Chapter 1172: Ebony Flame Rowan did not spread his senses to check the other regions in the realm, for fear that he might be detected. The Shiik had always been his target, and because he knew her location, and the connection with her was extremely powerful, his body crossed countless miles and appeared by her side instantly, this journey had previously taken him nearly three years to traverse. He found the Shiik miles underground, directly at the center of the Continent-Trion. She was sitting on a throne of red and black. This throne was her Will, the Will of Ebony Flame, a power that controlled darkness and fire. The Shiik was many things but primarily she was a being of destruction and her Will represented that concept. Ebony Flame was a Will that reveled in destruction and was a hundred times more destructive than the Will of Hate that Shisu controlled, but every Will has aspects that they excelled in. Her appearance had changed little since the last time he saw her. Not like any Calamity Gods in existence, the Shiik had a humanoid shape with long red hair that reached the ground, its ends hidden in the darkness that surrounded her throne. The sharp fingernails that ended at a point were blazing red and lazily tapping the side of her throne in impatience. The gesture made Rowan sigh, he knew she had been performing the same action for years as she waited for the moment she could be unleashed on all of creation. Unlike the golden giants who gloried in the sensation of their power growing stronger, the Shiik were different. Connected to Rowan on a deep level and sharing some of the innate qualities that enabled him to treat cultivation as easy as breathing, power came easy to the Shiik. Her inheritance as a Calamity God when merged with Rowan's influence meant it would be hard for her to know the meaning of a roadblock in her road to power. The Tribulations that emerged for her were treated as a source of nourishment and pushed her power even higher. What the Shiik was interested in was battle. Born from violence and growing ever stronger in the darkness, she yearned for the day she could reach across the heavens and pull down all the suns, both of light and darkness, and consume them all. It was for this reason that during the time when Rowan was destabilizing the entire Will infrastructure of the realm she had not even noticed the changes. The Shiik grew by simply consuming the darkness generated by the millions of Temple Maidens with whom she had a symbiotic relationship. The darkness fueled her flames, which in turn fueled her darkness, a cycle of destruction that grew perpetually stronger with the addition of darkness from every Temple Maiden she brought under her, who were all constantly supplying her with an impressive dose of darkness at every moment. Rowan knew that even getting to the fifth-dimensional level in six years was insane, the Shiik had the potential to grow even faster if she was to engage in combat, Her Will was not one that required deep introspection about herself or reality in general in order to develop, it was still unknown how high it could grow, although Rowan pegged it to reach its limit at the seventh-dimensional level, this however gave her an incredible advantage at the start. When Rowan reached her presence, the Shiik did not notice at first, her brooding gaze was focused on the heavens above, even the miles of earth she had buried herself in did not stop her from seeing the shining continents above and all the tasty prey roaming atop of it. However, her brooding gaze transformed into curiosity as she felt that speed by which the darkness and the flames within her began to pick up speed, reaching ridiculous levels, and her power growth multiplied. She sat up straighter, and for the first time in a long while, she began to check the cultivation of her Will. Her senses pierced through reality, and she became confused when she could not sense the infinity bubble in the position where it could usually be found, after she swept her gaze through various levels of reality without finding the infinity bubble, the Shiik shrugged and returned to tapping her fingers on her throne. Rowan blinked. He loved all his children, but some of them were just... sigh Making a throne of golden flames beside her, he sat down and closed his eyes, and the Shiik had no idea he was already here with her. Rowan did not bother informing her of his presence, when it was the right time, she would know he was here, before then he could continue his creation that was interrupted using one of the most potent resources he had come across in a while, which was the endless oceans inside of Doom Star. Gaining access to his Hollow Forge Chamber had given the golden giants access to the power of creation, but it gave Rowan so much more than that, for he was able to break down any material that he came in contact with up to a certain level-Hollow Forge could not break down a Primordial treasure-and understand their basic component. Imagine his surprise when he took a portion of the endless sea found in Doom Star and noticed that it was made from Aetherium that had been severely degraded to such a profound manner that it was almost impossible for him to detect it, and if this was difficult for Rowan to detect, then it would be almost impossible for anyone else, unless either by luck or an extreme amount of years spent inside the realm. However, it doesn't matter to them if they discover it. Sure, Aetherium was one of the most potent sources of power in the universe, only wielded by those in the higher dimensions, and even then, not all higher dimensional beings had access to Aetherium unless they were given its seed by a Primordial force. The Aetherium inside the endless ocean in Doom Star was so degraded it could only create Continents in the ocean, and it could not be harvested, even if someone was desperate enough to attempt harvesting the Aetherium in the ocean, then according to Rowan's calculation they would have to spend a hundred units of Aetherium Energy to harvest just a single unit of Aetherium Energy from the ocean. Only a madman would want to make such a deal. However, Rowan would be taking this deal, his Chamber Hollow Forge made it possible. For the last two years, Rowan had been draining an ungodly amount of the ocean and combining them inside the Hollow Forge to create his first unit of Aetherium. Every fraction of a second that passed meant hundreds of billions of gallons of ocean water were being siphoned into Hollow Forge, and yet after all that time, he had not even created one unit of Aetherium. The amount of ocean water he had drained over the last two years would be enough to fill up the void between two galaxies, but it was not enough to create a single unit of Aetherium! This proved how hard it would have been for anyone else to detect the Aetherium and how impossible it was to extract it, but Rowan's eyes were shining bright as he waited on his throne, in a month, he would be getting the first unit of Aetherium.