Chapter 979: Behind The Curtains

The advice from Elura was not wrong, Rowan knew he had done one of those things that many considered impossible once again, and to remain safe he needed to lie low. Rowan retrieved the rings of fog but before he did that, he idly noted that in another reality, Old Man Seed had muttered to himself,

"Damn it all Elura, why would you want him to retrieve the Circle so early? Powering four Supreme Circle is almost impossible for any beings below Will, and I was waiting to find out how long he could sustain it before his Essence Stores were exhausted, granted with the amount of treasures this kid had devoured from me, he could be an Endless Pit of Essence! Is it possible that each of his three bloodlines has a separate mental space? Does he have multiple souls? Strange, but it might explain some of the things he is able to do."

Once again, this vision came from the fourth ring, and Rowan was beginning to detect a pattern. It would seem that the higher the ring that he manifested, the deeper the paths of Fate that it revealed.

The admission from Old Man Seed the first time and now these words spoken by him were clearly not something the wily old geezer would ever admit out loud.

Somehow the fourth ring was picking the most unlikely of reality and revealing it to Rowan. He could not wait to experiment with what the ninth ring would show him, but it would have to be done in a very controlled environment. He would not be lucky to have a powerful higher dimensional being beside him to contain the eruption of power that revealing the Supreme Circle would create.

Also if they were already so powerful that they were simply manifestations, what sort of visions would he be able to see if they were complete? Just using this sight for a few moments had revealed some of the deepest thoughts of Old Man Seed, and showed him that although he did not understand the nature of Rowan's soul, some of his guesses were hitting closer to home. For instance his idea about multiple souls.

However, what Rowan found particularly disturbing was Elura. In all his visions of reality, she was the same. Old Man Seed's movement across all the separate visions was mostly the same with slight variations. In one he would cough before talking, in another he did not, or he would blink in one, while he did not blink in another. Although Rowan acknowledged that such pitiful mortal actions were useless against beings like these, after all this time, all these actions had become something like instincts, done without much conscious thought.

Elura on the other hand maintained a perfect behavior across all realities. Her smile was exact, her words the same.

This was only changes on the surface and Rowan could easily dismiss this as Elura doing away with every affectation of mortality, but if he looked deeper something more strange occurred.

The motion of her hair as the wind blew past it was the same. Nothing around her was random, it was as if a field of order was placed around her body at all times, rejecting every form of control from the outside world.

At first, Rowan had no idea why he found that she was capable of such a thing to be deeply concerning, but then he quickly realized the truth and the fear of Elura deepened.

If she had this much control over the reality around herself then there was no way he had caught her by surprise when he saw her in the Frozen Waste.

Their whole interaction had been premeditated, she must have shown him a different version of the Elura that he had known and watched to see his reaction to the revelation. Every word she spoke, every smile, every gesture was perfectly controlled, and reality itself bent to her whims.

She controlled Fate, not the other way around. Elura... was a frightening being. Perhaps Old Man Seed may be stronger, but Rowan would prefer fighting the old man over Elura. She was the type of enemy he would not wish upon his enemies.

He thought he was playing Elura, but the truth was that perhaps he had always been dancing on the palm of her hand.

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Without opening the Primordial Record, Rowan could already feel the differences in his dimension, and they were so vast it was mind-boggling, almost as if he had ascended multiple circles in his sleep. How many resources had his Serpents devoured?

Ascending a single Circle for him was a momentous occasion. He gained so many attributes and abilities that every upgrade felt like an evolution. For the fact that he was feeling as if he had jumped past multiple circles could only mean in the last seven centuries the number of treasures he would have devoured would be astronomical.

He felt a tinge of shame in his heart, he had not intended to consume so many resources from Old Man Seed, he had been devoted to the Supreme Circle and had neglected monitoring the serpents as they fed, he had even enjoyed the sensation of pushing against the pressure of the Tenebris armor anytime the darkness devoured by the serpents were digested.

Out of anyone here, Rowan understood his constitution the most, and he knew that the resources that would have to be spent to create such a vast change in his dimension was nothing short of incalculable.

Rowan knew this because he had explored the Great Darkness for a while before embarking on the Frozen Waste, and he had come across a lot of third-dimensional universes on his way to the road.

Except for the urges to devour the Universal Will and the ethereal connection that existed between every universe and two mysterious locations, The Great Desert and The Isle Of Rest, there was nothing of value that attracted the attention of the Serpents in the entire universe.

Except of course for God Emperors who were Will Holders, but as Rowan had discovered during his time outside the universe, Will Holders were rarer than a Quillin Tear, and of the many God Emperors he had seen in his travels, only two had carried Will, and they were the Will of Force, a basic form of Will that Rowan had seen multiple times, and he discovered that his Serpents detested eating these Emperors with this basic Will.

If agitated they might choose to consume them, otherwise they would rather not touch them. Knowing all this and understanding the specialness of the Primordial Darkness inside of Tenebris, Rowan understood that refilling this armor must not have been cheap.

'Anyway, I wanted to punish Old Man Seed for thrusting me into Tenebris with no warning, although I never imagined that my punishment would come in the form of hurting his wallet.'

Rowan had always thought he was wealthy but after leaving the universe he discovered that most of his wealth would not be considered anything of value when it came to the true rulers of reality-The Will Holders.

He had never had any urge to gather great wealth or felt the need to hunt for treasures due to the fact that he had the Stuff of Creation flowing in his dimension-Soul Energy. Why would he need treasures or wealth when he had the most precious treasure in creation? Yet there was something to be said for gathering wealth outside his management that felt different.