The Primordial Record

Chapter 1868: To Safeguard And To Protect

Rowan held the piece of finger bone and pushed his perception into it. For a brief moment, there was interference, and then a sort of static fuzz emerged from the air surrounding the bone, and Rowan felt a tingle in his fingers as if he had been electrocuted, but his perception had gained access to the bone.

In a single glance, he saw everything there was to know about this piece of bone. A complex mix of organic and inorganic material, this bone had a slightly different structure than what could be found in Eosah’s Reality, but apart from that, it was a normal bone.

“You would not be able to see the mystery behind it, Rowan. The rules of End are strict and cannot be broken. The effect of your pact would only be felt when you eat the bone.” The voice of the boy touched his ears.

Rowan grimaced, the voice of the boy reminding him that, like the Primordials, Death and other higher mystical forces, he did not understand all the mysteries behind this boy, and it was not really advisable to trust him.

Still, did he have any choice? When he unleashed the power of End, all bets left the table, and now he had to follow through with whatever results emerged from that decision. Rowan simply had no choice but to trust the boy; he could choose not to, but that would mean he was acknowledging that he had no way to fight anymore, and he was beaten.

No one would say Rowan did not put up a great fight during his lifetime; his achievements were already remarkable, given all the hurdles in his path, and perhaps it was okay for him to rest; he had given more than anyone had any right to give.

“Ah, it is so easy to give up,” Rowan groaned.

“But you won’t give up,” the boy shrugged, “this is not the character of the man who fought for three Cosmic Eras, until your immortal body and soul were exhausted. You may think you have no choice in this matter, but the truth is that, for the first time in your life, this is the moment where you can truly know that whatever decision you make has not been influenced by the Primordials. So what will it be, Rowan? Would you eat or not?”

Rowan sighed and brought the bone to his lips, “I never really had a choice.” However, before the bone could fall into his mouth, a hand like a vise seized his wrist. It was the boy who whispered furiously, “You always have a choice, Rowan. You have spent most of your life living for others. The core of your character is sacrifice. I do not see this as a flaw; it is a natural part of your design. As a Reality, you were made to nurture life, but the Primordials did not need a Reality that could only embody creation, but also destruction. Rowan, the things you have suffered and what you were made to do are an abomination. Still, did you see what it made of you?”

The hand on his wrist tightened, and if Rowan’s wrist were made from delicate material like diamonds, it would have long been crushed to powder, “Listen to me Rowan, your fate was never fair, and you have suffered in a manner that few would ever understand, but herein lies your strength, you have being forged into something that is impossible, your Will, your heart, your very soul has gone through baptsims after baptsims that no one else can imagine, do not doubt yourself, and your next decisions should be made with your interest in mind… You have given too much to others, and now this is for you. Make it all about you!”

Rowan looked at the boy deeply and, slowly exerting pressure, extracted his wrist from the hand of the boy. He smiled almost sadly, “Thank you for your words, but a long time ago I made a decision that my death did not matter, but the sacrifices of those who had gone before me, and all those who believed in me must be upheld. I have long given up my individuality and become an ideal, that is the only reason I can do the things I do, or else I would be lost.”

The bpy sighed and slowly vanished, but he left parting words behind: “Have you ever wondered if your ideal was a legacy of the Primordials, and not what you could have become if you walked your path without interference?”

Rowan paused, the bone a millimeter from touching his tongue, his mind going back into his memories. He remembered the moment he escaped from the Nexus as a mortal and found his way into Jarkarr. As he was running for his life inside the strange world, in the late hours of the evening, he found himself in a field filled with butterflies.

His motion startled them, causing them to take flight. At this moment, the sun was about to set, and the light of that twilight had radiated across the wings of a million butterflies taking flight, and Rowan had been stunned at the beauty he was witnessing.

It was in this moment that a seed was planted in his heart. A seed that should have perished under the countless ravages of evil, sadness, and loss that reshaped his heart over and over again, even when he lost his soul and his body, becoming something different each time the Primordial Record reshaped his entire person from the inside out into something new.

That seed had remained through all of that, and the seed was selflessness and the desire to protect. Rowan had seen true beauty that day, and he could never forget it. He knew that if he ever had the power, he would protect this beauty.

There in that field of butterflies, an unshakable core was created. He was powerful, but this life did not belong to him alone. Rowan had sworn that if he won, he would bring back all the dead he had killed, and they would judge him.

Rowan was smiling when he saw the bone. He felt it sliding down his throat, and it disintegrated before it reached his chest. He felt nothing, and then it hit him like a brick wall, a flood of emotion and memories from a life that he had never known.

This life whispered to him, “Will you protect all that I am?”

Rowan did not answer; he only showed this life the core of his being, and it was all he needed to do. He felt the life giving him everything it had without holding back, and on Rowan’s skin, a tiny mark appeared, smaller than an atom, but this mark was imprinted in his body and soul.

He gasped as a weight unlike anything he had known was added to his soul, and Rowan closed his eyes to understand what had just happened. He had harvested lives and souls before, but what he had collected exceeded everything he had experienced before. And Rowan understood what had happened.

He once collected the Origin of Souls, and now he had just collected its End. Perhaps End was not a power greater than Origin; it was just the final piece of the puzzle, the Yin that balanced the Yang.

For the first time in his life, Rowan had just borne the full weight of an entire being.