The Primordial Record

Noctis beckoned to Rowan, "Walk with me. For you to learn more, I would have to show you the truth, and that would not be possible unless you are baptized." He began to walk, and Rowan followed, and then he paused and glanced back, "Unless you are afraid to take these steps with me."

Rowan's eyes flashed golden, a roar from a beast that seemed to have devoured countless realms emerged from his body, and Noctis grimaced at that sound, as he remembered the unfathomable monster standing here with him. He sighed dramatically, "Of course you are willing to see this through to the end, else you would not be here. Follow me then, and be baptized in the blood of the old so you can see the new… That Aura you are feeling from the hammer and the forge, that is the clash between what was and is, and if that separation is not cleansed, you will never be able to understand the past."

A passage suddenly revealed itself in front of them that was facing below, as if this temple had a basement. As Noctis stepped foot inside the passage, the torches hung on both sides of the path began to light up, revealing that it extended for many miles. Rowan paused for a moment before he followed.

Noctis's voice echoed through the passage as they walked, "Before we met the Primordials and made a deal with them, we did not know much about the significance of this place. We were not the first to find it; there had always been rumors about the existence of this place, and the Architects spent many years and countless resources to confirm its existence. And then we discovered an unknown power here that defied all meaning."

The passage suddenly sloped down steeply, turning their walk into a freefall. Rowan maintained the same descending speed with Noctis as his mind grabbed every single detail he was seeing, down to the particles, and was sending them all to Eos.

"I cannot even remember how many died before we located this temple. The Aura from the hammer, especially, was wild in the past, and this entire zone used to be known as the most dangerous place in all of existence, but the Architects, after understanding the significance of this place, paid a heavy price for wiping the knowledge of this place from every single record in existence."

They fell for what seemed like years, and Rowan stopped counting the time as it went on, ultimately knowing that in this place, time was meaningless, but he felt a slight bit of apprehension in his heart when he noticed that the deeper they went, the connection with Eos began to grow faint.

It was not as if there was any force interfering with their connection; if they were Rowan, he would have retreated and found a way to break this barrier. Instead, what was causing this issue was simple… it was distance.

Rowan had never expected that distance for him would ever be an issue; his connection with his main body was so profound that it did not matter which corner of Limbo he found himself, he would always have an unbreakable bond with his main body, because they were still one and the same person in the higher-dimensional realm they controlled.

While others were seeing Rowan as an individual being, the way Eos saw him was as one of his fingers, and even if Eos stretched his hand across the curtain to touch the other side of existence, it was still his hand, and he would be able to sense everything happening to it. With his present levels, the entirety of Limbo fell within his reach.

However, this space they were descending into had exceeded the boundary of existence as he knew it, and his connection was being strained. Rowan thought about retreating, but figured out that this body was discardable in the long run, and as long as connections were still being made with Eos, he would continue to descend.

Suddenly, Rowan felt a chill in his heart and a sort of familiar feeling stirring across his mind, and when he looked around and within him, he found nothing that could stir up that sensation. He glanced at Noctis, but the man was focused on watching the passage flash past them as they travelled at speeds that made light stand still.

"How far does this passage descend?" Rowan inquired.

"I thought you would never ask," Noctis smiled, "And the truth is that I do not know, it will end when it does. As I am sure you may have noticed, we are entering a place that even existence does not acknowledge, and that means that several constants do not work here, like time and distance. However, from my experience, the end of this passage can come early or it can come late; usually, it depends on the sort of people descending into this place."

Rowan's eyes flashed, "Multiple people have been here?"

"Of course, all the Architects have entered the core of the Temple, and the Primordials had always wanted to find this place. They knew we were hiding something, but they just never had any proof to substantiate it. Anyway, as I was saying before, we would get to our destination depending on our cinnection with this place, for some that dont have great connection with End, then we can be falling for an eternity, but with me by your side Rowan, i believe we would be reaching the end point in about let say fifteen billion years, and that is only because of my presence." Noctis grinned, "So you can start counting down the time and thanking me for that."

Rowan wanted to reply, but then he felt that chill again that swept past his heart, and he looked to the side as he thought he saw pieces of falling bones that were covered by ash.

He blinked, and he saw an endless field of bones, so massive that it defied meaning, and he knew that this was the true resting place of all the fallen. Then a loud roar of pain and rage entered his ears, and the vision ended.

Then it returned again as he saw an ocean of blood flowing from a massive cocoon of bones floating in the air; this blood, although it was red like a mortal, still carried a pleasant scent. Rowan did not know why he felt both disgust and a profound sense of hunger when he saw this blood, and he frowned inside, because for a moment, he sensed that the hunger and disgust he was feeling were not his own, and that he had stepped into the shoes of someone else in that instant.

Once again, the vision disappeared, and before he could contemplate what he had seen, it returned for a brief moment as he saw a cave, and within that cave were glowing yellow eyes that seemed to be searching for something. Rowan's heart was filled with panic, and with a burst of intense Will, he withdrew himself from this vision.

"What the hell.." he heard Noctis whisper, and Rowan thought that perhaps Noctis had also seen the vision, but when he looked at him, Rowan saw that Noctis was staring at the ground, rushing towards them with astonishment.

"Impossible… this cannot be, how are we here so early?"