Chapter 1423 Going For The Kill The rumble from within the ball of grinding chains began to slowly abate, as well as the cries of Drakul, the emanations from the Memories of Drakul which were now barely a flicker. From all outward indicators the Old One was dying, but Rowan could sense his soul growing stronger. Drakul must have understood that its Memories were greatly hindered by the Sin Weapon and it was about to quickly push towards becoming a Soul so he could have access to his Will as well as spells, Rowan whispered, "No, you do not. This battle would be short." Selecting the right ability to use was barely a thought as he opened up a channel from Serathis to the outside world; even though he had not activated this bloodline completely, it did not matter, the sun did not need help to shine; only her presence was the bane of souls, as an Origin Bloodline of an Eclipsed Creator. Serathis had swallowed the Primordial bloodlines of Sheol and the Tree of Desire, and the power she wielded was extremely frightening when the boost of the combination of both bloodlines was not accumulative but rather exponential. The power of his bloodlines was so great that Rowan was not even willing to activate them and complete his evolution until his understanding of the fundamentals of reality became more robust. This was the first time he would be using any of his bloodlines in combat, and he was eager to draw data and what they were now capable of. An enchanting greenish-gold light emerged from Rowan's chest and spread out over the ball of whirling chains, at first, it was as if nothing was happening, but inside the green light, thousands of balls of red fog began to arise that drifted towards Rowan, as they neared him, the red fog coalesced into shiny red crystals that were promptly absorbed by him. Each of these crystals was equivalent to the entire soul energy of a fourth-dimensional immortal, and in just a few moments, Rowan had harvested tens of thousands of it. He had barely begun to scrape the surface of this Old One's soul, and yet he had gained so many soul crystals. Their red color meant they were filled with more than just soul energy but they also contained a lot of what made Drakul who he was, including his Memories and Abilities. If he had any hesitation at all about his plans to return all of these eighth-dimensional immortals of Reality, then they had been broken at this moment, because nothing else could ever give him this amount of souls, not even raiding a million universes, not to mention that the Memory of an Old One was different from a lower dimensional immortal as they were power made tangible, even if he did not need all these Abilities, it did not mean his children would not require it. His Serathis Bloodline had displayed her greater power over souls, as she was able to drain the power of an eighth-dimensional immortal; Sheol would be incapable of doing this until he had killed that immortal. There was also no strain in this process, as they were processed and gathered inside his Origin Land extremely smoothly. There did not seem to be any reaction from Drakul, and Rowan had drained millions of soul crystals at this point when he concluded that Serathis was even more diabolical than he had first given credit. Serathis, with the power of luck and probability behind her, seemed to be able to shield the senses of those under her influence. It was not as if Drakul knew that he was losing his soul power and did not care, but the Old One had no idea that his soul was being rapidly drained. Of course, there must have been many other hidden processes behind the method she was using to fool the senses of Drakul, but investigating them now might alert the Old One; Rowan would rather feast in peace. However, this easy feasting did not continue for long because Drakul must have detected there was something wrong, it was hard to deceive an Old One for long, and Rowan was not using Serathis at full power, most likely leaving certain loopholes that would have been seen through by Drakul, but Rowan had already gained so much soul crystals that if not for the impossible amount he had collected during his time on Doom Star he would be grinning like a madman. Also, he believed that he had drained so much Soul Power from Drakul that this Old One had become a shadow of what it once was. Serathis was indeed formidable. It was time to go for the kill. "How dare you!" A surprising blast of power accompanied by a Will that sought to assimilate everything emerged from the ball of chains, the shockwave cracking the hardened space like glass and shattering the chains covering the Old One into red ash, Rowan crushed the bow in his left hand and it transformed into a massive shield that he set in front of him, "Boom!" The blast of Will slammed against the shield, and Rowan was pushed back a few miles; as his feet shattered the space underneath him, the three arrows in his right hand transformed into a spear that he began supercharging with the power of Destruction. Cracking sounds emerged from the shield as under the blast of power from the Old One, it was being shattered to pieces. Setting the point of the spear against the center of the shield, Rowan waited for the moment when the shield was about to shatter, and he thrust the spear right into the massive blood-filled mouth of a ghoulish bat that had been mere feet away from devouring him. Drakul had taken the shadow of his true form, that of a ghoulish bat that had fed on countless universes and dimensions to reach the level of an Old One. When blocking against the eruption of power from Drakul he had not detected this great bat sneaking towards him, however, an instinct as if he had lived through the situation a thousand times over flooded his mind and Rowan knew Drakul would be about to pounce on him, this was the pattern this Old One uses to hunt, and because of the Memories he had collected from Drakul's soul, Rowan knew that pattern, nearly intimately. Drakul shrieked; the spear of destruction did not care about the defenses he had; it pierced through the crown of his mouth, lodging deep into the skull, and Rowan twisted the spear while simultaneously commanding it to extend. Gore burst out of Drakul's skull, as the top part of his head alongside his right eye was eradicated by a wave of red; the screams of the bat were chocked off when several circles of chains appeared around his neck, the ends of it appeared on Rowan's hands. The remaining eye of Drakul widened, "No, don't… I can help–" Rowan coldly pushed power into the chains, and the teeth disengaged from it and began to spin; Drakul could barely give a dispersing scream before his head was sliced off. His headless body reared back, his wings beating in panic as they attempted to escape but Rowan had already separated the chains in two and swung them at the wings of Drakul, where they encircled it at the joint, and the whirling and grinding sound of its teeth resounded once more as both wings of the Old One was sliced off. The chains did not stop moving as Rowan swung them in a circular motion, tearing through the remaining limbs of the ghoulish bat, and before the body could fall, Rowan pushed his hand forward, extending the chain like a spear and it pierced through the chest of Drakul, and with a wrench he dragged out his beating heart. In just a few moments, an Old One lay butchered at his feet. The head of Drakul lying in a puddle of growing blood, growled, "What do you think that would achieve? I will retur–" A great hammer conjured by the power of Creation silenced it, reducing the head to a pulp as Rowan smashed down the great hammer several times on the remnants of the skull with so much power that this entire dimension was shaking, straining the reinforcement being made by his dimensional soul to the breaking point. What was worthy to note was that the effect of Serathis power had never ended, and she was still collecting the soul energy from Drakul, so even as Rowan watched, the shattered body of the ghoulish bat was shrinking under her light that only he could see.