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by Little Merger

intro chaps

47. The Primordial Record

The Primordial Record

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Rowan kuranes awoke in a new world inside the body of a dying prince. His new body contain terrifying secrets that he has to protect, for inside him lies the key to Eternity. Rowan must learn to harness his new abilities and fight against his enemies who would stop at nothing to deprive him of his powers. Yet he must strive to keep a portion of his humanity alive, as he continously evolve beyond godhood

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The Primordial Record #Chapter 1: The Mermaid - Read The Primordial Record Chapter 1: The Mermaid Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 1: The Mermaid

Authors Note: Rowan Character Illustration.

Darkness….

A flash of light….

Pain!

So much pain….

Make it stop!

Make it stop, please… I will do anything.

Stop killing me!

Rowan woke in a giddy daze, his head felt as if it was placed on an anvil, and an over-enthusiastic blacksmith was going at it for the better part of an hour.

A burst of phantasmal pain brushed across his spine, memories of depravity and sickness choked his throat, and for a horrifying moment, he could not breathe, and then like a flash of lightning, the sensation passed and the memory faded.

He thought he heard the distant sound of music and laughter, and if he was not mistaken, the baying of horses. Weird, there was no way, horses were near his worksite or his home.

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His body felt crushed, as if he was under ten stacks of weighted blankets, and he could not breathe properly, oddly he found it comforting for at least it brought a little distraction from his pounding head.

He had a history of migraines, so he found the pain a little familiar, nevertheless, this was up there for the most painful experiences he had in his life, and working as a miner from the ripe age of nine, he understood the pain—a considerable chunk of his life was filled with them.

Put 'em in the list, just put 'em in the list.

Rowan mentally cajoled himself. It was a little trick he learned growing up, he always had a great memory, and most time it was a comfort and yet, it kept his pains fresh. At the edge of his mind, ever ready to serve him a healthy dose of remembrance.

He called the list: My list of glass. Don't ask him why.

His eyes were still closed, and he attempted to open them to no avail.

He fidgeted and struggled to bring his hands up to his face. Hands that felt like pieces of dead logs. He struggled to lift them to his face, and in what felt like forever he succeeded.

"How much did I drink last night? Feels like I have been poisoned, and the bastard did not do a good enough job." He muttered to himself.

He had struck gold on his latest dig, well, literally it was a diamond. Even after all the illegal cuts and fees he had to pay to the corrupt foreman, he was still left with a nice lump of change, enough to sink into a river of booze and cheap women for months and to test how much damage he could do to his body, both physically and mentally before it quit on him.

He internally cheered himself for the minor milestone of lifting his hands to his face.

Bracing himself, he raised his fingers to claw at his closed orbs. Going by the sensation of touch, he found his face filled with muck that had dried out, he gently scrapped away at his face, paying close attention to his eyes, and wincing slightly when he pulled out lashes as he attempted to free his vision.

Did he fall into a mud–pit? There were such death traps around the abandoned mining area. In his drunken stupor, did he wander into those desolate areas? If he did, he was in trouble for he would hardly receive help here.

In what felt like forever, he was finally able to free his eye sockets.

"By the sweet cheeks of Ares, this headache is killing me." Rowan groaned aloud. His dry throat turning it into a long-drawn-out cough, he spat out some unknown sticky mass from his mouth and sucked in air that tasted of overripe fruits and subtle decay.

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He found a burst of focus from deep within and pushed through, so he could observe the surroundings where he found himself.

He was sprawled on the floor, laid on his back, and so he attempted to move, and he could not, he observed that he was inside a room. It was dimly lit by candles on bronze stands that were in the shape of Mermaids.

The Mermaids sported three pairs of arms that were raised upward. Each of the hands was clasped together, and candles were placed between the locking digits.

His eyes caught three of the same stands, each holding three lit candles, he noted that the candles were black, and seemed to pour an excessive amount of smoke from the flames, yet this minor oddity caught his attention only for a while before it was drawn to the stands itself.

"wow, the details on these candle stands are exquisite." He was rendered speechless by the workmanship, the mermaids were made with an excruciating eye for details, and they almost seemed alive.

He swore he saw a statue blink, but it should just be a trick of shadows and the flickering flames, right?

"Yeah, I certainly drank too much. Where am I?"

Not seeing any present danger, but still holding a slight trace of uneasiness, he calmed down and distracted himself by tracing each scale on the Mermaids with his eyes, admiring the superb craftsmanship.

" Phew... this must cost a pretty penny." Rowan tried to run a number mentally and grimaced at another burst of pain. The light from the candle bounced back from the mermaid scales in a greenish-purple hue, that made him suspect it was made from gold, that same light poured across the room to his questing eyes and his chest locked up, and a burst of panic seized his throat.

The room was covered in sprays of red, a red that was unmistakable blood. Blood varied in every shade, splashed on every wall, and the floors were covered with mysterious bumps!

It took a moment for his mind to wrap around what it was seeing.

Rowan's pupils narrowed, and an unconscious cry of horror came from his mouth, it came out in a high-pitched squeal.

"No, this cannot be real. I am dreaming, snap out of it, Rowan, snap out of it!"

The floors were covered with dead bodies.

They had been brutally hacked apart, faces contorted in a nightmarish grimace that told of untold suffering before their passage from the mortal coil. Limbs were bent in nightmarish proportions, they had been twisted into that unnatural form.

With a strength that came from panic and madness, he tried to push himself up, disregarding the loud thrum of pain from his head, neck, and shoulders that felt as stiff as cinder blocks, he managed to leverage his head upward and saw why he could not move.

He was buried under bodies!

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Chapter 2: New Body

A raw and primal scream came from Rowan, as he attempted to push away from the bodies, ignoring the sickening sounds and the awful sucking sensations as he pulled himself from the bodies, fighting the bile that rose from his throat.

He looked around wildly, each rotation of his head bringing a new rush of horrifying new details. The room was large, clearly a master's room, and was tastefully furnished, art pieces were scattered around the room.

Two gigantic windows were covered with thick curtains, the windows, and the curtains appeared crafted with care, he saw gold trimmings on the curtains, and fanciful embodiments on the windows, and everything screamed wealth and a desire to spend said wealth.

There was a large brown door, inlaid with gold and mysterious markings with the same figure of the Mermaid with three arms, but this time the mermaid's arms pointed in various positions, in angles that did not seem to make any sense; he noticed that there was no blood stain on the door, which should be impossible because the entire walls, up to the ceiling was liberally coated with it.

Beside the door was a cabinet and a mini altar, with a large book on top, it was open, and the pages were black, it did not appear to contain any characters. The doors of the cabinet were opened and inside was a full-length mirror, with an elaborate design.

Why put such an expensive mirror inside a closed cabinet?

He mentally shook his head away from his musing, the thought process of whoever owns this place should be the last thing on his mind.

The reflection from the mirror drew him back into the horror that his wandering mind, for the moment, had chosen to forget.

He swept his gaze across the mirror and saw a stranger staring back at him, covered in dried blood, so thick only a few spots of pale skin flashed through eyes green as an ocean of emerald jewels, and hair plastered to his scalp.

He stared back in shock, for this was a child! He was a child!

Except he was mistaken about his three decades of memories and took the next logical step to madness and came to the grand conclusion that his life was what?

A simulation?

A random program in the matrix, or was there something more mysterious and mind-breaking, like him jumping bodies?

Reincarnation?

Transmigration? Was that even a word?

Was he in Hell?

Or was this something silly as someone playing a prank on him? But at such a level?

He was sure that God did not have that much leisure time, or did he?

How much leisure time does an omniscient being have? Every moment?

I am going crazy. Breathe Rowan. It could all be a lucid dream brought on by bad alcohol or overdosing on a particular white substance. Right?

Stop thinking and act! Look at yourself!

A wave of chills washed over him, and he noticed in the mirror that his mouth was wide open all this while, and he had been making a low keening noise like an injured animal. His appearance jolted him, and he pulled himself away from his reverie.

I need to leave this place.

That central thought was all it took to push him awake, panic raced along his veins like acid, and he crossed the floor filled with corpses, eyes focusing dead straight ahead. "Dead straight, he.." laughter burst from his throat.

"Get a grip, Rowan, you're going cuckoo." He stared at his reflection, his laughing face looking more like a tortured grimace, "not a good look for you." He whispered. Hearing his voice helped, although it still felt strange hearing a different childish voice when he spoke.

Have I gone mad? Shut up brain.

The door was his goal, whatever crazy thing that happened here, or the crazier individuals who did it, he would rather not be anywhere near this location when they returned and continued where they left off.

As he got closer to the door, the sound of a party filtered inside the room, he thought he had been mistaken before when he heard sounds of laughter and celebration, but, his ears worked fine, there was a celebration happening somewhere close. "What sort of hellish game have I found myself in? Who can have any sort of celebration besides a place like this?"

The sound from the party oddly seemed to scare Rowan more than the room he found himself in, the occasional brioustrous laughter making him jolt as he picked his way across the room filled with the dead.

He found himself shuddering and coming to a stop, eyes clouded with confusion, and for a while, he stood and listened, and he began properly to filter the sounds he was hearing.

At first, it sounded alien and unintelligible to him, but as he listened more closely, the language seemed to merge in his consciousness and the puzzle clicked, just as a rush of images and sensations rushed through his head.

Rowan bent down in pain and squeezed his skull. He recognizes this alien language, it was the ancient Medan language, spoken only by members of the royalty of the Bramian Court and the Justice Council, it was deemed among the first languages of men given by the God King to those who shall rule.

He had a flash of recollection, of a solemn occasion in a red hall, where the priests anointed the head of each Noble child with Shining Abrosia, with this, their tongues were open, and they could speak Medan without going mad.

With that knowledge came a rush of memories, that were disjointed and chaotic, and he nearly buckled to the floor in pain, but now he knew his name, it was…, for a bizarre reason, he had a chilling sensation that he must not speak his name, he must not acknowledge his real identity at this place.

When the wave of pain passed, he pushed himself to the door, regardless of what came next, he was a man of action.

"Let me cut myself some slack, right? Because now, it seems to be that I am a child of action", he spoke wryly, his brain struggling to keep his sanity intact, in any way it could. He finally left the press of bodies and stepped towards the door, glancing sideways at the altar.

He hesitated before he touched the doorknob, his hand just hovering above it.

Pointedly ignoring the embodiment of the mermaid, which he would have sworn was looking at him.

His breathing increased a notch and with minor effort, he twisted the door knob to the side to unlock the door.

He opened it by a Crack and winced as the sounds exploded in intensity, the door must have impressive soundproofing

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Chapter 3: Macaber Will

He dithered by the doorway, before pushing his way across into a passageway dimly lit by a hanging chandelier, the fluorescent bulbs throbbed slowly like a beating heart, this was most likely Noble's house.

Electricity was a relative innovation by the temple of the Iron God, and only royalty and the luxuriously rich could afford it.

Edging himself close to the wall, he walked down the passage, he soon came across other doors but when he slowly tried them, they were shut.

A chill breeze blew towards him, and feeling the bite in his nether region, pushed his awareness to the fact that he was buck naked.

Oddly enough, he didn't care that much. Funny how waking up from a drinking binge in the body of a child, inside a slaughterhouse, changes your priorities, "escape first, clothes later", Rowan whispered, walking on tiptoes to the end of the passage, by now he could see railings ahead, he assumed that meant he was on an upper floor.

By now the voices were less intelligible, and he could barely make out the words, he crept forward, ears straining as he picked certain lengthy sentences from the din of the party that should be below him.

He could identify three voices, and a spark of familiarity made him focus on a particular voice, and he intensely listened.

"The production cost of manufacturing ammunition has tripled over the last quarter, calling in question the viability of equipping the army with these so-called firearms". The first regal voice spoke, and his heart ached at the familiarity of that voice.

He heard a nervous chuckle, "Surely, the gains should outweigh the cost, that Barbarians from the north, do not lack bodies, and we cannot match them in martial prowess, we must produce more elite units to counter their numbers."

A voice like the last gasp of a dying man replied, making Rowan's toes curl, and he felt a deep-seated disgust, and an urge to pierce his ears, this voice made him feel as if a thousand insects were crawling over him.

A different deeper voice harrumph "It is always you calling into question, the bravery of my men, and the strength of the army, we have not fallen yet"

That disgusting voice chuckled and Rowan almost hurled, "General, you jest… surviving does not mean victory, it is foolish to assume that we are not losing, even if it is taking years to come"

"No... it is you who plays the fool, so many resources and wealth funneled into the red temple and your experiments with so little returns"

"Knowledge is priceless… General, and what we gained from the experiments would push the Order to the forefront in our specialized military fields"

"Humph... where have I heard those excuses before?... right, countless times, does that progress also include that damned debacle above!"

Rowan's ears perked up, were they talking about what happened in that room? And why do the voices seem so familiar to him?

He frowned deeply, for the past few moments, memories had been clashing inside his head, and they finally seemed to have sublimated. A wave of unprompted sadness came over him. And he felt a numbing pain, and at that moment a will that existed alongside him that he was vaguely aware of, seemed to give up and fade away, and a message like the last wisp of a dying flame whispered "I am sorry, father, I failed you"

There were many gaps in his memories, and many details that were hidden behind layers of fog, but he could piece together some bits and pieces, but he was missing years of memories.

He was Rowan Carter, and his body name was Rowan Kuranes, he was the illegitimate son of the third prince, who was seventh in line to the throne, it would also appear that what linked them was not only their similar names but also their fate. From the few details his jumbled mind could recall, their fate, was one of loss and sorrow.

Rowan Kuranes was born sickly, he was conceived by a concubine of the third prince, she was doted on by her lord prince because of her beauty, even though Rowan fell short of the prince's favor – for the prince demanded offsprings of robust health and spirit, he usually ignored him but did not treat him badly. Rowan was given all the comfort of a prince. Nevertheless, Rowan wanted to find favor with his father and let him acknowledge his presence.

He dedicated himself to learning and perfecting sorcery. His memories skipped and with a force of will he summoned up more of his life.

Disaster struck when his mother rapidly fell into disfavor when it was discovered she worshiped a demon, she was imprisoned in the golden tower where she was to be tortured for the rest of her mortal life.

"This voice... the first regal voice he heard should be the father of this body I found myself" Rowan mused, but he wondered why he was now in the body of a child, Rowan Kuranes, by this year should be twenty-five.

A macabre will seemed to take control over his motor functions, and he moved toward the railing, heart thumping he looked down at an expansive room, three men who radiated an aura of power stood facing each other, their combined presence drew his eyes and everything else below him faded from view, and he was enraptured by their presence.

He recognized two of them at a glance, the third was hidden under a hooded robe, and the first was General Augustus, a brawny man who should have been in his late seventies but had the body of a physically buff man at his prime, his graying hair were like silvery spikes and his eyes appeared to be made of solid gold.

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Chapter 4: The Puppet and The Puppeteer

The second figure was chubby and looked like a man who enjoyed his meals far too much, he had a perpetual smile on his face, that made him seem carefree, but he had a regal presence both in his demeanor and voice, which painted a confusing image for Rowan, he was like a pig that had the presence of a lion. This was the third prince.

His eyes unconsciously misted over, and he felt like crying," What is wrong with me?" Rowan struggled to push the uncomfortable emotions aside, and he barely succeeded, his eyes drifted to the rest of the audience, they were the normal aristocratic ensemble, men in three-piece suits, with canes that had become popular recently, it must still be all the rage because most of them were still holding them even while dancing, the ladies were in long flowing dresses that were primarily white with a dash of gold.

A gloved hand rested on his shoulder,

"Interesting, what do we have here?"

His heart sank to his stomach, and he was frozen in place, he could not move because the hand on his shoulder sent waves of icy chill through his body, Rowan's breathing was short and forceful, and each breath brought out plums of cold air, he was about to be frozen to death!

"What do you have there, Boris?"

"A little chick, General. A little chick who survived his crushed shell"!

"Humph…. It appears your little experiment bore fruit".

A sudden feeling of heat, and Rowan felt that he had been stripped down and meticulously scrutinized, every cell of his body was dissected and cataloged, the General voice continued, "although it's a little rotten and lacks any essence".

"Rowan…dear boy, you survived, you made it", the joyous voice of the third prince resounded in the now silent hall.

"Not for long" Rowan gasped.

"You brute, Unhand my son"

The hand tightened on Rowan's shoulders until he nearly screamed in pain, then mercifully let go. Sweet relief came after, as Rowan hurriedly backed away from the figure that loomed behind him.

"Come to me, son"

Rowan's father's voice was a siren call, as he hurried down the stairs, nearly tripping in his haste, the open arms of his father welcomed him; he ran into his embrace, and for that moment everything was bliss.

At that moment, in the room Rowan was in, the Black Book on the altar shivered, the pages began to turn, but they turned slowly, page by page until it got to the sixth page, it slowed down further and seemed to struggle against an unknown barrier, but it eventually opened and rested on the seventh page.

The page was blank, and dark as an unfathomable abyss, eventually, the picture of a face began to emerge from the page, it was of Rowan, but he was grown up, his eyes burned with pale flames, and words formed below the image, a language so ancient that it had left all living memory.

"Ascend the throne of grace, eternal mercy of all seasons".

The book folded on itself and vanished.

Rowan tightened his grip on his father, he could not help himself and started bawling his eyes out, he found solace from all the madness of the past few moments.

Nevertheless, he felt horrified, as if he was being ???????????? to cry, as far as he knew, the previous owner of this body was no longer present, his soul was gone and his memories broken, why was he feeling such emotion for a man he barely knew?

He was a grown man who had endured many tribulations in life, and he could not remember the last time he cried, was it because he was in the body of a child? And any child's instinct was to seek safety from an adult, especially if that adult was a parent.

But you see, he was an adult in a child's body, and he refused to believe that he could not control his emotions, and that lack of control horrified him, he wished that this awful moment should pass.

All of a sudden, he suddenly felt a space open in his heart in which a Black Book appeared, he jerked a little and continued crying, but a startling transformation had happened to him.

At that slight moment when he jerked in his father's arm, the world felt like it went still, and his mind became startlingly clear, he had what he could only describe as a euphoric sense of control, his body became a puppet and strings were attached to his consciousness.

Time was slowly coming back to normal speed, and it took little effort of will to let his body continue the laments to his father, his sixth sense was tingling like an over-tightened guitar string about to snap.

This world he found himself in was dangerous, and power that exists in fantasy could be found here, including the darkest kinds.

Rowan was fascinated that his new state drew away his fears, and he achieved a startling clarity of mind.

"Was this what it felt like to be a Buddha? To achieve enlightenment? What is happening to me?

This state made Rowan realize that this emotion of happiness, and the sense of safety that he was feeling was being forced on him!

His body remembered this man, and no memories of him contained any love for him, his father was a distant figure to him, regal and untouchable, after the third prince knew he had a bad constitution he never even spoke to him.

Except for his mother, handmaiden, and the few friends he had, he was isolated from the rest of his family. Rowan, the young prince had learned how to live without a father, and he would have never run to him for solace.

From his vantage point, he could feel an almost palpable source of control oozing from the body of the third prince, his next action confirmed his suspicions.

"There…. there, father is here, hush now my dear boy", the prince pushed his sobbing body away from him and smiled warmly at him. Rowan's new perceptiveness detected a slight crinkling of his eyes and there was a flash of deep disgust before it was covered, it would have been easy to miss, and he felt a chill.

The third prince played a long game, and covered all his bases, for Rowan knew that he could as well be a helpless fly snared in a spider's web; the spider was singing a lullaby to him before he was devoured.

The wariness in his heart grew further, this man was dangerous, he could not let him know he had control of his senses, for he instinctively knew he was dangling on a precipice, and every movement made must be done with the utmost care, or everything was lost.

He controlled his body and looked at his father with love and dependence.

The third prince caressed his hair and said, "I will be taking you home soon, but I need to know if you succeeded. Did you get the recognition of the singularity?"

Rowan was genuinely confused, what was a singularity? Did it concern this book inside his heart that brought this new ability to control his body beyond reasoning?

Rowan sniffled and replied," I do not understand, Father… I have no memories of what happened or why I am here... what is happening father, why are there so many dead bodies above, and why am I now a child?... Help me, Father, I am so scared."

Fresh tears rolled down Rowan's face, whilst he looked deeply at his father and observed the rest of the trio that were raptly observing him, he discovered something about his new state, that he had a 360-panoramic vision of his surroundings, this new viewpoint drew his attention to the rest of the hall.

All the singers and dancers, the merry laughter and whispered conversations, were all a facade, he looked around him, and all he saw were corpses. Corpses dressed in prim clothes and polished shoes, all looking at him, with dead intensity.

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Chapter 5: The Paths of Dominion

Rowan's consciousness was suddenly drawn back into his body, the book in his heart closed and faded away, but he was excited that this strange new detachment of his mind remained, though in a more limited manner, at that moment, pain filled his body, he heard a panicked cry from the third prince, and as his awareness fell into oblivion he silently cursed at his deceptive father.

His enlightened spirit had seen traces of a pale glow that struck his head from the eyes of the Third prince, knocking him out.

I had a long dream.

A great skull rested in a lake of blood. On the skull a mighty palace was built, a palace that now lay in ruin, my sight zipped into the palace where a man sat on a throne of ice, and before he was an army of a thousand angels, and he said to them:

"Take the light from my eyes, so you can see"

With a sound that shattered the skies, wings of gold unfurled and the army of angels looked at me and smiled...

I heard a whisper

"I thought I was a man, but I am nothing but char and cinders "

And I fell into a black abyss. And below laid a great white wolf, "come to me." said the wolf.

"Young master, wake up!"

Rowan pushed himself from the depth of dreams, his consciousness felt lethargic, yet as his mind ascended to the light of wakefulness, he pushed himself to be alert and discerning. He was not in Kansas anymore. If he did not adapt, he would perish.

The voice that entered his ears was like the twittering of a bird, he felt a soft shake and he grudgingly opened his eyes. His mouth felt dry as a desert,

"water"

"A moment," a warm hand lifted his head, and he felt the edge of a cup pressed against his lips, "Here you go, young master. Drink slowly."

After quenching his hellish thirst, he looked at the speaker and recognized her, she was a young lady who could be in her twenties, she wore a black palace attire, with gold buttons, a silver-rimmed glass was perched on her dainty nose, and her black eyes were filled with care and concern. She was his sworn protector, she was picked to serve him until he passed, and would never betray him, even in the throes of torture and death.

"Maeve" Her name came to him without any thought, "Where am I?" Rowan whispered.

"Young master you are home, you were brought back two days ago, thanks be to the Holy Mother, you are now awake."

"Two days?... Maeve, why do you still recognize me? My body has changed!" Rowan's pubescent voice was filled with confusion and loss.

Maeve smiled at him, "Young master, I grew up with you as a boy. I have bathed, clothed, and fed you, I know every scar and birthmark on your body, I know your voice and your scent, it is my sworn duty to serve you forever, even blindfolded I would still know you, and on the day you die, I shall follow you to the underworld to serve you."

