Chapter 1450 Shattered Mind "Drip… Drip…. Drip….." The persistent sound of what seemed like dripping water drew Rowan from the embrace of unconsciousness back into a world of pain, and his body seized as every nerve endings in his body seemed to have been soaked in acid. A series of intelligible moans escaped from his broken jaw, and he did not care that he was no longer bound by the runes from Seed as his body was no longer under his control. His sense of self was distant, only pain remained, anguish, loathing, despair, hate, fear, such great fear as the horrifying demise of countless souls flooded his mortal mind. Everything was agony, yet his mind that was fractured was beginning to heal despite the horrifying blow that had been dealt to his sanity. The singular trait that he had earned from his Ouroboros bloodline had been further developed and magnified until it reached this state where Rowan knew that the only way to kill him, either in body or soul was to eradicate everything of him completely, or else he would always recover, it did not matter how grievous the injury was, he only needed time, however, healing this wound to his mind was different, because to the bloodlines, he was wasn't broken, there was nothing to fix, his mind was simply in pieces, but a stubborn part of Rowan's self would not ever contemplate trying to live with a broken mind. But the weight was too much to bear, and the only reason he had not unleashed the power of Eos and his bloodline to escape from this torment was that he had sliced off the part of his mind that could access his abilities. Rowan did not know of Seed, and Elura knew the implications of what they had achieved because they had, at this moment in time, broken him, and if Rowan was clear-minded, he would not know whether he should applaud them or slowly kill them. What Elura and Seed did not know about Rowan's life was the fact that although he had killed a lot of people and the weight of their deaths would have been enough to bring him down if he was given a mortal's body, Rowan had also harvested an insane amount of souls from reality, especially on Doom Star where the souls he had collected were so ridiculous it would have taken him many minor Eras to gather as much, and this was not taken under the consideration that majority of the souls on Doom Star had become corrupted after spending endless reincarnation in agony and despair. The weight of all that grief falling on his mind that had no way to endlessly adapt without the backing of his bloodlines and talents had finally surpassed the limit that he could hold. Rowan had been able to carry all of that weight because of the strength of his body and soul, now stripped of the majority of those powers, his powerful mind was broken. Even as a mortal, his mind was vast, and when it broke, it shattered into a trillion pieces, all of whom were especially powerful, and of whom were mad. & Such a weight falling on the mind of a mortal mind was truly impossible to be comprehended, and even on the verge of his mind's destruction, Rowan did not feel any fear, in fact, a small part of his consciousness was curious, he had suffered great mental torment in the past, and none had been able to break his consciousness like this, and while Rowan was brought to the height of suffering that tore great mental cracks in his consciousness, a small part of him clinically observed that process, tasting it, absorbing all the way an immortal mind as powerful as his own could be broken, and now that his body was still beset by torment, that small part of his consciousness took over and began healing his mind. The process was slow and intensely painful, it required Rowan to face the trauma of an untold number of souls, relieve their nightmares, and conquer them, and he no longer had any supernatural powers to aid him, everything had to be done like a mere mortal, and he failed many times, but slowly he began to heal the fractures, and his mental state that he felt had reached the peak of what any immortal was capable of, had transformed into something that Rowan would never have recognized before he entered this realm, and he had barely healed ten percent of his mind. He was used to mind-numbing work, even though he was technically insane at the moment and working in the most unfavorable of conditions, he did not stop, a peculiar sort of stubbornness held him in place, his focus unmatched, his Will was unbroken, for even in the verge of death and eternal madness, he still had a purpose for living. And Rowan could not deny that a massive part of his broken mind loved this challenge. Forgetting the great trials ahead and the goals he had to achieve, simply placing himself in an impossible situation and clawing out of it brought with it a satisfaction that few things in existence could replace for him. As he pushed deeper into his healing journey, disregarding all the thoughts of madness, Rowan felt that he had reached a certain junction in his trials, and if he broke past this level, he might have been able to gather enough of his mind to understand what was happening around him. His consciousness dove into one of the largest fractures in his mind, eager to surpass this tribulation and experience what was becoming a familiar tearing push, and pulling sensation, he saw himself inside the body of a dying warrior, and Rowan simply knew that this trail would test him, far more than any that he had encountered. "Drip…. Drip…. Drip….." The body he had inhabited opened his eyes, no, eye, the other had been gouged out by a blade that tore a neat line through half his face, nearly slicing off the nose of the warrior. There was pain emerging from nearly every part of this warrior, from broken bones to mangled flesh, and what made these trials very terrifying was that Rowan's supernatural adaptability to pain was gone, and he had to deal with pain like a mortal man would do, further straining his sanity past the edge. In these trials, he could not spend too much time inside them or he would be sucked into it and would forever be lost, and Rowan struggled to detach his mind from his body, understanding and cataloging the pain as quickly as he could manage so that he could function and understand how he would heal this portion of his mind. It was slow and painful work, but he persevered; as much as the hurt and the madness plagued him, there was also something here that Rowan had not expected; the only thing that gave him the strength to push on, and that was hope and faith. He did not know where they came from, but every time he reached the bottom of his perseverance, every time he knew that he had lost, something pushed him forward, something gave him hope, and no matter how thin the thread of hope driving his spirit, it was enough to make him resolve to heal his mind and become whole again. Drip…. Drip…. Drip….." A distracting sound pulled him from the consciousness of this warrior, and Rowan flexed his fingers and toes. He was missing a couple of digits from his hands, and also his legs; this would affect his balance and coordination, but a good shoe should go a long way in fixing it… Drip…. Drip…. Drip….." His eyes became focused on his surroundings, and he saw that this persistent sound could be traced to a body hanging over the warrior he inhabited; this poor fellow had been shredded to pieces, and his blood was slowly falling on the body of the dying warrior like raindrops. Drip…. Drip…. Drip….." Rowan noticed that the man hanging over him had been impaled by a spear, and when he turned his head to the side, he saw a seemingly endless field of spears and the bodies of countless men and animals hanging upon them. Groaning a bit, he struggled to his feet and slowly walked up to the man whose blood had been dripping beside his ears; he took his shoes.