PRESENT DAY. Seed peered at Rowan through the storm, a flicker of astonishment brushed across his face before he scoffed, "A life for a life?" Then he chuckled, "That is a funny statement, Romion, hahaha. The value of my daughter's life is priceless, in comparison to the pathetic mortal you hold her up against, I find that logic of yours to be incredibly offensive." Something dark crawled over his gaze, and he stepped forward, every hint of mirth vanishing from his tone as if a switch had been flicked off. "But your tone is even more offensive. Before me, are you worthy?!" Rowan looked up, and his perception noticed that the burst of power from Primordial Life was returning to the earth. Then he looked back at Seed as he pointed a finger at him, "You tell me," and he unleashed a hundred thousand Spells of Sundering forged by Chronomancer Prime. For countless light years, the surrounding space froze and then cracked like glass. Outside the Land of Miracle, a terrifying, indescribable aura erupted all over Reality, from the Lower Realms to the Higher Realms. Every immortal or mortal, living or dead, felt this Aura as an Origin Spell was unleashed upon it for the first time in Reality. Seeing the golden strands of light heading towards him, Seed sneered in disdain, even as Reality shattered around his body. He could feel this power, but he did not fear it. "I will teach you an important lesson today, boy. You don't play with Spells in my sight. Your mother should have taught you this. It is by my grace that spells remain in Reality, you stupid child!" With a wave of his hand, green circular runes like shields covered the front of his body in an indomitable wall. The aura they emitted was so thick that it felt like each shield could withstand reality's destruction ten times over, and hundreds were in front of Seed. The amount of Essence and Aether required to power a single shield would drain half of an Old One's Essence, and Seed had easily manifested hundreds. With these shields alone, he could withstand the attacks from all the Old Ones inside the Land of Miracle for a while. Even though he acted arrogantly, Seed took Romion's threat seriously; this was the way of a warrior, a path Seed followed. He treated Romion as if he were fighting a mighty Old One similar to Elura; maybe he was a bit stronger than her, given that he had easily imprisoned her. However, that could be due to an unknown force, which was most likely not a power that Romion possessed. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖 There was no way Romion could easily defeat his mother, and Seed suspected that a powerful Primordial had made an arrangement with him, and he was their pawn. If that was the case, the Primordial's greatest mistake was bringing Rowan to Seed. Defending what seemed like a casual spell from Romion with hundreds of these shields was overkill, but Seed was no longer playing games; he would crush this upstart youth with power and drain every knowledge he was hiding. Seed felt undeniably a great deal of regret. Bringing Romion to the Memory of Primordial Life was a plan that should be infallible, but he did not realize that the backing behind this child was so great. Only another Primordial who was liberal with their Primordial Essence could transform Reality in this manner and affect the child imprisoned inside the Memory of Primordial Life. Seed did not know what sort of bargain the child struck with the unknown Primordial that would make him such a valuable target, but he was determined to find out. Primordial Life was already showing great attention towards the child, and Seed would deliver Romion to him on a platter. ® Inside his Mental Space, Seed was already calculating all the paths that this battle would take after he defended against this first attack from Romion, and his muscles began to bulge in anticipation, as he chased the most satisfactory path, which was to beat Rowan down with his fists. Sadly, his preparation and defense, although substantial, were not enough. Like everyone else before them, they saw Rowan's lower-dimensional level, and no matter how much they tried to overestimate him, they were always wrong. The golden strands of light touched the shields in front of Seed, and if they were delayed in any way, that delay was so minimal that it was almost non-existent. Tearing through the shield while simultaneously feeding on its energy, all hundred thousand strands of severing fell on Seed, and his eyes widened in shock, and he roared in anger as he instinctively opened the gates of his Essence wide open, "You dare!" A calamitous explosion swallowed his roar of rage, which could be heard around the Land of Miracle. The shockwave from this clash scattered the storm above and spread towards the Eldar Branch in the distance, carrying a wave of destruction that left long, thin slices in Reality. In the distance, even before the wave of destruction hit the Eldar Branch, millions of worlds and stars were quietly annihilated as they were sliced into pieces by trillions of invisible blades. ® If this were not inside a Primordial Domain, Rowan would not even risk unleashing this amount of power because he would fear that it would lead to such devastation that Reality would be fatally wounded. These Spells of Sundering did not materialize like any spells that Rowan had ever unleashed. From his pointed finger, he ejected what resembled a hundred thousand strands of golden light, but a closer look would reveal that each strand of light was made from concepts and laws so finely woven together that they took a solid form. These laws had nothing to do with sundering; most were the opposite of any destructive force, but Chronomancer Prime understood that everything had an opposing essence, and he could make a block of wood cut like a blade. A normal spell of sundering could easily be countered by a wise immortal who understood the application of forces and their concepts, and most Old Ones were capable of this. To win, it would have depended on overcoming their knowledge with power. If it were before, Rowan, who had an excess amount of Aether and Essence to play with, would have overcharged his spells with all the power he could push inside without destabilizing its structure and disregarding the immortal's knowledge of his spell. He no longer needed to do that with his Origin Spells; his spells had now reached a degree of refinement and complexity that, at his present dimensional level, he would call perfect, and he believed that, under the level of Old Ones, none could contest with him in spellcraft. The spell's impact upon Seed was devastating, but did not linger. A bright golden light surrounded Seed before it vanished, leaving a devastated Reality that slowly healed. When it did, Seed reappeared, and except for being a bit pale, there was no other effect on his body. If this were any other Old One, they would be injured quite seriously, but despite underestimating Rowan, Seed had been able to respond to this attack the instant before it touched him. He did not even consider the consequences of this clash over Reality; instead, he searched for Rowan, who had vanished.