Rowan looked deeply at her, musing internally that her young master was gone, "Help me up, I want to walk."

"Okay, young master, but you need to eat first"

At the mention of food, Rowan placed his hand on his stomach, "Indeed, I am starving"

She smiled in amusement when she saw the familiar gesture Rowan used when he was famished, she hurriedly assembled the dishes that were still hot by his bedside, seemingly pulling them out of thin air.

Rowan assigned that strangeness to his still blurry mind, Maeve hovered over him like a mother hen as he ate, encouraging him to eat more, her smile growing gradually as he ate an astonishing amount.

Rowan nearly swallowed his tongue, the food was that good, Maeve served the meal in courses with baked oyster as the appetizer, the main course was roasted beef accompanied by a savory vegetable he could not identify, and delectable pasta was served alongside it, the desert was plum pudding with a fruit that tasted like tangerine but looked like an apple, the wine that he drank was cold, and its flavor was earthy and deep, it burned his throat on the way down, and he gasped in amazement, he tried to keep the bearing of a prince as he feasted but suspected that he failed.

Rowan saw the pleased look on her face, the previous Rowan was a picky eater, and frequently skipped meals unless he was coerced, he mostly used tonics and potions to keep his vitality. Indeed, all fingers were not created equal, Rowan sighed.

He shook his head at the mystery of life, before he transmigrated he was an orphan, dropped at the gate of the orphanage as a babe, he had a massive appetite, and he was always hungry, the sisters at the convent did their best to provide for him and the other kids, but it was not nearly enough.

"In this life, at least I won't be a hungry ghost."

Rowan thought to himself as he patted his stomach, he was once again stuck by the dissonance of seeing his young hand, he should be ten years old now.

"I am afraid that the God of death must be fed up with me, not only did I transmigrate, I also became younger." He had a base sense of satisfaction as he looked at himself.

" Young master, it appears that not only did you not just get younger, you finally cured your ailing physique", She beamed and with a wave of her hand she made the empty dishes disappear from the bedside table.

He arched an eyebrow at that supernatural display, Maeve excitedly said, "Oh… Yes, young master, you can now step on the paths of Dominion, the dangers of Transformation would be drastically reduced."

Rowan frowned, "Dominion? Transformation? What does that mean, Maeve? My memories are blurry."

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Chapter 6: I Am Satisfied

Maeve's expression became solemn, wetting her lips, she said "Young master, Knowledge of the Paths, comes with its burden. You anticipated that you might lose your memory when you went for the ritual, so you wrote your thoughts in your diary. As a member of the Royal clan, your knowledge of the Path is naturally more complete than mine, and I could provide you false information, not because I intend to, but because my knowledge of the Paths is still very limited."

Maeve continued speaking after a slight pause, and she collected herself, "You should understand young master, most people in ???????? world would not be able to come into contact with the Paths of Dominion or even understand its workings even if they are shown."

Rowan frowned a little at the inflection in her voice when she said this world, were there perhaps other worlds that were known? Could they be visited?

He was in a brand-new world and anything could be possible, was this an alternate reality, or was he still in the same universe and on another planet? He figured these questions would be answered in time, and he should listen more to Maeve.

Or he could just be mad, and everything happening was just a feverish phantasm of a mind tearing itself apart.

As always, he placed the solution on time. His new state of emotional detachment aids him in his decisions.

Maeve manifested a heavy book from thin air, and placed it beside him, whatever the methods she used to do that, it was still impressive, he made sure not to appear too surprised, though he had no memories of how she was able to perform her Spatial magic, he was bound to figure it out soon enough.

He moved to touch the book, but she placed her hand on his, "Master, be careful, you have always wanted to become a Dominator. You've paid an awful price to become capable of becoming one." Sigh. "—Maybe too much."

She looked at him, and he detected a slight sense of sorrow in her eyes, but still, he saw pride—pride in him. "I would make sure you are not disturbed at this time." she bowed formally to him, and quietly shut the door.

Rowan mused at how she stopped calling him "Young master" to "Master", but that slight change brought about a sort of formless pressure around him.

Rowan closed his eyes, allowing his mind to become empty, it was a trick he learned during the rough patches of his life. By emptying his head, he found it easier to think.

It appeared that he was sinking into the role of the Prince. He accepted it. This world and the magical situation around him were sucking him inside its web, and his previous life was turning to shadows.

It was easier to accept what ???? than what ??????. His life these past few years had been out of control. His motivation was gone, and he drifted through each day with a lesser will to strive.

He had tried, yet fate was an unkind judge. He had always been found wanting. This new situation offered something so fantastical it drew him out of his lethargy, and he had a faint expectation brewing inside his chest.

So, it was almost natural to let the memory of this prince, no matter how patchy it was, meld with his. Habits and desires, blending.

He opened his eyes, and he buried the traces of hesitation inside his heart. The state of his awakening in this world haunted him, and if he were to find solace in anything, it would be in the means to protect himself.

Taking this step would mean he had mostly accepted the truth of this world. That he was now different, that reality as he knew it had changed.

Besides, he had never seen himself as wise or knowledgeable, he did not have all the answers, and he had never pretended as if he did. He could only try his best to make the best of any situation he found himself in.

Now let's find out what this journey has in store for us.

Would he look back one day and regret journeying on this Path? He suspected that if he never touched this book, this diary that lies in his hand, he would live well. He had won the lottery if this was the afterlife.

As the son of a prince, this manor was his, he was rich, and he could forget the horrifying nature of his birth into this world, he could be happy, under the protection of his father.

Could he?

His memories were patchy and not fully have time for deeper introspection of the circumstances he found himself in, he could at least come to a conclusion, which was that he had to tackle any situation he found himself, in with a position of strength and knowledge.

That had always been his motto. A man without a plan was adrift in fog. He was purposeless and was easy to manipulate and tear down. He should know. The last part of his life was precisely that of a vagrant.

Running away from the truth was foolish, he was not an ostrich that would bury his head in the sands and hope for the grace and mercies of others.

He was Rowan Kuranes, and he would not run from his problems, and if it was too much, if his bones break, and the weight of this world drained everything from him if death came for him once more, he would go into that endless night with a smile on his face, after all, he died once before, who was keeping count?

A Dominator. The words brought a slight tingle to his spine, his pupils constricted, and his breathing increased, he suddenly remembered a memory, and he stood up and looked around the room.

He was getting used to the memory meld, but there were still some bugs to fix.

He recognized this room, it was his favorite, and he loved the view, from here he could see the Misty Mountains, and when the sun rose, it painted a picture of beauty over the valleys and hills that made him smile and brought him a sense of contentment.

This was the manor allocated to him by the purview of his birthright, it had a moat, numerous rooms, and a barrack that contained a stable detachment of troops, the room he was in was tastefully furnished, and a soft white carpet was spread on the floor, a humongous bookshelf covered both sides of the wall, and a workstation placed near the window was covered by a large piece of hide from an exotic animal.

A thought occurred to him, and he walked to the ornate standing mirror by the adjourned bathroom, he unbuttoned the top of his robe and checked his chest, on his heart laid a red tattoo of an eye, he never recollected getting one in either of his previous lives, he stared intensely at the details of the tattoo, when the tattooed eye blinked and faded away, startling him.

He touched the spot on his chest, and underneath his fingers, he felt something bulge and squirm, he withdrew his hand in shock.

The moment he touched the spot of the faded tattoo he had received a sensation of hunger and filth of cold and an endless nothingness, and he felt a deep fear, what was hiding under his skin?

Rowan sighed, some decisions were taken away from him, no knowledge he knew would explain what lies below his skin, it reminded him a little of the hooded man in the slaughter mansion he woke up from, but somehow what he just touched felt worse, although it appeared to be asleep.

He walked to the window and looked at the open Vista, the air was cold, and he hurriedly buttoned his robe, the sun was setting and painted the landscape a breathtaking shade of gold and green. Rowan stood for a long while, his thought unknown, he silently turned to his workstation bringing the heavy diary along.

He finally settled and opened the diary, the first words made his pupils shrink, it read

"My Lord Father wants to kill me, but I am satisfied."

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Chapter 7: Trion

Rowan had a faint fear that he may not be able to read the diary, but thankfully his premonition turned false, the words at first seemed like gibberish, but slowly it began to make sense, this process happened very fast, almost instantaneously.

Those grim words were pressed into the pages as if written in distress. Again, Rowan tried to remember the past and the relationship he had with his father, but it mostly was a blur.

From what he could infer, the Third Prince was generally known and loved by the populace, the city he governed was thriving, his policies were fair, and he gave back to the merchants and citizens, he had a keen eye for great trade deals and brought wealth to his city.

But that was on the surface. That was a part he knew the Third Prince played. He was not interested in the propaganda for the masses, he wanted the real truth.

He knew the third prince was not to be trusted when he was hugged by him, it felt like being smothered in the coils of a giant snake

Placing his focus back to the book he held, Rowan could see that the ink used on the first page was red while the rest of the diary used the traditional black ink, he brought the page closer to his nose, and caught a faint whiff of iron, was this written in blood?

Red was one of the primary colors of the Kuranes family, it represented the burning flames in the heart. It had no ties with blood.

He did not remember writing this, he did not remember much of anything really, he mentally chastised himself, if he was going to analyze every word he came across, he wouldn't make any progress with his patchy memory of the prince not helping matters.

He continued reading, as he turned to the next page, anticipating yet dreading what he was to find.

It turned out to be a standard diary, with inconsistent details from a writer who expected to understand the jumbled recollection and writings.

Essential terms were missing, and there was no background for many of the strange terms used. Rowan made a mental note to properly investigate them.

He began reading,

Yuleti 7, 0074

It was said that when the gods slept, Primos stole their weapons and used them to battle the calamities that plagued mankind. I confess I do have a fanciful idea that what I, together with Dennis and Clara, are about to undertake is similar to that epic undertaking, but I digress.

The auction was successful, and I was able to collect all the pieces of the divine weapon of ice, it was a shame I had to fork up three bottles of Redwyn wine, my heart still pains me for that loss, but that damn greedy merchant Beirut will never do any transaction at a loss.

It was a relatively short journal entry, he saw two names Dennis and Clara, and after racking his memories, he could recall details of these two, Dennis was a rambunctious noble brat, constantly looking for new thrills, he had deep pockets because he was part owner of a large steel mill, Rowan took advantage of the fact that Dennis was a thrill seeker and used his resources to pursue his occultic agenda, and achieve his burning desire—freeing his mother.

Clara was a librarian who had an impressive grasp of ancient text and languages, she was multilingual and had a knack for research, although her family was not well-to-do, her father being a train station attendant, her expertise made her an invaluable member of the trio.

He took out a ballpoint pen from the drawers and took out a new hardcover notebook, he would put down specific words and names, so he could flesh them out properly. Biting the end of his pen for a second, Rowan began to write, Divine weapons? Auction? Merchant—Beirut? He was satisfied with this entry, he slowly turned the page of the diary to the next.

Yuleti 10, 0074

I had a falling out with Dennis today, it's an understatement when I say he was not pleased with the idea of crushing a divine weapon to feed a demon, even if it's the lowest tier. It took a while to convince him about the sheer difficulty of such a task and that we would most likely fail, but he was adamant that we could not risk the divine weapon.

I may have underestimated the desire for power from Dennis, his cheerful personality was a facade, I think, Clara warned me about his lust for power.

Why would anyone want a power like this? That leaves your humanity behind and makes you a thing of despair?

Hmm… trouble in paradise, from what he could piece together from Rowan's memories, he was a typical scholar, head buried in books and heart set on dreams, he pursued knowledge just to quench his thirst for the unknown, and although he was born in affluence he was not affected by his status.

His sickly constitution made him not able to compete in the political arena of a large royal family and his interest cemented away any chance of playing in power games with his brothers and sisters, so he was ignorant of how much the allure of more power was to a Noble.

He turned the pages and slowly sank into the retelling of Rowan's life, occasionally bringing up his notebook and jotting down specific phrases, the light began to dim as evening came around. He switched on the gas lamp beside him, it burned with a green flame illuminating his face in a ghoulish manner, and he sank back into reading, at that moment no one who saw his figure would mistake him for a child.

The chair was low, and the table was a little too high for him, so he had to haunch to read comfortably, he sat on the edge of his chair, yet his focus was intense and his concentration absolute, this was not the demeanor of a child.

As the sun set, the moon rose. Rowan had been sitting down for over four hours, and so he stretched to relieve fatigued muscles, he had been able to sort through most of the diary. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead as he placed each memory in its place and sorted out his thoughts.

This world was a strange and terrible place, where the supernatural was not the stuff of nightmare and imagination, but was a reality experienced by everyone in varying degrees.

This world contained gods and monsters, and they had left their mark on its surface. Every trace of life had felt their touch, whether for good or ill.

Some Nobles choose to let their people live a life of ignorance, separating the supernatural from the mundane, most were not successful, for the magic inevitably bled through the facade of normalcy. It was hard to explain away the massive shape of a Dragon flying overhead, or why some children were born with the capability to bend reality.

This world was called Trion.

From the edge of his perception, he heard whispers, and he smelled ozone, almost as if a storm were coming, but his eyes were still closed, he had overdrawn himself and had pushed his young body far beyond its limits, and exhaustion pressed down on him.

If his eyes were opened he would have seen the area around his chest light up and, like smoke, moonlight streaming through the windows diverted and poured into his chest.

A shock of cold drove him up and saw the light from the moon bending and flowing into the tattoo on his chest and in each passing moment, the glow from the tattoo increased.

The tattoo of the eyes that had faded before had returned. His breath caught in his throat, as he was not just witnessing something fantastical, it was happening to him.

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Chapter 8: The Primordial Record

Rowan heard a whisper, and his mind fell into a daze, he felt his heart contract and a Black Book entered his mind, it flipped open, and he saw a picture of his face, but he was grown up.

It was a picture of a regal blonde man with green eyes. The image blinked, Rowan paused and stared at the image for a while, looking closely, the image appeared to be breathing, and interestingly enough, it was also staring back at him.

Since the pages were red, the face resembled a decapitated head in a pool of blood, reminding Rowan of the circumstances when he awoke in this world.

The book began to rapidly flip to the seventh page where words began to form.

The words resembled some form of hieroglyphs, slowly they began to take shape in his head, the words shifting and bending until he could understand and read them.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/12

Strength: 0.2

Agility: 0.2

Constitution: 3.5

Spirit: 1.5

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 2)

Records:

Scion Of Light - level 0 [0/5]

Scion Of Darkness – level 0 [0/5]

?????????????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

???????? ???????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point: 0.0000

Remark: Divine Fodder

Rowan stood for a while, his heart raced, yet his mind was calm, this state of mind reminded him of when he first had this sensation—the feeling of control when his body panicked, but his mind was still.

It was inside that slaughter mansion, where three diabolical men plot devilish machinations in the midst of dancing corpses. This book in his heart should be the most likely cause.

When he was going through his diary, he had placed extra emphasis on searching for details on the ritual, yet there was no mention, except for the first cryptic message in the diary, the rest was normal gallivanting of a knowledge-driven scholar, with a fair degree of knowledge on the supernatural.

This knowledge included many topics, most especially the fantastical might of Divine Weapons, which were powerful artifacts controlled exclusively by royalty and powerful families, with different organizations owning a few of them.

Rowan was fascinated by Divine Weapons, he had researched a lot on the subject, hoping to find a cure for his frailness, but fearing the corruption they brought even more. Rowan eventually purchased a lesser variant, but there was no knowledge of any divine weapon such as this Black Book inside his heart, if this was at all a divine weapon.

This Black Book—The Primordial Record, could be his path to power and safety, unlike the previous Rowan, he had no distaste for supernatural power, and he needed to feel in control of his life, for he felt confused and powerless. He steadied himself and slowly looked through the information presented to him.

The first thing that came to him was his life span, according to this, he had less than a year to live, even under the influence of the strange mental detachment he still felt a chill that struck him deep inside his soul.

Life had a different meaning when you knew the moment you were going to die, every passing moment was felt, and every second counts. This was a sick joke, against all odds, he survived Death itself only to die just a year after he was reborn.

"Put away those false dreams. Oh foolish mortal, did you think you could forgo your destiny?" Rowan thought he could hear the voice of Death as it was delivering the perfect checkmate.

A bubble of anger began to grow in his soul. He was not particularly scared of dying, but no one loves to be the fool of fate, to be the plaything of the powerful, he died in mysterious circumstances in his previous life as he could not even recollect how he passed away, only to awake in a slaughterhouse, his mind scattered, his body reduced and now his life a fraction of what it should be.

He wanted to not believe what he was seeing, having no way to test this hypothesis about his pending death a year from now, but he had an idea of how to test the validity of this Record.

Furthermore, he would be a fool to dismiss what was happening to him.

Nevertheless, he was still cool-headed, his hands were clenched while his eyes were empty, for the moment, he had no other pressing concerns, time to him was now his most precious asset, and he ought to use it wisely.

He rapidly scanned through the information and realized that when he concentrated on each of the words, descriptions of their purpose entered his mind.

The normal adult man had an average Stat distribution of 1.0, his was a pathetic number as his Strength and Agility were far below the norm, the misnomer would be his Constitution and Spirit, they were incredibly high, especially his Constitution, he felt the number like that should be ridiculous.

The Stats were self-explanatory enough, Constitution should deal with the overall well-being of his body from health to his vitality. He was a bit confused about strength, for he felt with a powerful Constitution his Strength and Agility Stat should also be high, but he may have been wrong in how those were measured.

Spirit was a necessary attribute to understand the supernatural and obtain powerful abilities. Without a strong Spirit, the power door was locked away. He was glad to see that it was particularly high, though not as much as his Constitution, that was just ridiculous.

He needed to test and see the result of that number, Rowan tried to squeeze the flesh of his hand, it felt soft and smooth, there was no hardness, fishing for a pen knife in his drawer, he slowly pierced the thick flesh of his palm, he kept increasing pressure until his hands shook, but he could not penetrate his flesh.

His breath caught in his throat, dropping the knife, he gingerly took off the glass covering the gas lamp, and hovered his hand over the flame, except for a slight warmth, he detected nothing much, he lowered his hand until he touched the flame, and kept it there for fifteen seconds, that was when it was beginning to hurt.

The surface of his palm was charred, but to his pleasant surprise, the flesh squirmed, and the dead flaky part fell off, to be replaced by new soft skin. Rowan could not help but grin at his amazing healing capabilities.

His laughter was short-lived though, as a prince, he had come across powerful Dominators, and he did not remember any of them having a healing factor like his. He was sure they had a far more powerful Constitution than his own, yet his healing capabilities were off the charts.

Well, he still had many descriptions to go through, and if this Primordial Record was as exhaustive as he anticipated, it would inevitably have an answer to his queries.

"Ok what's next," he mused, mentally rubbing his palms together, his spirit was impressive, most people's spirit fell at 0.5, and he was triple that amount.

The next was Passive skills, Decipher language was self-explanatory, one detail he skipped was that he had been able to read every text he came across, including the weird hieroglyphs used by the Primordial Record, if this skill also affected spoken language, he could see how this could be very useful to him.

One should know that there were many races in this world, each with its unique language and cultures, the wealth of knowledge this skill would bring to him would be incalculable.

He suspected Icy soul was the strange almost robotic detachment of his will from his body, almost making his body into a puppet, this skill had promise, and he was sure the limit of this skill lay in his imagination.

All around these were great Passive skills, but he knew the meat of this Primordial Record should be about the records, hovering over the first, he mentally clicked it and his perception fell into darkness.

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Chapter 9: Omnipotent Records

Scion Of Light: The domain of Light favors you, your descent ushers light on all creation, and you shall hold the sun, in the palm of your hand.

I saw a man who walked in darkness, his eyes were closed, and his hands were clasped to his chest as if in prayer, he walked in the darkness for an unfathomable amount of time, and when it seemed the darkness was all, there was, he opened his eyes, they were twin orbs of flames that lit up the expanse, and he screamed with a voice that stirred the skies "I am Light!".

The endless night was torn apart, flames as hot as a sun poured from his open eyes and mouth, he unclasped his hands and a circular shockwave of flames poured from his flesh, and the world he walked on, burned to cinders.

All Paths Of Dominion for Light unlocked.

(Orion favors you)

?

Rowan pulled away from the vision, he collapsed on the floor, his breathing labored, his temperature had spiked, and his hair curled up and became dry. Sweat poured down his brows, and in a while, he was soaked, how terrifying. That man was a walking nuclear bomb, every gesture he made carried sheer explosive power, could he become something like that?

Rowan found the words, "Orion favors you." to be very troubling, according to mystical text, Orion was the incarnation of the Sun God, he was a Supreme being who governed the movement of the stars.

If gods existed, their attention was not something he craved, what were mortals before the domain of gods? Nothing but specks of dust, meaningless and easily discarded. Their attention could either be a boon or woe to him.

A memory occurred to him, and he hobbled down to his book shelve, the vision had drained him, and he grunted in annoyance as he strained to reach a book near the top, before going back and dragging a chair, safely retrieving the book, he looked at the name: Royal Kuranes Genealogy.

He rapidly flipped to a specific page, to the primogenitor of the Kuranes family. Barubiel Kuranes, legends called him the Scion Of Light, his talents had supported God King Golgoth to the throne of Trion, creating a chance for mankind to rule the entire planet, and his prowess In the Dominion of Light was unparalleled.

His abilities should have made him Immortal. A Herald of the God King himself, but he went missing and although the Kuranes family was still powerful, Rowan remembered they no longer walked the Pathway Of Light, but a different one. The Pathway of the Adept.

Rowan closed the book with a snap, it would appear that Rowan was a Scion Of Light, but he had never gone through the ritual to awaken his talent as a child because he was too frail to go through the process, perhaps if his family had known he was the heir of their primogenitor, they would have moved mountains to enhance his physique and awaken this broken talent. He laughed weakly and sighed.

"Tsk...tsk...so it was like this all along, what a joke."

Rowan had a stoic personality, and although he did not write an elaborate dissertation on the relationship with his family in his diary, he could still see clear hints in his writings, a little pattern of abuse and neglect that Rowan hid with cheerful language and sarcastic humor. Why else was he placed in a fief at the end of the world, and it was unlikely that a noble of his age was not married or even engaged?

Except for the minimal benefits of his station, he did not get any help from his family and the only person in the world he cared for, was taken from him, it was no wonder he agreed to the dastardly ritual his father made him perform. He knew he was an experiment, he knew his fate was grim, he knew he was going to his death, yet he agreed.

It was the only card he had to play, to free his mother from torture and imprisonment.

Rowan did not want the sacrifice of this young man to be in vain.

They may think you are a failure, but I will prove them wrong.

Where was this sentiment for a dead prince coming from? Maybe it was because he shared his body and more intimately he shared his soul, it made him empathize with him on a deeper level.

He had recovered from the strain of viewing the vision of Scion Of Light, he was beginning to understand the intricacies of having a high constitution, and a freaky healing factor.

