The Primordial Record

There was something strange about this memory that Rowan had been able to quickly pick up on because he had multiple consciousnesses. He had detected the earth rumbling and the memory glitching, but what was strange was that the consciousness inside this memory was not experiencing this change.

To the consciousness inside this memory, everything was playing as it had always been, the battle between Erohim and the consciousness was repeating itself and the mirage had been perfect, for a while at least.

The moment Erohim had detected the change in this memory, his consciousness inside it had also detected the change. Rowan saw no reason to lie or twist his words to fake his intentions, he would never be able to deceive Erohim for long.

Rowan suspected that this memory had been carefully hidden by Erohim, a backup against his eventual demise, and when Rowan first entered the memory, it was supposed to trap him, so as to give Erohim enough time to deceive or compel whoever entered it.

He had not forgotten that this memory was so powerful it was real in every sense. This could only be a power that came as a result of Will. Rowan had been careful to hide himself from the gaze of the Reflections, and when Erohim found him, he instantly knew that the hidden battle had begun.

The reason was simple. In this memory, Erohim was still all-powerful, he was able to fight against four Reflections with the power of Will and was able to win. He might have presented himself as a faded memory, lamenting his loss and betrayal but that was a lie.

Rowan was not deceived, the truth was that he was already in the belly of the beast, but Rowan was not an easy prey to swallow. Erohim had been fixated on this consciousness here with him, unaware that Rowan also had two other consciousnesses outside that were controlling a World Seed.

The moment he opened his eyes inside this memory and realized the depths of its makeup, Rowan began to make changes. In a reality where Erohim was all-powerful, his memories were not safe.

Scrubbing this consciousness of any relevant memories, and planting just the right ones to deceive whoever chose to read them had become an art form. Rowan knew to give enough where nothing was missing, but take out essential pieces so that the overall picture becomes something else entirely.

One of the most important things he took away from his memories was his experiences with other dimensional entities like Caine and the Primordial Record, his multi-consciousness ability, and the true scale of his power.

It was a careful balancing act, but it was the only way that Rowan could set traps in his mind that would be impossible to be detected by anyone quickly enough. His traps were perfect, nevertheless, Rowan did not doubt that if he gave Erohim enough time to truly peruse through his memories, he would soon detect something off, but luckily time was not on his side.

This change to his memories was performed instantaneously as soon as he detected he had entered another reality, and it turned out that his fears were correct, because as much as he tried to find it, he could not detect Erohim's touch in his memories.

Unlike Caine, Erohim had taken apart all his memories and learned everything that he could from Rowan, and yet he had not felt anything. It was from this memory that Erohim had crafted the stories he told him, and the funny thing was that Rowan had no true evidence to back this up at first, but like all prideful bastards, Erohim had revealed several discrepancies in his stories, and he had played his part too well.

Erohim's tale was very persuasive, his acts and his demeanor were truly convincing, but his story was not complete. Certain minor parts were taken out that if it were left in, would show his story in a different light.

The first and easiest indicator was simple, the full name of his main body was not only the Primordial of Time, he also controlled another power which was Evil. In his memories, Rowan had changed the method he learned of the Primordial existence.

In his doctored memory, Rowan got this knowledge from Golgoth, and he was unaware of his second Title, Erohim was aware of this change, and he made sure that he only referred to the Primordial as He who holds Time.

There were thousands of other minor changes he had made that Erohim had built upon, and Rowan was only aware of them because he was the one who planted the roots of those narratives.

The second reason Rowan had known that Erohim was playing him was simple: he had seen Primordials. Not many in existence would ever claim to have seen these esteemed entities, even great powers that have lived for countless Eras might never see a Primordial even till the end of creation.

Rowan had seen Primordials, perhaps more than anyone else in creation, and he knew that their nature could not be changed because they were the essence of their name. A Primordial of Fire could not change into a creature of water, because every intrinsic part of it was of flames.

The same with Evil and the Primordial that controlled it.

A mortal could change, an Immortal could change, but a Primordial was eternal and unchanging. They were the pinnacle of a concept, and their nature was rigid to the extreme.

Rowan recognizes his roots. He knew that a part of his nature was evil, and he accepted it, his lack of remorse, or his apathy towards life was born from that evil, his essence was born from Evil, it was something that was never going to change but he also had good in him, and he also accepted that good.

Erohim on the other hand showed himself to Rowan as a being whose core was evil, but every action he took was righteous and selfless. He painted the Reflections as the villains, and himself as the defender of life, telling Rowan that he was the one keeping them in check until their betrayal.

His demeanor was solemn, melancholic, filled with pain and loss… such a perfect picture of despair that Rowan wanted to puke in irritation.

One of the entities that Rowan truly hated was Caine, he was the creature who wanted to take over the Will of Chaos and was the first to harm his Angels, now Erohim had been brought to stand beside Caine in his head.

Rowan never thought he would ever be glad that he had once met an entity like Caine, but if he had met Erohim before he had met Caine, then he would have never understood the cruelty and nature of those with power.

Rowan looked at the expression of shock on Erohim's face and he shook his head in irritation, "You can stop the act Erohim, I have seen better. This game our family plays with each other has only one rule, the winner takes all, and the loser dies. Did you think of all us, that I was the easiest prey?"

Erohim went still and then he grinned, his expression warping from one of grace and confusion to a look of sheer madness that would frighten a god,

"What gave me away, Romion?"