Chapter 1223: Why Does It Still Hurt? Rowan fell towards the ocean, but there was no wind whistling past his descending body, for the wind in this realm was gone, and so was the light, leaving something else in its place. Free from the debilitating space he had found himself, Rowan's senses rippled outwards as he began to rapidly channel soul energy to restore his lost Ascendant Essence and halt the destruction of his Ascendant body for a little while longer. It had been a close thing, and he had nearly lost his Ascendant body, at this point, it would be a calamity. A few miles away from reaching the ocean the lump of glowing metal that represented his Ascendant body stopped in the air, and it began to bubble as it slowly took back a humanoid shape, Rowan's eyes opened, glowing like the sun, but within them you could see clear signs of exhaustion, he appeared diminished, as the Ascendant body appeared incredibly frail which was not far from the truth. Resisting that space and enduring the ravages of the Eye of Time as it sought to possess his soul was incredibly difficult, and he had also been managing several other affairs concerning his dimension, his powers, and the children he had within him at the same time if he had slipped up in any of this matter, the consequences would be terrible. Yet as Rowan saw it, mistakes were meant for mortals and lesser immortals, but not him. He could not afford to make a mistake, this was the weight of his powers, how could he be worthy of being called a Creator and worshipped by his children if he could easily fail them? He did not care if this his position was unsustainable, because he believed that the moment he stopped believing in himself, the moment he began to doubt his powers, that was the moment he had lost, and he could begin counting down the time until his enemies cut him down. If he had ever doubted his invincibility, then standing up against the Eye of Time would be impossible because everything inside him would doubt his ability to stand against the fragment of a Primordial. 'I am invincible,' he groaned within, 'Yet why does everything still hurt?' His body resumed falling until he stepped upon the ocean, his descent stirring a single ripple that traveled throughout the ocean, and using it as a vehicle for his sight, he looked around at the realm that appeared gray and lifeless. Without the Ascendant Sun in the sky, darkness should have overtaken the realm, but instead, something was in place that had suppressed that darkness. The clash between him and the Eye of Time had swept through the realm like a storm, primordial forces unchecked had torn through its fabrics and if this realm did not sacrifice a large portion of its strength to heal itself of this wound, it would remain lifeless for countless eternities, not even immortals without higher dimensional powers would be able to live here for long, because there was nothing protecting them against the errant forces of death and destruction that was unleashed on the realm. The effects of a fragment of a Primordial appearing in this realm could not be easily swept aside, and Rowan tried not to analyze the reasons behind the thought process in his head when he clashed against such a force of nature that was a Primordial, even if it was only a fragment. From the highest heavens down to the depths of the ocean, the realm had taken a monochrome appearance as if all color had been bleached from its reality and only the gold of Rowan's Ascendant body was the only color in it, making him extremely conspicuous, but not as conspicuous as the massive hole in reality he could see in the distance, millions of miles away. It was a strange sight that Rowan had still not gotten used to even while he was inside it. He could see a rolling ocean and a black-and-white sky and then... nothing, and after a while the landscape of the realm would return. Around the space of nothingness, he thought he could sense some other forces attaching to it, but they were either too small or his senses had reached their limit. He had to force himself to look at this space of nothingness for his mind to wrap around it, and as he observed this space. He felt the entire realm shake as a frightening crack like the world was shattering in two emerged from the area of nothingness, the battle between the Eye of Time and the two Ascendant Suns was still going on strong, and their clash was shaking the entire realm of Doom Star. Rowan had no illusion of who would be coming out ahead. The Eye of Time was severely disadvantaged in many aspects since the level of power it could unleash was dependent on its host. What it had to work with here was very suboptimal, mostly mortals and the strongest Ascendant inside the Time Blight barely reaching the fifth-dimensional level, it had also suffered from the unexpected Tribulation that had attacked it alone and as a result lost a third of the resource it used in creating its temporary shell, drastically weakening its foundations, and yet against two Ascendant Suns, they were not enough to hold it back. Rowan doubted that it would be using the sort of attack it had used against him at the start because releasing that level of power would hurt the Eye as well, but it was strong enough to eventually muscle through the opposition and come for him. However, this would hopefully bring Rowan the time he needed for his merger to be completed. The Eye had displayed the conviction to destroy itself if it could get to Rowan's body, but knowing the crafty nature of this creature, Rowan knew that it would not be so reckless and go all out at the start, it would be testing the waters and trying to rid itself of the Ascendants before committing too many resources in tearing past them, because it did not know all of Rowan's card too if Rowan could resist its full-powered strike once, who says he could not do it again? The nature of the space of nothingness ahead had delayed the process of his dimensional merger but now that reality had reasserted itself once more, it headed for completion. Rowan closed his eyes and began to observe the operation, at this point he could not control what was happening, but he knew that the fusion was about ninety percent completed. The loud sounds from inside the space of nothingness had become more frequent and Rowan frowned a bit in contemplation, he lifted his left hand and pointed towards the space ahead, the power of Calamity beginning to brew on his palm as the face of the Shiik appeared on his palm. There was a bit of hesitation in his heart, with the infusion of the final pieces of his dimension, the appearance of the vortex in his mind, and the memories he had gained, he suspected that the response to what he was about to do now could escalate out of his control, and this should be a final option when everything was lost.