Trust was a hard thing to come for Rowan, and it was for good reasons. In his life, he had few reasons to trust others, because he lived in a reality where power could be seized by those who aspired for it. Real power and not just some fanciful concept dreamt in the mind of the mad, and in such an environment, trust took a backseat to benefit.

Power above all, love, trust, friendship, dignity, they were worthless. His strength was proof enough that it was those with power that controlled everything.

But sometimes, that was not enough. Rowan knew of this, but he also understood that the only reason he could open himself to love or trust, was because he had power.

He did not need to sleep, but he looked at the curled form of Romion who had been playing for a year, and would most likely have continued to play for another thousand years given the chance, here he was sleeping peacefully, and it was not just because he had consumed all the fruits Rowan gave him, but because he was at peace, only in this place would this boy lay down his guard and sleep.

There was a slight smile on his adorable face, and he rubbed his stomach which had turned flat in a few moments, smacking his lips in his sleep as if he was dreaming of feasting.

And it was so that Rowan, who believed that it was impossible for him to ever fall asleep again until his death or the end of everything in existence, laid his head beside his five-year-old self and fell into the warm hands of sleep.

There was a formless pressure on the world that Rowan was not even aware that he gave off. At his level of power, a mortal could not look at his face or sense his Aura, the best outcome for such a thing would be madness, and for the first time in many years that invisible pressure around him vanished, and the world had the time to catch its breath.

Like a gigantic infrastructure with an impossible number of systems, Rowan could feel various parts of himself slowly shutting down. His dimensional flesh was massive, and for someone like him, falling asleep was like an entire universe succumbing to heat death, yet it did not happen instantaneously, he was too massive for that to ever happen.

Every living being in his dimension was asleep except for Eva, this had been the situation for a while now. With his sojourn outside the universe, Rowan knew there was no way he could stably maintain his dimension.

If his flesh was suddenly destroyed, that meant he had lost millions of worlds, and even if they could be easily replaced, Rowan could not be assured he could protect the souls of those who perished. The energy that could destroy his Dimensional Flesh would be surely potent, and he was not aware of the new types of powers that he might face, outside the Great Darkness.

Eva, the Lady of Shadows became the only one who witnessed the astonishing sight of billions of stars going dim, and as everything inside of Rowan slowly ground to a halt. Planets stopped their rotation and revolution, comets paused in their flight, black holes froze, and the dimension went dim as it entered twilight.

The colors were muted, and silence prevailed, it was a stunning sight as peace descended on a space that should inherently be chaotic.

At first, she was panicking and when she realized what was happening Eva smiled and closed her eyes. From her body a vast purple light emerged that covered the entire dimension, for as the master of the castle rested, she was the one who would watch the castle in his stead.

Rowan's Consciousness Pillars, which were now massive structures that touched the depths of his dimensions and stretched towards the endless space above, began to vibrate, as black sticky clouds that resembled tar flowed out of it.

This darkness flowed out of his consciousness pillars in an endless tide that threatened to snuff out the light of his dimension, but Eva was there to block them.

Sighing in exasperation, Eva awakened the Two powers and a thousand Sovereigns, and together, they battled the darkness that emerged from the mind of the sleeping Creator.

Rowan had experienced enough harrowing tribulations to fill up the lifetimes of a thousand immortals, and the scars they left behind were potent. The battles Eva and the Angels fought were apocalyptic in scale, but they were lucky for the darkness had no place to lay their roots, and although powerful, they could not replace their number or pull energy from the dimension, and they fell.

Corrupted abominations, mad gods, and titans, these were the least of the creatures born from the darkness, but the flames of the Angels cleansed the darkness, and slowly peace came to the dimension as the greatest portion of the darkness was vanquished and they slowly mopped up the slow trickle of corruption emerging from the Consciousness Pillars.

Despite everything that had transpired, Rowan had slept for only ten minutes.

The weight of power was heavy, and although he wanted to sleep for many ages, his senses never truly shut off, his consciousness was now too powerful to ever reach a state where he could allow itself to lose sight of what happened all around him.

Perhaps if he had a soul then he would have been able to forget for ten minutes the weight of power that he carried, but he did not, and he felt every second, yet he was thankful, for he had never been as rested like this for a long time.

Ten minutes for him was a long and pleasant sleep, and the many aches and scars he carried in his consciousness had faded. They were not gone, but the weight of it had reduced, and he could go on for longer knowing some of the weights on his shoulders had fallen off.

He never knew that the scars in his memories could ever take shape. His understanding of his powers was deep yet surprisingly shallow. Rowan was going fast, but he needed to digest his powers in his entirety to understand what he was capable of.

The title of a Creator was not simple, and his nightmares could take shape as easily as he could make his dreams come true with a thought.

Now that he was awake, it felt more amazing to him that he could have ever slept. His dimension came back to life, and order and chaos resumed their eternal dance.

He opened his eyes and saw Elura looking at the sunset, she glanced down at him and smiled, but the sadness in her eyes could not be hidden,

"As adventurous as you were as a child, you were also a deep sleeper. Your younger self slept for three years after this year-long play, and I wished I made him sleep for longer, for the nightmare began after he woke up. In the same manner, I had hoped you would have slept for longer. Now that you are awake, the nightmare begins again."

Rowan blinked and smoothly sat up, "As much as I would love to sleep for years, such things are no longer possible for me, and I had resigned myself to be forever without sleep, the ten minutes of rest you gave me Mother, is priceless."

Elura looked away from him in sadness, "Yet, did you truly rest? Your burdens are heavy, and after watching you close your eyes in a warped version of rest, it made me realize something; you no longer need me, child."