The Primordial Record novel Chapter 1559

The man on the throne, who should be Endirius, appeared to be sleeping, but his hands were red with blood up to his elbows. But something seemed subtly wrong with this picture, and Andar's mind tried to piece out what was drawing his attention; when he sight zoomed into the bloodied hands of the man sitting on the throne and saw that the blood was not still, it was moving as if it had a life of its own.

It was a small detail, but it enhanced Andar's sense of wrongness, almost as if he were looking at a shadow that had taken a person's place. Endirius, sitting on that throne, radiated great heat as if all the flames of existence were housed within his shell, and although his eyes were closed, flickers of fire could still be seen straining to escape the bounds of his eyelids.

Yet, something about this scene still felt wrong to him. Andar blinked, and Reality shifted. This change was so sudden that he believed that if not for the solidity of this space, he would have collapsed to his knees.

Andar closed his eyes, pulling strength from deep inside him, and projected his Will outwards. Aetherius released subtle vibrations that flowed all through his body. The presence of his Magus Tower wrapped around his mind, and his focus became as firm as adamantine. Then he opened his eyes.

There was no longer a man sitting on a throne, and the massive hallway was gone; he was inside a dark cave. He could even hear the sound of dripping around him as the many stalactites above released the moisture locked around them by the green moss coverings. Andar thought they almost looked like decaying teeth, and he felt as if he was inside the mouth of a rotting beast.

Seven bodies were laid on an upraised dais; all were rough as if carved naturally by nature; these bodies had been sliced open, and a man was digging through their insides; dozens of arms made of black ice extended from his back so he could work on all the bodies at the same time.

Arms entered the bloodied torso and retrieved various strange organs that were dissected before being negligently thrown further into the cave like they were rubbish. In the short while that Andar stood here in observation, hundreds of organs had been thrown away, yet the hands always seemed to be able to dig out more from the bodies.

This strange man was entirely focused on his work and ignored Andar. His back was hunched, as if carrying all those arms was bending his spine, making him appear like a man-spider hybrid.

Andar recognized most of these bodies. They were all descendants of the noble bloodline of Endirius. He especially recognized Revah Endirius. She had been a thorn in his side, as she was one of the Mages deeply suspicious of Andar's roots.

He had not bothered to confirm his suspicion. Still, he believed that the woman he killed, the member of the Flame Guard who had nurtured the flames now taken by Rowan, should be one of the descendants of Revah Endirius here, and now both ancestor and descendants were dead.

As shocking as it was to watch their bodies torn open and their insides splayed out, what was concerning was that all of them were Old Ones!

Andar had no idea there were so many Old Ones inside the Magus Supreme Realm. Even Revah Endirius, whom he was familiar with, was widely known to be a seventh-dimensional Magus. By all general knowledge, Endirius alone, the Supreme Magus, was the only Old One inside this realm.