Chapter 1472 The Blade What he was doing at this moment should not be possible, Rowan was accustomed to doing things that were inconceivable to others, but this struck him as incredibly odd, and he decided to leave how he was able to achieve it for his immortal mind to contemplate in the future. Even while still in the body of a mortal, he had crossed a step where he could now touch his Memories and wield it, and because he was a living dimension, his Memories carried a weight that was almost unreal. He could rationalize touching his Memories, after all, he was inside of them, but controlling them was something different. How was he able to.... Like a brick to the head, the answer came to him and Rowan blinked in surprise and almost laughed aloud at his stupidity, he was not controlling them-these Memories, that was what an immortal would do, no they were helping him because they were all a part of him. He did not need to control them, they were giving him their strength to wield. Accepting his mortal aspects meant accepting all the souls he had inside his Memories to be an essential part of him, not just a faceless judge that he would have to face at the end of his road. There was a time when Rowan saw mortals as just this, but now he had to acknowledge them. "Ah, so that is what this is all about," he sighed. His body fell into the skulls, and they bled out all the momentum of his fall like nothing, and when his feet touched the ground, he landed as lightly as a Swallow. Rowan saw his wounds healing, his eye was regrown, his bones mended, and when he straightened his back as he stood up, he discovered behind him, extending like a cape for hundreds of miles, was an ocean of skulls. Rowan's voice was a whisper that traveled through the entire continent, reaching their depths, and journeyed up the heavens until it touched his blank immortal eyes above, "My Memories are filled with slaughter and bloodshed, but I do not deny my actions, I do not forget them, and I shall honor the fallen. I have witnessed your plight, and I acknowledge your resilience, I am not taking your strength, no, you all are part of me. The foundation of my Memory." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 The silence that followed his words was shattered by a massive explosion that occurred in front of him, almost as if the sun had exploded, and Rowan calmly closed his eyes for the flash of light to fade before he opened them again. "Boom!!!" The ball of flesh had landed in front of him, and the eruption should have blasted him off his feet, but Rowan's legs were steady on the ground even though the earth heaved and shuddered, everything soon settled as a great cry rippled from the center of the explosion that shot out a shockwave that flattened the fires and the abominable form of the Dark One stepped through. The Earth god was in the last moments of his life, but he was so close to victory, and stepping into the immortal stage was right in front of him. Only a single cord pumping corrosive poison was still linked to his body, this was the last cord tying him to mortality, and it was coming loose, collapsing to ash under the might of Yue flame, Rowan faltered because he identified the duality of what was happening here. This Earth god, the Dark One was also him, but this was a representation of him as the countless mortals he had slaughtered saw him, and no matter how twisted and biased their vision of him was, it could not be denied that there was an element of truth in what they saw of him. In their eyes he was a force of greed and depravity, a being that was not contented in ending their lives but also feeding on their souls, he was a hunger that was never sated, the chill outside at night hammering to be let in so every last bit of warmth could be taken from their homes. Rowan could see all of this in the Dark One, but he could also see the struggle and how much he had tried to change, there was no reason for the Dark One to nurture mortal life again and again for millions of years, if there was no part of him that was not tied to them. However, the hunger for advancement is something that few mortals could ever understand, and this hunger could warp even the firmest of Wills. There was a road, a long road that promised everything that the heart could desire if they could reach the end of it, but this road was not for the weak, and every step taken upon it was like journeying to the heavens. The sacrifices needed to not just walk this road, but also to see it to the end required a form of mania and stubbornness that could not be imagined. Rowan saw the Dark One like no one else could, he saw the mania and the drive for power, and he acknowledged that as well, but he also observed that along the way, the Earth god had lost his purpose, and his heart had become weak. If he had slaughtered these mortals once and lived in silence for the next millions of years, then Rowan would have had no issues with him, instead, he had begun to languish in his failures, and had focused his rage on the helpless. This was not him, only a perverted version of him, and Rowan would not let this thing touch immortality, he was not worthy of it. His thoughts firmed on this decision and carried by the weight of Memory, his mortal mind began to stretch, it could not reach the potency of his previous self, but it was enough to wipe out the fog from Rowan's thought and it showed him the single link that he had been missing. The blade in his skull, he finally realized how to pull it out.