The Primordial Record

At the start of this ordeal, the darkness of Tenebris was strange enough and powerful enough to tear through Rowan's defenses like paper, but it had taken too long to crush him, and even though Rowan was not focused on it, his passive defenses, titles, and his other consciousness pillars had begun to understand and fight against its encroachment.

Rowan's mental strength and defenses were ridiculous and if Tenebris could not destroy him in one blow, then it was a useless attack. The attack from the armor was growing increasingly more powerful, but so were his defenses. It was only a matter of time to determine who would emerge as the winner from their clash, and Rowan would always bet on himself.

It was only a matter of time before he tore through the mechanism of this Tenebris armor, but this voice was truly becoming annoying.

As a form of attack, Rowan had experienced worse, and of all the attacks he had received over the years, the ones he truly hated were attacks using words, which was ironic when in time one of his potent weapons would be the Will of Truth, a Will that he needed to speak.

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Old Man Seed's voice kept droning on, his words in a weird cadence, almost like music, and if he was aware of the events happening inside the Tenebris armor, he did not address it, maybe he knew that if Rowan could not fight against the influence of the armor, he was not worthy to walk the path of the Supreme Circle.

"For other geniuses, to attain the first Supreme Circle, they would have to meditate for untold Eras, slowly piecing together the various shards embedded in reality. This process requires unmatched focus and determination, and yet this is the first and the easiest part. Your path however would be very different from their own. Your achievement makes every genius I have ever known to be nothing. They could as well be unthinking rocks."

"BOOM!!!... GIVE IN TO ME!!!! LET ME FEAST!!!"

"You are a World Bearer, and so you have the right to exist inside of nothingness, and so I bring you before a cornerstone of Nothingness–Tenebris. Inside this foul place devoid of every light in creation, you can hear the call of the Supreme Circle, that is, if you can resist the madness of Tenebris,"

" I should warn you, even fifth-dimensional Will Holders had fallen before the madness of this armor and were devoured with nothing of them left… you know something, looking back, perhaps I should have led with this. Bah, I'm sure you will be fine, you don't need the distractions."

Rowan was no longer focused on Old Man Seed, he finally got what he came for, the oath towards the First Supreme Circle.

"YOUR SOUL SHALL NOT BE SENT TO THE RIVER, I SHALL FEAST ON IT FOR COUNTLESS ERAS, YOU SHALL WEEP BEFORE MY ENDLESS FURY AS YOU FALL TO PERDITION, I SHALL…"

"So you have a soul and also feast on souls. Interesting."

"What… You can hear me?"

"If I can hear you? You stupid piece of scrap metal, your voice has been the thing I could hear in this darkness!"

"How is that possible? I speak directly to your soul, your consciousness should not even be aware of my touch… Who… What are you?!"

"If you remain silent Tenebris, then I will forget you, I am focused on other things at the moment. Do not test me."

"Wait…Wait…"

Dismissing the voice of the armor from his thoughts, Rowan focused on what was outside of the darkness, and he found nothing. He frowned and attempted to sweep his perception through the darkness as he was accustomed to doing, but his splintered consciousness that had been driven numb by the darkness could as well be as useful as wings on an elephant.

With one of his greatest tools not available to him, Rowan had to settle on taking it slowly, a step at a time.

"If you can hear me then I should introduce myself, I am Demon Lord Tenebr…"

"Hush…" Rowan said gently, "Else I tear out your tongue through your throat, do not let me turn my gaze on you Tenebris."

Rowan's frown kept increasing, the darkness was an annoyance, but he did not try to fight against it. He saw this state of his consciousness as an opportunity. If he was supposed to find the true face of the Supreme Circle, then the purpose for his splintered consciousness should be…

Like a brick to the head, the realization of what he needed to do occurred to him and he nearly laughed at its simplicity.

Tenebris at its core was meant for crushing the souls and the perception of anyone to pieces. Such a thing would kill most immortals, and only with unreasonable willpower would someone hold the fragments of their souls in one piece and try to solve the mystery of the Supreme Circle.

Truly, Old Man Seed was not pulling any of his punches when it came to directing Rowan. To see the entire shards of the Supreme Circle, well, one's soul would need to be shattered into shards.

Tenebris would act as the hammer and the container. The armor would shatter the soul into tiny pieces, so tiny it was almost nonexistent, but this act would spread the soul in an infinite direction.

At this point, the soul inside Tenebris should be too weak and scattered to even understand basic knowledge, but being close to the Nothingness would make sensing the face of the Supreme Circle to be easier.

This was the trade-off. If the soul could withstand the torture of being shattered into infinite pieces while enduring the hunger of Tenebris, then it should be able to easily sense the Supreme Circles.

'So why can't I sense it? Unless…'

"I warned you Tenebris, you should not have allowed my gaze to reach you."

To avoid the pitfall of apathy, Rowan had chosen to pull the majority of his consciousness powers into a singular pillar, and left the rest to serve as his unconscious, performing minor roles that were too repetitive or mundane.

At this moment, the consciousness being crushed by Tenebris was his main consciousness but Rowan still had hundreds of consciousness pillars to call on.

He did not attack the armor, it was still important to him and he needed to keep the full breadth of his power away from the eyes of others.

He began to subtly release the other pieces of his consciousness to scour the darkness and bypass the blockade that Tenebris had created, and it did not take long for the first shards of the First level of the Supreme Circle to fall into his hands, and like dominoes, the others began to fall into place.

"How can this be… No, it's impossible! The paths, the shards are hidden, your soul is shattered, you are not supposed.. Aahh, what are you?! Narethi, Sola, Pierhz… Which of you bastards come to mock me in my torture?"

Inside the darkness of the armor, there emerged faint hisses.

"I warned you Tenebris. Do not let my gaze fall upon you."

The hissing grew louder, like volcanoes that were about to erupt, and inside that darkness, in a place where nothing should exist, six pairs of golden eyes lit up.