The Primordial Record

Near the fifth year, the eyes of the Clone opened as the island he was residing on shook and began to fall.

The enormous pressure arising from below the floating islands had reduced and as a result, the numerous floating islands began to fall deeper into the darkness below.

During the time of his waiting the Clone had removed the helm from his armor and it was immediately noticeable that his appearance had changed and he no longer resembled the beautiful features of Rowan instead he appeared like a hardened warrior in his fifties.

The clone had slowly been changing his facial features over the years, as he had a habit of taking one of the humanoid traits of any of the targets that gave him the most trouble while he was in this place. Although with his high perception, he had managed to make his face appear distinctively pleasant, nothing of his features would connect Rowan to him.

His salt and pepper hair was vividly colorful and his eyes especially were striking, as it seemed to be filled with countless planets made from blood.

Rousing the Children of Ruin from their slumber, the Berserker Clone left his hidden alcove and moved toward the edge of his floating island where he looked around.

With gravity now exerting its influence back on these islands, a huge commotion erupted as thousands of islands began to fall deeper into the darkness. Some of these islands were as small as a few hundred feet across, while others were as large as a hundred miles across.

Those small islands after falling for a while with the rest were soon pushed upwards or could no longer fall deeper and began to hover because their weight was too light and the pressure arising from below got stronger the lower you proceeded.

After nearly sixteen years inside the Underverse, the eyes of the Berserker Clone had adapted to the darkness over time; he slowly changed the composition of his eyes to mimic those of the Children of Ruin until he was able to pierce through the darkness of this place.

It was the reason the current appearance of his eyes was so strange, he had pulled in certain techniques from the Children of Ruin and had slowly begun to evolve his abilities. If he had a few thousand years he might create something entirely new from the powers he was imitating.

For now, it was enough that he could see thousands of floating islands as they fell. A new crisis soon emerged as no longer supported by the rising pressure from beneath, the falling islands began to crash into each other.

He soon realized he would have to move to another bigger island, for although the islands were resistant to the pressure arising from below when they crashed into each other, the force from their collision usually caused the smaller islands to shatter into pieces, which led to a reduction in their weight and they were pushed upwards.

The Berserker Clone regretted not finding a much larger island to settle before now, he could only be focused and anticipate any new changes that would be happening.

His island was a medium sized island, and he watched in rapt attention. He would be safe for a while but he needed to escape when this island became too small due to the constant pandemonium occurring.

For the next four hours, the Berserker Clone had to avoid being caught unprepared in a broken island, as his medium-sized island was crushed a while back and he had nearly been flung away from this place alongside the crushed island by the rising pressure despite his alertness.

With the seven Children of Ruin, they hopped, skipped, and jumped across multiple islands, for flying was almost impossible here and was most assuredly a death sentence if they tried. The islands were resistant to the riding pressure but their bodies were not, even the bodies of the Children of Ruin would be torn to pieces in a short while if they remained outside the influence of the islands for too long.

They had nearly been separated several times and escaped death many times over until the chaos drastically reduced as soon the islands were reduced to a few dozen all of which were hundreds of miles in size, and with their weight, the descent speeds were consistent, not as fast as a free fall, but enough that the Berserker Clone had to dematerialize his cape to avoid being dragged into space.

The Berserker Clone frowned a bit, there was something strange about these remaining islands that struck him as odd, but he could not quite place his fingers on it yet, for he was still very focused on the sensation of the Primordial Record pages down below.

The closer he came to the page, the more he could accurately place the Primordial Record page's position, and he took the risk to maneuver his way to the island that was almost directly over the page and he waited for it to get lower.l, his journey was nearing its end.

The lower they fell, the stranger this space became, and a weird sort of silence and peace descended on the falling islands, a stark contrast from the previous commotion.

In this silence, the Clone could not help but wonder where he would end up in the material universe if he decided to pierce through this area. They were now so deep in the Underverse, that he would most likely appear near the edges of the Material Universe. What sort of a sight would he find there? Was it possible that if he reached deep enough he might find a way to leave the universe entirely?

Shaking his head, the clone dispersed those thoughts, the longer he stayed away from his Creator, the harder to marshal these unnecessary ideas from filling his mind. He was changing… This worried him. Yet at his core, he knew the reason for his existence; find the page of the Primordial Record and deliver it to Rowan.

Alerted by the Children of Ruin, the Clone went towards the edge of the island and looked below, it took a while before he noticed what the Children of Ruin had informed him about, and he nearly gaped at the sight.

At the depths of the Underverse, in this realm of endless darkness there were bright lights.