Chapter 682 A Strange Universe 'I am Inching ever closer… I can feel it like I am pressing my face deeper into a rotting corpse… I can smell the stench of the decaying corpses of my brothers and sisters. How can nobody else smell the pollution? Why is the universe not deaf when the screams of the dead emanating from this place are so loud… this place is cancer…' A silver line that appeared to stretch till eternity yet still resembled a short thread entered the Empire-controlled spaces of Trion, carried by invisible streams of Aether that propelled it to speeds that were far faster than light. For such a powerful civilization, it was a mystery why Trion only controlled such a few Minor Worlds when they could have tens of thousands under their rule. The universe was vast and they had the power to take a healthy portion of the pie, but this was a minor mystery for this enigmatic civilization, they chose to remain in a tiny corner of the universe, holding less than three hundred Minor Worlds. Today, the subject of the fear that had been rippling under the calm visage of the Empire had entered their Territory, and the massive world of Trion could be seen in the distance, its light was so bright and beautiful that it dwarfed any celestial body present in the universe. Trion was a world of many layers and deep beauty. Whatever your level of perception, the sight of this massive world would drive your imagination into a frenzy. Yet in the Primordial Perception of Rowan, this was not the case. Although he was deep in slumber he could still sense the wrongness of Trion, like a cancerous tumor that had grown so large and so rotten that it should have imploded into itself eons ago, but a dreadful will kept it spinning, its beauty only a guise. In a month, Rowan would reach his destination. The silver line moved, nondescript, its presence could be easily dismissed, but the power it contained could raze a million worlds to dust. ® "Do we need any more proof than this? This universe is not just strange, it is broken!" A ticked-off voice roared. "Why is our request being denied? I thought it was only me, but if the rest of you cannot find out what is wrong here from your Great Towers then the secrets this universe holds must be greater than we all assumed." "I can't believe I am saying this but where is the Empyrean guarding this universe? Even though the universe is still young there should be enough time for an outpost of Celestials to be set up, yet there are none! The Abyssal Passage that was built is being maintained by the White Tower, that is a secret I just learned, can you believe this? There are no Titan lairs, or Akashic Cove, and many other major powers that flock to a universe like flies to a corpse. This universe is young and vibrant, yet why does it feel so old when you look deeper into it." Five Archmages sat in a circle, and it was immediately clear that these Archmages were the five present in the Underverse when Rowan had first attacked. After that incident that had led to great losses among all of them, not counting all the geniuses lost in that surprise battle, in which most of them were descendants or personal disciples, they found out they had lost a sizable chunk of the Primordial Aether contained inside their Towers. This loss led to drastic changes in their power base and if they did not rest for centuries while collecting as much Primordial Aether as they could, then one of their Stars might be affected, stalling their growth in power or a more serious case would mean the star could be extinguished, driving them lower down their rank, a debilitating injury that would take millions of years to recover from. The main source of their worries was not the Outer Universal creature that attacked them, although such an occurrence was rare, it was possible that now and then an Outer Universal being might be able to infiltrate and dwell inside a material universe for a very short period. They all agreed that the reason why the Nyre Flower should have bloomed tens of thousands of years earlier should be due to the presence of this creature, and their intrusion into its activities was what made it lash out. The Archmages counted themselves lucky that there had been multiple of them there to share the final blow made by that creature, else it would not have mattered that the Will of the Supreme World protected their souls, they would have lost two stars at the least from that blow, rendering them injured and useless for tens of millions of years. They had submitted the details of this battle to their individual Tower Master and with the long memories of the Mages, then sooner or later, this being would be hunted down and brought to a severe reckoning. The greatest cause of worry for the Archmages present here was simple: during the short battle, they had unleashed forbidden amounts of energy while inside the material universe. Normally expanding a tenth of the power they unleashed should have been enough to draw the Will of the Universe and they would be marked and ejected from the universe, never able to return, as if that was not scary enough, the guardians of the universe, powerful Empyreans whose capabilities were frightening inside and outside the universe would quickly find their way to those areas of conflicts and in their fashion, slaughter everyone present, both innocent and guilty. Yet no one arrived, their confrontation which reshaped an entire area of the Underverse killing trillions of denizens of this area, and destabilizing this place for untold millions of years seemed never to have taken place. They were lucky that this battle occurred at the depths of the Underverse or else they would have shattered the Teleportation Passage for millions of worlds, plunging the entire universe into chaos and killing an unknown amount of people. There was no way the universe should have brushed something like this aside, but this appeared to be the case. Somehow an apocalyptic battle was fought, but it seemed as if it was all a dream. If not for their injuries, it would be like nothing had happened. This was what frightened the Archmages.