In a short while, Andar stood inside the Magus Tower of the Steward, but the difference between when he stood here a day before and today was stark.
Instead of the two mountains that towered before him, there were now two more, and his knees were immediately slammed into the ground.
Andar felt that although the pressure he was facing from these mountains was still soul-crushing, it might just be his imagination, but they were now smaller than before… The mountain that towered in his mental-scape previously that made it hard for him to breathe, was something that he could now see the edges of.
Inside his Spirit Matrix, the Light Devourer suddenly shrieked. There were hints of struggles in its form as if the pressure from the Archmages was an affront to it, there were signs that it wanted to struggle out of his Spirit Matrix and charge at these Archmages.
If this creature in its prime could battle Empyreans from several universes at the same time to a standstill and could still butcher some of them, then he could understand its rage at this affront to its dignity.
Andar broke out in a cold sweat, and with everything inside him, he suppressed this Entity from escaping, he knew that however powerful this Shade of the Light Devourer was, its root was still connected to Andar, and presently, he was nothing but an Acolyte, it would be incredibly foolhardy to show any signs of challenge to the Archmages.
Andar's head bowed a little lower, as the Light Devourer's shrieking escalated, but suddenly it went silent, and Andar sighed in relief, it was all he could do to hold down this Entity, and he was getting tired of holding it down. The only thing he was grateful about was that in his desperation he had finally found a method of controlling the Light Devourer.
He did not know that when the bird became too excited and nearly broke free from his control, a pair of golden eyes that were colder than the endless void peered at it from deep within Andar's consciousness.
Whatever arrogance and anger in the heart of the Light Devourer fled away, as a voice entered into its budding soul, "Soon my child, you shall feast. One so great it will place the excesses of your previous life to shame."
Andar was Rowan's creation, and this made whatever fruit that was born from him, also become a part of Rowan's blood. They were all his children.
One of the mountains spoke and Andar easily recognized it as Khasos, the Steward, as always the sound of his voice came like thunder that slammed against his consciousness with unrelenting fury,
"Rise, young Acolyte. You have performed a meritable service and showed that the faith our Tower Master placed in you was not in vain. Andar Erikson, as of this moment you shall no longer be treated as an Acolyte, but the Prime Seed of the Black Tower. Do you accept this charge?"
Andar did not hesitate, he raised his head through the pressure and said, "I do. I accept the honorable charge of becoming a Seed of the Black Tower."
He felt a stir through the four mountains and the pressure covering his body was taken away.
"Then you shall rise Andar Erikson, no longer an Acolyte of the Black Tower, but the Seed. You shall carry the will of the Black Tower and in time, you shall be its inheritor, these are the wishes of the Tower Master."
With the pressure from his body gone, Andar fully rose and nearly slapped himself in annoyance when he became fully conscious that his line of sight was now different.
Andar had grown a few inches, and was approaching six feet three inches tall, yet with all the pressure he had been facing and tackling the last four tests, he had failed to realize that he was now taller.
The Steward continued, "As a Seed of the Black Tower, there are certain changes that are your due, the first and the most important will be the fact that from here on out, your training would no longer be handled by Mages, but by us."
Andar's heart shook, the chance to be trained by an Archmage was a boon that would be of more worth to him than even the Primordial Aether he had received.
Andar had quickly come to realize that with his Meditation Art, the greatest advantage it gave him was the ability to soak up knowledge like a sponge, and during the moment he used that knowledge to break through the floors of the Endless Vault, what happened was that the knowledge he swallowed was tempered and further verified, making it truly his own.
It was the difference between knowing all the words in a dictionary and being able to use them fluently when making speeches.
"As the first of your reward and the promise I made to you, that if you could complete all the Introductory Tests while achieving the foremost position, you shall be rewarded. Your reward for this is to have access to the Ancient Library."
He paused for a while and saw no shaking in Andar's Demeanor, at this time, Andar did not understand the full benefits such a place would give him, perhaps aware of this fact, the Archmage further elaborated,
"You may not receive much benefit from the Ancient Library, or you could find a particular knowledge that could lead you towards the peak. The Ancient Library is boundless and contains knowledge that is not found in this universe, but gathered from all the universes the Supreme World of the Magus had entered, it contains knowledge from lost civilizations roaming in the Endless Darkness, and many other… things, guard your mind when you are inside of its depths."
Four light beams escaped from the individual mountains and entered Andar's forehead and the information about how to locate all of the Archmages was branded inside of it.
According to the schedule outlined inside the information he had just received, he was expected to be training with them for two months each before he swapped to the next. Each of the Archmage had achieved the pinnacle in each field they were in, with some of them reaching the pinnacle in multiple fields.
