Chapter 1802: You Will Not The small group of immortals and mortals who escaped the Arena, Vraegar, Fury, the two Mage siblings, and the Elythrii had not separated because they were traveling together through the Passage of Time to leave the vicinity of the previous Reality-shaking battle as far behind as possible. To previously access the Passage of Time, an immortal needed to be at the eighth-dimensional level with significant control over the streams of time they controlled. However, with the many changes across Reality arising from the surge of Primordial Essence leading to the rise of countless Old Ones, the Passage of Time had become nearly the only road to travel through Reality. With the destruction of the Frozen Road, traveling across the dimensions had been perilous; however, as more immortals easily found their Destinies in this Era, the Passage of Time became the de facto road for all immortals. There were various reasons why the Passage of Time was selected instead of a ‘new road’ being built to replace the destruction of the Frozen Road, and it was primarily because of the distance that could be easily covered using it. In the Passage of Time, the power of Space was suppressed to the limit, and Time was almost still, meaning that vast distances could be crossed across Reality almost instantaneously. To the layman, it was almost like teleportation. There were dangers to traveling with this road; these dangers were myriad, including the whispers from some unknown being that would inevitably drive one to madness, but these dangers had been studied, and ways to reduce them had been found and perfected. In the case of the whispers that led to madness, it was well known that any immortal who traveled within the Passage of Time for more than seven hours would begin hearing the whispers, and by the ninth hour, madness would occur; in the tenth, only death remained. The group had been traveling through the passage for a while, and they were nearing the ninth hour. Vraegar and Fury had been protecting the rest from the whispers of the Passage, but even these two were not confident enough to resist the madness that would occur on the ninth hour. They did not think they had gone far enough from the Arena, but they needed to leave the passage, and Fury was the one to tear a road through space and time, allowing the group to emerge in real space. When they fled the Arena, they had not picked any particular destination; they only proceeded in a direction that was away from any known Primordial Domain, and so when the group emerged from the Passage of Time, they found themselves in an unknown fifth-dimensional realm. This realm, like all dimensions, was unique. There were no mountains here, only an endless plain covered by powdery snow that went no deeper than three inches. Weather like this was nothing to the beings in this group, and they settled around a fire created by Fury, who was shrinking a dozen suns and placing them in a pit. This act of magic and power left the Elythrii fascinated. Despite all they had seen, there was something special about the application of Will in this Reality that was highly compelling. Also in the Realm of the Elythrii, there were no conventional suns like those found inside this Reality. There were stars, of course, but their suns were six powerful oceans of radiance that crossed the endless skies above, and their stars were almost a sentient furnace of vitality. Perhaps it was the strain of witnessing a Primordial-level battle, but the Elythrii gathered around and slept, and then the Mages followed suit. Finally, Fury closed his eyes in meditation, leaving only Vraegar awake. The dragon did not know when it happened, but someone had joined the group for a while now, sitting by the fire, and none of them had been aware of it. Vraegar felt the root of his scales beginning to itch as he slowly turned his massive eyeball to focus on this unknown individual, and he realized that he did not recognize them, at least not at first, because this individual had an appearance he had never seen before. However, there were some things that were deeper than sight, and Vraegar’s eyes squinted in shock and fear when he realized who had infiltrated their group. The man had short blond hair and bright blue eyes, appearing to be a mortal in his forties. “Primordial Memor…” Vraegar’s mouth snapped shut so unexpectedly that he nearly bit off his tongue as a force seized his jaw, bringing his cry of surprise and fear to a halt. “Shush, little dragon, do not wake up your friends, their tiny minds annoy me, and I shall kill them.” Vraegar’s eyes were filled with panic, but it was only for a moment before his mind settled and his cold reptilian nature took charge of his consciousness. “See now that’s surprising,” Primordial Memory said as he regarded the dragon, “You recovered quite quickly when you should not have. The spark inside you… It is not normal.” Vraegar felt the force squeezing his jaws shut had dissipated, and he softly growled his answer, “I am my father’s son, and that is all the answer you need.” Primordial Memory smiled, “Father this and father that… for someone who claims to love his children and is willing to protect them, is it not funny how many of you do along the way. I mean, I could easily have killed you and your little group a billion times over as you fled from the Arena.” The dragon bared his fangs at the Primordial, a faint hiss arising from his throat, “Then why did you not do so? Is it because you understand now that there are consequences to your actions?” The smile from the face of Primordial Memory vanished, “What consequences? Pray tell, little dragon.” Vraegar chuckled, “You forget, Memory, or maybe you wish to forget, but we were all there to watch your shame. We saw you and your kind fleeing before his might, and now you slink behind us like a dog, knowing fear. My father has watched you kill his children again and again… did you really think that there would be no consequences?” Primordial Memory shrugged, “Truthfully, yes. There should be no consequences to our actions. You all are weak, and we are the strong, and everything that happens here has layers that you cannot see or understand.” The dragon cocked his head to the side, “So why come to us… to me. Don’t tell me you just want to gloat to lesser immortals.” Primordial Memory grinned, a manic light shining in his eyes, “Your father has hurt me true, but I can hurt him back. He cares for you and loves you. So I will torture and kill you. Slowly, painfully, and record all your screams so he can hear them for all eternity.” Vrager’s eyes held no fear, “Whatever you do to me, my father shall repay you a thousand times over. Did you ever wonder why one of the first to die among your kind was Primordial Chaos? You will not have to wonder for long if you kill me.” “I will take my chances.” Primordial Memory smiled and reached for the dragon. Two hands suddenly emerged from the darkness behind Primordial Memory and grabbed his head before viciously twisting to the side, crushing his neck and spine. Primordial Memory flopped to the ground like a fish whose spine had been ripped from its body, his eyes turning to the darkness to see the shadow of an unknown entity that resembled a winged humanoid made from black marble standing behind him, “No, you will not,” the entity said before stomping on the head of Primordial Memory, turning it to mush.