Chapter 1821: Reconsider The Path Rowan observed the display. There was an entire layer of his power he was not accessing, fearing corruption from Enoch, despite his hard-won victory during his fusion and ascension. His new bloodline, plus all the abilities he had gained from consuming the Will of Enoch, were mainly left unused, and Rowan was not planning to touch these abilities, not until he reached the ninth-dimensional level and participated in what he anticipated to be his final round of fusion and ascension for a very long time. Still, this was something for the future, and he had several pressing issues that he needed to take care of. The first of those issues was to create his first Primordial, Telmus. Although Rowan had a clear road to the ninth-dimensional level, the mysteries behind Origin could not be underestimated. In the memories of all the Primordials he had seized, there was no single one that showed them reaching Origin or any other entities reaching Origin. Rowan was not aware of any phenomena that might occur during the process of reaching Origin, or any new complications that might arise from touching the level of the Primordials. He would be giving Telmus a great gift, but in return, Rowan would be observing the process of reaching the level of Primordials in a controlled setting. Inside his Origin Land, Rowan would be able to observe every single change happening inside Telmus and his surroundings, down to the minutest detail. Any moment from now, Telmus would be brought into the Origin Land for his Ascension to the ranks of Primordial. Before then, he needed to answer a call from Death. Rowan could sense that the entity was about to call upon him in the future. Splitting off an Incarnation, Rowan located the location that was about to be sent to him in Limbo, and he sent the Incarnation there. ® Rowan’s Incarnation tore through the space of the Origin Land and, following the direction that would be sent to him in the future, entered Limbo. His movement was like teleportation, one moment he was inside the Origin Land, the next he was at the location, traveling past an ungodly distance that could equal him crossing all of Reality, many trillions of times over. The amazing thing about transportation inside of Limbo is that he did not need to know where he was going to get there. The stream of information that will be sent by Death in the future was so condensed and filled with information that it could directly bring him to the place of choosing. Rowan appeared in a strange place where there was nothing but grey—no ground, no sky, only an endless, textured neutrality that pressed against the senses. There was no air here or any sort of atmosphere, but his surroundings were cold; it was as if it was devoid of everything, and if anyone weaker than him were to enter this place, the infinite grey of this area would drain them to nothing, transforming them into an eternal part of this place. He thought he could hear the echoes of what had been and the ghosts of what might have been mingled in a silent, desperate communion in this eternal grey, and he suddenly felt small. His power, which could make entire dimensions age and die in a heartbeat, felt muted here, his personal timeline a small, fragile thing against the infinite, unchanging "now" of this place. He wondered where Death had brought him, as he had never known an eternal stillness like this that made even the void seem open. Rowan waited for Death; he had arrived early anyway, and since this was an Incarnation, he was not in a rush. In fact, he would rather spend more time studying this unknown place; there was something that reeked of desolation here, of an ending so terrible that all memories of it were lost. It was enough to make even a god weep in despair. He did not have to wait for long when, from the grey, a shape coalesced. Its shape was indistinct, suggesting impossible geometries and the peaceful, terrifying silence that follows the very last sound of a universe. The Beast of Final Rest, Death itself, appeared before him, and Rowan smiled. The beast regarded him for a moment before it snorted, "You are not due yet, Rowan. Were my intentions that loud?" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮 Rowan shrugged, "You are the only one I know in Limbo, so I listen closely to your voice." "It is a strange thing," the Beast said, "When the living become close to Death." "Maybe it is for others, but not for me..." Rowam said, as he looked deeply at the endless grey of this place, "...not for me." These two eternal beings remained in a contented sort of quietness as the Beast turned around and followed Rowan’s gaze to observe this place. "This place..." Rowan finally said, "It is peaceful." "Yes, it is," Death replied, "This is the place of my beginning. I took shape here, and it has been a while since I returned to this place. Nothing has changed." Rowan sighed, "Why do you call me here?" The Beast of Final Rest did not immediately reply for a long time, and if Rowan were to use mortal years to measure the time span that he waited for this reply, then it would be counted in the millions. "For so long I have known my purpose," the Beast finally spoke, "but everything is changing. For the first time since I took form, I can no longer hear the call of the dead, and I did not need to look far before I knew the reason. And it was you." Turning eyes that transcended eternity towards Rowan, "I don’t know what you are about to do or the steps you are going to take, all I know is that it would lead to such sweeping changes across the board... so much death and destruction that even for me, my senses went numb. I am Death, yet I felt like I was being dragged to the bottom of the abyss under the tide of bodies that followed your wake. This path you are on, would you reconsider it?"