The Primordial Record - Chapter 1639

Note: The first part of this volume, which is the mini-arc for the promised hundred-year Agreement battle, takes place simultaneously in the past and the present.

The past would always be related to Noctis, and the present with Staff.

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Resurrection turned out to be trickier than he thought, and Rowan cursed Death for the hundredth time as he struggled to push back a sliver of his essence towards Reality.

Rowan had made an agreement with Death, but the wily entity did not believe in it unless he reached the ninth-dimensional level. Yet this promise held enough allure for Death that for the first time since the beginning of existence, it chose to let a soul that had entered its realm leave.

Still, Death had one more trick to play. To cross from the realm of Death to life, Rowan would have to pass through the Bleak Gate, and if he was able to pass through it, then he had the capability to negotiate with the Beast of Final Rest.

Rowan had agreed to this, knowing that there was a trap in this arrangement but trusting himself to be able to solve it.

He had walked up to the massive gate made from bones and black iron, pushing past the resistance from the gate that repelled him for reaching it. Rowan's hand slowly went towards the gate as a fiery explosion and shockwaves erupted from his palm from the repelling force growing exponentially stronger.

What Rowan had in abundance was strength, and if that was not enough, he could call upon more energy than his body could ever use at a single time and push through.

Slowly but steadily, his hand pushed through the resistance, and he touched the gate. Everything flashed green as a massive explosion rivaling what he used to kill Primordial Memory erupted from the gate.

Rowan was no longer weak and broken as he was in the battle with the Archon, and so, except for being flung back from the gate and suffering burns that sought to leech the life from his flesh, he was basically unharmed.

It did not take long for him to analyze what went wrong. If Rowan were dead, then this Gate would have opened under his impossible strength, and he would be able to leave the realm of the dead, but since his life force was so powerful that he was basically still alive even while he was dead, then he could not pass through the gate.

Feeling a bit reckless, Rowan decided to test his strength against the gate one more time. The laws that pushed him back were inviolable, but he had sensed something more profound about the power of death when he briefly touched the Bleak Gate, and he wanted to explore that sensation.

Fighting against the power of death was madness, but it was for those who had fear and had limits. Rowan fought through the resistance from the gate, and before he touched it, he braced himself.

It would have been better if he were able to pull Ether from his Origin Land for the added weight, but then the distance separating his Origin Land from his dimensional flesh was too great, and Rowan just had to make do with the power and weight of his flesh and soul.

Placing both hands on the gate, another massive eruption occurred, creating a green mushroom cloud so massive that universes would be like fireflies before its immensity.

The ground around Rowan's feet shattered for countless light years as his body was forced into the ground, and with a loud crack, his powerful arms snapped under the pressure, the wave of force continuing to crush his spine.

This level of damage was nothing to him. What Rowan was focused on was the mysterious energy of Death that flooded his body. His powerful consciousness seized on this fact, knowing this was his ticket out of this realm, yet he hated the fact that he would have to take this path.

With his hands still pressed against the gate, a constant blast of force and green fire erupting all around him, Rowan opened all the pores in his body and began drawing all the green flames into himself.

This was pure death energy from a higher-dimensional realm, and although his dimensional flesh and soul were powerful, Rowan was not resisting the influence of this death energy; he opened up his body and soul to it.

He killed himself to get here, and it would seem like he had to kill himself again to leave.

Perhaps it was because he was in the realm of Death, and so the power of the green flames was especially tyrannical. It did not take long for his massive body to begin to blacken and rot, as his golden soul shrieked in pain before large spots of decay began to cover it.

Rowan cursed in annoyance as he felt the sensation of death multiply. The only thing that distracted him was the Black Gate, which was slowly beginning to shift as more of his body was corrupted by the energy of death.

He could feel his life slipping away, from a hundred, it shrank to ninety, then eighty...

40...

15...

3...

Surely this should have been enough, but the Bleak Gate still held firm, only barely opening a sliver and refusing to budge.

Gritting his teeth in irritation, Rowan continued shrinking his life energy, all the way down to a single percent.

No matter what happened, he had to keep a sliver of his life intact because the trap Death laid for him was ingenious. Death could not kill Rowan; only Rowan could kill himself.

Rowan's control over his life was fixed by his Fate, and unless he willfully gave up his life, he could never be claimed by the realm of Death.

Death had given him back a pathway to life, and he only had to push past the gate to be resurrected; however, only the dead could pass through this gate.

Rowan knew the moment he allowed himself to be fully consumed by the energy of Death, he might still be able to leave, but he would be its servant.