Chapter 1637: Meeting The Past In The Present
The soul of Staff fractured into pieces, and her mind was broken. Her Will held her together, but even this was a fading bulwark against the pressure that could shatter eternity.
‘This was a trap. There is no way I could have held this back. Primordial Demon, you want my father to fail!’
Staff cried out in anguish, knowing that if her father knew that she had given up her life to ensure the stage of bat that would determine his freedom was pleted in time, he might lose a bit of momentum in his fight, and in a battle of that level, the most minor changes could be dangerous.
‘No, I cannot accept this, I cannot die, not before I hear the voice of my father!’
Staff could see herself drowning in a pool of suffering and lamentation as the evils of the chain drew her into darkness. Her hands stretched out of the pool of darkness, reaching for anything, and when the last bit of warmth was about to leave her body, as her hope faded, a warm hand held her own and dragged her out of the pool of darkness.
Spending several seconds coughing out black sludge that had filled her lungs, Staff gasped and struggled to her feet, looking up at the man who had saved her.
“Rowan,” she sighed, “why am I not surprised?”
Looking at the wriggling mass of darkness that she had coughed out of her chest, Rowan winced, “That looks both painful and disgusting.”
Staff looked at Rowan deeply, “You have changed.”
Rowan’s eyes widened in appreciation. “So you noticed! I thought you might, but if you say I have changed then you must have met the me in the future, well I guess to you it would be the present. Oh, by the way, how am I doing? No, don’t answer that, I am dead, aren’t I?”
Staff shook her head in bewilderment, “How are you inside my mental space?”
Rowan shrugged, “Actually, I am in your soul, and it was much more cozy in here even when you began going full demon mode and disregarding the inheritance of your Dominator half, then you had to bring that nasty thing inside your soul. Are you looking to die this quickly?”
Staff rolled her eyes in irritation, the heavy burden in her chest from all the events that had been happening was somehow washed away under the teasing of Rowan, closing her eyes to settle her spirit, she asked,
“Why are you here?”
Rowan sighed and swept his hand aside. The darkness that surrounded them washed away, and a scene from thousands of years ago was shown where they had all gathered at Booze Palace.
Inside that place, Rowan had made his plans for his battle against the Primordials, and Staff was surprised by how much of it she had forgotten, which for an immortal of her stature should be impossible, meaning that her memory had been tampered with.
“I am sorry for hiding details of the past from you, but I was going to drop you into the den of a beast, and if he had sensed this frailty inside of you, then you would be torn to pieces.”
Staff was shaken. Fragments of memories and plans that were extremely plex for even her eighth-dimensional consciousness brushed across her soul, and she knew that the only reason she could not recollect anything was that all of this knowledge had been hidden in the future!
She stammered in shock, “You can see the future?!”
Rowan cocked his head to the side, “Not precisely, especially when I am not using Reflections, but in a limited manner, I can access it, and this is my greatest weapon against the Primordials. I am sorry for keeping you in the dark. Even if I could show you my plans, it would be like holding a color book for a blind person.”
“Harsh,” Staff frowned as she bowed her head in thought, but she recovered quickly. The mental resilience of an Old One was robust. So, what now? Are you here to watch me die?”
“Do you want me to?” Rowan snickered in amusement.
“Do I have a choice in anything that you do?”
“Of course, you always have a choice. I do not force my path on anyone. If it es to it, I will bear this weight alone. I would do almost anything for victory, yet I also understand that I have no foolproof guarantee of success. If it es down to it, the journey I took getting to this point is far more valuable to me than the end result of my path.”
Staff was silent as she contemplated his words, and then she shook her head, “Well, none of this matters now, I am about to die, and I can no longer assure that the arena would be pleted in my absence.”
“Well, that is a rather bleak view of Reality. It seems things took a drastic turn in the present.”
“You don’t say,” Staff scoffed, “Everyone is dead. My friends, Eva, Lost… Andar. I blink my eyes, and they are all gone. Your battles Rowan, the stakes, it is too much. I know now that you can glimpse the future, so surely you must be aware of the price there is to pay in this war.”
“Ah, Staff, this is the burden I never wanted to fall on your shoulders. I would have loved to prepare you more for what was to e, but I could not, and for that I apologize. However, there are a few things I can do, and one of them is saving your life, and keeping my promises.”
A brief flash of hope lit up her eyes. “You can save me?”
Rowan smiled, but deep in his eyes was only sadness because, more than anyone, he could feel the pain in her soul. He still smiled because no matter how much she tried to deny it, he knew his smile brought her peace, so he did it.
“I had expected something like this to hamper you in the future. The Primordials never play fair, and there is no reason why I should, either. I came across a series of broken Sin Weapons: Pride, Envy, and Wrath. After fusing them together, I discovered that these weapons, which came from the Great Abyss, had a rather famed history, and inside your soul I placed this weapon.”
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