The Primordial Record

What struck Rowan as odd was the voice of Thenos, which had an odd quality that almost reminded him of the treasure Wormtongue, because his voice was reverberating twice as if two individuals were talking at the same time.

His voice was also familiar, it sounded like the voice of Berrion and Nemesis, and it was clear that the titan had not simply stolen the energy of these two, but he had taken other things as well, and one of the things he took was their voices, and maybe something more, his intelligence was suspicious, Thenos was learning too fast, and this knowledge was not coming from his intellect alone.

The instincts that caused him to flee to this world even though he should have been safe in the realm made by the World Stele, the methods he used to scatter his consciousness into the bodies of everyone here in this realm, so that despite his madness, searching for him would be nearly impossible, all of these and more prove that Thenos took much more than memories.

Rowan's eyes flared like twin torches when he heard Thenos' insane question and he shook his head in rejection, as he replied,

"No, I don't like the sound of their cries."

The numerous eyes of Thenos blinked, "Of course, you don't like it. There is not enough! You can barely hear them, I want more… more… more! Let me know why they cry?!"

"You don't need to find more people to torture to know the answer to that question Thenos, the answer had been here in front of you from the start. I think you know it too, but you are choosing to lie to yourself, or perhaps you don't know the meaning of lies and truth, at least not when it relates to you, so I can tell you if you want."

The eyes narrowed in suspicion, and Rowan knew in that instant Thenos had realized who he was, if he had not figured it out from the start already, but Rowan could understand this titan more deeply than Thenos realized, and what he had just told him was a fatal lure that held him in place.

Thenos whispered,

"Why does it hurt?"

Rowan spoke slowly,

"They cry… they hurt… because unlike you, they are complete."

The eyes of Thenos blinked in confusion and that emotion rapidly shifted to rage, "I don't understand! What makes them complete and why do I not have it?"

Rowan smiled, "Come closer to me, and I will tell you."

"No, you wish to kill me, that much I can understand." Thenos replied in a flat manner, "Although I wonder why you have not begun butchering me, you did not waste this much time the first time you saw me, or is it… ha, I see you are a fool. The only thing that has changed here is the presence of these piles of meat, you… love them." Stay updated through My Virtual Library Empire

"Of course I love them, and I do not just love them Thenos, I envy them."

Thenos began to laugh in a rather disbelieving manner, "Envy? Such weakness? If this is who you are, then I was wrong to flee from you."

"Oh you silly child," Rowan's body began to glow, "Knowing that this is who I am, should have made you flee because I am not going to be battling with your body, but with your soul."

The eyes drew back, pushing themselves into the sky, "I have tasted your weapons, and I know you have killed trillions, and yet you are willing to risk your soul for these pathetic few?! Rowan, I thought I was the one who was supposed to be insane. I was born a few seconds ago, but I know the sound of duplicity when I hear it."

"Ah, I wonder who stole your wit from, however, it does not matter. Your soul would scream, and you should be glad because you might finally understand pain."

Rowan's body exploded into light, his body appeared to transform into a golden sun that grew bigger and swallowed everything, the eyes of Thenos were flashing rapidly as he sought to steal the impossible power before him, but it did not take long for panic to set into his eyes because he could not touch the expanding sun, and with a dull roar filled with rage and fear, he fled.

®

Eva was standing in the clouds as she watched the thriving world below. The sounds of commerce, the bustle of the crowds, the laughter of children, the battles between cultivators fighting on their paths to immortality, such a scene was filled with liveliness, but it was with careful observation of the eyes of everyone here that you would be able to sense the pain and fatigue in their souls.

She understood that on Doom Star the state of the souls there was much worse, and what she was witnessing was just the beginning of a horrifying process that would slowly strip these people of everything they knew and loved, and Eva shuddered, knowing that such a cancerous entity shared the same Celestial roots as she did made it a pill that was hard to swallow.

Suddenly the world below went still, as if it was frozen in time, the activities of everyone grounded to a halt and her eyes hardened, Rowan had made his move.

As if every single person on the planet were puppets controlled by invisible strings, their heads whipped upward with great force as darkness and blood erupted from every orifice in their faces. Eyes, ears, and noses burst open as the darkness erupted from their bodies with great force, and there was so much of it in every individual body that it seemed almost comical, and when the darkness finished exiting from their flesh, they all collapsed lifelessly on the ground.

Eva sighed in relief, it would appear that Rowan had succeeded. Healing their bodies was countless times easier than healing their souls.

It would have been easier to simply eradicate Thenos while he was inside the bodies of these people, and Rowan could have collected the remnants of their souls but this would likely only give him access to their soul essence and not their soul origin since the populace of this world do not know him, and as Rowan had learned, the corruption of Thenos could stain the Soul Origin, and these people no matter how many times they reincarnated in the future, if they could not reach the eight-dimensional level, they would be condemned to a life of torture and nightmare.

The only way to save them was for Rowan to force Thenos out of their bodies and souls, and he had succeeded.

With the darkness out of the bodies of the people, it began to gather in the sky, clashing together with shocking violence until the massive body of Thenos was revealed. Still taking the form of an infant with a head that resembled mangled and diseased flesh, the titan sought to escape, his limbs digging into space but he was denied, his screech of fear resounding throughout the planet.

His head suddenly twisted three hundred and sixty degrees, multiple eyes glaring at the spot where Eva was standing, but she was already gone. The instant that the Lady of Shadows had seen the darkness erupt from the bodies of the people, she had left, knowing that this battle was beyond her capabilities.

Thenos' body shifted and he appeared at the spot where Eva had stood and he began to touch the space, his eyes inquisitive and he muttered, "Shadows?"

Reality seemed to shift around him and Thenos growled in anger, but a glance around him revealed that the world below him had vanished and he was in a gray space whose size seemed to be infinite.

His eyes suddenly bulged in shock as a long blade erupted out of the middle of his head that was filled with the immense power of destruction, and a great force slammed into the side of his neck. The combination of these two potent actions exploded the entirety of his head. The mangled flesh did not have the chance to fly far before it collapsed into ash.

His body flailed around in panic as he heard the voice of Rowan, "What a waste… even without any knowledge of her, you could still feel her shadows."

Another great force slammed on the stump of his neck where his new head was growing out of, shattering it into ash. Thenos felt stabbing sensations all over his body as he was reduced to ash, and as he slowly regenerated, the stabbing sensations resumed.