1032 Hidden Hand The Aura of the Explorer that was killed was purified, and as it rushed into the body of the Shiik, headed for the core of its power which was the rune resembling a withered hand, Rowan halted it in place, before diverting it towards him. Although the growth of Aura did not depend on the type of Aura it consumed, whether from Calamity or Ascendance, for Rowan's future plans to work, the energy of the Shiik must be kept pure, which means any Aura it absorbed must come from Calamities… Rowan on the other hand would be feeding on the energy of Ascendancy. The Shiik had never killed an Explorer before and so although its body was filled with Aura to a bursting point, the Aura was all the red of Calamity. The purified Aura flowed towards the sitting Rowan and he kept it hovering above his palm, it resembled a faint ball of blue liquid and it was one of the strangest power systems that Rowan had encountered because it was one of the very few techniques that he had come across—and he had seen an infinite number of technique using the Supreme Circle—that managed to weaponize Aura. With his Titles, he could process this energy of Aura from its source without any waste, and the amount of Aura in front of him was enough to push any Explorer or Calamity to the Heroic Rank. The Giant Shiik had consumed so much purified Aura of Calamities it should have long exceeded the Heroic Rank, but because its potential ended at this rank, all that energy was channeled towards its body. Two other balls of blue Aura appeared and merged with the Aura and the blue ball tripled in size. Rowan understood that Aura in its base form was harmless, it was present in every living thing and was grown and influenced by their activities throughout their lives. Rowan no longer had an Aura, it had disappeared when he became a dimension, and the one he kept around him was fake. He knew enough about Aura to create an exact shell around himself. This new body of his also had no Aura, and Rowan hypothesized that the reason he was able to create the strange purple Aura, was that he was essentially a blank slate and had no inherent Aura to interfere with this process, else an energy like that would have long been discovered. However, he needed to be much stronger before he created that Aura again, and that meant he had to walk the path of Ascendancy and the Shiik would walk the path of Calamities, until they were strong enough to merge as one. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮 What Rowan found fascinating about this blue Aura was the manner it caused a transformation in the flesh, and he could not shake the feeling that this energy was recognizable but he needed more of this Aura to confirm his hypothesis. The ability to change the bodies of the natives of this world was truly heads and shoulders above all other Aura techniques available in reality outside. There was something mixed in with this Aura that intrigued him, and without much ado, he allowed the ball of blue to touch him, he gasped in shock when the realization of what was familiar about this energy touched him—It was a Singularity, and he recognized it. Rowan tried to scan through the limited memories in his head, yet no matter how he dug into his consciousness he could not figure out how he recognized this power. As far as he could tell he knew of only one Singularity—The Primordial Record, but wait… where there not supposed to be a second one? 'Why can't I remember it? There is no reason I can recognize a second Singularity without coming in touch with one in the past. What the fuck happened to me after the end of the universe? Caine, this missing memory of a Singularity and other mysteries surrounding the method I reached outside reality…. Nemesis!' 'Why am I fixated on this bastard and why do I hate him so much?' 'Is it a coincidence I ended up in this world that has the presence of a second Singularity or is someone pulling the strings in the background… it seems there are many bastards I am going to be killing in the future.' Rowan felt his consciousness begin to ache as he dug deeper to access the parts of his memories that were blank. Perhaps if his consciousness was complete he would be able to resurrect this part of him that was missing. With that conclusion, he focused on the changes happening inside his body as the Blue Aura diffused itself throughout his entire body. It seemed a bit confused when it reached his spine, but it soon settled on the surface and was unable to pierce deeper into it. For Rowan to merge the two Auras together in the future he would need a neutral party inside his body that could hold both at once. For a normal native of this world, this amount of Purified Aura would have pushed them towards the peak of the Heroic Rank and maybe a bit over it, but for Rowan, it barely filled a thousandth of his enhanced cells. He needed much more to become Enlightened, but he was sure that it would not take long for him to reach the peak of the mortal world with the sort of world he found himself. The preparation at the bottom of this crater was over, he would be leaving it. He opened his eyes and it flashed blue before settling into a deep black that looked like the void at the edge of existence. Merging his mind with the giant Shiik he discovered in a short while the Calamity had hunted every single Shiik left in the crater, and was now slowly crawling towards the top of the crater, its claws piercing deep into the walls and propelling its bull towards the top with too much speed for a creature of its size, its movement caused whirlwinds to surround its body and clouds filled with red lightning followed the wind and wrapped the body of the Shiik. The red lightning was attracted by the impossible amount of purified Aura inside the giant Shiik and the energy of death embedded in all its thirty claws. It resembled a storm as it rushed out of the crater. Rowan could feel the growing excitement in the heart of the Shiik as it neared the edge of the crater, the prison that had imprisoned it for countless years. With a shriek accompanied by the loud crack of thunder, the Shiik leaped out of the crater and slammed into the ground causing a small earthquake and shattering nearly a hundred buildings clustered around the area where it landed. The Shiik looked around and it opened its eyes for the first time. They were white as if it was born blind, then they saw the world and it flinched. The light of the three suns overhead was binding and its species were meant to exist in the darkness, it began to slowly crawl back into the crater when the voice of Rowan stopped it, "Do not turn away from the light child, look upon it, and as it scars your sight, place it in your memory for one day your limbs shall drag them from the sky! They shall be the first of many. They are not stars… not really, just old monsters that have lived beyond their time, and you need to eat child… They are food."