Once more he plunged into the Primordial Record, determined to understand everything it had to offer him, and with tense breath, his mind entered into the next Record

Scion Of Darkness: Your soul traveled through the shroud of Death. You are an anomaly that walks the Earth. Darkness has invaded your soul, and you shall extinguish all sparks of light.

All Paths Of Dominion for Darkness unlocked.

(Thanatos favors you)

A man in a tattered cloak walks down a snowy field, he is barefoot, and every step he takes leaves an imprint of his feet behind, behind him rose an army of monsters, titanic colossi that rumbled the earth with each step, to gigantic floating tentacles that led to bizarre creatures the size of cities to marauding werewolves and liches and bone dragons and myriad of creature with forms that bleeds into shadows and coldness.

Behind this lone man, they were all silent, they followed him. An army that covered cities moved across a doomed world in silence.

The footprint that he left behind was black, and from the blackness, the snow behind him turned black. Every step he took made the world fall into darkness.

In a while, the planet he walked on fell into everlasting darkness.

?

Rowan froze after this vision, collapsing bonelessly to the floor, where he hit his head on the edge of the table with a sickening thud.

His heart stopped, and for a while, he thought he was going to perish, he had not spent a full day, but he was going to die for such a stupid reason as not sitting down when touching the domains of gods.

Thankfully, he felt a pleasant warmth envelope his heart and it began to beat. The warmth covered his body and he watched in rapt fascination as black veins all over his body retreated into his skin. He raised himself, marveling at the feeling of good health after the near-death experience.

It occurred to Rowan that he was not being careful enough. But the dam had already burst, nothing would hold him back from checking out every secret here. Not trusting the chair, he sat on the ground cross-legged.

His mind went back to delving into the Scion Of Darkness, and he contemplated on the new favor from another god, this time a Death god. Rowan knew you should not slap a smiling face, but unsolicited favors, especially from gods, were not necessarily a good thing, their blessings can be heavier than mountains.

But why should he worry about gods, according to the accepted texts, they were all dead or fled from this plane of existence. The God King brought down their Dominion. The Primordial Record had opened a link to these forgotten gods, how novel?

The Pathway Of Light and Darkness were two different Pathways, and if Rowan did not miss his guess, would he be able to utilize both paths? Or would he have to choose? He hoped it was the former. Rowan did not feel safe in this world, and he would never reject any chance of becoming more powerful.

The Primordial Record, what sort of existence was it? To draw two polar opposite alignments together in the same body, and yet he was aware that there were still more records left, his phantom fingers itched as he pushed the next button.

A flash of black text materialized over the page.

Warning, If you are about to view an Omnipotent Record, proceed.

Omnipotence, Rowan liked that word. Would it kill him if he opened it, he hoped not because he was going ahead

Proceed!

Chapter 10: Hatred

??????????????????: Eternal and Endless, Death is a footnote you have conquered eons ago, rapidly healing from all physical damage. If death still finds you, consume lifespan to be reborn.

A thriving city appeared before my eyes, it reminded me of the metropolis of my previous life, millions of people going about their day, working, eating, fighting, getting married, the breath of the city was exuberant, the sun was shining and life seemed boundless.

There was a silent groan that was felt rather than heard, and everyone went still, even the birds stopped flapping their wings and fell, their little hearts beating so fast it exploded inside their chest. Almost like a naughty child scattering his sand castle, the city broke into pieces, and millions of lives cried in sorrow and were silenced.

The ground of the city heaved and turned, and a gigantic form that defied meaning rose from the ruin, the skies darkened and shattered, and what rose was a gigantic brown palm, the city…. no the entire continent was on the palm.

My sight zoomed to outside the planet. Like a butterfly opening its cocoon, a humanoid creature broke out from the planet, the subsequent explosion of the planet barely ruffled his hair.

The universe was shaken at the birth of an Empyrean.

Rowan did not face any discomfort when he awoke from the vision, he had been bracing himself for any metaphysical reaction from viewing this Record and was glad his fears came to naught. He was reminded of the remark about the attention of the gods when he viewed the records of Scion Of Light and Darkness, perhaps those reactions came because of the attention of those gods.

Rowan was still in awe about what he had witnessed, this was the third time he had seen a planet die, and every one of them was as impactful as a blade through the gut, but this one felt unintentional, a side effect of an Empyrean been birthed.

If he used the analogy of a butterfly, then the planet, the entire civilization was built on the cocoon of a budding Empyrean.

The description of this skill was enlightening, he remembered the statement the man with the freezing hands in that nightmare mansion called him, "A chick who escaped his broken shell". They all were surprised at his survival.

Whatever had happened to him at that place, it was so dangerous that he was not expected to live, was this Record the secret to how he survived? If his lifespan was consumed to resurrect him, was he not supposed to appear older?

He wondered why they allowed him to leave, was his survival not a valuable reason for more experimentation on him? Was he still under some sort of observation by a third party? All these queries juggled around in his mind, and he knew there was no way to readily answer most of these questions, he just had to keep learning and improving his odds.

Eternal and Endless also left a bad taste in his mouth, he had only a year to live, of course, he saw the prefix after each of the records, but he had no idea how to level them.

He gritted his teeth and continued, maybe he would understand more with the next Record.

Soul Seizer: Your existence is a confluence of impossibilities, a Scion Of Light heralds a new age, and a Scion Of Darkness presages its end. Your existence gives birth to a forbidden power, everything has a soul, that should return to the universe for renewal, and you have broken the balance.

(?????? ???????????????????? ?????????????? Hates you)

Maeve walked up the stairs, her gait was firm and steady, and each step was climbed in the same manner as clockwork. Night had fallen, and she was to make sure her Master was sleeping and to take care of his needs, she had given him enough time to go through his diary, the coming days would be rough for him.

She had to prepare him to face whatever storms were surely on their way, after all, he was now in the body of a child, and it presented a vulnerability that his enemies and family members would take full advantage of.

Keeping the news a secret for as long as possible was the best play, but further drastic measures were needed, for this matter could not be covered for long. One could not cover a fire with paper.

Reaching the door, she gently knocked after waiting a while and not receiving any response. She listened closely and heard nothing except a low moan.

Opening the door, she saw the Young Prince standing by his bedside he was hunched over and was fiddling with his face, his back was facing her, so she could not see his face.

Maeve called out, "Young Master, I came over to inquire if you required any assistance or have any queries you need answers to. You are usually too entrenched in your work, for the moment you have to go a bit easier, you have not fully recovered."

Silence answered her. No, not silence, a low throaty chuckle that made her frown, the Young Prince continued to fiddle with his face, the room was dark as the gas lamp was switched off, and the only lighting came from the moonlight coming in through the window, but a Dominator of her level could see in low light conditions.

She sniffed the air and her expression changed, with inhuman Agility she lunged at the prince and seized his hands, his entire body was wet and sticky, and he kept struggling to free himself, she summarily knocked him out by placing a single finger on his nape and rapidly carried him to the bed.

She gently pried away at the tool he was holding in a death grip, which was a knife, wrapping it in a piece of linen she materialized from the air, she made it vanish, she rapidly brought a bowl with warm water and began to clean the prince, her gaze was cold and filled with wrath and anger.

The eyes of the prince were two gaping holes, he had been ruthlessly stabbing the fragile orbs, judging by the amount of blood she had cleaned from his body, he should not be alive, the rug on the floor was soaked with blood.

This was a side effect of the ritual! It was her eternal shame that she was schemed against and was not present when the prince went for the ritual, after that harrowing experience, there was no way she would allow him to die on her watch.

The prince woke up with a gasp, startling her, Rowan waking up should be impossible, the power of sleep was under her Domain; she wanted to spare him pain for as long as possible until she found ways to heal his eyes.

Rowan gasped and turned around, clearly in shock and confusion.

"Young master, it is okay. I am here." With sorrow and anger present in her voice, she continued, "Please be calm, you have lost a lot of blood. This should be my fault. I apologize for harming you, your diary must have triggered a reaction from the ritual you partook in."

Rowan gestured for her to stop wiping his face, he whispered, "Maeve the diary was not the problem, you have done an impressive job, fetch me my coat."

" Young master, your eyes..."

"It's no problem…. see…" Rowan's eyes seemed to squirm and vibrate, and new flesh grew from the darkness of his empty socket. He slowly opened his eyes, they were white and pure and glistened white, "I am okay, get me my coat."

"Yes, young master" Maeve replied in shock as she strode to get the coat, her amazement was total.

As she pulled down a thick coat, she dimly heard from her Master, "I am going to kill every last one of you."

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Chapter 11: Divine Fodder

Steisa, momma warned you not to run down the mountains road, you're going to hurt yourself" a young boy called out to his little sister, who merrily skipped along.

"you can't catch me... you can't catch me," she giggled and turned to him, gesturing that he should come closer, the young man of thirteen gave a low groan of frustration, his name was Regolf and his little sister was a handful of worries, she was carefree and very playful, and she had become even more uninhibited since their mother fell sick, and she was smart enough to know that Regolf would never punish her for little misdeeds, so she gleefully took advantage.

On his shoulders were piles of firewood, neatly wrapped with fronds, winter was arriving earlier than usual this year, and he wished to stock up on firewood.

He was a hardworking lad, and by this time of the year he should have gathered enough wood to last the short winter, but since their mother fell sick, he always had to keep the fire burning, or she gets… strange.

He adjusted the wood that was digging into his shoulders and called out to his sister, a tone of frustration coloring his voice, it had not been easy for him recently and the strain was beginning to build up.

"Come back here this instant or no more crushed candy for you!" The statement jolted Steisa and pouting she walked slowly to her brother and looked at him with doe eyes.

"Oh... no you don't, this won't work today," Regolf sniffed and looked away from that soul-sucking gaze, "Be good Steisa, the roads are full of stones and bumps, you may fall and injure yourself."

In a crestfallen manner, Steisa mumbled, "I won't run anymore Regolf, will you still bring candy for me." she tugged at his shirt pitifully, it was akin to tugging at the young man's heart stings, he quickly relented, and her face lit up, " Yay…. Regolf is the best brother in the world!"

The young boy felt his shoulders straighten and he walked more confidently, the happiness of his sister was an affirmation of his handwork and it brought him fulfillment. The joyous laughter of the girl and the quiet reply of her brother followed the duo as they headed towards home.

Their home was at the edge of the village and was close to the mountains, the woods were not far from the quiet home, and he could make two more trips before nightfall, and if he was willing to risk it, he could make it three.

Their home drew near, and it was surprisingly built with modern bricks and mortars. It was formally a relay station where the soldiers of the kingdom collected posting letters when crossing the Sylvan lakes, and it was now abandoned following the loss of the war with the neighboring kingdom Khoranth.

As the siblings approached their home, they noticeably became quieter, Steisa squeezing her brother's clothes and standing behind him, he comforted her with a head rub, as he asked her to sit down by the door, while he went to the storeroom that sat adjacent to their home to store the firewood.

Regolf walked back to his sister, "Steisa, I got a kilogram of beef from my masters' wife, I helped her to feed the horses since Tobias fell sick, she commended my work saying I was a hard worker" He patted the satchel on his waist. "I will be cooking a sumptuous meal tonight!"

Steisa cheered.

Regolf smiled, "Hurry up and wash your hands, so you can assist me in the kitchen, you should learn to cook, as my workload in the smithy is growing, as I am getting better at metal working."

Steisa rapidly nodded as she proceeded to clean her hands thoroughly, Regolf watched her with a smile, he was a handsome youth. Both the siblings drew their looks from their mother, they never knew their father, and he died in a hunting accident.

When Steisa was barely two months old, their mother Rose became a bastion of parenthood. She made sure they both did not lack, working through the night and holding three jobs, to provide for the family, as she refused to remarry.

Regolf gladly became an apprentice to the only blacksmith in Calcutta, so he could help his mother, and for a while the family lived in contentment and happiness until Rose brought back a doll she found in the fields.

Rowan pulled the surrounding coat, Maeve assisting him in tying the sash around his waist, he could see the questions on her face, but he ignored her, "Thank you Maeve, please take me to my lab." He turned and strode towards the door.

Maeve hurried over and took his hand, "Let me carry you, young master…. I don't understand how you healed so quickly, but I know healing of any form consumes a significant amount of your body resources."

Rowan swallowed any rebuttal he had, he was not feeling any signs of weakness, his healing seemed not only to affect his body, but he suspected it also healed his mind.

But his legs were now short, and he needed all the time he could get, of course, he could run, but he thought that was a stupid idea, Maeve was strong and his lab was on the next floor above him, she would be faster.

He was in his last moments after all, for he had already died twice! If Maeve had not returned when she did, he would be dead.

Ultimately, he had been very careless, and the presence of the Primordial Record and his healing factor had given him a safety blanket, and he became dismissive of the danger surrounding him.

He knew his curiosity and thirst for the supernatural was a weakness, and he told himself that being more careful was not only the smart choice, but it would be the difference between life and death.

Dying had been a weird experience, but he at least understood his healing factor better. Killing him would be difficult, for he healed very fast, the Soul Seizer Record he viewed influenced him to kill himself, and he spent a long time slicing through his brain.

It was one of the most horrifying moments in his life, to see his body move without his will. The influence the Record had on him was weak, but the problem was that he had no means to defend himself. If he did, he did not know how.

Every knowledge of magic that Rowan knew did not help him at all, as his body was moving to the will of those…Monsters.

He shuddered slightly, pushing the memory away from his mind presently, he did not trust that he had fully recovered from their influence.

With a mental flex, Rowan called up the Primordial Record

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 0.2

Agility: 0.2

Constitution: 3.5

Spirit: 1.5

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 2)

Records:

Scion Of Light - level 0 [0/5]

Scion Of Darkness – level 0 [0/5]

Ouroboros – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Seizer - level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point: 0.0000

Remark: Divine Fodder

He was down to the last year, and since the primordial record did not elaborate on the precise time he was going to die, he had no awareness if he had only days or months to live, he could only feel a shroud of death hanging over him, and he could trust that instinct, after all, he was a Scion Of Darkness.

The only thing that could save him now from dying was unironically death itself, his Record, Soul Seizer made him a sort of Grim Reaper, he could collect souls and use them to fuel his Records, pushing him onto the Paths Of Dominion, he had to transcend his mortal flesh and become a Legendary to get more lifespan

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Chapter 12: The Demon Wolf

There were three towers and four turrets in Rowan's manor, the largest of them housed his lab, Maeve unlocked the door to this lab with a huge ornate key, the door must have been at least five inches thick and made from thick wood and metal, it must weigh at least three tons, though Maeve pushed it effortlessly with a single hand.

The lab was silent, and the air was dry, Rowan kept it this way, many of the ingredients he used for potions and alchemy experiments got spoiled if left in a damp environment.

Rowan remembered a passage he read previously. The laboratory of a Noble is a wonderland where miraculous cures and pseudoscientific abominations are spawned from the minds of geniuses in varying degrees of madness and torture.

This could aptly describe this laboratory, moonlight poured through two huge ornate windows, shinning it glow on various alchemical equipment, the lab was mostly filled with beakers and huge transparent tanks, where floating in liquid solutions were various unidentified specimens, and the walls held mounted shelves that contained various tools of the trade.

This laboratory was Rowan's pride and joy and represented one of his greatest achievements, he had schemed and saved and slowly gathered materials from various parts of the kingdom to aid him in his journey of discovery and enlightenment.

He needed that aid at this very moment, he was pressed for time, and the only solution to his plight would be found here.

This occurred to him when he saw the uses of Soul Seizer, his fading lifespan, and the knowledge that he would get to live if he could become a Legendary.

Rowan wasn't very knowledgeable about the Paths of Dominion, this was knowledge that was highly restricted. But he knew that the next step was to become a Legendary on any Path a Dominator decides to take.

If he remembered correctly, Legendary Dominators had a Lifespan of a hundred and fifty years, more than enough for him, if he could become one.

His salvation was here and Rowan was nervous, he hoped his speculations worked as he braced himself.

Maeve switched on a hand-held gas lamp and looked to him for instructions, Rowan wet his lips and spoke, "I am going to use the Warding Room, but first I need to retrieve the Heavy Runic Glove on the top shelve, "Rowan smiled at Maeve in a self-deprecating manner, and gestured to his body, "I seem to have lost a lot of height recently. "

Maeve brought down the gloves, they were brown with various metallic circuitry etched into the fabrics, Rowan stretched out both hands and Maeve helped in putting on the gloves, making sure the gloves were properly fitted. She looked at him, "Master, you will recover everything you lost, and more." she gestured to the gloves. " You are going to need help handling arcane ingredients, I must insist I be by your side."

Rowan tested the gloves, they were oversized but were not cumbersome, his small hands were accommodated perfectly inside the gloves; they were cool inside, "No problem Maeve, I would need your strength in what I am about to do now!"

Maeve seemed to have done this before, as she went to fetch a pair of gas masks, she donned hers after she finished placing the mask on Rowan's face, "Ready when you are, Master" her voice came in hisses like a snake.

Rowan cracked his neck, "Open the Warding Room!"

Maeve walked up to a lever, that was attached to a pulley system, placing her feet in a position she felt comfortable in, she braced herself and began to turn, deep clanking echoed through the room, as the "Warding Room "emerged from the floor.

It was a dais that held four Magitite stones cut precisely in the shape of a square, the square was four feet across on all sides, and on top of the square rested four items, which were a nine-leaf clover, a pair of shear, a mortar and pestle and finally a purple wolf with gleaming red eyes.

The wolf was held down not with straps or manacles, but with a formless force that exerted bone-breaking pressure on the wolf, it lay on its side, and its opened eye slowly turned to Rowan, and it was filled with endless malice.

This wolf was a Demon.

It was the biggest wolf he had ever seen, with his new height, if it wolf stood up, it would be at eye level with Rowan.

Its eye-catching purple fur resembled a poisoned flower. Its purpose was not only to draw your eyes but to keep you transfixed as it killed you.

He remembered that the wolf was poisonous, and a single bite if left untreated would lead to rapid necrosis, like a spider, the Demonic Wolf preferred eating prey that had been ???????????????? by his poison.

Rowan ignored the gaze of the wolf and turned to assess the shears, it was a gleaming silver all through from tip to handle, they were most likely made of Mythrill, and on the blades was written a symbol in the shape of a corkscrew, Rowan easily interpreted that symbol, it meant "Six." Not bothering to infer the meaning, Rowan picked it up by its handle.

The gloves began to emit an acrid green smoke, that was poisonous and smelled like rotten flesh, the Heavy Runic Glove served two purposes, one was as a key to access the Magitite Stone, without the glove, anything placed on the Stone would be placed under a formless pressure that could range from a minor pull to bone crushing pressure.

The second purpose was also as important, it was to help Rowan, a mortal, although he had a Noble bloodline, to be able to touch a Divine Weapon.

The shear, of course, was a Divine Weapon, although it was a low-level armament. There were many divisions of Divine Weapons based on their capabilities and usage, but he did not know them.

A surge of warmth flowed into the gloves, but it was suppressed, the inlaid circuitry shone with a blue glow and the gloves became cool again, Rowan turned to the Demon and opened the shears, he adjusted it in the other to fit the opening over the neck.

The Demon opened its lupine jaws and struggled to speak in a wheezing voice that felt like fingernails running through a board. Rowan knew the Demon could speak, when it was purchased, there was a spike driven through its jaws. For a minor Demon, he was told it was quite cunning, and it was unknown why this Demon refused to advance given its intellect.

" Mortal, why do you seek to destroy my flesh, I have neither harmed thee nor any of your kin."

Maeve replied to the demon with a sneer, "Demon, your life has been bought and bargained for, you have taken the lives of countless innocent, and killing you would not tip the scale an iota in your mercy, even if you are killed a thousand times over!"

The Demonic Wolf spoke, his eyes still trained on Rowan, "Yet, I harmed none of yours, my business was done far from your shores, would you not reconsider setting me free? I can serve you for the rest of your mortal life."

Rowan fitted the shears properly against the demon's neck, surprised at the Demon's offer, for its gaze was still filled with malice. Even if its demeanor changes, he would be a fool to accept its proposal. "Your bargain is rejected Demon, I can smell the blood on your breath and I have seen the souls you have torn asunder over the centuries. You have taken pleasure in killing others, why fight against it when the blade now rests on your neck" Rowan looked at the demon, during the purchase he had seen images and vivid descriptions of the carnage this demon had committed, "You squeezed every last shred of pain you could collect before you killed your victims. You do not deserve to live"

The Demon glared at Rowan, fury now competing with the malice in its eyes, " Do what you will mortal."

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Chapter 13: First Kill

?????????? ?????? ?????????? ???????????????? ?? ???????????? ????????????.

He began to steadily apply pressure, sweat was beginning to pour down his brows behind the gas mask, and he had to rapidly blink to stop them entering his eyes, his strength Stat was just too weak.

????, ???? ???????????? ?????????? ?????? ?????? ???????????? ???????????? ???? ???????????????????????? ???? ?????? ???????? ?????? ????????, ???? ?????? ???????????????????? ?????????????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ?????????? ???????? ???????????? ?????? ???????????? ???????? ???? ????????????????????, ?????? ?????? ?? ????????????, ???????????????? ?????????? ???? ???? ?????? ?????????? ??????.

Around the neck of the purple wolf, a faint cold mist encircled it, and slowly the chill began to penetrate it, causing the flesh to squeeze and crackle beneath the blades.

???? ???????????? ???? ?????????? ?????? ???? ?????????????? ?????? ??????????????. ???????? ???? ?????? ?????????????? ?????? ?????? ??????????. ?? ???????????????????? ?????????????? ???????? ?????? ???????????? ?????? ???????????????? ?????????????????? ???????????? ???????? ?????? ???????????? ???? ??????????????????. ?????????????? ???????? ???????? ???????????????? ?????? ?? ?????????????? ?????? ??????????????.

The fur became stiff and soon turned to purple dust, and the shears bit into the Demon's neck, the blood that flowed was black, and was thick like tar, it did not freeze like Rowan expected but flowed and pooled on the Magitite Stone.

????. ???? ???????????? ???? ?????????????? ???? ???????????? ???? ????????. ???? ?????? ?? ???????????? ????????????????????. ?????????? ?????? ???? ?????????? ???????????? ???? ?????????? ????????????????????. ???? ?????? ???????? ?????????? ?? ?????????? ???????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ???????????????????? ?????? ????????????????. ???? ?????? ???? ???????? ???????? ?? ???????????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???? ?? ?????????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ???? ??????.

Rowan knew his strength had reached the limit, so he beckoned Maeve with his head, knowing what she was to do, she stood behind Rowan and wrapped her hands around his, and began to apply pressure, the blades began to bite deeper, cutting through the muscle, it stopped at the spine.

???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????????. ???????? ?????????????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ???????????????????? ?????? ??????????. ?????? ???? ?????????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????? ????. ???? ?????????? ?????? ?????????? ???????????????????????? ???? ???????? ???????? ???????? ?????????????? ?????? ??????c???????? ?????? ??????????.

Rowan frowned and gestured for Maeve to apply more pressure, Maeve paused, she would rather not apply more pressure that could surpass the stress limit of the Heavy Runic Gloves, she was a little confused why her master did not allow her to personally kill the cursed creature, nevertheless her duty was to obey him in all things.

