Chapter 1028: Burn To The Foundations If the armor had previously been like the bark of a tree, now it was titanium. It was a good thing that the giant Shiik had Rowan inside of it that could process all the energy it required, and before long its armor thickened to the extent that it could move a single inch before it was suppressed once more, but that singular inch was terrifying progress, at this point the weight on top of the creature would have cracked a mountain. The giant Shiik consumed unceasingly until a threshold was reached, and Rowan felt the pulse of energy congregating throughout the body of the creature, from its pattern of movement, this energy should be heading towards its head, but Rowan had lived for too long inside this Calamity and understood all its physiology, so it was not difficult to divert that stream of energy towards himself. If his plans ahead were going to work, he needed this creature to survive for as long as possible, and although he could not interfere with its development too brashly, he could make minor changes that would create a compound effect superior to the many minor changes he had made when viewed as a whole. From what he understood about the Shiiks, and at this point he understood nearly everything, their greatest weakness was their head, and if he had allowed the normal path of evolution to follow through in this giant Shiik, it would have mindlessly created its center of power in its head in order to lessen the weakness of that particular organ, but that would be a waste of resources, and Rowan would never choose to allow such an obvious display of vulnerability. Rowan who was growing all this while, was now in the form of a two-year-old child, with bright red hair and green skin. He was sitting cross-legged in the center of the stomach of the giant Shiik when the ball of energy signifying the evolution of the giant Shiik came to rest and he picked it up. The ball of energy that resembled red fog and filled with a dense Aura of death struggled a bit before settling down and revealing all its secrets to Rowan, it contained all the evolutionary pathways for the Shiik, and for the Shiik, it turned out to be a short one because its evolution ended at the Heroic Rank. "Now, this would not do... not at all," Rowan muttered and began tweaking the ball of energy, he manifested tiny tendrils that he inserted into the ball of energy, they shriveled not long after, but he constantly recreated them. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶 He could not do much without learning more about Calamities, but what he could do was tear open up the ends of the sequence governing the evolution of the Shiik, stopping at the Heroic Rank was useless for Rowan. To access his mental space and begin manifesting his Supreme Circles, he needed this body to become immortal. Rowan intended to reach the immortal rank with this beast not in centuries but in a far shorter time frame, a year at least and two at most. Tweaking the energy ball further, Rowan frowned in concentration as he went deeper. If the beast reached the end of the Heroic Rank with such an opening in its evolutionary path, it would die in a very spectacular manner, as its body would seek to evolve but lack any direction for it to follow. With Rowan inside it, however, it would suffer no such problem, because he intended to weave the path forward for this beast from this rank onward. Whatever was to come after the Heroic Rank would be built by him from the ground up. With that out of the way, Rowan began to tweak the abilities that the Shiik was supposed to gain at the Heroic Rank. A normal Shiik would gain a paltry increase in its armor and size, and gain the ability to spew out potent acidic saliva. Its stomach would also surprisingly reduce, perhaps to reduce the damage it suffered from the vitality generated from its stomach. This ability was quickly pruned off by Rowan. Rowan could not do much to change the state of the rest, but what he could do was boost them to ridiculous heights. It was not that he could not give the Shiik more abilities, but If he excessively changed the abilities of the Shiik, it might easily draw the attention of the World Will, and another visit from the deranged monster, so he was not going to change the abilities, he was only going to boost them. From the incredible height a World Will used to look down on the earth, especially one as broken as this world's own, then such a change would not be even a blip on its radar. A bigger ant was just an ant, but if that ant grew eagle's wings, then that would be something to call its attention. A Heroic Ranked Shiik would grow to be at most five times the size of an Enlightened Shiik with proportionate strength in their armor. Already the giant Shiik that was not yet a Heroic Ranked Calamity was four times bigger and its armor had reached more than twenty times stronger than an average Enlightened Shiik. There was no way Rowan would disregard such an advantage. Pushing a mental slider to the max and a bit beyond that maximum load, Rowan pushed the armor and the size of the Shiik beyond any of its natural limits. He smiled at this change and focused on the last ability, which was something Rowan had to place a lot of his concentration on. As the only true offensive ability of the Shiik, it needed more of his attention because he intended to push this ability to the limits of this world. With the review of its physiology and fighting style, Rowan disregarded creating the organ of this ability near the mouth of this creature, instead, he moved them all to its legs... all thirty of them. The Acid the Shiik could spit out was potent, able to effortlessly melt through steel, but Rowan found it almost useless. It might be useful in lower ranks, but in Rowan's sight who watched the world from a height above even immortals, such ability would not do. He began channeling the stomach's ability to manipulate death and left pathways to all thirty legs. The Acid now would have the energy of death, creating a potent mix whose potential was nearly incalculable, and as the Shiik grew stronger in the future the Acid mix would grow more destructive until every single leg it had would be the reaper's scythe. The last change he made was to create an enhanced growth ability in this beast that would boost its growth further but place more emphasis on its brain. Instincts were all well and good, but Rowan treasured intelligence, and this Calamity would not be dumb. With all this finalized, he left the ball of energy and allowed it to sink into the flesh of the Calamity. At first, there was silence as the Shiik continued eating and then it froze before giving out an unearthly shriek that penetrated through the mound covering it. Rowan grinned, "You will need help little girl." he stretched forth his hand and long tendrils of parasitic worms surged out from the open mouth of the shrieking Shiik and plunged into the flesh of those around it and drew them into its stomach, and Rowan took charge of its digestion. "Grow big and strong, for you will burn this world to its foundations for me."