There would have been a time when the Third Prince might have been able to answer this question, but he had lost this ability in the creation of Rowan.

Although Fourth was the most powerful, the Third Prince had been the most envied of all his brothers because he had an ability that made it possible for him to reverse Time!

Among all the Reflections of their main body, he had been lucky to hold these impressive powers, and it brought envy and hate from his brother because using this ability, the Third Prince had been able to gain the greatest advantages among all his brothers, particularly irritating Fourth, who was the strongest.

The loss of this power was unexpected and in his desperation to regain it, attacked the First also known as Golgoth the God King, but the stubborn bastard ensured that he did not succeed, even if the price to pay for denying the Third Prince was to reduce himself to a zombie and poisoning his essence so that the Third Prince could never acquire it.

Generally, the four Aspects of their Main Body Reflection worked together, but they were not close, all of them wanted to be the one responsible for the resurrection of their Main Body, and they might work together for a common cause, but they were still fiercely antagonistic to each other.

“We have lived for too long!” The Third Prince lamented. In the beginning, it would be impossible for them to have such a large difference in opinion that they would plot against each other, but something changed after many Eras and countless tries and failures as they struggled for the impossible dream of resurrecting their main body.

Along the way, their vision had become warped and a sense of competition and individuality arose in their hearts, threatening the cooperation between them and finally shattering it.

What happened inside this universe was the result of trillions of years of strife slowly growing inside their hearts, and the result was spectacular. A Reflection of a Primordial who had lived for countless years fell to the whims of a mortal—his own son.

Rowan had learned that the Third Prince had betrayed Golgoth, but he did not know the reason for this unexpected event, he had inferred that it must be due to his birth or that the Third Prince might have gained a Soul.

He would have been speechless with amusement if he learned that all four Reflections had all gained a Soul, and therefore they were no longer pure. Although their primary purpose for existence remained ingrained in them, their individuality had been born.

The Reflection of a Primordial was supposed to be technically perfect, possessing great power and focus, but over the course of the endless tides of time, even perfection might grow flawed.

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With the events that had transpired on Trion, the fourth prince knew he was not strong enough to bring Rowan back into his control, with every moment that passed his errant son was growing so powerful that he was already beyond his management.

His injury had shattered his Will, leaving a setting behind that was not as powerful as a Will but stronger than Intent. If Rowan had already been able to break that shackle he had over him, then it meant that in an impossibly short time, Rowan was heading towards the creation of Will.

If he failed to stop him then in less than a thousand years, this child of his might be able to control the power of Will and disrupt the plans they had inside this universe.

The Third Prince finally relinquished his pride and anger towards his brother, he might hate Fourth, but he knew that what was even more important than his hatred was the resurrection of their Main Body.

The enemy of my enemy is a friend.

If Rowan kills him, he will not stop there until he hunts all the rest of his siblings. No matter how much he hated Fourth, they were so close to achieving their goals that he would not allow anything to spoil the plans ongoing for many Eras.

The Third Prince knew how insanely lucky and crafty his son was, and he no longer underestimated Rowan, he was the greatest threat to their plans.

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The Third Prince kept applying force to the gate, pouring the last of his Intent into hidden Runes embedded deep inside it until the Gates of the Universe began to part with a harsh groan. A bright light escaped from the inside and he had to cover his eyes with his arms, but the gate did not open wide before it began to close again.

The Third Prince cursed aloud, he knew this was the result of the Fourth interfering with his actions, disregarding his discomfort he leaped forward, barely entering the gate with all his limbs attached as it slammed shut behind him.

He would not be surprised if his troubles inside the Great Desert were because of his brother. He had faced too many oppositions that were beyond reason. Meeting monsters like the King of Nothing was rare, but he had faced several.

The Third Prince was not stupid, this was just the chance for Fourth to kill him without showing his hands. Due to the fact that they all believed they were so close to resurrecting their main body, the internal conflicts between them had worsened.

A silent competition for the last one to be standing was playing among them. Only the Third Prince knew that they had a wolf in their midst, and if they did not strike while the iron was hot, they would lose.

The bright light inside this place faded away revealing the center of creation. The sight of it was so unassuming it was frankly disappointing.

The center of creation was just a small tree, with the only difference being that it had no leaves, only nine massive branches that resembled the trunks of elephants, and they were all connected to nine bizarre figures who appeared to be asleep.

These figures were humanoid and all appeared to be made from gold, they had various animalistic features that separated their appearances, as some had wings and claws while others had horns and hooves.

The Third Price knew that these nine figures were Empyreans, and where other universes would have only one Empyrean, this universe however had nine of them. From the fluctuations of power emerging from their bodies, it was not hard for the Third Prince to recognize how powerful they were in comparison to the average Empyrean.

Inside the hearts of these sleeping nine Empyreans, were Wills!

This was not the strangest part of this Universal Will, because, like its Empyrean, the Universe Will was asleep.

It was known that a Universe Will could never sleep… but Fourth could be very persuasive.

The Third Prince looked around the tree until he saw what he was looking for. If he was not aware of the form that Fourth usually wears, it would have been difficult to find him because he was perfectly camouflaged, and when he moved he was barely discernible.

The figure of Fourth appeared to be a massive brown worm that curled around the tree, his form was so long that he was curled around the tree multiple times, and as the Third Prince watched, Fourth opened his mouth filled with tiny white teeth that were shaped like those of a shark and began to bore his way through the trunk of the tree.

He had been at it for the last 4.5 billion years, slowly eating away at the tree, and it was expected that his feast would be completed in 15 billion years, a fraction of the universe’s lifetime, and he would take the position of the Universal Will.

Such a thing would shake the minds of all who hear it, but this was just a small part of their plans.

When they had entered this Universe, Fourth was the only one powerful enough to easily cross the Great Desert and reach the Gate of the Universe, but he did not have the strength to shatter the Gate of a newly born universe, whose Gate would also be linked to the gates of every other universes roaming inside the Great Dark.

Fourth had tricked the Universal Will instead since he was the one who still had access to a small part of their main body’s Aether.

Updated from frewebnovl.