?????? ???? ?????????? ???????? ???????????????? ?????????????????????? ?????? ?????? ?????????????????? ??????!

Maeve stood behind Rowan and felt how frail he was. The laws of power were harsh, and her heart ached at the suffering he must have endured. She did not ask him what happened, knowing he would tell her in his time. What she could do was to support him, but she needed clarifications from him, she would loathe to add to his suffering,

"Are you sure master, It is remarkable enough you can withstand the amount of force I am placing on your hands. I can hear the bones in your hands cracking, anymore and they would be crushed!"

Rowan lips were fixed in a stubborn snarl, "Continue Maeve, you can stop when I tell you to."

"By your will… master."

Clearly displeased Maeve began to apply more pressure incrementally, Rowan locked his jaws, his bones were beginning to pulverize, and the pain was shocking and intense, but he had eyes only for the Demon.

The shear began to cut through the bones, and with a final wet snap, the head was sliced off. Through all these the Demon did not make a sound, its eyes just stared at Rowan, and he could have sworn its eyes held amusement.

Rowan left it to its foul pleasures. He had no desires to understand what was happening inside the head of this creature.

"Step back Maeve, and whatever happens next, do not interrupt me!" Rowan gingerly removed the gloves from his hands, setting it aside, he placed his hands on the stomach of the demon.

His eyes were closed in concentration. Maeve watched with concern, and she clasped and unclasped her hand, she was ready for any unexpected events.

Rowan called up the Primordial Record, and scrolled to Soul Seizer, and he activated the Record.

When Rowan first opened the Primordial Record, a set of instructions were embedded deep into his consciousness and when he needed them, they floated back into his mind.

The knowledge of how to utilize Records is one of them. Rowan had placed his hopes on Activating the Two Omnipotent Records he had.

Soul Seizer was the obvious choice. He needed to harvest souls to upgrade his Records to get more lifespan.

Omnipotent Records were powerful, and he hoped his healing factor would bear the strain of even Activating the Record. Well, he was going to find out now.

Rowan felt a piercing pain all through his body, his eyes snapped open in shock as his torso folded in half just underneath his chest as if a giant picked and folded him, the back of his head touching his buttocks, his mouth was opened in a silent scream, for his lungs were squished inside his chest.

He slowly collapsed on the floor, Maeve wanted to step forward, but she remembered the instructions Rowan gave her, and also his frightening healing abilities. She gritted her teeth and stood fast, her anxiety rising with every breath.

From Roman's back a row of bones pierced through, they were clearly his ribs, and also a part of his spine popped out, his neck twisted like a snake, with a sickening crack his bones were pulled away from his body in a gory spray of blood and floated in the air, in a while new bones were regrown and the macabre event continued, Rowan laid on the floor, a low moan now and then the only indication that he was fully awake, and experiencing all the pain.

The bones that were stained with his blood, began to reassemble in the air, it slowly formed in the shape of a ring, with seven elongated spikes that resembled horns surrounding the ring of bone, Arcane symbols were burned into the bones, and they pulsed with Rowan breathing. They pulsed red, akin to the glow of embers.

Rowan, in his pain, remembered words he felt he heard in a distant dream,

" I thought I was a man..." Rowan found himself repeating the words, as he rose from the ground, the ring of bones rotated and floated behind him, creating a grim majestic figure that inspired awe and horror from anyone who beheld the sight," But I am nothing but chars and cinders!"

Maeve found herself kneeling, tears streaked down her face, she bowed and placed her face on the floor. At that moment this picture could be of a mortal worshiping her god.

This was the Level zero of Soul Seizer, it was called, Jaws Of Dagon!

On the Continent of Khoranth, deep inside the dark mountains where the light of the sun has not shone since the dawn of this world, there lay a series of mountain range that covered the horizon, and a particular mountain stood out, unlike the other mountains rooted in this forsaken land of despair, this mountain rooted itself in a field of bones. The bones were of all creatures that have ever walked on this world, and some that had not.

Wails of pain and sorrow surrounded the fields of bone, and the air bled pus, the clouds were yellow and diseased. Indistinct shapes roam the dark lands, and their laughter resembled the cries of infants.

The color of the mountain was pale as maggots, and it shivered and squirmed in a sickening manner like a Corpse riddled with countless vermin, the mountain was filled with pale fleshy sacks that trembled and pulsed, and one of the sacks became very lively, it began to vibrate intensely.

The silhouette of a figure pressed against that fleshy sack, the figure was that of a wolf, there was a sound of biting and tearing and slowly a tear was made on the sack, a rheumy red eyes looked through the opening, and suddenly the eyes were filled with panic, "What is happening? This is not right, Lord…" Its cries were cut off midway, and the mountain fell into silence.

Rowan felt a faint pulsation beneath his hand, like the final beats of a dying heart, and with an ephemeral sounds waves of purple mist, in the vague form of a wolf, was drawn into his body. The mist circled his body and was rapidly drawn into the hovering ring of bones, and it was absorbed, in a short while, an invisible aura poured into Rowan, and he cried out in pleasure.

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Chapter 14: New Path

Rowan felt his mind becoming clear, and waves of orgasmic pleasure flowed through every inch of his body because presently what he seized was the source of creation, the first fire, the beating heart of the universe, call it by any name, what he just absorbed was endless potential!

Rowan called up the Primordial Record, and scrolled down until he could see how much the soul he just seized was worth, his eyes held a wisp of expectation, this would determine if he could live or die.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength : 0.2

Agility : 0.2

Constitution : 3.5

Spirit : 2.5

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Skill: (None)

Passive : Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 2)

Records:

Scion Of Light - level 0 [0/5]

Scion Of Darkness – level 0 [0/5]

Ouroboros – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Seizer - level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point : 25.0749

Remark : Divine Fodder

Roman's breath stilled for a while, and he smiled. He unconsciously released the breath he had been holding, and the ring of bone shrank and flew around him, until it formed a bracelet on his left wrist.

The Soul Seizer Record effect was both active and passive, it could draw the souls of the fallen around him without any directive from him, but if he needed to collect the souls of special creatures that for all purposes could be called Immortal, he needed to call up on the full might of the Record, and this was just at level zero. If he continued to upgrade Soul Seizer using plundered souls, who knew what height it might reach.

Rowan looked through the Primordial Record again, and out of curiosity, clicked on the Remark: Divine Fodder

Divine Fodder: From the dawn of creation, no single entity has been blessed with your Providence. Your existence is impossible. You held out your mortal hands and collected the Sun. Any being of great power that captures you and strips you of your Record. Shall ascend to the Heavens with One Step!

Well, this was…. Interesting, it would seem that his transmigration and the Primordial Record appearing inside of him was more than just a chance occurrence If his existence was impossible!

He would choose not to believe it happened by chance, it seemed the wiser option.

Beings of great power, was a peculiar word choice. Rowan was Nobility, and this not only meant he had access to information and resources most people did not, it also meant he had within him the capabilities to be a Dominator.

The doors to the Paths Of Dominion, were all but shut for normal folks, the exact reasons were unknown.

There was, however, the known fact about Nobility. Rowan heard the tale from his mother, he had forgotten it, for it was just a story she told him when he was young.

For an unknown reason, knowledge about the origins of Nobles was suppressed. Rowan scrapped through his new memories and the story came to his mind.

It was said that when the God King Golgoth conquered the world of Trion, and put countless races to the sword, he slew seven gods and bestowed their hearts to his seven brothers and sisters and from there on the clans of Nobility were born.

To be a Noble meant you were born from the blood of a god, your bloodline could be traced to one of the brethren of the God King, who were all powerful gods in their own right.

The reason Golgoth became the God King was that he did the impossible, he fashioned a Path that could lead to godhood for a mortal.

With the hearts of the slain gods, he created an undying legacy and bestowed it to his brethren. That action shifted the course of power for all eternity.

And so, the balance was broken, the seven brethren could raise countless mortal descendants, and they would have a path to power. They forged seven Pathways of Dominion. These Pathways were a way to harness and grow the power of a gods' bloodline.

The other gods fled, for Golgoth and his brethren suddenly had an army of mortals with powers close to the gods, they called themselves Nobles and Dominion was their birthright.

Even though it was highly discouraged, there had been mixing of the bloodlines over the millennia, most ended up as failures and defects, for powerful bloodlines do not coexist. The first Seven Pathways could only develop specific bloodlines—Those of the seven gods themselves.

The ingenuity of men was endless, and many lesser Pathways were created for the various bloodlines that resulted from the intermingling of bloodlines, most were not powerful, but they gave power to those that did not have the direct bloodline of the Seven. But none of the Pathways could ever be as powerful as the first seven, for they were forged with the hearts of fallen gods.

A Noble of the Kuranes family may have a deep bloodline and be born in the Legendary State. But if they do not utilize the Pathway specific to their bloodline, they would not grow. They would be stuck in the Legendary State and vice-versa, without a bloodline, even with a powerful Pathway, you could not harness supernatural powers.

So what this meant was that Rowan had the bloodline of a god, one of the seven brothers or sisters of the Godking, and the Pathway was a way to develop that bloodline.

Rowan realized the power of the Primordial Record, it contained valuable bloodlines that had inestimable power, Scion Of Light and Darkness were among the peak bloodlines in Trion. He could develop these bloodlines without utilizing a Pathway, and they could coexist inside his body.

His growth would be unfathomable. He did not need to search for any Pathways that would suit his bloodline. He could grow any bloodlines he acquired.

Rowan took a while to temper his excitement. There was no way to anticipate the limits of the powers he could acquire.

On the paths of Dominion, there were various stages you could ascend to, changing your mortal shell to be able to accept and use more esoteric abilities and even extend your life span, to his knowledge, there were four stages of growth, Or the Four States Of Change.

It began as a mortal, you had to train your body to the peak of human capabilities, reinforcing your physique with tonics and potions in order to be able to accept a bloodline. Almost every mortal who took this step failed, the lucky few that succeeded never went beyond the Second State Of Change.

To most Nobles, the Mortal State was a walk in the park, their bloodlines made advancing to a Legendary straightforward. There were even rumors of Nobles with deep bloodline who were born as Legendary or even higher.

The second State Of Change was the Bind State, also known as the Legendary state, this was the utmost pinnacle for mortals without Noble blood, then the Rift State and Finally the Incarnation State.

Rowan had a delicate choice to make, when he accessed the Soul Seizer Record, he went mad and killed himself twice. That event would shape the decisions he was about to make.

Rowan remembered the moment he nearly perished and those responsible. The Primordial Keepers.

They were beings that had transcended material existence, they resided outside the universe, and they managed an important part of the universe—Souls.

Rowan did not understand how he acquired the bloodline of the Primordial Keepers, if he were to guess, it would be his act of Transmigration. He had seen hints of this in the Primordial Record.

Soul Seizer, encroached into their domain, and for that, he was sentenced to oblivion. The only reason he was not dead was the barrier granted by the Primordial Record, it acted as a great filter, for without it, his mind could not comprehend the forces that dwelled in his body, and also that their influence were unable to extend into the material universe in an invasive manner without shattering the very fabrics of the universe.

Yet only their malicious intent was enough to turn him into a gibbering idiot, this was even with the barrier of the Primordial Record, without the timely aid of Maeve, he would have killed himself.

Even still they had succeeded, their tampering had driven him to the edge, and it would take a miracle for him to survive, for it was impossible for any living being to practice an Omnipotent Record, but unknown to the keepers, however, he had another Omnipotent Record.

The Ouroboros Record was an Omnipotent Record that gave him a bloodline that was absolute in dominion of the flesh, and the only way he could increase his lifespan was to upgrade the Ouroboros Record, just practicing the level Zero of Soul Seizer was impossible without the perverse regeneration capability and the physique granted to him by the Ouroboros Record.

Rowan knew of no bloodline that could have healed the damages that activating Soul Seizer as a mortal did to his body.

Any hope he had to gain more lifespan was via the Ouroboros Record, Scion Of Light and Darkness could not affect his lifespan, even if he cultivated them until Incarnation state.

There was no way a lesser bloodline could influence an Omnipotent bloodline. It would be consumed by it.

It could be said that the moment his mind touched Soul Seizer that his path had been laid out. He could not slowly develop other Lesser bloodlines.

Ouroboros would not allow the growth of Scion Of Darkness and Light, even though they could have been a quick Path to power.

As Rowan acknowledged that fact. Scion Of Light and Scion Of Darkness quietly faded from the Primordial Record.

His Paths just grew harder. How was he to find a thousand-soul points to become a Legendary without dying in the limited time he had?

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Chapter 15: The Tolling Bell

A step at a time. That was only what he could do. If he died tomorrow or at the end of next month, it did not matter if he knew he had done his best.

Rowan called up the Primordial Record.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 0.2

Agility: 0.2

Constitution: 3.5

Spirit: 2.5

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 2)

Records:

Ouroboros - level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Seizer - level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point: 25.0749

Remark: Divine Fodder

Rowan perceived his mind felt clearer, and his eyesight increased in scope and clarity, and he noticed that his spirit increased by an entire one point, this was just by activating Soul Seizer at level zero! This level should be the mortal state of the technique.

It should be known that even at level Zero, the Records had to be activated because at the moment they lay dormant. When he activated each Record, his physique would change accordingly, thereby preparing him to ascend to a higher state. That was the reason his spirit increased by one point.

The rush of pleasure that came from Soul Seizer receded, and Rowan noticed he was naked. When his body repeatedly destroyed itself and healed, his robes did not enjoy that same treatment.

"I have been doing this a lot lately, perhaps what I need are extra stretchy pants." Rowan scratched his hair in embarrassment his mind returning to a particular fictional green giant. Maeve could as well be reading his mind, for she bought a silk coat and attempted to cover him.

Rowan stopped her, " It's not over yet, I am still going to...Change" Rowan glanced at her and closed his eyes, he seemed to be preparing himself, "Oh. And Maeve, whatever transpired here must be kept in the utmost confidence."

"Master, I shall wipe my memories of this event." Maeve smiled.

Rowan arched an eyebrow, he contemplated for a while, " That could be for the best." He paused and said, " Maeve, there has never been anyone more loyal."

A weight seemed to drop from her shoulders, and she exclaimed, "My life is for your service, Master!"

Rowan closed his eyes, he was not aware when the mannerisms of the previous Rowan and his fused, he could not tell, and with everything on his plate right now he frankly did not care. It was a sobering thought that in a short period he was now someone new, two minds fused. The price of transmigration!

Rowan looked at the Moonlight, it was forlorn, "So the both of us died, and I am what was left."

The Moonlight spoke of change... It comforted two lost souls.

Rowan was going to be activating the Ouroboros Record next. It had the most dominant influence in his body, and Rowan could guess it was because it was an Omnipotent bloodline that controlled the flesh.

It was easy to imagine how powerful it was, If Soul Seizer could give him the ability to harvest Souls of any bring in the material universe, what insane ability Ouroboros give him, his regeneration was already broken as a mortal if he became a Legend what could kill him?

He called up the Ouroboros Record and activated it, and for a while, he thought nothing had happened, he suddenly had the feeling of weightlessness, and looking down he saw himself hovering over the ground, and an unknown instinct made him pull his knees to his chest, he slowly floated off the ground, and hovered five feet above the floor.

"I believe I can fly... I believe I can touch the sky..."

"What was that? Master." Maeve queried an amused look on her face she tried to hide by coughing.

"Nothing. Please just read some clothes for me." Rowan tried to hide the blush coloring his face. He suddenly felt his heart squeeze inside his chest and goosebumps covered his hands. Maeve shivered and backed away till her back touched the walls.

A low groan sounded like the chanting of a forgotten dirge, and the air split apart, a gray serpentine creature came from the Crack, it had no eyes or mouth, and it did not have any scales, but runes and mystic text that seemed to have a will of their own, ran down its frame. It kept drawing more coils of itself through the Crack.

Rowan's eyes went closed, and he seemed to be falling asleep.

Maeve was locked in place, her young lord was doing things that should be impossible, for anyone else would be afraid, but Maeve was excited. She wanted to look at the creature but her eyes began to bleed, she turned back and heaved, puking out blood and pieces of viscera.

Unconsciously her attitude to Rowan had begun to change, it began when she saw the ring of bone floating behind him, something about the nature of what she witnessed demanded devotion, and that feeling was rising again in her heart.

But her duty was also to protect her lord, so she forced her body to move, noticing that the effect on her lessened when she stopped looking at Rowan.

She turned her back to him, and placed her focus on the surroundings, every of her senses honed for danger. At the edge of her hearing, Maeve began to hear the distant tolling of the bell.

Behind her, the serpentine creature drew itself to the floating Rowan and began to coil around him, it slowly formed the rough shape of an egg, before it solidified into a single mass.

Inside the egg. the head of the creature assessed Rowan, slowly A crack appeared on its face and a cavernous maw opened, filled with needle-sharp teeth.

It suddenly struck!

?

An old priest dispersed the last of the worshippers, it was getting late. Purdue was a priest of Malakith, a dark god. He walked down the cloister, checking the windows, and making sure the doors were locked fast, he recently began this series of actions, and the nights were no longer safe.

when Purdue came to this small town at the edge of nowhere, he found it to be very much to his liking. Rowan the nobleman who governed the town of Calcutta was gentle and discerning, the people here had no bias against dark priests, as they were grateful for the healing he brought, and for the knowledge he taught. He found peace in this quiet town and knew this was where he wanted to stay till he died.

Recently he had been gathering good seeds he intended to bring to the decennial selection of knights and priests for the church.

That was before residents started going missing, fear and hysteria were beginning to sweep the town, and strange sicknesses had befallen many women in the town.

Something had been coming to the church every night, only the ward at the door was holding it back, nevertheless every night he could hear it breathing outside the door.

The great bell in the central square began to toll, and Purdue looked up, there was one last open window, and through it, the sight of the bright moon poured.

It brought a chilly light.

?

Regolf and Steisa slept far from their mother's bed, they slept by the fireside, with the yellow glow of the flames seeming to be the only light in an enclave of darkness.

Rose had not left the bed for weeks and the smell that came from her was stomach-churning, the sounds she made were worse.

Cooing and shushing sounds came from the bed, as the low voice of Rose sang a lullaby to a wrapped bundle she held at her breast, sometimes she laughed, sometimes she cried, but that wrapped bundle never left her embrace.

Steisa slept fitfully, she squeezed her brother's hand tight, Regolf had always tried to stay awake to the best of his capabilities, his eyes locked at their mother's bed, he kept logs of wood beside him, ready to stoke the fire and to feed the flames.

He slapped himself to keep him awake, he recently began to sleep during the early hours of daylight. However tonight, he was very tired, the long trek carrying firewood and the hearty meal drew the last of his wariness away from him, and he fell into the arms of sleep.

The last thought on Regolf's mind was "What does Mother eat?"

The tolling of the bell sounded over the horizon.

The noises from the bed of Rose stopped, and two pairs of glowing eyes turned to the children

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Chapter 16: Awakening Horror

The serpentine head struck at Rowan's neck, and with a sickening wrench, his head was torn off! In a maddening frenzy, it struck at the rest of Rowan's body, and in a flash, Rowan was in pieces.

A closer look revealed something strange, the cuts were mirror smooth, Rowan's dismembered body floated inside the egg, and no blood flowed from the cut, his body had been neatly sectioned into thirty - three pieces.

He did not feel any pain, which was a blessing, though he wondered how he was still alive. That thought had no meaning however from someone who had returned from death multiple times. Rowan felt he should have a record or something for the achievements.

Oh, you're saying you survived a fall from a cliff! Me? I just died like three times. But you know, who's counting, am I right?

The head of the creature suddenly reared back and struck its neck, it worked at it, and beheaded itself, a thick flow of golden blood poured forth, and in a while, it filled up the "egg"

His body floated inside the golden soup that felt very warm, if his body was complete he would have stretched in pleasure.

"This must be what being inside a mother's womb must feel like." Rowan felt an incomparable comfort, he struggled for a moment when his body began to liquefy inside the egg, but he slowly settled as instinctually he knew this was what he needed, his body was going to be reforged and needed new materials, he was replacing his bloodline and his physique, and slowly he fell into a pleasant sleep.

He wondered what he would become when he came out. He hoped it was something powerful.

Maeve turned back and saw the huge egg that hovered a few inches off the floor, her eyes filled with curiosity and wonder.

Something flashed past the open window, she turned and frowned. The Moonlight tonight felt off in a manner she could not place her fingers on. She walked to the window, and standing by the edges looked around, but found nothing.

Must be a bat. She thought as she went back and guarded Rowans. Nothing would get past her watch. The air beside her shimmered and a massive hammer appeared by her side, she idly stroked it as she peered around in watch.

Inside the egg, a pale outline of a skeletal system was beginning to form, it happened slowly, and even as the night passed and a bright new day began, it was incomplete.

The rising sun fell over the small town of Calcutta, dispersing the gloom of night, slowly the vibrancy of life filled the air, and everything dark and mysterious almost seemed like an afterthought, a forgotten dream... But that was only on the surface.

The carpenters, tailors, and blacksmith began their daily trade, the ringing of metal, and the buzzing of saws rang out, and apprentices ran about delivering supplies and taking orders.

The pub opened, and due to them closing earlier than usual, it was packed full, many people wishing to drown their unease in booze.

The Flying Hog was the most popular pub in town, and also the gathering spot for small meetings and the occasional celebration.

The town crier a rambunctious youth of fifteen was heard calling for a town hall meeting by noon. The captain of the soldiers stationed at the noble's manor would be coming to hear their problems, this sparked a series of conversations Inside the pub.

A particular rude voice took center stage, its owner had seen better times, matted hair and beards spoke of excessive depravity and a lack of hygiene "So those noble can leave their fancy halls, and elaborate feast to check on common peasants like us?"

"There is a reason I don't like drinking with you, Glenn. Put one shot inside you, and you yap more than a freaking sow!" Another equally disheveled man replied to him.

"Oh get off your high horse Jerry, I don't remember you losing any family. I lost mi' boy last week."

"Good riddance, that lad won't let my daughter rest, sickening how he undresses her with his eye."

"You... you... I'll kill you"

A scuffle broke out between the two drunk men, but their quarrel was lost under the din of the pub.

"Hey... the old priest's calling for volunteers to check the old mining tracks outside the village, he says he needs ten men with weapons to accompany him."

"Well that's not a bad idea, but would it not be better if we hear from the captain of the guards first before making any abrupt decisions? "

"Great suggestions, I don't know about you, but these incidents do not seem normal, I have lived in Calcutta my entire life and I have never seen anything like this." An old man replied to two young men who were farm hands, they came to the pub because it was the best place to receive information outside the occasional town hall meeting, and the beer was good, so that didn't hurt either.

"Anyway I don't trust nobility, we could be animals to them, I rather we listen to the priest and solve this problem with our own hands." The loud voice of Glenn broke the surrounding noise.

