Chapter 281 Source Of The Hidden Danger The Berserker Clone that was left walked up to the head of Erohim. With his death, the head was beginning to crumble to dust, as the skin cracked and withered away before his eyes, revealing bones underneath. It was then that Rowan saw the true desecration that had been done to Erohim. The skull of the god was a strange sight as it also had four gaping holes for eyes, two nostrils and two mouths, but that was not almost as interesting as what had been done to the skull when its owner was still alive. Deep holes and gouges filled the skull, as if someone had used a saw to scrape throughout the bones of the god and harvested ninety-nine percent of it, leaving just the frame behind, the deep wounds showed his marrow had been drained away, leaving nothing behind but dust and only the remains of alchemical devices used for this dastardly acts were left. The reason he was able to kill the god with a single strike even though he used a Divine Weapon was due to the extremely depleted nature of the god. His Knowledge Well revealed the truth, Erohim was nothing but a shell, he had been hollowed out and taken apart for every bit he was worth, and his life had been left hanging on a thread in order to harvest himself and his people for eternity. Rowan recalled his reading about the houses and the gods of Trion, and it was said Boreas was the most benevolent of all the gods. If this was the actions of the most benevolent, what catastrophe was the worst of them capable of? Any sense of fulfillment he might have felt for killing a god disappeared, even his bloodline agreed, there was nothing noble or victorious in killing someone who had been reduced to such a state. If he was ever to become something like this, Rowan did not know if he would want to continue living or would wish for someone else to end his pain. His Knowledge Well was still blaring out the warning of a source of danger, and now Rowan realized that the source of danger was not coming from the skull of Erohim, but from something inside of it. Stretching forth his hand, he activated Bash dozens of times and a gigantic bloody palm manifested in front of him and he sent it towards the skull, at precisely the moment of contact, he activated smash on the bloody palm another dozens of times. This merger of the technique at the exact moment they touched the skull multiplied the power of the move three times over, such a delicate use of his powers was another benefit of Knowledge Well, and with a loud crack, the skull of Erohim split in two, revealing what was inside. Rowan was baffled at first by what he was catching sight of because it was covered by something that was moving and appeared to be alive, but when he understood what he was looking at, his eyes widened, and he took a step back in shock. So this was where it had been kept. It did not take long to understand it was common sense for something like this to be here. An investment as valuable as Erohim should not be kept unprotected after all, even though technically, it should take a power of at least the fourth circle to kill him or the peak of the third circle to kill him, and such powerful people were all closely monitored leaving someone as deceptively powerful as Rowan to have an opportunity to kill the weakened god. The ultimate failsafe was here all along in case of such eventualities, but by some reason it had failed to activate. An Anima of a god was inside the skull of Erohim! It was of a man wearing a regal palace attire, around his head was most likely this was Boreas. Rowan finally saw the source of his mounting dread, of course, there would be no way for this world and its god to be left without any protection; it was a valuable asset to the Boreas Family. Yet, Rowan was not too alarmed because there was no activity from the anima even through all the events that had happened and also because of what was covering the Anima. It resembled a bunch of green tentacles that appeared to be alive, and they pulsated and made weird sucking noises, and as he observed it, a large green eye with black pupils opened in the center mass of the tentacles and turned to observe him for a moment back before closing back up. Whatever this creature was, it was sentient and possessed a very malicious will, that gaze would have easily killed a first circle Dominator. White pus flowed from the ends of the tentacle, which also serves as another form of wrapping over the Anima of Boreas. Rowan Knowledge Well gave him a surprising result when he used it to investigate the creature shielding Boreas Anima. He was surprised to discover he was familiar with the tentacle creature, more precisely, it was the energy it was emitting which was Demonic. He had become familiar with such energy signatures because he had been possessing an Anima of a Demon Prince using his Origin Treasure, although the Demonic Energy he had sensed from the Demon Prince were miles above more potent than this creature, they were all similar. "Erohim you naughty god, so you were playing on more than one field." it made sense that Erohim had been looking for other ways to escape his torture. He must have created a bargain with a Demon, and yet it was his actions that ultimately led to his damnation or, looking at it from another perspective, his salvation. He was sure the god realized that cooperating with Demons would not lead him to a good end either and he must have been in between a rock and a hard place, and the choices he made were borne from desperation and madness. Rowan muttered to himself,"This is always the price of weakness, your actions are not of your will, and you are a puppet in the hands of the powerful. Even a god is not safe. Keep this lesson close to your heart, anytime you judge your actions as being too extreme."