Chapter 1045: Eruption There were still over a hundred thousand Calamities left, but with the addition of new Explorers into the picture that would be arriving shortly, Rowan knew that he could no longer be patient to harvest the crops until they were fully ripened, what was here was enough to make him a Heroic Ranked Explorer, and then everything would change. There were now more than eighty Legend-Ranked Explorers below, and the Glorious Ranked Explorers were now in the thousands, every Heroic Ranked Explorer was also near the peak of their ranks. It was impossible to hide the celebratory mood below, while the cost of this battle had been high, because to kill all these unexpected Calamities on the continent, they had sacrificed nearly a decade's worth of Force Staffs allocation, but the production of nearly eighty Legend Rank Explorers in a single stroke was insane, and it was well worth the cost, perhaps if they could clear out the rest of the Calamities they would be able to produce a couple more powerhouses, and then they would begin exploring the mysteries of this place, Rowan could easily read their thought from their body languages. It was a shame that he would not allow them to remain in their delusion for long, but that was the nature of the game, the strong ate the weak, and he had responsibilities waiting ahead, and he could not face them while weak. 'I may have been sleeping for a million years, I have been killed twice, my children slaughtered in unknown numbers, my bloodline desecrated... I have rested long enough. This war shall not end until Doom Star is no more, and if Primordials stand against me, they shall pay!" The technique Rowan had been pursuing was finally completed. Inside his body, the blue glow in his cells vanished and above the seven Suns of Calamity seemed to shiver, his body no longer any Ascendant Aura plummeted from the air and slammed into the ground, drawing the attention of the Explorers, especially the Deific Ranked Explorers who vanished and appeared close to his position, moving with impressive speeds even without the aid of Aura. Rowan's body unconsciously shook as he went pale, he had no single energy of Ascendancy left in his body and appeared like a mortal, he slowly dragged himself away from the crater his body had caused and stood up before the sight of men and monsters. He appeared powerless in every way, a young boy with hair like a shroud, beautiful like a dream, and filled with endless mysteries like a nightmare, even the roars of the Calamities in the distance ceased, and for a moment, all was silent as if the world had held its breath in expectation. With his appearance, Rowan knew the time of preparation was over, and whatever was going to be happening next would be unrelenting, and he would no longer have the time to plan in peace. One of the Deific Ranked Explorers floated down until she was hovering a few feet away from Rowan, her ceremonial robes brushing the ground, "Are you the one responsible for this?" She gestured towards the Explorers behind, and Rowan looked at her carefully, although she had green skin and red hair, there was a stark resemblance between her and Diane, his once mortal maid. Rowan smiled and stepped forward, bringing his hand to touch her cheeks. Such an action from a mortal against a Deific Ranked Explorer was madness, and even if she had seen his moves coming from a million miles away, she could not move because she had been enraptured by his presence. Looking at her in the eyes, Rowan slowly spoke, "I am, now I collect," bringing his hand above her heart, "You should know inside of yourself who I am." She was silent for a while, and then a sort of realization entered her expression and Rowan watched in fascination as she backed away and bowed down before saying, "Our lives are yours, Ascendant!" Cocking his head to the side, he examined this Explorer before him, at first, Rowan thought his identity had been mistaken for an Ascendant Explorer, although his body still carried all the traits of a mortal, there was no mistaking his ethereal features, and bearing that was impossible for a mortal to fake, but he knew that this went beyond that reason, looking inside himself once more at the potential that was brimming within and about to burst out, he understood that this was Domination, of a sort that he had not encountered often, because he did not share relation with most. This explorer was reacting to his Ascendant technique. Even before he created this technique, it was already rippling with so much potential to rival the suns above, and the Deific Rank Explorers that were so close to the true nature of this world could easily sense that potential, and if there was one thing he knew about Explorers, it was that they were sacrificial. Yet Rowan knew this was just potential, it was up to him to manifest it into reality. The other Deific Ranked Explorer descended and an unspoken word passed between them, and she also bowed, the thousands of Explorers behind did not need to understand what was happening, they saw the actions of their leaders and they followed it. 'Interesting...' Rowan paused and then he smiled internally as he walked past the two Deific Explorers, he held up his hand towards the thousands of kneeling Explorers, all the while as he had been manipulating his tendrils to collect the Aura of the Explorers he had also been depositing a sizable number of them inside the organs of the Explorers, and he could trigger them with a thought. Behind him he could barely hear the whispers of silver blades being drawn and swung towards his neck and chest by the two Deific Ranked Explorers, but Rowan did not pause his actions, beginning to activate the tendrils inside the body of the Explorers even as the blades were nearly reaching his body. Time seemed to slow down, but this was simply the perception granted to the strong, and Rowan spoke, "You strike against your god?" "You are not our god, you only wear his skin!!!" The furious cry from the Deific Explorer was filled with so much wrath and pain that a small part of Rowan cataloged this feeling but he did not stop. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 The move from the Deific Explorer was like a bomb explosion, they called so much energy of Ascendancy that the mist that erupted from their blades shot out for hundreds of feet, and a sound like a billion locusts flying emerged from the mist, but with the speeds of their movements even the Calamities had not yet erupted from the mist. The moment Rowan ordered the tendrils inside the bodies of the three thousand Explorers, the two blades of the Deific Explorers reached his skin. A diamond-like scale appeared on his neck and back to block the blades, but they hardly slowed the weapons for a brief moment before they were sliced apart and the blades began to enter his body. Ahead the heads of three thousand Explorers exploded, and a flood of blue Ascendant Aura that caused an even bigger eruption of mist that extended for miles erupted from the river of blue that was heading towards Rowan with blinding speed.