Chapter 1473 Mortal Vs Immortal Looking back with the advantage of foresight and a rather powerful Memory, it almost seemed crazy that Rowan had not seen the connection that had been staring at him in the face right from the start. The invisible blade driven through his skull belonged to the Dark One, and it could only be wielded by him, every time Rowan had ever tried to touch it, his hands simply went through the blade as if it was nonexistent, and so with everything he had to deal with, Rowan placed this issue out of his mind, but something had changed when he personally attacked the Dark One when they were inside the ball of flesh. He remembered falling on the shoulders of the Earth god and driving Firen's blade through his spine, with everything going on at that moment, he had failed to realize that the weight of the blade on his forehead had subtly increased. It was a slight difference, but one that his mortal mind had missed, Rowan had now caught it with the enhancement of the power of Memory given to him by the souls behind him. This blade would become solid when he was close to the Dark One, and that meant he had a weapon he could use to kill this abomination that was a single step away from godhood. Mortals had always been weak, they had no claws, fangs, or enhanced physiology to battle against serious threats, but they had access to weapons, and Rowan could not kill a supernatural being without a weapon capable enough to do so. The last bolt fired from the bow of the Archer had not just destroyed the ball of flesh and nearly freed the Dark One from his Tribulation, it had also greatly damaged the Earth god, and although it still stood strong, there was no flesh left on his body, everything had been burned away under that cleansing flame. Standing before Rowan was a fifteen-foot skeleton that was aflame with reddish fire, the right arm was gone, and the left had only two fingers left, there was a large gaping hole in his chest, alongside several ribs that had disappeared, and what was left of the bones of the torso were all broken with several missing pieces. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖 The skull hung askew from the neck as several cracks that nearly split the spinal column into pieces extended from the nape down to the tailbone, and by all right, this skeleton should have collapsed, but the strength it contained still burned the air, despite his injuries, the Dark One still presented the invincible figure of a god that had been worshiped for millions of years. Without the presence of Essence or Aether in his body, any Earth god would have fallen, the damage he had suffered was just too great, however, the Dark One stood, empty eyes gazing at Rowan with such great malevolence the air between them rippled and shivered as if to escape the sight of this half-god. Slowly bringing up his left hand the Dark One pointed to Rowan, and there was no sign of weakness in his voice, it almost sounded as if he was a bit amused, "Maggot, you are the cause of my pain, their weapons, and techniques, all came from you, commendable but futile. I see that you have brought the fallen to stand behind you, this is good, let them all witness my rise and know that their punishment would be eternal under my reign!" Rowan did not respond to this mad thing, there was no need, he was already too far gone, this being was simply a reflection of the mind of the mortals towards who they believed Rowan to be, and so, it had been twisted to the extreme, for something like this, the best course of action was well, action. He did not need to give any order to the Memoroes behind him, as an enormous blast pushed him toward the Dark One whose bony jaw dropped down, most likely heralding the coming of a scream, in such an open area without any obstruction, that cry would rip Rowan to pieces. "That enough from you," Rowan growled as a gesture from his hand sent a flood of skull heading towards the head of the Dark One, they rushed past Rowan, faster than he was being hurtled towards his target, and along the way Rowan made each skull shrink until they were the size of a speck of dust, and he packed them into a screaming ball that covered the head of the Dark One, and their numbers were in the hundreds of thousands. Rowan saw the ball of skulls surrounding the head of the Dark One expand, on the verge of exploding under the strain of containing the voice of the Dark One, but Rowan had not stopped sending more skulls into the ball to strengthen it, and in the fraction of the moment he used to cross the distance between him and the Dark One, he already had millions of skulls covering his head, but he did not expect them to last, the skulls were powerful, but Rowan lacked the necessary Will, Aether or Essence to properly channel their might, and he was barely using them as immortal fodder, however, it did not matter, he only needed them to buy him time, and he was now close to the Earth god as his hypothesis was confirmed. He felt his head dip a little and without the thousand aches of an injured mortal body distracting his mind, he could feel pain ripple across his head as the blade of the Dark One solidified in his skull. Rowan did not try to think about it, only supercharged his skull with as much healing powers as he could draw from the Memories, and with a single smooth motion, he pulled the blade out of his skull. His vision went blank for a moment as a strong taste of citrus flooded his mouth, his muscles nearly collapsed but he was propped up by the Memories behind him and soon enough the wound through his skull healed and Rowan's body steadied a few feet away from the Dark One, and with the same motion that he used to draw out the sword from his head, he continued with that slash, the blade cutting through both knees of the Dark One.