?Like a wave that continuously rose without falling, the voices of the Children of Rowan rippled throughout the Dimension and escaped through the vortices into the material universe where it transformed into a horrifying sound that swept through the cosmos.

This should not be possible, the vortices were meant to collect the essence of the universe and not release anything in return, their makeup should make such an action highly improbable, but the Lady of Shadow had reviewed all the details of this conflict, and she knew what Rowan needed was time, and she could buy time by making the dead universe sing.

Her Will had seized partial control of the vortices and she channeled the roars of the army, merging them with the death cries of the universe that had lingered unheard, perhaps a part of the Universe Will still held its grief, it gave out all its pain and joined the voices and what emerged from the Vortices was a dreadful sound that led to madness to anyone who chooses to listen closely.

The Third Prince had just materialized his body and he cursed as he was promptly turned to ash by a burst of red flames that seemed to have merged with his essence. This had happened well over thirty thousand times and when he remade himself for the 30,001 times, a hint of fear and anger had begun to stain his gaze.

Then the sound that could shake the soul of anyone swept past him, that built and built… any sane person would close their ears and block their consciousness, but the Third Prince listened closely and underneath the screams of the universe he heard the roars from countless throats, this distracted him and he collapsed to ash once again.

He remade himself with a cry of bitterness, gritting his teeth against the flames and suppressing them deep in his soul, for this flame could consume the body, but not his immortal soul, it could only cause him pain; however, this pain was not enough to distract him as he surveyed the present universe and watched with wide-eyed astonishment at the absolute spectacle Rowan had created,

This horrifying sound seemed to be increasing in intensity as if challenging the Third Prince, this distracted him and his flesh exploded, the flames leaking out from his soul.

The Third Prince shuddered, his body slowly getting back the flesh over his flaming bones. He now understood this flame and could easily dispel it, but he wanted to feel it… he needed to feel this pain.

This sound was like a knock to his head, telling him how much he had miscalculated, Rowan was not the prey to be toyed with, he was the predator here. His foolishness allowed the snake to transform into a dragon.

This realization made him grin and then he beat his chest and howled like a wolf, all the setbacks he had faced in the hands of his errant child did not fill him with despair but excitement. It was not every day that the threat of failure and death was presented so starkly before him.

The Third Prince had lived his life in a constant state of daze, bored and unfulfilled no matter how much he craved for something more because in time he knew he would still win, it was impossible for him not to win… but now he could almost feel it, a fear he had not felt since the day that he was born.

“My dear boy… I can’t wait to kill you! I Can’t! Wait!”

He vanished into the universe his eyes focused on the vortex and then he paused, “I will need something bigger to kill you though, I can’t make the same mistake twice, no, no, fool me once Rowan, and you escaped Jarkarr, hahaha, and yet you fool me twice and you gained the universe. What sort of father would I be if you fooled me for the third time?”

“Why can it not be possible you imbecile?” Golgoth suddenly appeared beside the Third Prince, his armor was battered and he held his sword with so much force that the blade was bleeding from his grip, “Your useless fascination with your son has led us to this disaster, and even now your madness has not ended. You conspired and killed our Great Sword Fourth, how are we to fight in against this enemy without his great strength?”

The Third Prince cocked his head in surprise, “Golgoth, surely you don’t think the state of this universe is of my doing?”

“Here me brother, your time of reckoning is coming and it will be by my hand,” The God King swiped his hands in dismissal, “But it is not now, at this moment I don’t care for your madness or your betrayal, because there is something worse out there. I have killed Rowan so forget your fascination with that bastard and focus on whatever this entity is, it is not in our plans. This problem resulted from your actions Deceiver, and you shall help me fix it.”

The Third Prince looked stunned for a moment and then he began to laugh, “Even you? Hahaha… you would think that someone who had the raw power of creation in his hands would be more flashy, but he is more like a snake than a god, hahaha, I want to kill this child even more Golgoth! Can you not realize what he has done to you? He fooled you and led you like a dog on a leash, and yet you believed something else. Damn, I should not have killed you, death has done you no favors.”

The Third Prince stopped and scratched his head, “Perhaps I have judged you harshly, did he not fool me as well?”

Golgoth dead gaze went cold, “Explain yourself well brother.”

“Don’t mind if I do…” the Third Prince crooned and then sent a burst of knowledge toward Golgoth who assimilated everything in less than a second and then he froze.

“We have a problem,” Golgoth spoke slowly.

The Third Prince threw his hands up in the air, “Now he gets it.”

“No, you fool. He knows. I allowed him access to the vaults. I thought to trap him but…”

The mirth in the eyes of the Third vanished and he went cold, dispelling the flames of the Power in his Soul and then he screamed, “What!”

?

The cries from the vortices were touching every corner of the universe, the sound was like the dirge of the dead emanating from an endless field of corpses. 𝗳r𝐞ewbn𝚘ve𝚕.c𝗼𝗺

Every Immortal who heard this sound went pale, even the screeching demons grew quiet. The sound escaping from the vortices rose to a fever pitch and then it abruptly disappeared.

The silence that prevailed was even worse, it felt hungry.

At this moment, in every world in the universe, the living creatures entered a stasis-like state and were sucked through the vortex. Only a mortal would enjoy this benefit, every god born in the universe could only watch as their worlds were sucked away.

The universe was not just losing its Aether and mass, it was also shrinking. Such an oddity was fantastic to witness, for even a dead universe did not shrink but usually broke apart, and was harvested for scraps.

The call for retreat spread around the ranks of the Mages and Demons, and Gods as a quick plan for their next actions was being formulated.