Chapter 1676: Two Gates Rowan could not merge with his bloodlines due to his present state, where he had to restrict himself to the third-dimensional level, to make sure his presence left no ripples in space. He was digging the foundations of power from under a Primordial, and any slight carelessness would lead to his discovery. His bloodlines were intelligent enough to understand what was happening without any need for him to explain. So they had to share their memories with him, else he could only listen to Serathis speak, and as lovely as her voice sounded to the ears, Prime was correct when he said they did not have the time for this. Barely eight years remain before his promised duel with Primordial Demon, and he was not ready for that challenge. The perception of Serathis was familiar to him, but it had also grown richer, even though it was not as condensed as Rowan’s perception; there were still enough details here that made her memories pleasant to go through, and he could glean nearly all the intricacies of the battle of the Great Desert. He barely glanced at the immortals that gathered before the Great Desert, even though an impressive number of Old Ones had arisen among their number, dwarfing anything that this Era could have made naturally over the course of its lifetime. "Empty drums... all flash, no substance." Rowan was a bit disappointed at these immortals who were rushing towards becoming Old Ones and not correctly using the gifts he had given them. The insights he gave freely from his Origin Land were meant to solidify the foundations of these immortals. There was no need to rush to the higher-dimensional level when they should have taken the time to ensure they reached perfection in every single dimensional level they reached. Lured by the promise of quick power, these immortals had forsaken their foundations and followed the easy path towards the eighth-dimensional level. Still, it was not as if Rowan was not expecting such a thing from the majority of Reality. Only a few of them knew his gifts’ true meaning and used them effectively, like Fury Kuranes, his half-brother. Rowan had been dimly following the advancement of Fury, and he was not too surprised that he had been able to refine his bloodline abilities to such a realm. Fury would be among the first of many who would begin to understand that the search for true power depended not on the height of the realm, but the foundations built to reach that realm, and when that happened, a sweeping change would cut across Reality as the realization of the true potential within the body of every immortal would be placed on display. Only such a group of people would be able to survive what was to come; any others would be fodder for the bloody grindstone that Reality was about to become. He saw Nemesis and knew that this was a new being. After all, he had been the one to kill Nemesis. Rowan looked at this new Nemesis for a while, seeing the countless lives and souls of the Chaos Bloods forcefully merged into its being to empower this creature to the limit of the eighth-dimensional level. Primordial Chaos had not been concerned with creating a being that would function properly; he only made Nemesis for slaughter, and in the short time it had been alive, this being had suffered incredible torment, and death was its salvation. He watched his serpents use the Will of Elder for the first time, and their powers amazed him. If he could gather the strength of all the previous Primordial Beasts, then using them alone, it should be more than enough for him to challenge the Primordials, but that was a challenge, not winning. From all he had heard, the Primordials could defeat the beasts using trickery and separation, but Rowan knew that was not all there was to this story. The Primordials might have won while using trickery to separate the beasts, but there was no assurance that in a head-on battle, the Primordials would lose. Battle on that level and scale, sometimes strength was not enough, and even though collectively the beasts might have packed a bigger punch, concepts might be more important than might. So if the disparity between the Primordial Beasts and the Primordials were placed into simpler terms, the Primordial Beast might be giants made from soft clouds, and the Primordials were normal beings made from titanium; a clash between the two could not take only size into perspective. Bahamut had battled against the Throne of Primordial Chaos, although there were many factors that reduced the strength of Bahamut; Primordial Chaos was supposed to be at a greater disadvantage, yet he had prevailed against Bahamut. In that battle, Rowan had observed that the laws controlled by Bahamut were much simpler than those of Chaos, and he wondered if the source of betrayal was due to the Primordial Beast’s craving for higher laws. The power of Divus was much greater than Bahamut’s, and if she had been the one behind the Mages, then Rowan’s actions would have failed against the power of annihilation. The Will of Elder was an incredibly potent tool if it was able to utilize the weak laws of Primordial Beasts and elevate them to such a profound level, but Rowan would only be using this as a part of his weapons. He had promised Noctis and everyone who believed in him that he would bring such great horrors against the Primordials that they would finally understand the meaning of fear. The battle that followed went according to Rowan’s estimation. Then, the successful consumption of the remnants of Divus and the attack by Primordial Chaos led to his three bloodlines finding him inside Oblivion. Two years ago, Rowan had been stuck with a dilemma on his hands. Inside Oblivion, he had found the bones of the Primordial Ouroboros, and due to the nature of Oblivion, if he left this place, there would be no easy way to return to it, and it might be impossible for him to ever discover these bones again. For such a prize, Rowan was willing to take significant risks to obtain it, yet he could not be foolish. He had taken great pains to reach this layer of the void, and dragging his serpents into Oblivion through the path he had followed would alert the Primordials to his activities. Rowan had wracked his mind for the solution to this problem, even going as far as to query the voice instructing him on the secrets of the void, and he had received a puzzling reply: that is, he already knew the answer to his problem. In hindsight, the answer might have been obvious, but only with careful application would it be feasible. The answer, of course, was the Gates of Oblivion that could be found in the depths of the lower realms. Oblivion had two entrances—the Gates of Oblivion and the Maw of Oblivion. The first was known to all, while the second was a secret only Primordials could know about. If Rowan could not bring his serpents through the Maw, he would have to follow the Gate, but how could he do that without drawing the attention of the Primordials to his plans?