Chapter 1885: Cleansing Reality (5) For those here to understand the full weight of this conflict and the entire stakes involved, which went beyond anything they had ever known, Rowan knew that he had to start from the beginning and expose the truth about Reality that few knew. He had tried to battle the Primordials all by himself, and he had learnt that while his powers afforded him the privilege to do so, it also restricted his path ahead, making him predictable, and in a conflict like this one, the last thing you wanted to be was predictable. Rowan started speaking, weighing each words carefully, "There was a time I would have never made a meeting like this, or if I did, then what I would have revealed would only a small part of the entire truth, and I did this only because I thought I was the only one who was capable of bearing the weight of the truth, but recent events have shown me that this was the wrong path all along." Eva wanted to speak, but Rowan silenced her with a slight shake of his head, and he continued, "Two years ago, I lost. Reality was destroyed, and everyone here perished." The silence that followed his words was deafening; everyone was in shock, except Telmus. As a Primordial, Rowan knew it was impossible to erase his memories of the erased timelines; he remembered everything and was fully aware of the tyranny of the Primordials. Before this meeting began, Telmus had sent him a message; his tone was subdued, filled with emotions that Rowan recognized: "I have reached the first layer of my Origin, and I know there are three more layers for me to conquer. Rowan, I have made my calculations, and I know even if I push my potential to the limit and master all of my Origin Layers... even if I push for powers beyond what any Primordial should have, it would still not be enough. Those abominations who have eaten so many Origins that I cannot even fathom the number... how can you kill something like that?" "I did not perish like the others, Rowan. My death may seem like an instant in real time, but I was in torment for an eternity... they toyed with me, tore me apart over and over again. My torture was not pain; instead, they showed me the meaninglessness of my actions, they brought me to the height of my powers, and they effortlessly crushed me. We are immortals that could reach our level by breaking through barriers that most could not even conceptualize, but they are something else, Rowan. These ancient beings are not mere Primordials; they are something worse... how can we kill them?" That was a very good question that Rowan had been ruminating on for a long time, and he hoped that after this meeting, a path forward would become clear. But at that time, Telmus was hurting, and Rowan had given the Primordial of Defiant Ascension a hint of salvation ahead. "Remember, Telmus," he had said, "The dimensional power we know and understand was impacted by the Primordials, and they did not tell us everything. There are still more secrets to find, and more powers to unleash." For anyone else, this might not be enough, but for Telmus, it shattered the last straws of doubt that had plagued him after his defeat. ® Rowan closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them and continued speaking to his audience in a flat tone, "The reason you are all here now was not because I could do anything to bring you back. So, Rowan began from the beginning. There were secrets he would not speak about, especially those concerning those he loved and the true core of his power, but for everything else, he told them all he knew. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖 "You are all immortals nearing the ninth dimension, and you have seen the true face of Reality, but not all of it." Rowan made an arcane gesture with his fingers, and space rippled in front of him, before it collapsed into a portal. From that portal, he drew out the sleeping body of Eosah. "This is Eosah, your true Creator and the true mother of everyone here at this table and in all of Reality." Not waiting for the gasp of shock to subside, as the weight of her eternal presence transformed this space, Rowan brought her close to him, carried on a platform of air. He touched her forehead, drawing out a vision of what was happening inside her soul, "And that is what the Primordials made of her eternal spirit." "Mother..." Noctis and Sheba whispered almost simultaneously, and the living castle began to weep while the guilt and shame that appeared in Noctis’s eyes could not be more apparent. Even in her comatose state, Eosah’s presence was both gentle and all-encompassing. Looking at her was like staring into the source of what made you, a feeling more profound than the deepest connection felt between even a mother and a child. Rowan observed this phenomenon with slight interest; he had seen these same emotions in the hearts of his reborn children, the Elythrii, and it was a fascinating process to observe from the sidelines because he had never felt anything like that, even when he met Eosah for the first time. At least it showed that she had not lied to Rowan concerning his roots. Eosah was not his mother; she was just the preferred location for him to be created, and his actual mother had always been Elura. "What are those spikes inside her consciousness?" Telmus was the first to speak. Unlike the others here, enraptured by the presence of Eosah, he was still able to focus because he saw through the fading shade of her glory and knew that, despite her being here, Eosah was already dead. Only the remnants of her broken Will crudely stitched together remained. Yet, her sheer presence could not be denied; this was a being whose nature could nurture and create anything in existence, from the smallest of atoms to the mightiest of Primordials. Rowan relied on Telmus, "Those spikes are painful, and they were meant to leash her consciousness so she could follow all the instructions the Primordials gave to her." "Instructions? But she is..." "Dead, I know, but with the Primordials, everything is connected, and I am showing you one part of the thread, and there are still many more threads to follow, so all of you need to stick with me while I carry you through it." Rowan grimaced, "This is the truth that you need to know, this Reality Eosah, and everything you understand as the truth was allowed by the Primordials just to nurture my birth. You must keep this in mind to understand the scale of the opposition we will be facing ahead. For them, Realities and all life within and outside them are pieces on a board to be manipulated at their Will. Their powers are absolute, and they proved it to me by killing you all and giving it back to me... the entire purpose by which this Reality was meant to exist had been fulfilled, and it has been discarded. This is how the Primordials see everyone on this table, trash whose purpose has been used up, and now they can be discarded."