this point, withholding information from the Supreme Magus because of greed is beyond stupid, and you all forget something, this universe is dead, thus my watch has ended. It is time to return home and create my Great Tower, but not before this enemy pays for the death of all our Magus. Or have you forgotten how many of your Mages have been slaughtered this day, Silas?"

Silas scratched his head, "Eeh, I was hoping you would have forgotten that part, it's always strange the attachment someone like you can have against mortal creatures. You are also right, your watch has ended and as you and the rest of this rabble have proven to me, your usefulness is now redundant. I selected you because you were always quite docile and agreeable, but I see that you have grown full of ideas and flavor Megit the Watcher, I think it is time to harvest."

The Watcher's eyes slowly widened and then they stopped, only her eyeballs could move as the rest of her body was frozen.

Aeris had appeared behind her and wrapped her arms around the body of the Tower Master and this act froze her in place, yet she struggled to speak, "How… is…this… possible?"

Silas shrugged and looked away, seemingly concentrating on something else, by the way, his ears were twitching he was receiving a message, he turned back to the Watcher and beheld a grisly sight.

The body of Aeris had melted all over the Watcher and sprouted hundreds of mouths which was beginning to chew through the body of the Magus, brief bursts of Aether flared from wounds that were so strong it could crush a galaxy, but they were greedily dissolved and absorbed by a hundred cackling mouths of Aeris.

The Watcher was constantly regenerating and this kept the destruction of her body to a stalemate even while all of her powers had become bound and in her fury, she saw that the root of this poison had been slowly fed to her over the course of billions of years as she stayed inside the Isle of Rest.

Despite all her disadvantages, the Watcher had indeed gathered an enormous amount of Primordial Aether over the years and it would take millions of years to reduce her to nothingness.

That stalemate soon ended when Silas walked up to her and his black robe flared up like the hood from a cobra, and from his stomach, several massive black tentacles erupted and began digging into the body of the Watcher pulling out large chunks of flesh and bone and transporting it into a large mouth that appeared on Silas Chest.