Chapter 1027: Reforging Armor The end inevitably arrived for the Calamity that fought against all of its kin alone. The giant Shiik beast was at the edge of death. A dozen of its limbs had already been crushed, while the others were misshapen. It would not be long before it flattened to a paste, but it did not give up, instead, it began to activate a trait that it did not understand but which mysteriously appeared inside it a few months back-it began to feed. The instinct to feed had become ingrained inside it after two years of growth and unchecked hunger, and at the end of its rope, it turned to this new instinct. There was no problem with acquiring prey at this time, and it was being drowned by bodies, it only needed to open its mouth, and blood, bones, and flesh would fill it up. The struggle only arrived when it wanted to open its mouth, but the overwhelming pressure had solved that problem for the giant Shiik, because its face had been squashed flat, crushing its jaws and opening unrestricted access to its throat and therefore stomach. Its stomach was nearly full but without the intervention of Rowan, its digestion which was previously insane had slowed down to a crawl. No matter the amount of death energies it could acquire from the bodies inside its stomach, it was useless when an almost equal amount of vitality was being produced as waste. It would not be long before it was drowned in food and then it would be momentarily crushed into nothingness. The Shiiks that survived this massacre, would thrive as the competition in the basin would be reduced and perhaps in the future, a Heroic Ranked Shiik would be born. Rowan's anger at his present weakness was a bit overwhelming, and he watched in idle boredom as this silent Shiik was about to die, he had been receiving souls from the dying Calamities but without access to his true Mental Space, he could not do anything with it. An idea occurred to him as he watched the dying Shiik and he frowned as he considered the validity of it. After a short while he understood that although difficult it would still be possible, however, he would need to understand the character of the Shiik first. It was not every creature that could handle the weight of power. Taking his time to observe the dying giant Shiik he noticed that although it did everything by instinct, there was no denying the pride in the bones of this creature, it refused to give up even at the edge of death, and although the prospects for its survival was dim, it did not stop its relentless action. For Rowan this was enough, he did not care for any other trait from this creature, and he would accept pride and tenacity. Pride would ensure it was not easily cowed by pressure from higher beings and tenacity to handle the strain of becoming powerful and the dangers that would follow. Rowan sighed and drew all the vitality being furiously produced in the stomach of the creature and in the process, the dense energy of death was given the freedom to sink into the body of the giant Shiik. The body of the Calamity grew colder than before as the energy of death flooded it, and it was possible to see faint shadows arising from the stomach before being sucked into every part of the giant Shiik. With the influx of the energy of death, all the food it had eaten vanished. Rowan was such a clean processor of energy that the giant Shiik did not need to spit out any leftovers, leaving its stomach in a constant state of emptiness and hunger. With the new wave of energy, the giant Shiik's body began to continue the process of its evolution. It was unknown if it was to be the first of its kind to ever ascend past the Enlightened ranks, but its birth to the Heroic level was nevertheless considered a miracle among their kind. The wave of death energy allowed the giant Shiik's wounds to begin healing and its armor began to thicken, opening its mouth more food entered its stomach, the Shiik fought against its healing, as it wanted more food to enter its stomach. Rowan drained the incoming flood of corpses of their vitality as soon as the digestion process began, and the Shiik ate the death energy. Their symbiosis entered a new gear and accelerated, but Rowan soon frowned when he understood that this process was still too slow for what he intended. He was still unwilling to openly display his presence, yet he knew he had wasted too much time when he died both times, he did not know but he suspected that the time that had passed would shock him. Rowan needed a way to deceive the Will of this world, and if he had learned anything from the last two times he had been killed then it was that the path of Calamities was the best method he could use to stay under the radar, for they were the present winner in the eternal war and the favored children of the World's Will. However, to deceive the World Will Rowan must also be strong while still not calling attention to himself. His memories were not what it was, but Rowan knew he had created a brand new pathway of power in this world by combining Ascendancy and Calamities, and although he was willing to explore this path, he needed a sturdier constitution to do so. A plan was being created inside his mind, and a minor part of his concentration was focused on consuming the vitality from the giant Shiik. No longer willing to restrict his growth, Rowan began to channel the vitality into rebuilding and growing his body. His fragile mental space meant he would need to begin walking down a path of power to strengthen it, and this power would have to follow the pathways of this world, at least on the surface, and he no longer intended to do this alone. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 With time not having much meaning to him, Rowan sank into a semi-conscious state as he monitored the progress of the giant Shiik. It was no longer at the edge of death. The weight on its body did not reduce despite its consumption of the surrounding bodies, no matter how much it could eat, there were still thousands of Shiik suppressing it to the ground, but its healing kept a steady balance between its destruction and reconstruction. Slowly but surely this began to change and the advantage began to shift towards the giant Shiik. No matter how much damage the giant Shiik was receiving from the weight on its body, the continual infusion of death energies healed it, and as its evolution to a higher ranking continued unhindered, its armor began to thicken, as the pressure exerted on it acted as a sort of crucible. Its armor which should not have evolved to such a state upon its elevation to the Heroic Rank received a sizable boost from this intense pressure, and as its size was supposed to grow larger with the elevation was being stifled by the weight upon it, the elevation of the Shiik became more difficult and the resources it needed escalated. Like a metal being repeatedly reforged, the armor of the giant Shiik continued to be strengthened to resist the weight.