Chapter 1418 Traditions Rowan sat with Eva, watching his children lure an eighth-dimensional Old One toward his home, and he did not know if he should laugh or cry. With the resources at their disposal, this was the clear course of action, yet it did not mean that he had to like it. He was at a delicate point at the moment where he had not activated his Origin Land and he could not gain any new form of energy. His dimensional soul, who possessed the last of his Aether and Essence, was out and about putting out fires and had to be carefully rationing the last of his energy reserves, and using it to battle an Old One was out of the question, even if it was only a Memory. Rowan could match Gothra'Inul and the others because he had an impossible amount of Essence and Aether, and no matter how much he splurged, using an impossible amount of energy in every action he was taking, he was regenerating them just as quickly, he obviously could not do the same thing here. Rowan could not reject his children, they were coming to him for help, and he would be a bad father if he ignored their plight. He sighed, "Guess I have to move heaven early because of these rascals. Tsk… I need to be more hands-on with their training, they cannot remain this weak for long. Oh well, I had thought that I would be doing this experiment later but I guess I have to move it forward." Rowan looked towards his side, "Eva, do not interfere in what is to come." The Lady of Shadows rolled her eyes, she had been observing Rowan all these while with a frown on her face as if she was engrossed in figuring out what had changed about him, and she replied a bit flippantly, "Do not look at me; I am not as perverse as you are; how do you expect me to fight an eighth-dimensional entity without at least a million years of preparation? I need advanced rune scripts, soldiers, formations, the right time and place, weapons… No, this one is all for you, and if you call for me for help, I will pretend as if I did not hear you. I am very eager to see what the future holds for me, and I am not dying soon; I need answers!" Rowan ignored her, knowing the reason for her annoyance, she was expressing her discontent with him because he was not telling her enough. Not like before, and it was not as if this act from Rowan was entirely deliberate. Eva was very important to him due to her insight into the affairs of Primordials, especially Primordial Light, but Rowan was no longer in the Primordial System, and his personal issues were his own to solve, and without understanding more about the true origin of power that governed all of existence, he was not about to blurt out his concerns with anyone, even if that person was trusted. However, Rowan figured out that she would soon understand the reason why he was playing all his cards to the chest in the coming future, Eva was far too smart to allow an emotion like anger or irritation to hold her back from performing her duties, and that was to be his helper when and where he needed her. Dismissing this thought from his mind, Rowan's focus changed in an instant, becoming cold and focused like the edge of a blade as he contemplated on the matter of murdering an Old One. Looking through his dimension, Rowan saw a particular rock, it was not very large, about six feet in length and four feet across, it was black with a hint of red on it, as if old blood had been shed on it that had dried and fused into the rock, and at first sight, nothing was striking about this rock, its appearance was extremely ordinary among the countless wonders inside of Rowan's dimension, and the rock possesses no special powers that could be discerned, but for Rowan, this rock was extremely significant to him because this was the rock he had sat upon while waiting to kill his first god, Dao Ma. This reptilian god was the first immortal that he had killed and it was the foundation of his confidence in killing what should be impossible to kill. Rowan had barely exceeded the Rift State and was a little Empyrean, his evolution being extremely insignificant to his present abilities, and yet he had fought a god, a being that had lived for many lifetimes longer than him, of course, that was before he knew his true history. This stone originally had no significance to him, tossed aside after his battle began with the god. However, it had survived the calamitous battle between him and Dao Ma that shattered the earth for thousands of miles, and it also survived the end of the universe, and also the multiple apocalyptic events that followed. The rock was not particularly tough or had any ability to heal; it was just able to weather countless calamities by chance alone. Rowan had looked across his dimension, and he saw this stone that had survived countless calamities where greater heavenly materials had succumbed to dust, and he could not help but chuckle a bit. Life was so unpredictable, and the power of Fate can be fickle. There was a great lesson to be learned from this ordinary rock, but this was not the time to sink his mind into that. 'Kill first, enlightenment later.' Bringing out the stone, Rowan observed it for a while before he sat upon it again, it was still as uncomfortable as he remembered. His body shrinking to adjust to the size of the stone or the stone expanding the adjust to the size of Rowan, Eva, who was standing as a bystander could not tell which of these two had happened because the nature of space around Rowan was extremely strange, and it was driving her crazy, like an itch that was just at that position where nothing could reach. Eva did not know that what she was observing was a result of Rowan's constant effort to repair reality around his body. The glitching phenomenon that was happening around his body had worsened. Reality itself could not fathom Rowan's existence and it could not understand how to relate to any operation he made with his body. Rowan was now a foreign entity whose makeup was unknown to everything around him. Gravity, heat, light, sound, and other exoteric forces like Fate, Destiny, and even Death could not fully understand what to do when they were around Rowan. If everything was made of Zeros, then Rowan alone was made of Ones. Integration was impossible. In order to make his existence accepted by Reality, Rowan had to begin running a constant simulation of what Reality was supposed to do when he was around it and applying it to the surrounding space around him. Basically, he was constantly deceiving the system as he wore the facade of being a Zero so it could understand him. If light hit his skin, certain wavelength should be absorbed and others reflected, if he spoke, the Aether in space should be able to carry the sound of his voice, if he touched something hot, he should feel the heat and his skin should be able to absorb a part of that heat… this and many other countless activities that even immortals could not even imagine was happening around them at every given moment were being analyzed and process to maintain the facade of normality around him, but Eva had been able to detect that there was still something weird going on around Rowan's body but she did not understand the reason for it. Rowan knew that he had not perfected the duplicity of reality yet, and it was because it would cost far too much energy to maintain, and this was energy he did not have, he was simply maintaining this facade by sheer act of Will, forcing reality to follow his Intent. He was also testing one of the many methods he would finally decide upon when he left the lower realms for the higher ones, so he would have the best that could stand under the scrutiny of higher dimensional immortals. Rowan was not worried about perfection at this time, he simply wanted to find the best and then move on from there, but first, there was a battle to fight, and it was quickly heading towards him. ® Sitting down on this unknown stone, Rowan's mind returned to when he killed Dao Ma. He had used the first of the Sun Weapons—Envy, and now he had two more Sin Weapons—Pride and Wrath. It felt almost fitting that he had killed the first god sitting on this stone while waiting with Envy in his hand. He should continue the tradition.