Chapter 1678: The Final Layer There were many mysteries about Rowan’s past and many stories to explain his origins. The narratives began with the Third Prince, the Elura, the Empyrean of Life, Elura, daughter of Primordial Life, and now Primordial Soul. However, Rowan chose to always regard all the explanations with a grain of salt. The answers to his origin would be something that Rowan knew he would discover by himself and would come as a result of the natural progression of his growth. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 It was as if by growing stronger, he was also heading towards his past, like the growth of a tree reaching for the light of the sun. He had long realized that a being like him must have a history that was far from normal. Nothing he had achieved could be easily defined as a result of coincidence. Placing these thoughts aside because he knew that he might get confirmation on his speculations soon enough, Rowan focused on the memories of Prime, and when he saw nothing new to be gained from it, he pointed towards the bones of the Primordial Ouroboros. He made a sweeping gesture with his hand to call the attention of Serathis and Prime, "I will soon be leaving this place, and when I do, I shall leave the remnants of my Will in this area. You all cannot leave this place until I call for you. Prime I know you are curious, but it is only my influence here that keeps you safe from Oblivion, do not answer the call of your curiosity or you might be lost from me... forever." pointing towards the dead serpents Rowan said, "Do not bring them back to life until I leave this layer of the void. Following our last meeting, I fear the serpents might have become a little bit overprotective and they would choose to follow me into the lower layer of the void, but their passage would cause too much commotion that I cannot allow." Serathis and Prime nodded, their features filled with seriousness. The moment Rowan had obtained their memories, his demeanor had changed, and his focus had become metal. They knew that at this stage, it was useless to bring any distractions to him, and the best thing they had to do was to focus on the task given to them. Rowan had also detected these changes in them in response to him, but he only briefly noted them down before he turned away and began heading deeper into Oblivion. The glimpse of his true nature that had teased its way to his consciousness was too much of a draw to him, and he could not wait to get to the ending of Oblivion and see what lies beyond. ® Six months went by, and Rowan was at the end of his journey inside Oblivion. He should have had all of his answers, but the truth was that he found himself more confused, because there were multiple paths in front of him, and all of them would lead to the correct answers, but if he picked a path that was not suited for him, then the answers he got at the end would be the wrong one. His confusion only lasted for a brief moment before Rowan frowned and grabbed the first path in front of him, and he closed his eyes in contemplation, as the unknown voice spoke on his completion of this layer of the voids "Oblivion is the necessary counterbalance to creation. Without it, my reality would collapse under its own weight. Choked by infinite possibilities." Rowan understood all of this quite deeply. For any Reality, Oblivion was their way to recycle the infinite. A self-contained system where even Death had no part of it. With this path of Oblivion, Rowan would gain something that the Primordials inside Reality did not, which was complete control over the Destiny of all inside his domain. Mastering this path of Oblivion was showing him a clear path towards his Destiny, and this was an unexpected boon that he did not think he would receive. Rowan no longer sensed it; he knew now that below him was the final layer of the void, and grasping it meant he would obtain Space Origin, and his foundation could be regarded as perfect. Although with what he had gained here, if necessary, he did not need to go to the lower layers, taking the time to absorb all the teaching of the four layers he had gone through, the Azure Empyrean, the Obsidian Abyss, the Fractal Weave, and the Maw of Oblivion. All of these had built up his foundations until he touched the Origin of Space, and Rowan believed that if he compared the Origin of Fate that he had obtained, that inheritance would exactly match his Space Origin. The process he used in gaining Space Origin could be used as a guideline in the creation of Fate Origin, and Rowan would no longer be stumped on the method he needed to understand and master Fate Origin. However, unlike Fate Origin, whose true roots lay outside of Reality, Rowan could still go further here and grab the entire root of this Law. He did not need to slowly comprehend it over time when true enlightenment was within reach. With all of this in mind, Rowan did not go deeper into the void; instead, he reached towards the other paths of Oblivion, but he was met with resistance. Any immortal could only choose one path, and this was enough to reach perfection, but Rowan knew he was not an immortal who could be satisfied with a single path. He was a dimension, and that meant all paths were his to master. Even when he reached the level of perfection as a dimension, his limitless talent meant he could continue building upon perfection. Breaking through the resistance holding him back, Rowan reached for another path of Oblivion, and he seized it, before dragging it into himself and sinking into reflection. "Oblivion is a prison to hold back something worse... a truth so terrible that..." After a while, he mastered this path of Oblivion, and Rowan did not stop; he reached towards the next one. "Oblivion is not the end, it is a gate..." Rowan reached for the following path; his comprehension was becoming increasingly faster as time went by, "Oblivion is an invitation; to step into it is to forfeit all identity, all memory, all pain..." Rowan continued to master more paths until he reached for more and discovered that there was none. He had mastered all the paths of Oblivion, which were within Eosah. He had a faint sense of fullness, which was a weird thing for him to experience. It was something that Rowan thought he might never have; still, he knew that in time, when he thoroughly digested the paths of Oblivion, there would be more space for him to build. "You... surprise me. Your endless appetite is naught but a portent of destruction, and yet your power over creation still grows alongside it. Troubling. Would you enter my home, Eos?" Rowan had anticipated a bit of resistance from Eosah’s voice when he began consuming all the paths of Oblivion, but he was surprised when he received none. Her invitation to the depths of the void did not trouble him, even if he faced danger within; the benefits he had already gained could no longer be easily stripped from him. "Lead the way," Rowan said to the voice. The final layer of the void opened up before him, and Rowan stepped through.