Chapter 960 A Thousand Years Secrets (1) "At what scale does something begin to lose meaning? For mortals, it is an easy thing to find out. The death of one might make them sad, a hundred deaths would drive them to a state of weakness, a thousand would terrify them, and a million would almost drive most to madness, but you see when it comes to a billion, then something truly special begins to happen. Don't you think so, Romion? But mortals are meaningless, we are here to discuss the immortal." ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO. Rowan stood on the last remnants of the Twilight Bridge for six months after the death of Third, he did not move, not even to breathe, like a statue made from meat and bones. There were barely ten miles of the Twilight Bridge left, and it bled golden and red clouds of dust that glowed like stars. Pieces of it were slowly crumbling and when the last of the Bridge shattered, his spell would end. For the first time in six months, his head moved a bit to the left as his eyeless gaze pierced through the entire living universe that he had kept frozen by his spell. A surge of weakness inundated his consciousnesses, and Rowan staggered backward before smoothly sitting down cross-legged in mid-air, carried by the six Primordial Ouroboros Serpents. The six serpents appeared to be in a daze, their eyes were closed, and like Rowan, they were still injured, but the meals of Will Holder they had devoured were digesting in their stomach, shining like a glowing forge through their stomach, as small changes were slowly rippling through their bodies. Even after five years, several strands of Aetherium were still being purged from his body, black, blue, green, and the more prevalent red lightning, escaped his flesh, halting his healing process as a higher dimensional type of energy was forcefully purged from his mortal body. All of these purged Aetherium were being diverted into the bodies of the serpents, at first, this energy inflicted terrible injuries to their bodies, but now the serpents had begun to devour these higher dimensional energies, and from their nostrils, various trails of smoke emerge which Rowan recognize were Wills. These Wills did not only belong to the devoured combatants but something else… Rowan did not try to discern whoever owned these strange Wills. He had become perceptive enough about higher dimensional Will, and these ones were far higher than the fourth dimension. It was amazing that his Ouroboros Serpents were powerful enough to eject the Wills from the devoured Aetherium, but the energy expenditure used in performing such an act left them with barely any gains from devouring the Aetherium. However Rowan did not stop them from consuming the Aetherium he was slowly purging from his flesh, it was good practice, and in time, his serpents would end up becoming immune to this variant of Aetherium as their understanding of this power deepened. Yet as they were all an extension of him, their act also weakened him further as his resources were strained to the limit, after all, he was still mortal. There was also the fact that he was powering an unreasonable powerful spell like this one that involved time to such a deep level, across an entire universe, and therefore the energy expenditure was alarming. All of these placed him in a uniquely vulnerable position where his entire Primordial Seas had dried up, and as they were regenerated, they were quickly used up. His understanding of Aetherium was still limited and so he had to expend a vast amount of energy to rid himself of small portions of it. He had always wondered if his Aether Capacity could be taken to the limits, well, today he had seen that limit. It felt strange to Rowan. He was supposed to be a being whose power was infinite or as close to it as possible, and so it was a strange thing to see himself being brought to such a state. Granted, the enemies he had fought and killed while still remaining a mortal were powerful enough to easily crush universes, and he had done that with only a small amount of his abilities. He had performed the impossible. Rowan was now vulnerable, and he kept himself in this position, for he was still hunting. It was the reason he had stood here for five years and waited for his body to heal naturally with no interference from his side. With access to Soul Energy, he could easily crush a dozen Immortal Soul Mountains and regain his entire Primordial Seas of energy, healing his injuries and accelerating the dispersal of the Aetherium inside of him, but Rowan had speculated that although this conflict appeared hidden, there may be other hidden hands who had watched the battle in the background, and they were waiting for the right time to strike. At this moment there were a host of powers from other dimensions and universes heading towards this universe to devour its remnants, although the appearance would have suddenly changed, this would only serve to ignite their curiosity, for how was it possible for a dead universe to suddenly regain life? Time around his spell was a reflection of his inner dimension taken to the limits, and although he had spent five years on this bridge, barely five minutes had gone by outside the universe, it was only a matter of time before the full weight of the many universes and dimensions in the Great Darkness to descend on it. Nevertheless, Rowan had a plan for what was coming, what he was concerned with should be the enemy that was already here and lingering. As he waited his gaze peered through the universe as he began to scour the traces of the reflection from the entire universe. His many consciousnesses meant he could do many things at the same time. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮 There were countless mysteries behind the actions of the Reflections for the last six billion years, and this spell gave him the advantage of going over all the hidden portions of the universe that he had missed for the first time. In so many ways the time for this battle had been dictated by his enemies, and he had the opportunity to sift through the haze and understand everything he had first missed. Like how the God Emperors were created and maintained? What other preparations had Third made in order for him to deprive Rowan of wisdom? This and so many other questions could be solved by careful investigation, he had the time to do so presently, and he did not know if this spell would be able to be maintained when another round of battle began. He started with the populace inside the universe, tracing their fate and their souls. Reading their memories like a book and understanding their experiences. Every single living being in the entire universe had their secrets unveiled before him, starting from Trion. From this world, he unearths a startling amount of secrets but as he was finding out, it was only the tip of the iceberg. The work was slow, but in a weird manner, it was also instantaneous.