The Primordial Record novel Chapter 1560

Andar knew that while many of the things he was witnessing here might be true, this was most likely all that his consciousness could interpret. This drew his desire to understand to the fore, and Andar could not help but fall into the motions of these hands; he believed he was glimpsing eternity in them.

"Hand me the tweezers; I cannot get to the core of her soul without damaging too much of its fragile structure; a fascinating matrix shields it, nothing that these present iterations should be capable of, clear proof of tampering, how fascinating."

It took a moment for Andar to feel a chill running down his spine. He dragged his eyes against the hands that held him spellbound and looked up to see the man staring at him, and he motioned with his eyes,

"The tweezers are there beside you; hand them over. This structure will not last forever, and I would rather not dig it out of your soul. Unlike an Old One, your soul is still too fragile for an invasive procedure like this."

Andar felt a Waring vibration from Aetherius, and he looked down to see hovering a few feet from his chest; one of the Frozen hands emerging from this man's back was waiting, palm spread open, and Andar had not even seen how that movement had happened.

His senses reached towards his side, where a small altar had appeared without his notice, and Andar recognized several tools. Most were used in the Immortal Arts, but some were strange, with forms that seemed to make no sense. These alien tools did not seem meaningless; in fact, as he looked at them, it appeared that he was finally seeing the complete toolkits of the Immortal Arts.

A series of snaps made him look at the frozen hand in front of his chest. The fingers wriggled in impatience, causing the air around them to crackle like mini thunder strikes emerging around the fingers from its slight motion.

Andar knew how dense his surroundings were, and he was only standing here because of Aetherius; if this finger could shake this space to the extent it was cracking, he would have to give his all to defend against a minor blow from them. This single frozen hand was clear proof that this man could effortlessly kill him.

Instinct born out of centuries of studying the Immortal Arts under various masters surged through his body, and Andar sent out a burst of Intent, wrapping it around the requested tweezers and floating it to the frozen hand. An apprentice did not delay the works of the master, especially when it seemed to be crucial. Andar did not bother to think of the reason he was meant to fetch the tools, as he knew that every action made by this man served a purpose.

The frozen hand grabbed the tweezers out of the air, and in the next moment, the man in front of him was holding them, his focus back on his work. Andar could no longer discern any of the hand's movements as it was now buried deeper inside Revah's chest.

He heard a slight sound, almost like the tiny whisper of the breeze in the distance, and Andar turned to Revah's slack face. Her milky eyes… twitched. The realization dawned on him that this Magus was not dead. His gaze traveled to all the other dais inside the cave, and he could detect subtle movements from all of them.

The sound he heard was repeated, almost like a strangled moan, and he would have sworn that her eyes shifted a bit. Maybe it was because whatever act this man was making inside Revah's body was rocking her, and he could not help but question how he could reduce Old Ones to the level of mortals.

As he stood here, Andar realized a simple and absolute truth: He was out of his league.