"Silence fool... if this was in the principalities of any other noble you would be drawn and quartered for muttering less, do not let the magnanimity of Lord Rowan, make you forget your place!" This voice was from the owner of the pub, Madam Declara, a woman in her forties, although she had Grey hair and deep laugh lines, it was impossible to hide the fact that she must have broken a lot of hearts when she was younger, her charm remained, but it had changed into charisma by the years and by the responsibilities she carried.

"Little bitch!" Glenn muttered under his beards and turned away, If Madam Declara heard him, she gave no sign.

Madam Declara continued, " I know this is a painful and stressful time for all of us, but this is the time when we ought to have one voice and keep a calm head. I have it on good authority that Lord Rowan returned yesterday, and he brought back with him, a fresh batch of soldiers, now it's all a matter of clearly stating our case to the right authorities and we should start seeing resolution to our problems. we should all know, that these disappearances are not normal and it's not something we can tackle."

Madam Declara paused and looked at the crowd, some new faces had packed outside the door and windows, " Remember the last heat wave, Lord Rowan opened his coffers to us, or many of us would have starved, what about the tax freedoms we enjoy?"

The expression of most of the people in the bar appears to appear with her assessment. The people of Calcutta were hardy folks, who lived on the edge of the kingdom, so they were used to crises and had a firm sense of togetherness that only suffering can bring.

"That's right" Jerry who was just in a brawl rose and said, " This issue began when Lord Rowan went on a trip, now that he's back, we can see a quick resolution!"

"Only people like you would love to be cuddled by the nobles, suckling their royal tits and forgetting what it means to be a man!"

"Glenn you stupid son of a swine, what else can we do, if you had a solution, why did you lil' brat disappear!"

A powerful voice spoke with an air of finality, silencing the crowd,

"The meeting would be held in the town hall, make sure your affairs are in order by then, old priest Purdue can be our spokesman to the captain. I expect to see a packed hall by noon. This crisis is getting out of hand, we need solutions quickly." It was a burly man who should be the town blacksmith Bjanir as he addresses the gathered people, he was the master of Regolf.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news." Mysha the town's foremost fisherman said, " The catch had been getting worse, but since three days ago the lake is now empty, not a shadow of a fish in sight."

This news brought a new wave of shout and panic in the pub, and it took a while before it settled.

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Chapter 17: Abomination

Rowan woke up in darkness and silence. He had a weird sense of grandiosity, and he realized what he was feeling was a new type of sensation.

His flesh had been liquefied, and were being transformed, this transformed flesh was what carried this awareness.

It felt right. It felt complete, present, In the moment, as if he was just a wisp of smoke before, but now he was transforming into metal.

Soul Eater gave him clarity of mind, it enhanced his soul and he became more aware of spiritual forces and other fundamental forces of nature like gravity and light.

Ouroboros went the opposite direction, it enhanced his bodily perception, he could almost tell each of his bones apart, besides that was all he was at the moment—bones.

The level Zero of Ouroboros Record — Bone core.

Rowan noticed a small granule growing inside his skull, it floated inside the empty dome, it slowly spat out long pieces of silk-like materials that began to attach to his skeleton, he was slowly being rebuilt, discarding his former shell for something new.

His skeleton was absorbing the golden liquid, turning slowly bronze. Then another round of absorption began and the bronze colour began to deepen to a shade of gold beginning from his skull.

Rowan thought of many things at this moment, and he took his bony hands to his jaw and bit off his thumb, it was the only part of his skeleton that was not yet transformed, a new thumb grew in its place, this one more golden.

There was this final moment of panic where he felt he had lost something entirely when he knew he had taken a step he could never return from.

He wondered if it were not for his limited lifespan, would he have taken this step? He was no longer human and if not for his physique being similar to a human, there was no more relationship with him to the race he was birthed from.

"So you are leaving no part of me behind."

Rowan clutched the thumb bone, the golden liquid sensed his conviction and flowed around the bone, "Let this be a vestige of our presence!"

Rowan did not know how long this process was going to take. Building up always takes longer than breaking down, so he settled back into sleep.

"Well at least.." Rowan thought, "I still kept my human form. I could have easily become a giant snake or maybe a frog."

Maeve watched the "egg" for the entire night before leaving and sealing the doors to the laboratory, she had other duties that needed attending to, she kept a OneCircle ?????????????? Rune beside the egg if it made any movement she would be alert.

Her place was beside Rowan and she needed to settle the many minor issues that arise from a large household.

The staff were to be updated with new changes in the manor, luckily the affairs of the manor were sparse, and Rowan was not acknowledged at court, so he had fewer responsibilities, a blessing in disguise for the moment.

Maeve knew the importance of keeping Rowan's transformation under wraps, and she did not entirely trust the staff, for spies could be among them. With the powerful Dominators at the Royal City, there was no chance Rowan could go through this wondrous metamorphosis in peace if they became aware.

At the moment of Rowan's return, Maeve deliberately laid off every nonessential staff in the manor, reducing them to the bare bone minimum required to ensure the steady operation of the manor, the thirty-bedroom manor now appeared desolate.

Even though this action would inevitably attract suspicions, it held far lesser risk for Rowan who was in a state of weakness.

A short while later, Maeve had finished organizing the daily affairs of the manor and was about to return to her master, when the butler announced a guest. The Dark Priest—Purdue.

There was a troubling update that the cook, a lovely woman by the name of Katherine was missing. Maeve found that news was deeply disturbing, but she kept that matter aside and decided to attend the Priest.

Maeve frowned, she did not want to be far from her master except when necessary but she remembered that the priest was an interesting fellow. Dark priest ply their trade in areas of conflict, their spells most suitable in dealing death, few was as peace-loving as Purdue, and Rowan especially loved this priest, his simplicity and wisdom charming the heart of the young noble.

Maeve sighed and walked to the guest room, eager to be done with whatever matters the priest brought forward, she did not find the priest amusing. Wolves were meant to be wolves and sheep to be sheep, she believed everyone had a purpose in life and detested those who strayed far from their potential.

As she walked into the guest room, she saw the priest surreptitiously slip into his robe, a piece of cake, no doubt to be given to the poor children who took advantage of the priest's generosity, she made a mental note to tell the cook to wrap up some pastry for the priest when he was leaving.

"You requested the presence of Lord Rowan, priest?" Nevertheless, she was in a hurry and had no time for small talk. Every moment of not being beside Rowan made her uneasiness grow.

Purdue coughed, "em... you see it's you I intended to find."

"Is that so? Then why is that, priest?" Maeve elegantly sat on the chair facing the priest, her back straight like a ruler.

"Lord Rowan is a great land owner and noble, but... eh, to be frank, there are matters he cannot touch, paths he cannot walk." Purdue paused and assessed Maeve, seeing the composed look on her face he continued,

"Something is going wrong in our little town, we have been having cases of mysterious disappearances, our stored produce are getting spoilt faster than normal, and there have been reports of strange sighting in the night..."

Maeve interrupted him, "The Guard Captain informed me of his plan to head into the town today for more in-depth information which he would pass across to me, perhaps you should be going to him with your queries, he is more than capable, and whatever he cannot handle I would take charge of."

Purdue clutched his robe to himself, "In any other instance, I believe that should be the wise option, but I believe there is more to this series of incidents than meets the eye."

Maeve arched her brows, she felt an unknown palpitation in her heart, and the sense of uneasiness in her heart grew. "Continue." She said.

Clearing his throat, Purdue began to talk, but his voice had unknowingly fallen to a whisper, "Most of the town folks think it's a recent matter, folks missing and all that, but you see, one of my hobbies is bird watching, in particular the Modo birds, and since the month of Tulvi, late last year, I have noticed their population of the birds dropping, which frankly should be quite impossible, Modo birds are incredibly prolific.

"I had my suspicions, and I tried to investigate if there were any other invasive species, but I could find none, lately I correlated a frightening conclusion, when the last of the birds disappeared, people started going missing!

"It is just recently I have been made aware of the lack of presence of Fish and other marine life in our lake, which is beyond troubling. The Sylvan lakes are massive and I find it alarming that it has suddenly become devoid of life."

Purdue paused, a hint of deep fear and horror in his eye, "I think... I think an Abomination is here, In this town. I think it has been here for a while and was growing in secret. We should inform the Justice Council or the Kuranes family quickly."

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Chapter 18: Hush... Dear

Maeve had a strange look on her face, and stood up, "Of all the causes of this problem, from mortal shenanigans to rogue Dominators, why do you pick an option as farfetched as an Abomination?"

Purdue coughed, his cheek blushing red either in embarrassment or annoyance, "Great question Melody. My speculations, I fear, are not unfounded."

He fished for an item inside his expansive attire, "Years past, when I was an acolyte under a High Priest of Malakith." Purdue bowed and touched three fingers to his forehead—A sign of obeisance to his god. "I followed a caravan of spice traders down to the lands of Khuresh from our Purgatory Islands. A caravan ten miles long. It was my first missionary journey, you see."

The Dark priest must have seen the frown growing on his face of Maeve, for he hastily continued his story, "During the trip, we were attacked by a monster…. This thing with too many limbs and it was fast. Lightning fast. Most members of the caravan died in the first few minutes."

The Priest paused as if he were reliving a particular frightening memory, as he squeezed his hands tight and his eyes carried a haunted look, "I remember the sequence by which the attack started. It began with missing animals, then the slaves, and when it chose to openly attack the caravan, a wet fog covered the caravan."

The Purdue's voice dropped to a whisper, his shoulders were squared as if he was in a defensive stance, "I and a few others barely survived. Only due to the timely rescue of Dorian The Red—Son Of Scarlet. He granted me a single tooth from that creature."

Purdue drew from his chest a serrated tooth that could serve as a dagger, the tooth was black and carried with it a fishy smell, "Last night. It began to bleed. The tooth"

He brought it out and showed her. Maeve paused as she could see a bead of blood slowly forming on the tip of the tooth. The blood slowly ran down the blade and was absorbed, and it began the circle once more.

"You are confident that this tooth came from an Abomination?"

"I swear on my life. Everything I just spoke was the truth."

"Purdue, this story of yours is…. interesting"

"I know it sounds farfetched, my lady, but I believe this is enough evidence to show a relationship between this crisis and my previous experience. We must evacuate the town."

Maeve frowned, "If your speculations are correct, I fear it could be too late." She pointed outside, Purdue turned, and whimpered.

The town was slowly being covered in fog.

Maeve's countenance changed and she exploded from where she stood. She did not bother opening the doors but blasted through them. The Flowing Rune she kept above with Rowan, had been broken.

••••••••••••••••••

???? ???????? ????????????. ?? ???? ???????????????? ??????

"Boom…. Boom... Boom."

Rowan heard as much as he felt his heartbeats and all his senses rejoiced. They were powerful, and he had two of them. They felt right.

Two engines of power ran bronze blood through his veins. His hands shook, and he vibrated a little inside the egg. Soon he would be reborn!

He did not have eyes yet, or ears, and his spirit was stuck deep inside his flesh observing the changes happening to him, or he might have seen the shadow over his egg. Or he might have heard it.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap

Regolf woke up to the sounds of his sister giggling and his mother singing, for a moment, he thought the events of the past few weeks were just a bad dream, a facsimile of a feverish mind.

His mother was back, oh…. how he missed her.

The days of worries, and long shedding of tears were gone, Steisa had been very naughty, and he had tried his best to keep her in check, he hoped mother would not be angry with him for giving her too much sweets.

He missed her cooking when he came back home, and her songs as she told them stories of their father and his bravery, making him want to grow older and carry those responsibilities.

That was why she gave him the name of his father. Regolf. A strong name. A name that endures.

For a little while, he thought he was capable enough, that slowly he was beginning to fill the massive shoe his father left behind, but the absence of his mother left him bereft, her strange sickness left him confused, and only the thought of Steisa and her wellbeing gave him the strength to carry on.

Perhaps the wise thing he should have done was to tell the adults about what was happening in his home, yet he had felt a strong desire not to. To reveal his sick mother to the world felt painful. His mother was a proud woman and if she knew that the people saw her as feeble or mad it would break her. Regolf was proud he kept it inside the family.

Finally, it seemed his perseverance had paid off, his mother was back to normal.

He opened his eyes to an empty house, the windows, and doors were opened, and a fresh breeze blew into the house, the air smelled like pine nuts and flowers, and his heart beat faster in excitement, was the nightmares over?

The sound of mother and Steisa was coming from outside near the kitchen, he tried to stand and failed the first two times, he assumed it was due to sleeping on the floor, leading to stiffened muscles, but at least he could sit up.

He looked at his legs, but something drew his eyes away, it was Steisa walking inside with a bright smile on her face.

"Sleepyhead, you are now awake! Mama is showing me a magic trick and you have missed a lot. Lemme show you!"

She ran to him and held out her left hand. Her missing left hand, "Mama cut my hand, but it doesn't hurt, it even feels very nice!" She giggled in joy, her laugh increasing in tone and pitch, it almost seemed as if she was screaming "C'mon big brother, you have to try it."

Regolf felt a moment of dissonance, and he nearly went back to sleep because this was a bad dream, and the only way to wake up from bad dreams was to sleep it away until it was forgotten when you woke up.

He felt a sensation in his leg, this time it hurt a little, and he had a feeling of constriction and wetness around his legs, he wanted to look at it, but the crazy laughter from his sister drew his attention.

"Steisa what happened to your hand? Who did this? Where's Mother? Where is she? Can you call her inside the house, my legs are stiff and I cannot stand up"

Regolf's panicked voice resounded in the room, his eyes were wide and held confusion and anger.

Steisa recoiled from her screaming brother, she puckered her lips, "Big brother is a meanie, why do you want to push me away?"

As sudden as her laughter, she began to cry. Regolf panicked, consoling and shushing her, telling her everything was okay until she nodded and calmed down.

"Since Big Brother is not pursuing me away, then why did you tell me to call Mama from outside, when she is here with us."

"She is here? Why can't I see her?" Regolf looked around, but he saw no one.

"Silly brother, look at your legs, mama is doing another magic trick." and she giggled.

Regolf rolled his eyes in growing fear and exasperation, Steisa had been bleeding all this while, though very slowly, he needed to get her to the apothecary. He looked down at his legs.

Currently, whatever had been stopping him from viewing it had been shattered by his mounting fear and concern for his sisters' wellbeing. His eyes focused when he saw his legs, he began to scream.

Mother had brought a doll back from the field, the doll was of a girl, with blond hair and sky-blue eyes, Regolf had carried it once and dropped it, the doll felt like holding a person, it was heavier than it looked.

Now that doll was slowly swallowing his legs. Its mouth had stretched until its ears, and It had already worked its way to his knees, and its dead blue eyes were fastened to his face.

As he screamed, those eyes lit up in annoyance.

"Hush dear." His mother walked in holding a butcher knife and the limb of Steisa, "Your baby sister hates to be disturbed when she eats"

At that moment, something snapped inside Regolf.

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Chapter 19: Royal Guardsmen

It would take forty-five seconds to get to the Alchemical Laboratory. Maeve intended to make it in five.

She did not just run up the stairs, she leaped from railings to walls, skipping across the space like a buzzing bee. A murderous bee.

With her movements, the railings bent, thankfully they were made of metal, so they could handle the pressure exerted by her actions, but she left deep gouges in the walls as she used them to boost her speed to the next floor.

The entrance to the Alchemical Laboratory was in front of her, and she slowed, the space around her hand flickered, and she held a wicked sharp knife that was curved and serrated at the back, it could slice flesh as well as cut through bones like butter.

She pushed the heavy door open, her eyes taking the yield of every detail inside. The windows were broken, with the shards scattered around the floor, and a shape clad in dirty robes stood before the egg.

Maeve quietly walked inside, avoiding the shards of glass on the floor, she saw it was a woman with stringy brown hair tied in a knot, her head swaying side by side. She heard a wet sucking sound, and she saw the woman was running a long black tongue on the egg, sticky saliva running down the egg, her eyes closed as if in bliss.

Okay, she had seen enough. She channeled her rage into focus, knowing she would have to be quick and clean to avoid any excessive amount of disruption to Rowan's transformation.

Maeve charged, crossing the lab in a blink of an eye. The Abomination must have heard, for she turned and Maeve saw the true spectacle.

Wrapped around the chest of the woman was a baby with a wide smile. The mouth of the baby was filled with blackened teeth, and it had been gnawing at the egg. What tied the baby to the woman was her yellow intestines that still dripped with fluid.

This only made her pause for a small moment, but it was enough for the woman to charge at her. Maeve did not stop, she proceeded faster, and she drove low, tackling the female legs from under her. The Abomination fell on her face, which hit the ground with a wet sound.

Maeve stood up quickly, the knife no longer in her hand but buried under the ribs of the woman straight into her heart, the blade was slanted to the side Maeve had twisted the knife when she stabbed the Abomination, shredding the heart inside the chest.

She waved her hand and two short Axes appeared. Maeve was aware, that if this was an Abomination, a blade through the heart would not kill, only decapitation would kill these creatures.

But the series of movements had placed the egg behind her, and that was all that mattered. She stepped forward to finish the job when like a series of still pictures, the Abomination picked itself up.

Two hands jerked and pushed its torso up, its leg rotated and its feet turned backward, a low snarling sound emanated from its throat, and it stood, the joints of the Abomination making snapping sounds like rusted gear.

The Abomination turned to face Maeve, and her appearance was more ghastly, her face was split open from the fall, the tear led from her forehead to the side of her lips exposing the dull gray bones and her squirming muscles underneath, and what bled from her wound was yellow pus, and it was foul-smelling. One eye pocked out of her socket!

The baby on her chest had its eyes rolled up and was showing only the white. It made a low whining sound. The Abomination suddenly crouched like a spider and, moving with deceptive speed like a man-sized insect, attacked.

Maeve let the two Axes fall, and she materialized a Bow and multiple Arrows.

With her right hand holding the arrows, she held the bow with her left and she drew and accurately nocked an arrow using her fingers to thumb an arrow from the pile she held in her hand, she closed an eye, and let loose.

The first arrow went through the right shoulder of the crawling Abomination, the second through the bicep, and the last pinned her hand to the floor, as the Abomination opened her mouth to scream, another arrow went through her throat.

At this time, the Axes Maeve dropped were just reaching the ground, and they unexpectedly faded away and reappeared in her hands which were now visibly missing the Bow. With two quick steps she was at the Abomination, and she struck.

The first blow decapitated the head of the woman, the second sliced the baby's cranium in two from the forehead down to the chin, and the snarling sound ended. The Abomination collapsed to the floor, body twitching and yellow blood squirting all over the ground.

The head snapped its teeth as if it were biting the air, the eyeballs rolling around seemingly looking for prey, but as more blood drained from the head, its activities ceased.

Total time used in the battle from start to finish. Five seconds.

She waved her hand, and every weapon she used in the battle vanished, and a black sack with a bucket and mop appeared.

The egg behind her shivered.

"Apologies for the noise, Master. Just taking out some trash."

It took thirty-five seconds to activate the security doors and windows in the Laboratory, she should have been done by then.

But before that, she materialized a towel and disinfectant, and she began cleaning the saliva on the shell.

••••••••

The situation was getting out of control fast, and Maeve detested chaos. It was after the fight that she realized the thing she just killed was the missing cook, Katherine.

Katherine was a sweet woman, who was a mother of three, and her youngest son served as a guard in the manor. Breaking this news to her children would be hard. But this was the nascent horror of an Abomination, its ability to cause pain and strife was unequaled.

Maeve hoped they were not too late before this town tore itself apart, and most important to her was the wellbeing of her lord.

A blooming suspicion began to grow in her chest. The Third prince Damien had been insistent on Rowan returning to his land, even though it has been wiser for him to be closer to the top apothecaries in the capital. Maeve had given in, seeing the state of Rowan, but now she felt this was a mistake. She pushed that thought aside for the moment, there was still work to do.

Maeve held her remains in the black sack as she walked to the yard, summoning the Guardsmen, the flustered priest followed behind. In a short while, the elite combatants appeared before her, including their captain.

There were twelve of them, all fitted with the Royal Guardsmen Armour, it carried all the necessary characteristics of armor made by Dominators, these included, Firepower, Mobility, Flexibility, armor protection, and Shock Effect.

Three of the guardsmen appeared to be archers, a massive rapid-shooting crossbow was carried on their backs, another three were shields men, they held massive metal slabs that contained harsh lines of runes and the rest had their specialties.

The guardsmen wore plate Armour that covered every inch of skin, the Armour was dark red, and it had a metal mask in the guise of a scowling man, they each had a four-foot sword attached to their hips, and their gait shook the ground.

Each of the guardsmen was a soldier in the peak of their mortal state, each of them could wrestle a bear barehanded. Captain Titus was given a portion of the Hydra bloodline, he was a legendary state Dominator, and coupled with his armor he was a slaughter machine. His chosen weapon was the massive Warhammer.

She threw the sack on the ground in front of the Guardsmen and said, "We have a serious problem on our hands."

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Chapter 20: Those Who Returned

Maeve assessed the Royal Guardsmen, in her gaze taking note of every detail in their bearing, these men would be fighting alongside her very soon, and she needed to be certain their abilities were up to par, they were not directly under her command but were under the control of the Kuranes family, "Captain Titus, these are remains of an Abomination I just killed inside the Manor."

Except for the pale face of the priest who swallowed, the rest of the Guardsmen's eyes only went colder. Captain Titus walked to the dismembered corpse of the Abomination and crouched beside it.

He drew a short dagger, and in a while he neatly dissected the corpse into pieces, separating the torso from the limbs, during the grisly procedure, the limbs began to twitch, as the claws on the hands dragged furrows in the ground.

Captain Titus stood up, "So it's true, the only way to kill an Abomination is by beheading."

"Yes, it is." Maeve said, "But this is not the true extent of the blight these creatures are known for. What you see here, the captain is in the larvae stage of the Abomination. If it kills and consumes a set amount of prey, it would evolve into its battle form."

"That means we have a limited window of opportunity." Said the captain. "We should burn the corpse, do they not also eat the bodies of their fallen?"

"Yes, they do. That is why our chance is now, I believe most of the Abomination have begun to pair with their host and become larvae we should rid them of more host bodies." said Maeve, "Already it might be too late. If larvae of an Abomination are inside the manor of the prince, I shudder to think what would be happening in the towns, forests, and lakes around us. No, captain, this is a rescue mission. You have a limited amount of time to gather the people and organize the transportation for them."

Captain Titus frowned, "That is a monumental task that would most likely fail, Fighting Abominations in an urban location with complications arising from distraught family members is a recipe for disaster. I recommend we bring the prince and evacuate."

The priest blanched, he opened his mouth to speak, but a gesture from Maeve silenced him, "I understand your point captain, but the best fuel to evolve Abominations are humans, and although I don't know how many people have been taken, I figured it would be less than five percent. If we can deprive the Abominations of enough bodies to consume, we may be able to survive this event. Furthermore, how is lord Rowan going to keep his stance in his family and the Royal Courts if he abandons his land without fighting for it? We evacuate his people to the best of our abilities and hope there is a chance to destroy this plague."

