Chapter 1454 New Face It did not take long for this rag-tag bunch of warriors to organize and pull themselves together, Rowan had hit hard but he was not going for the kill, otherwise, they would all be dead, and the primary reason he did not do that after nearly killing the archer was because he was impressed by their conviction and skills for mortal beings and the second was that he could sense their pain. They were not here in the service of this Earth god, it should be the opposite, the desolation he could see in their eyes and the pain that he could sense from their spirit was all the proof that he needed, and it helped that even though they had not given up, their aggression against him had lessened and they were not overtly threatening him. It took a surprising short amount of time for the seven of them to recover from the wound that Rowan had given them, this was due to the fact that they had a Mage who could cast healing spells, and so for the past few moments as they watched Rowan warily, he was focused on the magus incantation and the slight change of energy that he was able to pick up. The attack of the Archer had been slightly threatening, but if they had led with magic, Rowan might have been more inconvenienced, although it would not have changed the outcome of their altercation, it simply displayed that harnessing energy would always be superior to physical might in most cases. This hint of energy movement that he had picked from Mage was all he needed to pick several patterns of energy manipulation and transference that should be unique to this world, the screams of the Earth god carried a great ripple of power that stirred the Aether around this entire continent, but its levels were too high for his mortal mind to touch, this Mage however, possesses Aether manipulatory abilities that was just right for him to emulate, and he closed his eyes, sinking deep into his mind as he drew upon every single bit of processing power that this mortal mind was capable of and began making the links between his body and the energy pathways he could sense from the mage. The seven individuals here could as well be non-existent as he delved into the realm of power, the fear in his heart beginning to die down as a new weapon was being crafted into his arsenal. This process was familiar and even without much of his tools, he could still make great headway. Rowan knew that his eyes had been closed for five minutes and some of the warriors here had begun to fidget, especially the mage who was whispering furiously to the seven feet tall warrior whose Great sword now rested in Rowan's hand and who should be their leader, by his act of calming the rest and organizing them in a loose formation that would ensure that if Rowan decided to attack, he would not be able to kill all of them at once, at least that should have been the case if they were standing against anyone else, but with a weapon in Rowan's hand, their deaths would come instantaneously if he wished it. A small part of him was listening to their whispered conversation but he did not have the processing power to analyze them yet, not while he was busy trying to decipher the power system of this realm using a brief second of watching the Mage heal his companions, but he was storing those words in his mind and when he had the mental space to process their words he would understand them better, nevertheless, he needed to be quick, the ascension of the Earth god would not wait for him to gain more power, and Rowan was not going to be doing that anyways, he simply needed to understand what sort of power the Earth god would be capable of wielding inside this Fracture, and if he could be able to borrow any of that power, if not, then counter it to some degree. Rowan could not access nearly 99.9999% of his immortal memories, but the fraction of his memories that he could access was enough for him to determine what sort of power structure he was dealing with and it was enough for him to begin making connections with his body, however, he was failing, and he could not discover the reason why that should be the case, and the lack of answers was quite bothersome. Rowan could barely glimpse the energy structure of this Fracture, and with his understanding of Aether, technically he should have been able to access the structure of power that governed this world, his mental prowess, although diminished, should have easily grasped the Aether flowing through this Fracture, and he kept trying to access this energy dozens of times, and he finally decided to give up, obviously something was blocking him from accessing this energy and this might just be one of the trial limitations to keep him weak and ensure that his survival rate barely remained above zero. He did not remain frustrated at this problem, his mental state had exceeded those notions, and Rowan simply switched to the next objective, which was understanding what these seven before him had been saying, and the result was greatly surprising. Of the seven here two was female, the Archer and a beefy woman who wielded a mace, she had been struck down when Rowan had blasted the Ranger with an arrow head, and the whispers among them was simply astonishing because they had not expected any survivors to remain in this wasted continent as their survival was simply due to the Earth god, called the Dark One seeking to toy with them until he was satisfied. These seven were the remnants of the entire civilization that once inhabited the continent, all great warriors and leaders, they had been the companion of the Dark One at the earlier stages of his life, and they were kept alive to witness all that transpired before the Dark One finally killed them. However, the greatest reason they had attacked Rowan was because of fear, because by all indicators, he should be dead, not that they had seen him perish before or anything like that so his walking corpse had been something of a shock to them, but simply because he had a sword stuck deep into his head. Rowan frowned when he listened to them, he had a profound sense of his body, and if there was a blade stuck inside his head, this mortal flesh should be dead and at the least, he should be able to tell, but he could feel nothing, his sense of balance was not broken by any added weight to his head, and Rowan slowly brought his hand forward to touch his head but there was nothing, from the way the eyes of the seven widened and the look of fear in them he knew that something was truly wrong, he attempted to touch the blade once more, but there was still no signs that he had been injured, and finally it was the leader that stepped forward, stretching his shield over and turning it around so its inner reflective part could face Rowan, "Perhaps this might help," he said, "It is said that only the Dark One could wield that blade." Rowan did not refuse the offer of assistance, bringing the shield to his face and for the first time since he entered this Fracture, he saw his reflection. Somehow he was not as surprised by what he saw, even though he felt that he should be, it almost felt as if he was expecting it. The face he wore belonged to Arcturus, the first soon of Seed, a teardrop from the Primordial of Life, he looked much younger here, a young man entering adulthood, and as much as that was surprising, what was not was the black sword that was swirling with reddish fog that had been thrust through his forehead and emerged from behind his head. All this while he had been walking with a weapon embedded in his skull, and when Rowan attempted to touch the hilt of the blade, his hand simply passed though it as if it was made from the stuff of dreams and not a corporeal weapon. "Interesting," he muttered The leader of the seven looked at him as if he was insane, looking behind him as if to reassure himself that he was not the only one who heard what Rowan had said before he coughed, "That is not what I expect anyone to say if the blade of the Dark One is stuck in their head, but who am I to judge, the world has ended and any sort of madness is permitted, I guess." "Worlds are ending even as we speak," Rowan said, "to me, the novelty of such an event has worn off, but it is interesting for me when my senses could have been dulled to this extent." "You are not from here, are you?" The leader spoke slowly and Rowan pushing the shield back to him smiled, "What gave me away?"