In the timeless space of the Sanctum of Eternity, Rowan had completed devouring the entire castle. Presently, his soul was shining as bright as a star, filled with countless runic mysteries, and the faint cries of joy from Soul Whales filled the entire space.
Devouring the entirety of the Sanctum of Eternity granted Rowan the ability to nullify the presence of time all around him. In this manner, he maintained the time stop effect that was giving him an advantage in comprehension.
With the castle gone, it was impossible to hide the path to the lower levels of Soul Origin, and it also showed Rowan the corruption hidden underneath that had been gnawing through the foundations of this place.
With this space bereft of radiance, he saw its edges filled with cracks that oozed miasma, the rotten bodies of countless Soul Whales who had ventured too close to the edge.
The signs of vitality in the Sanctum of Eternity would never last, and this was the true face of what was to come. The Primordials were a plague, unable to create, unable to preserve the things they stole, and nigh impossible to kill by all standard metrics.
The Origin of Soul was an authority meant to last for all eternity until Death took all at the end, but the touch of a Primordial was slowly robbing it of all radiance.
Rowan looked at this corruption for a while, and a blast of his Will fried it into nothingness, and he swore to himself that every touch of a Primordial in this Reality or any other Reality still in Limbo would be cleansed. If this was to be his lifelong mission, then it was one that he fully accepted.
Glancing around to make sure he had not missed any spot of corruption, Rowan proceeded to the pool of quicksilver below him, and it recoiled away from his presence. Still, there was nowhere to go, so the pool helplessly held open its door for Rowan to descend, accessing the next layer of the soul.
"Let the descent begin."
®
This layer of the soul slammed into Rowan’s consciousness with the weight of a thousand falling dimensions, and he did not even blink.
"FWOOOSH"
His dimensional soul body cut through a dense atmosphere, and a heavy, attractive force pulled him downwards until he slammed like a meteor into an ocean made from emotions.
This ocean was as dense as molten obsidian and as cold as the space between stars, and Rowan’s body sank into it like a stone. He could hear, at the edge of his perception, the voice of Primordial Soul,
"In this ocean I shall drown your truth."
The emotions that made up this sea were visceral, congealed guilt, petrified shame, fossilized fear—countless, and if there was any positive light within it, it had become buried under the weight of all the bad.
Rowan believed he could understand why this was the case. If this was the Origin of Soul, it was a reflection of the state of Reality. All of the negative emotions that had arisen over the Eras since the emergence of the Primordials had filled up this sea until it overflowed.
Everything good was being lost, and Rowan’s soul was experiencing twelve Eras of madness, bombarding his consciousness.
He thought he could see faint glimmers of gold in the distance, like the rays of ghostly needles through a fog, but they never lasted, and he was easily drowned by the endless waves of sadness and madness.
"You could have saved them..."
"They are weary..."
"They are stuck... and it was all your fault."
"You do not blame the wolf for feeding on the sheep. Your job as a shepherd was to keep your herd safe. Born to be a Reality that should have ushered in a new dawn of change and prosperity, instead, you allowed yourself to become prey. If the end of everything is not your fault, then whose is it?"
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