Chapter 1196: Explode Rowan was silent for a moment as if in deep thought, he already knew what he was going to do, he just needed to play his part well enough to convince the Eye that he was on the right track, what was difficult for him would have been suppressing his emerging bloodlust, but after all his years of being a soulless entity, Rowan knew how to perfectly fake his emotions, "Final question," Rowan asked, "What is your goal? Why should I give you the Anima and not keep it for myself? Despite all the supposed gifts you are capable of giving me, the Anima is a tangible power that I possess, and I believe that with its help, even if I cannot have everything you can give to me, I can come close. Unlike you, I do not need to hide, and there are many dominions I can control using this Anima." The Eye of Time looked a bit surprised at the question, his eyes flashed and like Rowan, it seemed as if he was considering a lot of things and then he unexpectedly said, "I know you think I am evil," "Of course," Rowan interrupted him, "Because you are...Evil, literally." The Eye paused, whether in annoyance or disdain before it cleared its throat, a gesture that would have made Rowan roll his eyes if he wanted to be petty, but if he wanted to drag the Eye deeper into his trap, he simply could not take everything he said at face value, that would lead to suspicion from the Eye, moments like these was when he needed to be as rude and exuberant as possible, to make the Eye think it was drawing him deeper into its machinations. Rowan did not miss these games, they were extremely training mentally, the dangers in them as real as fighting on a knife edge over an abyss, but he was helpless when it came to higher powers, he simply needed to play it well enough to win. "Telling you my goals would only lead to harm, but what I can say is this. Whatever I do with my Anima would not affect you. I only sought to fix some of the mistakes of the past... this is all I can do, my time is over, and I just want to make some changes with this unexpected gift." The voice of the Eye of Time had gone soft, almost pleading, perhaps, if Rowan had not transformed himself into a living dimension, he would have been drawn into the picture that the Eye was painting, if he had not seen the vision of Jerediah, if he had not known that he was looking at the originator of his suffering and pain for so long, then he would have fallen, but instead Rowan smiled, this gesture passing through his Ascendant body, making the metal over his face groan as it assumed a toothy grin, "No," he said, 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 The Eye of Time blinked, "I don't think you fully understand the ramifications of what I am telling you, simply put, you have no choice in this matter if you want to survive what is coming." "There is always a choice, and I don't choose you. You do not have a bargain." Something changed, and even as much as he was looking around, he could not find what was different, but Rowan had to force himself not to take several steps backward. Then he saw the eyes of the mortal body that the Eye was wearing, and the mask of civility had finally dropped. Inside those eyes he saw the madness of all the Shadows multiplied countless times over, and deeper into that vault of delirium was something ancient and rotten, holding an incredible amount of bitterness and rage, so much so that Rowan felt his bright golden soul begin to wither and he knew he had just glimpsed Evil, true Evil the likes that most could never know or comprehend, 'Did a part of me come from this?' he could not help but query his heart, 'How can soothing of this nature be allowed to exist?' The voice that emerged from the eye was bordering between the profound Primordial language the Eye had used at first and the mundane dialect of Trion, creating a weird almost musical lilt to his speech, and if Evil had a voice, Rowan believed that this tone of voice would not be far off, "In this my state, with this body I cannot demand anything from you, but are you forgetting where I am standing," the Eye waved harshly at his city of golden giant, "Your fledgling children, I know you love them, of all the things you could have taken from my dear sister, you took her heart, and this weakness would be your downfall. Since there can be no more bargain between the both of us, then it's just force left, and from where I stand, I have the bigger stick." Rowan smiled and pointed towards his city, "Look again..." The head of the mortal suddenly turned backwards without the body moving a single inch, thoroughly crushing the spine of the mortal shell as the Eye looked behind him at the city, as a brilliant red glow erupted from a corner of it. The red glow turned out to be the after effect of a technique that had already been unleashed, "Interesting," the Eye said and looked down at its body, with its present position it was staring at the back of the mortal shell where a large gaping hole had mysteriously appeared on his body. A hole had nearly shattered the entirety of his torso, and except for his head hanging on his neck and the connecting part of his shoulders that could hardly hold his two arms, his legs had plopped to the ground where they became consumed by a red flame, "Is this...Hate?" the Eye asked with curiosity, "Why would you use such a pathetic weapon to attack me? I feed off of it." As if time was rewinding itself, the shattered body of the mortal shell was brought back to its peak form under a burst of red fire that stank of Hate. It would seem the Eye had rebuilt its mortal body stronger with this attack. "I know this weapon would not be a good match against you," Rowan smiled, "but I needed something that could tear you apart, even if it was only for a moment," Filled with foul vitality that made his pale skin glow with health, his cheek almost red, the Eye cocked its head to the side, "Oh, color me curious, why would you want to do that?" Rowan's eyes glowed golden, "because I have the Memory, and you are in my domain... Explode" The body of the Eye of Time suddenly exploded again, this time, the damage was even worse, and there was barely any fragment of his flesh left, as it was scattered for hundreds of feet. Drops of blood and pieces of flesh began to gather as if they had a mind of their own and before long, the body reconstituted itself again, "What do you think..." "Explode." "Are you insane..." "Explode." "This does not fit..." "Explode." "I will kill..." "Explode." "Why are you doing..." "Explode." .... ---- "Explode."