The Primordial Record

The presence of this beast was alarming but it did not surprise Rowan.

"No one is innocent," he drawled as he urged the spread of Retrogression to proceed faster, disregarding the cries of fury and astonishment from the outside–universal creature.

The spread of this taint of Retrogression was almost at sixty percent, but with the urging from Rowan, spurred on by the Runes he had implanted into the treasure, it began to rapidly spread and only a small portion of the hilt was left, but that would not last long.

During the brief moment he had spent with this creature, they had both tried to one-up each other.

Rowan had infiltrated inside its body with his Berserker Clones and he had kept them dormant, waiting for a while until the Creature would most likely lose any suspicion about their transaction, and when he also got stronger, the Creature had also played him too as expected.

The Treasure sold to Rowan did not truly belong to him for the imprint of the Creature was still inside of it.

This was not something that could be easily detected and Rowan had seen no hint of it, perhaps when the Creature also felt Rowan was no longer suspicious, it would pull the treasures back to its side, or if Rowan ever ventured outside the universe, the creature would easily recall the treasures he exchanged, it was no wonder it was willing to trade three of its most valuable treasures to Rowan without much bargaining.

The cries of the Creature grew louder and a pale fog began to escape from the transforming blade, and when the entire weapon was covered by the energy of Retrogression, the fog escaped from it entirely and was slowly taking the shape of the creature he had once encountered.

The fog was in the shape of a giant centipede with trillions of legs that soon filled the entire Forge, its size was awe-inspiring and the motion from its body was both charming and filled with ugliness.

Below, the Scribes and the Spell Weavers gasped at this sight, for the heavens had suddenly been replaced by the appearance of this beast, and they quickly took away their gaze from it, as a pitiful Scribe quietly began to transform into a giant centipede.

This transformation was quick and he did not seem to be aware of it, only a quick golden flash that sliced off his head made the other truly realize the scale of the danger.

The Scribe that had transformed into a giant centipede, could not even shriek before it transformed into a golden statue, a closer look would show that the stomach of this centipede had torn open and expanded, and inside were filled with thousands of small centipedes that had also transformed into gold.

If that golden slice came a bit late, the Centipede rushing out from his exploding body would have covered this entire portion of the Formation, destabilizing it.

The golden wave had been Diane, she was the one to quickly spot the corruption and she instantly knew that with the level of enemy they faced and the enormity of their tasks ahead, a single error could not be tolerated.

Her golden eyes rapidly passed through the 313 Scribes here and she detected the faint whiff of corruption from 53 other Scribes.

"Everyone, close off your senses, do not gaze at the Abomination above." Diane's commanding voice rang out like a bell.

She rose a bit into the air and the golden orb rotating behind her suddenly shot out 53 long golden strings of energy that pierced through the forehead of all the Scribes that had been corrupted by gazing at that presence, turning them all into golden statues.

The only other Spell Weaver beside her snapped her fingers and the golden statues were engulfed with a blue and golden fire that vapourised them, the tiny smoke that arose from the destroyed statues turned to fog and escaped overhead, returning to the gigantic fog body of the other–universal creature

"SCCHRRRCCHHH!!!!!"

The irritated screech of the creature resounded throughout the Forge and its nightmarish visage began to lower itself until it reached Rowan's head.

Everything that happened with the Scribes hardly warranted its attention, its energy would seek to corrupt and assimilate everything it came in contact with.

The horrifying face of the creature opened up,

"How dare you…"

Rowan's golden eyes glowed with irritation and anger and he clenched his fist, his Telekinesis spread out like a storm and crushed the Gears of Madness to pieces.

Massive chunks of the blade that now look like metal left to rust for decades began to fall into the bowl that was filled with the liquid remnants of his World Engine.

The Creature screeched once again in despair and vanished, every tie he had with the Gears of Madness had been severed and the weapon that could carry a portion of his consciousness for the moment had ceased to exist, and so it vanished from this space, having nothing to anchor its consciousness to.

Rowan did not gloat for he was aware that he was on a short-

timer, if the Creature was aware that its treasures were at risk of being destroyed, then it may rapidly pull the last two treasures back.

Although he had confirmed with the presence of the Creature that while it could understand what was happening here, it could not necessarily influence the outcome.

The environment of the Forge resembled that of a Fifth Dimension, nevertheless, it was still located inside the Material Universe. The Creature was undeniably powerful, but Rowan thought it would be quite a stretch for it to bypass the universal restrictions of the universe and reach this area with its main body, and Rowan could handle the portion of its consciousness it left behind.

Yet Rowan needed to be sure of this assumption, and now that he was assured that the imprint the Creature left behind inside the weapon did not have the power to destabilize the forging process, he proceeded with his plans.

In the distance, the Two Sovereigns reduced the power they had been charging up. Rowan had made them ready some of their most devastating spells in anticipation of things going sideways, they would have been the ones to restrict the Creature if it turned out that it was more powerful than expected.