The Primordial Record
chapter-946

In his short thousand-plus years of life, Rowan had seen numerous visions of the past and some of the possible futures, but he had never physically been taken to the past, making him wonder which dimension this unknown old man controlled.

At first, with the Tower of Greed, he was able to bring his consciousness back to the past, and after summoning the Twilight Bridge, Rowan did not truly move from the present to the past, his consciousness pillars of the present were sacrificed to create a bridge that linked the past, while the nature of the Ouroboros Serpent made it possible for him to steal the gains he had made from the present and bring it to the past.

So you see, his 'first' true sojourn to the past was leaving him with a lot of questions, since he was not traveling to the past using his consciousness but his entire body. How can a feat like this even be possible? Would he be truly returning to the past, and if that was the case, could he change the present by the fact that he saw the past?

The questions in his mind were legion, but Rowan did not need to ask anything at this time, he would rather observe, and when the opportunity came for him to ask his questions, he must ensure that at least they were important.

Rowan did not need to actively observe his surroundings because, with the effects of his numerous titles and his unreasonable perception, everything he saw was being analyzed and recorded, but yet it was a bit too… little.

The path they traveled on was both familiar and strange at the same time. Although they moved at blistering speeds even for Rowan, he could recognize bits and pieces of the road they traversed.

A flash of chains, he identified as the Chains of Time by their strange dark coloration, apocalyptic scenes of past tragedies that boggle the mind but flashed by so fast it almost felt like a mirage, massive colossi that made a galaxy feel like a grain of sand, fantastical wars of such epic proportions, kept flashing by so fast that reconstructing the scene in his consciousness was a feat of Supreme computational capability, and somehow Rowan understood that he was seeing only a fragment of the true glory of this road, the old man in all his so-called wisdom was shielding his sight from this path.

Rowan wanted to curse out aloud, there was so much he could be learning, so many mysteries just right beneath his fingertips that could propel his spell proficiency to ridiculous heights, and it was being shielded by this damned old man.

This action from him was most likely commendable, this old man may appear to be rash, but he was not stupid, even a god or a weaker dimensional Will Holder might have gone mad when traversing this path, and he was thinking he was protecting Rowan from harm.

'What an amazing saint!' Rowan wanted to roll his eyes, the problem was he wanted to see, he was not like everyone else, and the mysteries to time were buried in his blood, 'Show me the madness old man, show me the mysteries, I don't care if it burns my eyes or scorch my soul, I have no soul, only an endless abyss that craves to be filled.'

However, he could not protest too much, or the old man may come to understand the true depths of his soul or lack thereof. He almost revealed his true nature so the veil over this road of time could be unveiled to his sight, and he had to constantly suppress his urges. There was something about this road, a tantalizing mystery that scratched at the doors of his mind. HERE IS POWER, TAKE IT!!!

Rowan knew that this urge was not normal, no matter how much he craved for power, it had not reached such an extent where he was about to lose control of his senses. This road… being this close to the power of Time, was affecting him far more than he expected, and now he was grateful for the veil this old man was using to cover the road, if that was not the case, he would be lost.

No longer focusing on the path, Rowan turned his perception within, seeking the origin of these cravings in his consciousness, but it was like trying to find a grain of sand on a beach. He felt that he lacked some necessary tools that he would need to decipher the nature of time.

The answer was evident, he would need to ascend to a higher dimension and unlock the power of Time, and perhaps some truths that elude him would be revealed. However, this did not make Rowan stop trying to locate the source of that craving in his blood that was threatening to drive him mad.

As it was getting abundantly clear with every day that he lived, although he might not have a complete bloodline of Time, the effect of time on his consciousness was proving to become a nuisance. Was this one of the side effects of being the only living bloodline relative of the Primordial of Time?

"This is a place for a being of my station to reside, but I rarely walk down this road, too many memories, and most of them bad, and so much more of it is… worse" the solemn voice of the old man dragged Rowan away from his introspection, something in his voice dragging him from his dark thoughts, "Hey do you have any more wine that is not poison?" the old man flashed the two jugs of wine he had left for the guardians and kept it away just as quickly.

'So that is where the wines disappeared to,' Roman eyes flashed, solving a minor riddle that caught his attention and finally confirming that the old man and Elura had been monitoring him from the start, although he was a bit annoyed that they would interrupt his experiment at a moment's notice, he was even more surprised that they could detect there was something wrong with the wine he brewed, even though it was supposed to give nothing but endless benefit.

Technically this wine was not poison and if not for him, no one else would be able to do anything harmful with it, why was it considered poison?

Rowan had no hatred against the two guardians, and when he created the wine he was only going to reward them, and noticing the effect his curiosity was aroused and he was only going to understand how much of their souls he could sense and what later changes would happen when they imbibed enough of the wine.

At this time, except sensing their intention from their soul, giving him a faint sense of precognition against any actions they were going to be taking, there were no other effects and he knew that most people knowing this hidden effect of his wine would still choose to imbibe it, after all the effects of strengthening the soul was too powerful.

If the two guardians choose to never take up arms against him, then until the end of time, Rowan would not use the power he had gained over their souls to ever backstab them.