"Hmmm…. I don't like it, nevertheless, I would follow your instructions, but if it gets too hot, I am pulling out and evacuating with the prince." The captain said in a gruff tone as he gave hand signals to his warriors, like a well-oiled machine, they drew up to their full height and readied themselves.

"Burn it," said the captain, as one of the Guardsmen set towards the corpse of the twitching Abomination. He brought out a little black bead and turned it, before dropping it in the body, in a second, it went up in flames. The body parts twist inside the flames as they slowly burn to ash and let out thick black smoke.

Maeve nodded at the sight and turned to the Dark Priest Purdue, "They would escort you to the town, spread the word, an immediate evacuation is now in effect, they are to be led here to the manor. Priest do not waste time trying to save everyone, the old, and the sick should be left behind."

The priest appeared lethargic, as he nodded his agreement and stood behind the armored men. In a short while, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and he muttered in his breath, "Save my people. I must save my people!"

Maeve waved Captain Titus closer, "I leave the small details and arrangement of your forces to your discretion. However, the lord's safety must be kept paramount. Do not go deep into the town else this fog might hinder your sight, priorities for evacuation are the children. The terms of war now apply and you are given free reins to dispense your duties as you see fit."

Captain Titus saluted her by hitting his fisted hand to his chest, the sound akin to a hammer on an anvil.

"The manor is protected by Sigils, so this is the time to evacuate as many citizens as you can into the manor. By nightfall, the gates would be permanently shut." Maeve gave Purdue a final warning before she turned back into the manor, the priest was a bleeding heart, she had warned him at least.

She called on the butler to start preparing the staff for a massive number of people that would be arriving soon, then she hurriedly went up to the laboratory.

Glenn left the bar and returned to an empty home, his brow was locked in a frown as he muttered curses under his breath.

Glenn had suffered a lot in his life, and most days when he came around, he was amazed that he was alive, that he made a family, and that he even had a son. The last precious gift, his dear wife had given him, may her beautiful soul rest in peace.

He spoiled his boy rotten, he wasn't concerned about naysayers saying it was wrong, they have not walked in his shoes, or seen the suffering he endured growing up, his boy was his world. If the Heavens were to collapse, he would be there to hold it up.

He gazes at a spot beneath the floor, his drinking had not blurred his memories it made his focus singular and reminded him of what lay beneath the ground of his house.

"Damn Nobles. They are all worse than monsters. I know they are responsible. They are the reason my boy is not here with me, will make 'em pay, even if it's the last thing I do. They will pay."

Like a man possessed, he dragged his feet to a spot near his fireplace and slowly knelt, groaning softly as if he were being forced, his hands shivered, and he nearly threw up, but he dug deep for his hatred and strength came to his limbs.

Bracing himself, he performed the next series of actions without much thought put into it.

Glenn shifted the rug beside the fireplace, underneath was a metal box, opening it by unlatching a pair of locks, he took out an axe. The axe was made of a material similar to wood. It was the last heritage of his cursed past.

He had hoped to keep it buried, placed here to never see the light. This weapon had been a bane of his family, and he had no regret in sealing it away.

Every night since his boy was taken, his dread had been growing. But today, it was different. Usually, the feeling of eerie suffocation that the night brought was dispersed by the coming daylight, but today was unlike the rest, the darkness he felt, did not go away …. It lingered.

That feeling was growing, and Glenn knew deep inside his bones that whatever evil that was growing in secret was now ready to reveal itself.

He hefted the axe. He was ready for them.

The fog came into town. And it brought his son with it. It brought back all the missing people. His boy carried a child in his arms and he was grinning.

Glenn felt his heart tear to pieces, as tears fell down his face.

"My boy…"

Chapter 21: Feeding Ouroboros

Rowan was in a dilemma, for his transformation was taking far longer than expected. He had used the transformation of Soul Seizer as a benchmark for the time needed to activate an Omnipotent Record, but he made a mistake, for Ouroboros was the direct opposite of Soul Seizer.

Soul Seizer Domain was in the Spirit and Soul, and it could be argued that the transformation of his Soul was still ongoing because Rowan was aware that his spirit was still growing.

If his spirit was still transforming, he couldn't know, for his capabilities to understand the mystical and invisible realm of the Spirit were still limited.

Soul Seizer broke his bones and mangled his flesh to craft The Jaws Of Dagon, and this was a bloodline that primarily focused on the Spirit, what more Ouroboros whose domain was the flesh.

What was happening to him was marvelous, and as his spirit followed the process of his growing body, he gained a unique appreciation for its capabilities. His understanding of his body grew, and he knew that for the Ouroboros bloodline, it would take at least a year before he could leave this shell.

He did not have that time. Disregarding the dangers he was in—he still shuddered when he remembered that creature rubbing and gnawing away at his egg, everything about it screamed wrongness, a deviant.

Rowan had never been religious, although the Orphanage he grew up in was run by a church, he had never accepted the doctrines. Humans were plenty evil themselves, there was no need to assign the folly of men to demons.

But not here. Oh no, not here. Demons here are real, and evil was not just a concept, it walked the earth, and it stays beside you and lives with you.

He could feel the revulsion in his body when the creature was beside him, it felt like cockroaches climbing across his face, yet he still felt a weird hunger inside his spirit.

Jesus. Don't tell me this body has a hidden fetish to be violated.

His trusted left hand, Maeve, appeared and Rowan knew for the moment he was secure. The clean manner Maeve had slaughtered the creature still left him in awe. Rowan had seen violence, but not like this. It was almost like art and Maeve was a skilled painter, every motion she made carried a purpose, and no single movement was wasted, how much battle would you have to fight to become someone like that?

If he remembered correctly, Maeve's favored tools of battle were Heavy Weapons. He did not know her bloodline, but she had great strength, he knew she did not give her all because her main concern was his protection.

When she killed the Abomination, he received a wisp of its soul, it was not as abundant as the Demons, but it solved one of his speculations.

He did not need to kill before he obtained the benefit of collecting souls, although he did not know how much it factors into how many soul points he received, for he only collected three soul points from the slain Abomination.

However, all his speculations would be useless if he died in the next hour. The hands of fate were manipulating his life and he did not have an easier bloodline to enhance. He called up the Primordial Record.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 1.7

Agility: 0.9

Constitution: 4.5

Spirit: 2.7

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 2)

Records:

Ouroboros – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Seizer - level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point: 28.0777

Remark: Divine Fodder

He would be amazed at the growth in his Stats, if not for the pressing concern about the measly Soul points he had and that he needed a thousand to get to the next level.

According to knowledge from the Primordial Record, a single point in any of the stat represented the average of all humans, and ten points in any stat represented Legendary.

What did it mean that he was still in the mortal state, yet his Constitution was almost halfway to legendary? He was still growing, and his bones were a little over five feet now, he was no longer a child. If he continues to develop in this egg, his stats might break through Legendary while he is still a mortal.

As much as he hated the Primordial Keepers, their bloodline was outstanding, his spirit had already grown again, and this was without him even doing anything to boost the bloodline. If only he had more time, it would be a simple thing to just live a leisurely life and his stats would continuously grow. Was this what it meant to have an omnipotent bloodline?

He ran his senses through his growing body, he was still bones and muscles with only his twin heart and brain already formed, the rest of his organs were still growing; he knew even his heart and brain were not fully developed.

He must be the most pitiful member of the Ouroboros bloodline to ever exist, for them, centuries were like seconds, and he should have had the benefit of an extended lifespan as a mortal to slowly grow, even if he were to spend decades inside his egg.

Therein lay the crux of the matter, his new body might be powerful and have a long lifespan, but his Soul was spent. Every time he died, the fuel for his resurrection was his soul, and the only way he had found out to grow his soul was to change his state.

This all leads to one thing. He must kill. He must commit endless bloodshed in a short amount of time to become a Legend.

But how was he to do that? Rowan pondered, his mind making different scenarios to beat his impending death.

First, even though he might lose the benefit of easy Stat growth inside the egg, and he was not fully formed, he must break out and start harvesting souls.

This may cause incomparable damage to him, but at least he would get to live and maybe in the future he might repair the damages, anything was possible given time—The one thing he solely lacked.

Maeve appeared before the "egg". It appeared to have shrunk a little. A golden line in the shape of a snake swallowing its tail was embossed on the gray egg like a tattoo. The golden tattoo brightened and dimmed as if it was breathing.

Unaware if Rowan was aware of his surroundings or even if he could hear her. She spoke," Master, there have been some unfavorable developments. Your land is under attack. According to the priest Purdue, he believes this is a work of an Abomination. He is correct."

Maeve paused and looked at the egg, which was now flashing with golden light, it seemed to be telling her to continue, to test that hypothesis, she said, "Master, can you hear me?" The egg flashed twice. Excited, Maeve began to narrate the rest of the priest's tales and the arrangement she had made.

" I wonder if it's to your satisfaction"

The egg was still for a while, and then she heard a gurgling sound, and a low voice, "This Abomination, I assume it is the same from the lore of the Great Massacre."

"Yes Master, it's a long shot, but certain conditions and places could trigger a similar phenomenon to occur."

"Maeve, my change... my transformation requires fuel, I need to kill. If this Abomination is similar to the myth, it would have hundreds of split bodies. Those would be essential to me. The reason I killed that Demon is related."

"Forgive my impertinence, Master. Your state is not suited for battle, I don't see how that's possible. Also, I do not doubt there would be Abominations that have evolved to their battle form, they would make terrifying foes."

"I understand Maeve, trust me. I am not so foolish to bite more than I can chew. At the least, I need to be somewhere close to the battle."

"I do not think that is a wise option, Master. If I'm to provide a suggestion, we are bringing the people to the manor, the Abominations will inevitably follow. Be that as it may, I won't be leaving your side for the foreseeable future, but first I have to secure the manor to make sure there is no hidden danger. "

"Then I would leave it to you…. Oh, and Maeve."

"Yes, Master?"

"Be careful!"

She smiled, "I will be, with your blessing."

Rowan had made his decision, but first, he should use the Soul points he had already gathered and pour them into the Ouroboros Record. He called up the Primordial Record and he started feeding the Ouroboros bloodline.

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Chapter 22: Breaking The Universal Laws

He pushed a single Soul point first into Ouroboros, that act holding great significance for him. What was that saying again, a tall tower begins with a single brick or that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, or something related to that. For him, the journey of a thousand-soul points begins with one.

See what he did there? No? Never mind then.

Well, let this first Soul Point be his foundation, and on it, he would build a tower that scrapes the sky or at least he hopes so. Too many things could go wrong, it would be easy to have the mindless optimism of youth, but he was a grown-ass man and maturity brings the knowledge of your limitations.

Maturity was the acknowledgment of that awful fact in life, that you were not invincible. You would soon reach your peak, and you would not exceed it, and slowly you would decline. Your skills had a limit, and your growth too, and as you reached the limits of your capabilities, the only thing you could do was manage your expectations.

He would argue that youth was the best moment in the lifetime of a man, where you could do anything, and touching the skies was possible only if you strived, and life seemed oh so simple.

His youth was not the best. Poverty, backbreaking work, and an awful incident that broke his body and a better part of his mind, sliced off a considerable portion of any great experience he might have had. He still kept the memory of the best times dear to his heart, but he tempered it with understanding and acceptance.

His list of glasses was never full, yet he wanted to avoid adding more.

His youth would tell him, he could fight this setback, he only needed to believe in himself, but the benefit of youth was time. Time to make mistakes. Time to be laid back and relax. Time to be foolish. Time to fail.

Maturity told him to make do with the little time he had, and so he began to build his Tower.

He felt no changes after the first point, and he kept pushing Soul points into Ouroboros, when he hit the ten-point mark, he reached a threshold and his body began to change.

At this moment, the golden liquid in the shell had reduced, but it still filled the egg, and because the egg was shrinking the liquid had always enveloped his entire body. With ten points inside Ouroboros, his body began attracting the golden liquid into itself far too quickly, and his body came to be extremely hot, almost exceeding 200 degrees Celsius.

His body drank the entire golden liquid and the Soul Point he pushed inside Ouroboros displayed its uses when out of thin air, more of the golden liquid was created and his body began a new wave of absorption.

His body vibrated as he grew another half hairsbreadth and his feet touched the bottom of the shell, as there was no more liquid to absorb. He felt his frame condensed as more muscles were added to his bones, and his ligaments and tendons became stronger.

Well, we are going for broke here. No need to hold back.

Rowan dumped the remaining eighteen points into Ouroboros and his body accepted it like a greedy desert receiving the first rainfall for decades, and more Empyrean essence materialized inside the egg.

The instinct of his bloodline was going insane. It was not supposed to be fed this amount of Empyrean essence inside the shell, and this event was unprecedented.

Rowan had unknowingly broken a balance that regulated his growth.

The material universe had a fixed amount of Empyrean it could hold, and from its birth to its demise only a limited number of Empyrean were permitted to be born.

There were reasons why there was a limit. Chief among them was that an Empyrean was too powerful, each of their movement held the might of stars, and the area which they could affect with their activities was not measured by countries or continents or planets or even solar systems but by galaxies.

An enraged Empyrean could cause the demise of an incalculable amount of life in the Universe and battles involving Empyrean were incredibly rare using the timescale of the Universe, but the possibility of terminating the material universe was an option during such conflicts. So, their numbers were kept very low. Some Universe opted for not creating Empyrean at all, but those universes no longer existed.

It was the normal state of affairs where the territory of an Empyrean was a galaxy or multiple galaxies.

The second most important reason was that on the creation of each Universe, there was a fixed amount of Empyrean essence that could be produced. A universe would keep yielding a limited amount of Empyrean essence until the final moments of its lifespan.

When an Empyrean was to be born, the universe allocates the essence that was its due, and depending on the bloodline of the Empyrean it could be in differing amounts, it could give no more or less, it was a fair amount that could not be changed.

This essence would only be given once at the birth of the Empyrean, and it represented the growth limit of that Empyrean. Although the Universe needs Empyrean for its defense, it would not make them more powerful than it could contain.

Rowan had used his Soul Point to break a balance that has existed since the birth of this Universe, he produced more essence for his growth that surpassed the limitations imposed by the Universe and his bloodline was going crazy.

A series of events had led to this moment. If Rowan had activated Ouroboros without any concern for his lifespan, then he would be in deep sleep for at least a year, slowly absorbing the Empyrean essence and growing at a fixed pace.

But his mind was unsettled and the addition of an Abomination had disturbed his slumber and he was fully awoken. His Soul Seizer bloodline allowed him to contain the Stuff of creation itself, and the Primordial Record permitted him to execute that power into a bloodline of his choosing.

Normally, he should have begun cultivating his bloodline after he had left his shell, he should be entering his growth phase and this change would not have been possible. So, even if he had used soul points for his growth, he would not have produced any Empyrean essence.

An unknown mutation therefore occurred, his shell was supposed to dissolve the moment it finished its stores of Empyrean essence and prepare the bloodline to enter the next phase of maturity but with the addition of more essence, the shell did not dissipate instead snapped, and covered his body like a skin-tight suit.

Of course, Rowan knew none of the reasons why this just happened to him, he only panicked, as he could not breathe, or see, his bloodline seemed to know it would have more essence and forcefully kept the shell, turning it into a second skin for Rowan

But the shell was not meant to be his skin, it shielded him from light and the feeling of touch, it kept him in darkness darker than the deepest night, and even though he was a Nascent Empyrean, he was still a mortal, and he could not breathe.

He did not know how long he flailed around on the ground, but he later settled when the pain from his growing lungs served as an anchor for him.

The pain was familiar, so he took it and made it his own. He had been so ingrained into his flesh that he ignored his spirit, the peculiar characteristics of his soul took over his consciousness and his perception flew out of his body and finally, he could think clearly.

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Chapter 23: The Shell

He could not breathe and he was dying, but the nature of his new body ensured that his state of perishing would extend for a long duration.

It would take hours for him to die, but at least there was a silver lining. I mean, he could now move around.

Although he could not afford to die anytime soon, he would lose a valuable lifespan, and he might have already used his final chance for resurrection.

His new state of detachment made these assumptions distant from him, and he did not panic. There was a hint here that he was not seeing, he focused his mind and he realized an important detail he missed.

He had not been breathing inside the shell before, and he was fine what was the reason for that?

It did not take long for him to come up with the cause —The golden liquid. When he pushed soul point into Ouroboros, it had created more of that golden liquid for him. Did that not mean that if he had more soul points, it would be possible for him to breathe?

Rowan called up the Primordial Record and nearly screamed in anger because of the new state of his being.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 2.7

Agility: 1.9

Constitution: 7.3

Spirit: 2.7

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 2)

Records:

?????????????????? [ATAVISM]- level 0 [28/2000]

???????? ???????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point: .9998

Remark: Divine Fodder

Rowan's annoyance broke through his calm disposition, and he nearly screamed at the sky.

Stay calm and breath …. breathe. Do not focus on the negatives. Don't look at the double amount of Soul Point required. Who cares about a journey of a thousand miles? We can walk two thousand miles... Just breath.

Lord Are's sweet tush! No problem, great idea all around, just phenomenal, but you see there is one problem with that, Em. I Can't BREATH!

Okay just, I don't know, sigh? We need to look at the positives here okay?

Positives. Positives. Yes. We can look at that. I must be going crazy, what with all this "We business" I got going over here.

Anything to keep you sane, boyo. Calm down and assess your situation.

Okay. He could do that.

The growing pains in his lungs meant he may have two hours or more before he became lethargic.

In the spirit of using time wisely, let's see what I missed in my panic. He saw the growth of his stats, and it did not take long for him to see a semblance of how it works, only further experiments would prove if his inferences were incorrect.

He pushed twenty-eight points of souls into Ouroboros and was rewarded with an exact increase of 2.8 in the Constitution, it did not require a genius to figure that out, every ten points in Ouroboros gave him a one-point increase in his Constitution. What that could mean further down the line was terrifying. His Strength and Agility grew by a single point, he guessed that they increased by every twenty points into Ouroboros.

The Bloodline had changed, with a new prefix beside it—Atavism. There was no description of its meaning, but it had extended the amount of soul points he needed to be legendary.

Finally, the last valuable hint that had been tugging at his consciousness. His soul points. He watched idly as it clicked forward to .9999 and finally turned to 1.

Soul Seizer passively collected Soul Fragments, and it appears that when he was in an area of conflict, the collection capability increased. He did not think too deeply about it but pushed the single point into Ouroboros, and waited in tense expectation. Soon, a trickle of golden liquid secreted from the skin–tight shell and was absorbed into his body.

The golden liquid brought a rush of clarity and gave his lungs a burst of sweet release that he nearly cried. The pressure began to build, but it was distant, he may have ten minutes before he began to feel the bite of suffocation once more.

Great. So that golden liquid is my amniotic fluid and without it, I am a stillborn.

"Well at least he now had mobility", he thought to himself as he picked himself from the floor, his spirit perception now serving as his eyes showed him his body.

The first thing he noticed as he saw himself from this perspective was that he had grown, he had the lanky build of a teenager, but he was now five foot two inches. His shoulders were a little broad, and he appeared quite slim and delicate.

The other was his shell, it was gray and smooth and there was a golden tattoo that resembled a snake that was swallowing its tail, that encircled his chest, now directly below it there was a second faint tattoo that was an exact duplicate of the first. He could barely see it, but it was there.

His perception snapped back into his head with a jolt, keeping him in darkness once more. It would seem this vision of his depended on his spirit, he remembered the last time he used it, and it barely lasted a few seconds. He could feel a sort of cool aura in his head that was rapidly gathering again, maybe in thirty more seconds it would be refilled, and then he would have another five minutes of vision.

So in the serene darkness, he began to plot, he stood still as a statue for the next four minutes, and he began to move.

The first place he went to was to his shelves, during his studies, he had gathered various poisons and toxic materials and the most dangerous material he gathered was in a little red box he maintained very carefully.

The box was easy enough to carry and was not bulky, finding a pair of strong silk-like ropes, he fashioned a strap for the box, so it sat beside his waist.

Then he walked to the center of the room, where the divine weapon he used to kill the Demon wolf was kept, he took it and attempted to cut through the shell with the most powerful weapon he had, but he failed. The blade of the Divine Weapon slid across, not leaving even a scratch.

Next, he had to find clothes, but he paused when he saw neatly folded clothes and shoes aside from the door, most likely kept by Maeve. She does think of everything.

It did not take long for him to wear the clothes, and he felt like a mannequin in a fashion house. The underwear must have been of excellent quality, but he could not feel it, he wore black trousers that were a little too small, but still fit perfectly enough, maybe she anticipated that he might grow, but she underestimated the amount.

The robe she gave him was black with purple linings on the edges, he had to drop the red box to wear it, and thankfully it came with a hood, he wore the shoes and walked to the door where he paused and two seconds later he fell into darkness.

In thirty seconds, his sight returned and he hurried down the stairs. Along the way, he began experimenting with what he could do with this five-minute vision he had.

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Chapter 24: Red Moon

He discovered he could push this spirit vision ahead of him for a few meters and he even saw through walls, so as he hurried down the stairs, making sure to avoid the occasional house help, he did a broad sweep of his surroundings now and then, and so he came upon a startling discovery.

There was a shaft made of unknown materials, like an elevator, in the middle of the manor. The manor was four stories tall, and his laboratory was on the topmost floor. This shaft began on the third floor and extended to the bottom floor, but it led nowhere after that.

It was smooth, and the color was yellow, and the most peculiar characteristic of it was that it was the only material he could not see through, it was as if it was actively repelling his sight.

He found a small alcove to hide for the thirty seconds of darkness that came about as his spirit sight snapped back in his head, this occurrence always bringing him pain. He suspected that he would have been an invalid if not for his regenerating factor healing the damages inside his head.

Not only that, but he was not supposed to use the spirit sight in this method, he was damaging an unknown organ inside his head, but if he could heal any damages he incurred using this technique in exchange for sight, then he would do so without any hesitation.

There was a mysterious object or a hidden passage buried inside his manor, he did not find it that surprising after all the events that led him here were very suspicious, and he knew there were many things that were being deliberately hidden from him, nevertheless, this was not his priority at the moment.

His next stop was the stables where he was going to get horses and hurry down to the town, he was not a fighter, but he could be as close to the town as possible, and therefore he could collect lingering souls.

He expected Maeve to soon find him, and he would be protected along the way, he was not too foolish to think he might survive out there without her, he was still feeble and a small complication could end him, and there was nothing small about an Abomination attack.

Then he paused, where was Maeve? Why did he not find her inside the manor? Apart from the dozen staff present in different parts of the manner he could not find Maeve. Perhaps she was checking the grounds of the manor, but he doubted it, Maeve would never leave far from his side. Something was wrong.

As his vision returned, he turned back to the shaft he could see inside the manor, hidden by clever design that made it almost unnoticeable. Rowan had seen the designs of the manor and everywhere the shaft passed through was not supposed to even exist.

Opening the door to a guest room, he walked inside and shut the door behind him, going to the closet, he pushed the clothes away and tapped the back of the closet.

He pulled out the shears and began to cut his way through. It was not difficult, and he sliced through the walls with little effort, directly behind was a faint glow from the shaft.

It seemed to be built with a sort of gem, he ran his hand over it and discovered that it was shockingly cold. He tried to recall if he knew any mineral like this, but he could not recollect anything similar to it.

His hand was still on it when the temperature of the yellow rock began to rise, and it rippled like it was made of water, and before he could draw his hand back, another hand seized his own and dragged him into the wall.

He did not use his eyes to see but his spirit, and so he was able to witness everything.

The hand that grabbed him was made of the same material as the yellow rock and when he was dragged inside it felt more like he was passing through thick mud and not a solid wall, and then his mind was overloaded by a flood of sensations that it broke to pieces.

He saw a bright white light that was shattered into pieces by a clawed hand, the pieces of the broken light became many colors that became solid blocks.

Those blocks were covered by a wave of darkness; the darkness was split apart by a terrible roar, and with that sound chaos erupted.

Rowan felt his mind reassembled, only to break again when new scenes entered his mind. A rain of blood that erupted from an ocean's worth of bodies.

Stars fell from the skies only to be eaten by massive mouths, a mountain with spider legs dancing, and a smiling cup of tea that was devouring other cups.

This reality that he could hardly comprehend seemed to be forced into his mind and when he felt he could no longer hold on, he was blessed with the silence of darkness.

He was in shock for a while, before he realized that his spirit vision had ended, and so he could no longer ??????.

He should be holding himself and crying for the chaos that he had witnessed, he should be catatonic and listless, he should have run mad with despair, but the only thing he could feel was apathy.

You see, he had no time. His lungs were beginning to burn, and the hidden blade of his incoming death due to his limited lifespan hung on his neck, he had no time to mourn, he had no time to reflect, as far as he was concerned if what he was experiencing was not enough to kill him, then he would get through it.

Not because he was mindlessly optimistic, but because he had no time to waste. Death was whispering in his ears and he had no time to listen.

He braced himself for the frenzy and opened his spirit vision once more.

If he could touch his eyes he would rip them from his head, it seems his Icy soul made it impossible for him to go mad, or maybe he was already mad, how could he tell? But no matter the scene he saw, he had only thirty seconds of normalcy before he plunged back inside.

He witnessed countless mindless scenes, like a feverish dream that would not end, he repeatedly entered the chaos.

He began to feel despair when something bonded inside him, and he found himself in a passage.

It was a short path, and he stood in the middle, behind him was a green door, and ahead of him was a red door.

His mind locked on what changed his situation, and he called up the Primordial Record and saw a new entry.

Aspect Gained: Spatial Sight.

An Aspect? He would check the meaning later, but he already knew what Spatial Sight was capable of. It was his spirit vision on steroids. There were several new entries in the Primordial Record, but for now, he was only focused on this new Aspect he just received.

His new awareness was vast and did not seem to have any cooldown, he moved that awareness to the red door ahead of him, and he saw a scene of mayhem. He saw a devastated world and his awareness was covered by darkness.

When he became cognizant, he noticed he lay on the ground, all around him was a field of ruin and overhead was a Red moon.

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Chapter 25: Rift State Rats

At first, Rowan thought he had been transported to that space of madness, and he braced himself for a new round of chaos, but he settled when he saw how stable his environment was.

His sight focused on the moon again, it was larger than the ones he had seen on the two worlds he had the privilege to live in, almost taking a third of the sky. Deep pits and craters adorned its surface, and they resembled oceans filled with blood.

The sight was enigmatic, and he lost himself in a few seconds, bathing in the glow of the moon. He pulled himself away from the wondrous sight with an intense force of will.

His sight swept across his body and he noticed he was on a circular formation, made from the yellow rocks he touched at his manor; he could dimly see that passage with the green door and red doors when he focused his sight on the formation.

From inside that passage, he knew that this world he found himself in was devastated, and he was in a small corner of it, he wondered where he found himself.

His new sight was special, as he could track the trajectories of sounds and motion, it encompassed more than sight, as he could see heat and odor even pressure, and a myriad of other forces he was not even aware of or even begin to comprehend, it was a brand-new world and if he survived his first year, he would make sure he understood and enjoy the beauty that his new sight was capable of showing him.

It may seem that his suffering and near madness had granted him a powerful ability, and he no longer needed his eyes for the moment.

There was something about this world that felt ancient, around him was a scene of desolation, crumbled towers and bridges, a Castle that had been torn in two, broken spires shooting in the cloudless sky like the broken teeth of a giant. And massive mountains that were covered in scales.

One of the mountains moved and opened a jaw filled with teeth the size of trees.

Oh. Hell no. Is this the classic case of jumping from a frying pan into the fire?

He pushed his spatial sight back to the formation and saw it was beginning to build a certain energy. The energy felt familiar, it was what drew him to this world, and he hoped it would also take him back, he estimated it would be completed in a minute or two.

He did not see any present danger to himself presently, so he finally decided to check his Primordial Record, he was certain many things had changed inside.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 2.7

Agility: 1.9

Constitution: 7.3

Spirit: 47.9

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 4)

Records:

?????????????????? [ATAVISM]- level 0 [29/2000]

???????? ???????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

Aspect Gained: Spatial Sight (Spirit 30)

Passive Skill Upgraded: Icy Soul [Spirit 5{level 3}. Spirit 10{level 4}]

Soul Point:75 .5678

Remark: Divine Fodder

At first, he had missed it, his eyes popping out when he saw the growth in his Spirit. Then he saw his rapidly increasing soul points and would have wept in happiness, but he had forgotten how to cry.

In the madness of this past few days, something inside him had been broken, maybe never to be fixed again. Everything he once knew was the basis of his entire belief, his character had been shattered, and he was numb.

What was a man, but his beliefs and ideals? My understanding of the world, of life and death had collapsed, and my new reality was hostile, and I understood none of it, but a memory of a doomed prince who died in pain and regret.

To tell the truth, deep down, he did not think he was going to survive. There seemed to be no hope for him, any breakthrough he got led to another new problem to fix, and now…

His soul point broke the hundred mark and continued to increase.

He found the break he so desperately needed.

His Spirit had broken past the ten-point threshold that only a Legendary being had and had grown far higher than his other stats.

Rowan now realized how profound the effect of such a high Spirit was on him, his Spatial sight he once thought had no cooldown was wrong, it has one, but his Spirit could comfortably support the expenditure.

The reason he could pull through the space of madness was not only because of his tenacity but also his Spirit which had grown to accommodate many of these supernatural forces.

Spirit was one of the most important stats. It encompasses, reasoning ability, comprehension capacity, force control, and so many other things. It was one of the most difficult stats to raise.

If any stat reached or surpassed the legendary state, it usually came with benefits and an additional quirk. For spirit, it was parallel processing.

Most legendary could generally divide their minds into two, of course, some outliers are particularly gifted in their Spirit ability that they could separate their thought processes into three or more, but it was Rift state Dominators that were often capable of that feat.

In simpler terms, it was multitasking, you could be reciting a thousand-page poem, while fantasying about your neighbors… Cough… Car, and still be replying to a query from your wife about why you did not do the dishes. So many fun things to do within a single moment.

The wind brought a new sound to him… A rustle and his Spatial sight zoomed across the debris for hundreds of meters, phasing through rocks and rusted metals, and he saw a pair of rats the size of horses. Their furs were like steel needles and their eyes glowed blue, the moment his sight touched them, the rats flinched and began looking around and sniffing, each of their movement crushed rocks and their speed was terrifying.

Rowan knew Legendary Dominators and had seen powerful creatures during his lifetime, this pair of rats could be rift-state creatures or even higher.

Rowan went very still and shifted his sight, so he was not focused on them any longer, but it seemed one of them had sensed his position, for it gave a shrill scream and charged, its speed was so fast, it appeared as though it was teleporting.

Ares goddamn balls. I knew it was too good to be true. I can't catch a single break!

Nevertheless, Rowan knew he had to stay here for as long as possible, his very existence depended on it. Every single second he spent here meant more soul points in the coffer.

The speed of the Rats was terrifying, but with his Spatial sight, he could analyze their movement paths, and even though he could not react to them, he could put a barrier to slow them down. How was he to do that, exactly?

He had an idea, he was not sure that it would work, but he would make do with the tools available to him for a single one of these rats, he was sure, could kill everyone in his town and beyond. Rift-state creatures were powerful because they had access to Aether.

He divided his mind into two parts, as he tracked the incoming rats while ascertaining the best place to lay a trap, their movement was not linear, so the calculations were difficult.

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Chapter 26: Killing The Rats

His hands fiddled with the straps around his waist as he drew the box forward, he had to input a series of codes to prime the various poisons inside. He was going to release all of them at once, but he had to keep his mind focused on the incoming threat, or he would lose the initiative.

The benefit of an enhanced Spirit was more apparent here, for he used the movement of the rats he had observed over this short period and created a model that could act as a predictive mechanism. But this action while remarkable took all of his two mind processes, and he could do nothing else. Not seeing any drawback, he attempted to split his mind again.

His mind parted easily once more, and now he had three running thought processes, his amazement could be put on hold as he rapidly inputted the code, it was a series of circular moments on a rotary dial set in the middle of the box. They spelled Baenor. The name of his father.

He did not want to think about the thought processes behind naming the lock used to contain poisons after his father.

The motion primed all the thirty select poisons he had gathered over time, and the poison included one particular sinister variant, it was called a Blood Mort.

It was a sentient cluster of death that resembled tiny, microscopic flies. They could enter the bloodstream of their victims through any orifice, and they secrete a hallucinogenic toxin inside their blood that confuses the victim as well as shut off their organs before they feed on the blood and multiply.

A thoroughly nasty cookie.

It was a present given to him by his mother for his 18th birthday, the details of that day were blurry in his mind, but Rowan had an intuition that with his enhanced spirit he would be able to dig into the blurry memories he had.

But to be fair, this was the most badass present he had ever received. Maeve always gave him gigantic weapons he could not even lift, talkless of wielding them, but Rowan guessed it was her way of showing her care.

He remembered he blood bound these poisonous clouds of death, but had to keep them away in the red box because they were too dangerous. When he began collecting weapons, his first instinct was the red box, it was the most dangerous thing he owned.

The rest of the poisons had their special effects and these would be the barrier he used against the charging rats, his expectations were not high, but if they could delay for a minute, it would be a steal for him.

As he watched his soul point exceed 130 points, his heart began to hammer in nervousness.

The rats were now a few hundred feet from him, he ran the simulation multiple times, and he threw the box, as he did, he shifted one of his thought processes to the formation beneath him, there were twenty-three seconds left before it was ready.

That was not a long time, the box began to fall fifteen feet from him, and as though they teleported, the rats appeared at the very moment. There was no indication of their movement, they were just there. Two balls of muscles and dread, with blue eyes that burned like acetylene flames.

One of them snapped at the descending box, and it exploded in a wave of red fog, covering the rats, Rowan watched in tense expectation, as the one that bit the box sneezed and looked around in visible confusion and simply inhaled the poison fog, shook its head and disappeared, only to reappear with its mouth clamping around Rowan's leg.

The other rat seized his hands, and they began to chew as they dragged him in opposite directions. His limbs did not survive a single bite, they simply vaporized under the unearthly force, but his shell was intact.

Rowan did not mind the pain, for his worries were not that he should not be moved from the formation and that his shell would hold, his sight could see a couple of microtears appearing on the shell, but thankfully, the shell could repair itself and the microscopic tears healed fast, but it was only a matter of time before the rats would chew through them.

He was not drawn away from the formation because the rats dragged his body in opposite directions, each of them wanting the prey only for itself.

Rowan checked the formation, ten more seconds. The rat chewing on his hand got tired of gnawing at his tough shell and with his spatial sight, Rowan, could almost anticipate where it was going next—his neck. He pushed his hand to shield his neck, and that instant the jaws of the rat clamped on it. If he had waited a single moment, he would have been beheaded.

The other rat went for his waist and he was cut in two, but his shell did not give. The pain was beginning to build, but it was still within Rowan's threshold, as long as his head was not crushed, he would not die.

One second. Done.

Rowan poured his spatial sight furiously into that dim passage and existence winked out, and he reappeared inside the passage.

He was ecstatic and began to laugh, his body was mending faster than he could even catalog the damages done to him, he heard a couple of long shrieks and his awareness burst out of his body and he saw two giant rats twitching beside him, they were frothing at the mouth and their tails were slapping the ground, the sound was like gunshots.

Well. What do we have here?

He rapidly pushed himself back, any motion from them could disintegrate his body or his head.

When he was as far away from them as he was comfortable with, he stopped and looked at the agitated rodents, by now they had begun to bleed from their eyes and ears. If they were going through the same experience as he did before he gained Spatial Sight, then he pitied them.

The rats screamed, and they began to thrash madly, perhaps they sensed the presence of death for in the next moment, they exploded into pieces, Spatial sight showed Rowan a particular sharp piece of bone zooming towards his head and he barely moved out of the way, but it still impaled him through his neck and out the back.

He choked in his blood for a short while before he got back to his feet.

He had begun to feel a strain on his senses, and he pushed his sight to the green door behind him and found himself on the floor of the guest room.

Rowan lay on the floor for a while, his burning lungs a soothing pain from the chaos.

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Chapter 27: Massive Gains

Rowan could not tell how long he spent in that world or if the time duration was the same as this one, this could be an essential concern, but his burning lungs served as a reminder that he should check his Record, nonetheless, with hope in his heart and a glow in his eyes he called up the Primordial Record.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 2.7

Agility: 1.9

Constitution: 7.3

Spirit: 47.9

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Aspect: Spatial Sight (Tier 1)

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 4)

Records:

?????????????????? [ATAVISM]- level 0 [29/2000]

???????? ???????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point:465 .4379

Remark: Divine Fodder

His jaw dropped at the massive amount of Soul points he had accumulated, he did not expect this amount of Soul points, by his estimation, he should have maybe 150 Soul points judging by the time he spent in that world.

His mind touched on the reason for his massive soul point gain: The rats. He shuddered a little, those rats were Rift state beasts. What sort of world was that?

Generally, for weak species like rodents or insects that had massive populations, their bloodline restricted them to legendary, and they could only survive in large numbers.

He remembered those mountains that were moving far on the horizon. If the vermin were Rift state beasts, what state of change would those monsters on the horizon be?

That world could be his salvation, but it could easily become his ruin. His shell was tough, but he doubted it could withstand a sneeze from any of those monsters, and a more chilling fact was that there were multiple of those colossi.

Did that mean there were more dangerous creatures in that world? He kept those speculations for later, as far as he was concerned, if he did not die soon, he may get to reach those heights one day.

He recalled the vision of the Ouroboros Record when he first activated the bloodline. Furthermore, he saw an Empyrean tearing a planet apart as he woke up, and he carried an entire continent in his palm. That was his bloodline pathway!

Unknown to Rowan, however, his bloodline had already begun to shift from that vision. That may have been his previous ultimate form, but now he had surpassed that vision.

Rowan frowned as he assessed his bloodline. If it were not for the change in the Ouroboros bloodline he would be halfway to the legendary state by now, but he would not focus on the drawbacks, as far as he could tell, being more powerful was not a bad thing.

But he did not forget the reason he stumbled on this yellow space rock, he was looking for Maeve.

With Spatial sight, he could easily peruse the entire manor, and she was still missing. If she somehow found this rock, she would not survive the experience. He had not seen her or any of her remnants on the passage, and neither in that other world.

Not giving in to despair, he extended his range to the fields outside his house, he could not find her, and then he had an idea he was sure could work. But first, he needed to upgrade Ouroboros to the limit, his powerlessness was a bitter pill to swallow, and sincerely he was tired of his frailness.

Giving thanks in his heart for this new opportunity, he stood up and began walking to his lab. It was still the safest place to upgrade his bloodline, the doors, and windows were shielded with an armored barrier, and most importantly, the methods he was going to use to search for Maeve would begin from the lab.

His spatial sight brought him waves of blood-chilling screams coming from the town, whatever was happening, there was hell on earth. He was incapable of intervening currently, and he would be a better help when he was stronger.

It was not difficult to reach his laboratory, he tore away the battered clothing from his body and walked to the center of the lab where he sat cross-legged. He called up the Primordial Record once more, and he began upgrading the Ouroboros bloodline.

It occurred to him that perhaps he should focus on Soul Seizer, but Rowan had no experience with Omnipotent bloodlines and their effects at the legendary state, and besides, Ouroboros would give him what he desperately needed, which was survivability.

He had no doubt that Soul Seizer would give him a powerful ability, but he may end up being a glass cannon, at least Ouroboros was concerned about the material Universe, and with his sheer hatred for the Soul Keepers, he felt an intense distaste for upgrading this bloodline, at least for the moment.

All these were cognizant of one fact, he had somewhere to easily farm for Soul points and that place was very dangerous if his physique was fragile.

Ouroboros gave him an insane regenerative factor and also focused on his Constitution, two things that would enable his survivability and allow him to stay in that world for long enough to become a Legend.

He had already made his decision and would accept all responsibilities if the outcome was fatal.

As the soul points began pouring into Ouroboros, his shell began producing Empyrean essence, and that wonderful feeling of warmth erupted all over his body, which began making intense cracking sounds, and he fell on his knees. The moment he reached a hundred point in Ouroboros, the absorption of soul point paused and the activity on his body went into overdrive.

His body grew another foot, and now he was six foot and two inches tall, his shoulders broadened, and a more amazing transformation happened inside his body, as he began to grow a third heart. He felt his body vibrate down to his cells and he felt strength flowing in his veins, he wanted to scream to the heavens.

What is this feeling?

His new heart created more pathways through his body, and it began to link with his other two hearts. Its heartbeat was at first feeble and erratic, but as the connection with the other two hearts solidified, a sound like thunder burst from his body and the ground cracked.

It took a while to come down from the high of advancement, his massive spirit giving him much-needed clarity, or else he suspected he would be a drooling mess on the floor.

This was better than anything he had ever felt in his life, and he was sure this feeling was addicting, he was already craving it once more.

He opened his Primordial Record, and he was struck dumb by what he saw.

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 6.7

Agility: 5.9

Constitution: 14.4

Spirit: 47.9

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Aspect: Spatial Sight (Tier 1)

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 4)

Records:

?????? ???????????? ?????????????????? [ATAVISM]- level 0 [100/3000]

???????? ???????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point:394 .4382

Remark: Divine Fodder

He expected it, somehow his bloodline was evolving as he was upgrading it. He did not know if this was a feature of the Ouroboros bloodline, but he knew he could not withstand this sort of expenditure for long,

He did not care anymore, he wanted to unleash his frustration on something, and did he not have a convenient outlet for his frustration?

Furthermore, he could still hear at the edge of his perception what sounded like waves of people screaming at a concert, but this was nothing of joy. For out there, evil walked the earth, and they had begun harming the innocents, he saw no reason why he should not return the favor.

He wasn't concerned with morality presently, he just wanted to hurt something, maybe in a few moments from now, he would feel shame about what he was thinking, but not now, he mindlessly dumped another hundred points into the Record and immediately noticed a difference.

There had to be a benefit behind the extended growth of his bloodline. If his Omnipotent Record got more complex, then there should be visible effects.

Oh boy was he right.

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Chapter 28: Hunting Trails

The growth of his stats had doubled! The first hundred points he placed into Ouroboros netted him ten points in Constitution, pushing that stat into legendary, and giving him five points in both Strength and Agility.

Now for every hundred points he used, he got twenty points in constitution, and ten in both agility and strength pushing his overall stats into legendary.

By all manner of speaking, he would be judged a legendary being, but he alone knew he was still in the Mortal State, he was still in the first state of change and his bloodline had not traversed to the next state, but his stats growth was unreasonable.

Leaving only four points of soul remaining he poured the remaining 290 points into Ouroboros and endured his body breaking and rearranging itself, his muscles grew and compacted and his weight increased but not as much as he thought.

He chalked the reason to his growing Agility, for as this stat grew he felt a cool wind blowing through his veins, that seemed to be aiding every movement of his body.

His growing strength felt like he had ice moving through his muscles, ligaments, and tendons while his Constitution felt like lava flowing through his bones.

he looked at his current stats and basked in their growth, he had made progress.

Yeah, I am no longer a fodder.

The Primordial Record must have agreed with him for it upgraded his overall remark

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 45.7

Agility: 44.9

Constitution: 92.4

Spirit: 47.9

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Aspect: Spatial Sight ( Tier 1)

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 4)

Records:

?????? ???????????? ?????????????????? [ATAVISM]- level 0 [490/3000]

???????? ???????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point:4 .4382

Remark: Divine Runt

Rowan had no benchmark to test how powerful he was now. According to what he knew from the Primordial Record, the Mortal state stat fell between 1–10. Above that was Legendary, which fell between 10–100, and above that was the Rift State which was between 100–1000.

His constitution was nearly at the peak of legendary and his Strength, Spirit and Agility were nothing to scoff at. For the first time since he arrived at this world he no longer felt helpless.

He squeezed his hands into a fist, his spatial sight tearing across the laboratory as the very air around him was seething. His bloodline growth produced great heat and he just noticed a glowing circle on the floor that was now cooling.

Alongside it were cracks on the floor when his hearts synced, he was beginning to unknowingly affect the world around him.

On his shell there were now two golden tattoos of a snake swallowing its tail, they encircled his body from his chest to his back as if he had two golden rings around his body, the tattoo felt more lifelike as the scales on the snake had impressive definition. Beneath the two tattoos was a faint third one, and he had an awful premonition about it's meaning.

His shell had become slightly darker and he was sure it's defensive properties had thickened. He had not grown taller, but he was far more muscular, not as much as he expected, but now he looked like a healthy young man of twenty, who had a fetish for wearing skin-tight cover-all, that showed every line of muscles on his body with impeccable detail.

Rowan did not know if it was an effect of his Constitution but his head felt clearer than ever and his Spatial sight had a more richer depth to it, which was a good thing for it would surely help him to find his maid.

With his Spatial sight and increased Spirit he noticed many new things about the world, one of them was Aura. Everyone he had come across had a distinct aura that his spatial sight interpreted as colors as well as smell.

For a particular house, help had an aura of yellow sunshine and smelled like roses, and another had an aura of dark purple and smelled of rot. Rowan could not interpret what he saw, but he felt that the individual must be unhealthy.

Auras usually lingered long after their owner had gone by, so they left a trail, also he did not know how long they lasted but the manor had many trails of Aura leading to different locations, and he was going to take advantage of this trait to locate Maeve.

Of course, he could ask around for the location of Maeve from the house helpers but her disappearance was suspicious, he would rather use this circumspect method to find her.

Rowan went deeper into the laboratory, as only he and Maeve were supposed to be the ones that should have access to this place, his suspicions paid off as he immediately noticed three sets of Aura.

One was dirty yellow and smelled of rot and dampness, which should be the Abomination, the other was greenish gold and smelled like green fields that were Maeve, and the third was intensely foul.

Rowan could not accurately describe the color but it was like a cluster of rotten maggots, and the Aura sickened him, but he found the Aura familiar, and with his massive Spirit that intuition was not to be taken likely, he probably knew who had this Aura.

More troubling was the fact that this Aura was fresh, the person most likely came into his lab when he went out looking for Maeve.

He could not detect his own Aura, but he suspected that his shell blocked his Aura from manifesting.

Keeping the foul Aura in mind, he began to trace Maeve's own, while hurriedly donning an expansive black robe, he followed the trail around his manor.

He began seeing the application of his new stats. If he was a snail before, now he was a gazelle, Agility did not only improve his speed and coordination, but it almost seemed to slow down time around him.

It was a weird sensation, but it should be related to the Legendary quirk that Agility brought when it surpassed ten points which was Quicksilver.

Rowan became a wraith inside his mansion, his strength, Agility, and Spirit creating a profound synergy in his overall ability and he followed Maeve's trail all over the manor.

The trail led him to the guest library, and he felt a frown begin to grow on his face when he noticed that foul Aura near Maeve's own. This Aura was very strange it seemed to appear at different locations with no visible trails.

The Aura enclosed maeves and then both of the Auras vanished. Was she kidnapped?

Rowan knew his instincts were not wrong. She had been taken. He gave a huff and pushed his spatial sight around him, sweeping the entire manor and he began scouring the grounds, his sight detected the foul Aura in the stables and he took off after it.

He appeared on the roof of the stables and swept his sight inside, and he saw a grim sight, all the horses were dead, something or someone had gnawed away at their necks and bellies leaving long trails of intestines and heads attached to the body by thin strands of flesh.

Rowan was not yet desensitized to gore, and he found this sight appalling, especially when it seemed like the horses were grinning.

Coated on the body of the horses were the foul Aura, and Rowan knew he just missed whomever committed this act because his soul point increased to ten when he entered the stables meaning he had just collected the fragments of the horse's soul.

He had never stopped scanning the surrounding area and was rewarded when he caught a smear of the foul Aura in the direction of Calcutta—His town.

His sight turned to it, knowing this was going to be his next destination, he hoped that Maeve would be alright, as he did not see her body among the dead, and before he did, he was not writing her off. He could not afford to.

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Chapter 29: Abomination Thrall

Holding tight to the shears, he began running to the town, wishing to free his hands, he tucked the Divine weapon into a sheath sewn into the side of the robe, and he focused on his movement.

Every foot he placed forward was measured by his spirit, his Agility gave him grace in his movement and his strength pushed him forward as if he had springs beneath his feet.

If he was not running towards a horrible encounter ahead, he would have enjoyed the sensation of running. Moving that fast was intensely delightful, and for every second that passed he became faster, as his body became used to such intense movements.

He ?????????????? his Spatial Sight to the ground, and he could read the terrain like a book, avoiding every pit and muddy ground and selecting firm footings. His Constitution kept him from feeling any strain, he felt he could run forever.

What were Abominations in the first place, there were many explanations about their origin, but it was primarily centered around a hellish event that took place in history called the Great Massacre. Great was not a word used lightly in any context in this world.

His thought was interrupted when his sight picked up a flying object a few meters above him, and he willed his sight to shoot towards it. It was an arm from a male that had been roughly torn from the shoulders, sensing the Aura around the arm, his eyes widened in surprise.

He heard a deep thump ahead of him as if a small mountain fell on its side, and he saw a surprising sight ahead and he hurried over. His breath settled when he saw who was ahead.

It was Maeve.

She held a man by the neck, his feet were dangling in the air, and he was pouring blood from his empty shoulders. Rowan could see another hand on the floor. Judging by the wound, she did not use a blade, she just tore the arms off.

Jesus H. Christ

'Tell me everyone you know that is responsible for this?" Rowan had never heard her voice like this. It was cold. The Aura of the man she held was that foul Aura he detected inside the manor.

The man began to chant, "Mother. Guide and protect my heart. My heart beat for your glory, my pain your dues. My suffering, your..."

Maeve interrupted him by taking his ankles with her hand and crushing them, all whilst holding him by the neck. Rowan saw she gave enough space for the man to breathe… And scream.

"If you think your suffering would save you, then I promise you are very wrong. It does not matter when but know that I would break your mind as I destroy your body, and every moment you hold back is enjoyable for me."

The man began to laugh, in a weird manner that seemed like crying. Snots poured down his nose as he yelled, "Infidel, you shall see the glory of her gaze. Like a storm that shakes the earth beneath your filthy feet. Lay your lost souls in her care, usurper!"

"I have not even begun breaking your spirit, and you are already looking for the solace of madness." Maeve whispered in his ears, "I can promise you. That it won't save you."

Rowan saw a stream of yellow liquid dribble down the legs of the man.

Maeve cocked her head to the side, and she suddenly stamped her feet, the ground cracked beneath her, and her feet penetrated the ground until past her ankles, she dragged her leg up to bring with it a massive chunk of rock, and fired it at Rowan's direction.

Rowan was appalled at her coldness and the sheer brutality she was inflicting on the mind and body of that man when it clicked. The rock was heading his way. Maeve just attacked him!

He swayed to the left, letting the rock whistle past his face, he was astonished by her actions before he realized she had not seen his appearance for a while.

The last time they spoke, he was a child inside an egg, and now he stood at an equal height with her and his appearance must be otherworldly.

His robes might cover his body, but it was still possible to see a slight golden glow on his chest, his feet were bare for he did not have any shoes that fit, yet they were covered by the dark gray material that also covered his face. Rowan in his past life would think he was a walking mannequin.

"Hey, it's me." A blade stopped an inch from his throat. Rowan swallowed, somehow not trusting his shell to hold.

His eyes swept down the breadth of the blade to her face, and he saw Maeve critically assessing him, from the shears at his waist to the robe that he wore.

"Master?" Maeve said, "You're a bit different."

"Well, that's an understatement if I've ever heard one. Yes, I am different. I am a fast grower, it would seem."

Maeve looked at him with wonders in her eyes, "Your presence is different." She bent closer and sniffed delicately. "You are like a piece of living metal. There is no sign of life from you, yet you ?????????? with life. I can't explain what I'm sensing"

"Don't try. Even I do not understand everything with this new body of mine."Rowan tried to piece together the image of this Maeve, with her eyes filled with wonder at his new body to the person who was tearing a man apart.

Even presently she had her hand around the throat of the broken man, whom she had dragged to his side, a trail of blood and flesh littered the ground behind her, she had moved so quickly to attack Rowan that the legs beneath the man were nothing but stumps with few meat gristles hanging from them.

"Is that…" Rowan gestured at the quivering mass of meat that was the man, his eyes twitching at the sheer suffering the man must be going through."

"He's a saboteur." Her expression became downcast, "Master I think I might have made a terrible oversight. Even though the appearance of the Abominations was suspicious, I chalked it up to bad luck and the whims of fate. Disasters happen daily, and it might just be our turn to bear the brunt of the chaos."

"My suspicion began when the Abomination entered your lab. I began taking notes of what had changed since we left. It would be impossible to protect you if there was a knife hidden in the dark to take your life. That's when I discovered our food stores had been poisoned. Except for your hidden stocks, the rest are useless. Now I know that we had been breached by a malicious enemy and not just a mindless Abomination."

She dragged the man, so Rowan could properly see his face. He recognized him, he was the groom for the mansion—Olaf, someone Rowan barely took notice of. He was a widower who had been under the Kuranes family's employ since the days of his youth.

"This filth." Maeve said, "Is a Thrall for an Abomination. He must have done many unknown deeds to further the spread of the Abomination, among which is the slaughter of the horses and cattle, our means of transportation and food cut in half."

Rowan felt a headache, "How much will that affect our survivability?"

Maeve paused and thought about Rowan's question for a while. He liked that, she was not excessively rash. "Going by your movements, I would guess you are already at the legendary state, and far along this State of Change, for that matter. I don't even want to consider how you did that in less than two days, that is the only good news we have. For at least I know you would be able to survive weeks without sustenance outside of battle. That has to drastically improve your odds of surviving"

Rowan did not correct her that he was still in the Mortal State and that he got so powerful in a matter of minutes, not days like she thought.

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Chapter 30 With Power, You Conquer

Maeve turned around to the town, which was a few miles away, and even from here, the screams could be heard. She gestured towards the town where smoke and flames had begun to grow and spread.

The smoke mixed with the fog, placing the town in a weird state of night, with the glow from the flames turning a shade of red. From afar, it resembles pairs of red eyes staring through the darkness.

From this distance, it was possible to see massive shapes lumbering through the fog, her pupil shrank in shock. She hoped she was mistaken, but she doubted it. The only way to create a Giant battle form for an Abomination was for hundreds of battle form Abomination to fuse.

The entire population of their small town was not enough to create one such Giant, but she detected multiple Giants inside the fog. What was going on? What could be happening down there?

If there was to ever be a hell on earth, it would be here.

" I sent our Guardsmen to that...hell ahead of us, hoping we would be able to fight against it. Which should have been possible with our combined abilities."

She brought the destroyed body of the man to her face, he was beginning to grin as the shock had worn off from his torment."

Maeve saw that and frowned, and she began to rain punches on his face, they were measured and methodical, and interspersed with her blows she began to talk as if she was lecturing Rowan "The presence of a thrall..."

??????????ˉ???????

"... makes everything far more complicated..."

??????????ˉ???????. ??????????ˉ???????.

"There must be an Abomination core here, only those can create Thralls. I don't know what it promised this one, most likely more of the same--Power, wealth... Immortality. They never learn. This development nevertheless has shifted the dangers from manageable to impossible."

Rowan winced as the face of the man was torn to pieces, at his face which at first held a grin, but Maeve's first blow flattened his nose, the second caved in his cheekbones, the third exploded his right eyeballs from the socket, by the seconds he was becoming less than human before the might of her blows.

She looked at her handiwork and saw that it was good, and she nodded, she turned to Rowan, who, even through his shell, was unmistakably shocked by the carnage. "His smile is an assault on the senses. There is no time, he is lucky for I would have broken his mind. Thrall or not."

Maeve paused and looked at Rowan, "Master you are a Dominator now and although being one brings numerous benefits in all aspects of life, it also presents its sets of challenges. Most especially when it comes to violence. The world of Dominators respects the laws of power and dominance. When you have the power to move mountains, you do not take the easy paths. You conquer, and violence is your tool"

"You don't have to say that again." Rowan said as he looked at the chunk of battered flesh, Man or Thrall, he did not think anyone deserves such torture."

He was not a bleeding heart, however.

Rowan threw a punch and his fist went through the chest of the Thrall, and he held his heart. "This is my mercy." He said as he pulled out the beating organ. The body shuddered and finally went still.

"He deserves none. I can assure you, he has done worse to others who do not deserve such fate. You don't become a Thrall by not committing acts of atrocities." Maeve huffed.

The soul that Rowan collected from it felt cold.

Rowan shrugged," But we are not them, they are monsters." He began walking towards the town, "We would give them the treatment they deserve."

"Mummy... It hurts, stop... Please stop!"

"They are breaking through the gates, fall back..."

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Chapter 31 Stepping Into Hell

Three Abominations larvae were shambling towards them, and Maeve deliberately slowed down and allowed Rowan to take the lead, he knew this was her way of teaching him.

Learn by doing. Rowan would have it no other way.

Seeing these monsters ahead, he leaned towards them. They were all women in the loosest sense of the word—Nothing about them was human anymore. They were the favored gender for the larvae of Abominations.

He would have felt hesitation to kill these women warped by the touch of the Abominations. But it had been studied and there was proof that the mind was the first to die when you were infected by an Abomination. You simply become a conduit to the will of the Core.

The monstrous babies tied to the women's chests made low crooning sounds like birds, yet their eyes were filled with darkness and bloodlust.

His Spatial Sight made it possible to keep perfect track of everything around him, and he let his intuition take over.

The first Abomination larvae was a few feet from him when she swiped with black-tipped claws, Rowan did not dodge because he was faster. He simply stabbed with the short sword at the Abomination's chest, his target the head of the child.

The blade was sharp, and his strength was tremendous, the sword penetrated through the head of the baby into the chest of the Abomination, who shrieked at him, yellow saliva spraying all over his face.

With a low grunt, Rowan applied pressure upward and his blade sliced the Abomination larvae in two, erupting from the top of her head in a flood of yellow blood and brain matter, the body fell on its knees and parted into two like an open book.

Rowan lifted his legs and stepped across the twitching Abomination. The second one was too close for Rowan to make any effective movement, but he had already planned his next series of actions.

He pushed her to the left, his strength enough to make her stumble, and he buried the shears in her neck, the Divine Weapon emitted a wave of chills that froze her in the spot. The last one was on him, biting and clawing, the legs of the Abomination were wrapped around his waist and her teeth were trying to find purchase on his neck.

Rowan let it happen for a few seconds and when he saw the attacks were ineffective he seized her by the neck and pulled her away from him.

He raised his sword and swung at her head, even with all his advantages, his angle of descent was wrong and instead of neatly cutting through her skull, the blade went through halfway and stopped.

Rowan grimaced and wrenched the blade to the side forcefully, exploding her head like a watermelon. Turning to the last frozen Abomination, it took a single blow to free the head off her body.

He picked up the Divine weapon and shook both of his wrists, flinging away the gore on his weapons.

He had wavered when he was about to kill the second Abomination. A trace of concern for their wellbeing crept over him, and his hands shook.

Even with the horror these things represented, he had assumed he was sufficiently motivated to put an end to them. He did not know how to feel about this apparent weakness of his, but the screams coming from his town were getting worse, and suddenly all his concerns were dust in the winds.

"If there are Abomination larvae, roaming this far from Calcutta, then we have to be careful not to be surrounded." Maeve said, "Ahead. There are four more by the side of the trees."

"Five…" Rowan said, "One of them is perched on the top of the elm tree in the middle."

"Oh… Is that so," Maeve smirked, so you missed the two below the ground.?

"Son of a…" Rowan muttered.

"It would seem you have other sensory abilities besides your eyes, Master. Yet, you don't use them effectively" Maeve said as she abruptly shot past him, the massive blade she held shimmered away and was replaced by a giant hammer.

"Watch your steps!" Her words drifted into his ears, as she leaped and pounded the ground with her hammer, causing a mini earthquake.

The ground shattered before that blow, pulverizing the Abominations inside the ground, the wave of destruction spread to the trees and uprooted dozens of them.

Rowan, anticipating the spreading wave of force, leaped in the air, his Spatial sight revealing there was more behind this hammer blow of Maeve. Besides the sheer force, the ground seemed like it was humming.

Before his feet touched the ground, every single Abomination was dead. The hammer blow had flung them up, and she replaced the hammer with her long sword, and like a dancer from hell, she twirled through the falling Abomination slicing their heads off.

Rowan heard her whisper, "1.5 seconds" with annoyance in her tone.

They began moving again, and Maeve took a step back, allowing Rowan to dispatch the wandering Abominations he saw along the way, giving him advice on proper weapon usage, scouting his surroundings for hostility, and the act of killing efficiently.

He did not think he could utilize everything she thought to him presently, but he kept all her instructions inside, and he would slowly absorb them as time passed.

For now, his movements were more refined, and the swings from his sword were smooth and direct, he began holding back his strength as he did need to put his all behind the weapon, a tenth of his present strength was enough to cut through the Abomination larvae.

He began holding his Spatial sight around him always like a bubble, occasionally shooting a burst of them into the ground, ahead and behind him.

He wrapped his sight around Maeve, wishing to duplicate her movements. She had a peculiar method she used to accelerate her motions instantly. It was a freaky thing to witness her going from zero to a hundred in a heartbeat and going back to zero in the next breath.

When they reached the edge of the fog, both of them paused, Maeve bent down and began to set up a beacon, materializing various components.

Rowan took the time to call up his Primordial Record, and looked at his Soul point progress, in addition to rescuing his people, he hoped to harvest sizeable amounts of souls for his growth

P????????? ??????

Name: Rowan Kuranes

Age: 11/11

Strength: 45.7

Agility: 44.9

Constitution: 92.4

Spirit: 47.9

Class: None

Title: Plane walker

Aspect: Spatial Sight (Tier 1)

Skill: (None)

Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 4)

Records:

?????? ???????????? ?????????????????? [ATAVISM]- level 0 [490/3000]

???????? ???????????? – level 0 [0/1000]

Soul Point:75.4288

Remark: Divine Runt

That was a healthy amount of soul points he had collected so far, he poured seventy of those into Ouroboros, and his body made cracking sounds as it compacted, and he grew another inch, Maeve turned and looked at him, and went back to assembling the beacon.

Rowan was sure she had noticed his height increasing; however, his shell served as a shield to all outside probing, so he doubted she would know the earth-shaking changes happening inside his body.

These were his stat increments:

Strength: 45.7 – 52.7

Agility: 44.9 – 51.9

Constitution: 92.4 – 112.4

Spirit: 47.9 – 48.5

Two-Headed Ouroboros: 490 – 560

His spirit did not benefit from Ouroboros, but the more souls he collected his Spirit grew slowly as a result, but this was slow to him compared to his other stats. For anyone else to grow their spirit this quickly was impossible.

Yet, this was not the most thing that had happened to him at the moment. His Constitution had reached the Rift state and everything inside him was beginning to change.

"The Beacon is complete," Maeve said, as a bright blue light shot from the components she assembled. It would be their guide on the way out and also serve as a waypoint.

Rowan nodded and both of them stepped into Hell.

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Chapter 32 First Battle

The Black fog swallowed them, and neither one of them flinched from that darkness. Rowan felt Soul Seizer drawing many soul fragments with varying flavors. He detected laughter and sunlight and a baby wailing. Weird, he had never had this effect when he collected souls before.

Then it hit him, he was collecting the souls of people. Regular folks who lived their lives in contentment, their souls carried a glow that felt warm and complete.

Was this not Alana? The young woman who had a painful crush on Rowan, went beet–red anytime Rowan tried talking to her. She had an unusual way with words, always referring to herself in the first person.

This soul that felt like a piece of hard leather should be Morin, a dependable farmer who was something of a playboy.

Branrik, a mason who had seven strong boys he was very proud of…

Ragodr, the self-proclaimed most handsome man in all of Calcutta…

Fjarmir, a petty thief who had been adopted by his people because he was mostly harmless and could be called in a pinch to help do menial tasks…

Grunmir...

Voramyr...

Svegrim...

Torernir...

Gragvar...

Grarnir...

Thogir...

Please, no more…

Hundreds of soul fragments came, they brought with them a trace of their memories, but only the best parts or the worst.

Grarnir sees his wife torn apart and at the moment of his death; seizing an Abomination and tears out the throat with his teeth….

So many souls…. So many memories…

Rowan did not know how he did it, but he did not consume those souls, he kept them safe in the Jaws of Dagon—The bracelet form of Soul Seizer that was on his wrist.

As the souls poured into his being, carrying with them light and heat, his Icy Soul grew colder. Throughout the previous battle, he had never made a sound, he was imitating Maeve. Her coldness and deadly precision. But that was not who he was. He was not cold, he lived his life with passion….

His Soul may have turned to Ice, but his blood was filled with fire.

So, he opened himself to the souls, his Soul Seizer called them through the darkness, and they came to him seeking warmth and solace, he opened himself, and he asked them to witness their vengeance.

They must have heard the fury in his blood, for more of them came to him, and he kept them. He told them he was their sword. He told them whoever was responsible for their demise would pay the ultimate price.

Then the Abomination came through the fog.

The shapes that entered his sight in the fog were different from anything he had ever seen before.

Their head was mostly mouth, filled with long misshapen black teeth that oozed black tar, their nose were two deep holes, and their eyes were small and beady, and glowed yellow.

Their hands ended in thick bone spikes, and what Rowan found the most revolting was that they were skinless, their anatomy was unnatural, too many joints leading nowhere, and their bodies were a mishmash of different parts that served only one purpose to kill.

With a cry that came straight from nightmares, they charged at him. Rowan replied with a roar of his own that exploded through the fog. An utterly unearthly cry. One that was borne from a rage he could hardly hold back any longer. The anger of an Empyrean. A being born at the birth of a universe.

Something beyond what he knew erupted from his body, and Maeve was driven to her knees. She looked at him, her face was that of pure astonishment. The cry that came from his lungs was primal and seemed unending, and the surrounding fog began to retreat as if fleeing from that cry.

The effects on the Abomination were distinct as they fell to the ground shrieking in confusion, There were dozens of them, their alien bodies writhing on the ground. The spikes were their limbs digging massive holes in the ground.

The cry from Rowan ended, and the fog had retreated for hundreds of meters around him, Maeve picked herself up, her footing unsteady.

"Watch yourself!" Rowan told her as he tackled the first Abomination, and he did not hold his strength back. His sword and shears turned it into a pile of minced flesh.

He disregarded the training from Maeve, his fury could not let anything through. He began to butcher them as they lay on the floor confused, but they soon recovered, and he was already too deep in their midst.

Not only that, but he was swamped by a dozen Abomination, and he fell to the ground, for a moment he was buried under bodies, spikes, and claws and fangs scrapped his body, wishing to dig through his shell and find his flesh, but they were all denied.

He screamed again, stunning the Abomination on top of him, and he erupted with all his strength and fury, digging deep inside and his bloodline began to boil and heat up, the two golden tattoos on his chest began to glow and growls began to emanate from them.

He seized an Abomination by the throat, he had lost the shears in the confusion, and he pulled and twisted, breaking the spine with a sickening crack, he used the body as a shield and began to push his way out of the pile.

His sword fell and killed and maimed any Abomination he could reach, while he used the body he held as a battering ram, limbs were thrown out and bodies were cut in twos and threes, when Rowan stepped out of the pile he was covered head to toe in yellow gore, and no Abomination bigger than a brick was left.

His chest was heaving and his legs were shaking, his mind burning like a furnace. Ahead of him, more Abomination poured out from the ruins of homes and fields, and Rowan began to laugh, for in his Primordial Record he had harvested more than a hundred and fifty soul points.

He poured them all into Ouroboros and his strength returned, his lungs filled with air and his leg steadied and grew stronger like a piece of divine oak whose roots could touch the core of the planet.

"Maeve… Weapons!" The sword he was using was now bent and useless, he discarded it, and it shimmered away.

She sent two swords toward him, he caught them and said, "I want bigger ones next time." Maeve was standing back and watching his surroundings, she held back, knowing Rowan wanted to vent. She would stay back and protect him, she materialized many 'Sparking Beads' and began burning the bodies he left behind.

And he charged towards the Abomination, going forward deeper into the town, the beacon behind him blazing blue, hoping that they heard him. Hoping that they still keep faith.

Rowan began to kill.

His thoughts were aflame. Why should he hold back his strength? He was different from Maeve, he did not need to measure his blows, did not need to fear weakness or tiredness on the battlefield, for with every slain enemy he got stronger, faster. His fatigue eased, his technique for slaughter got more refined, and with every step, he took he got better.

Rowan roared again, and this time it was as if two voices were roaring with him.

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