Chapter 1686: Changing Plans In the form of a Crow of Death, Noctis returned to the hut atop a lone yellow star. Moving around as this particular crow granted Noctis an invisibility that only a Primordial would be able to crack, but that is, if they were paying attention to him. He was about to fly through the opening on top of the roof when a formless pressure pushed him back as Sheba dryly rebuked him inside his consciousness, "Go through the door, little crow, he is not in a good mood, and I don’t want to risk any further disruption in his mood by you taking the roof instead of the entire door in front of you!" Noctis was speechless. What difference did it make if he came through any opening in the hut? Sheba was a unique higher-dimensional entity, and the appearance she was holding did not matter when she could shapeshift into anything. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞 In fact, Noctis believed that the yellow sun was the bulk of her mass, and that the tiny hut above could as well be a single strand of hair. He whispered in irritation, and he became even more annoyed when he realized that he was whispering, suggesting that he was being careful not to annoy a Rowan who was in a bad mood, "You do know that he is just a guest in the long run. Now you are allowing him to waltz into our castle and take control of it. Some things should be sacred!" The tinkling laughter of Sheba made Noctis grit his toothless beak, but not feeling the impact of that gesture, he created teeth inside his beak and gnashed them together. "Say what you want, Noctis, but you have already acknowledged him as your master. I am here to ensure you don’t fuck it up, because you will fuck it up if it is left to you." "You... you..." Rolling his eyes in irritation, Noctis knew that this argument would lead to nothing good, and he swerved around and flew through the door, and he swore he could hear Sheba muttering something about hard-headed birds and the teeth in his mouth were crushed into powder. As he crossed the door, the interior of the hut, which should be small, had expanded into a space as vast as a small country. Noctis looked up and did not see any opening in the sky, but countless magnificent runes pulsing with the power of fire and light, and when he looked behind him, there was no doorway. "Why does she want me to follow a door when it would not matter in the first place?!" Grunting in frustration, the crow searched for the presence of Rowan while trying to decipher the changes in his surroundings. He was aware that all of these runes must be associated with the New Light; could it be that she was about to make a move? Apart from consuming the nigh infinite essence of death that Rowan had been channeling into him, Noctis had been patrolling Reality, becoming the eyes and ears of Rowan inside the Primordial Domain. Consuming all of the essence of death had evolved the power of Death in his tattoos, and Noctis was granted the form of a crow. To take this form, a Death-Messenger, which was the sort of creature Noctis had become, would need to channel enough death essence that could cover all the deaths in a dozen Major Eras inside a Reality. Rowan had been able to provide all of this to him and more, until Noctis could no longer consume any more essence and had to wait for it to be digested. What sort of body could give out so much death essence?! Noctis had suspicions, but he could not be sure about them, so he buried them in his heart. They were not important. "Noctis, come to me." The voice of Rowan entered his soul, and the crow shivered, and Noctis felt a gentle force surround his body, and he was drawn to an unknown place inside the castle. The crow appeared beside Rowan, who was sitting cross-legged and was more than a million miles tall. Observing Rowan, the crow realized that this was his actual body and not the incarnation that usually remained here to feed him the death essence. He had barely begun to come to terms with this gigantic body of Rowan when the aura from his body slammed into Noctis, and if not for the gentle pressure surrounding him, Noctis would have crumpled to the ground, with no way to resist. Noctis had seen gigantic Titans bigger than universes and higher dimensions; hell, he knew that the Primordial Domains inside of Reality were the bodies of the Primordials themselves, but something about Rowan’s form and the intense pressure surrounding him was like nothing that Noctis had ever known. If he could have any hint of ambition or resistance when he talked to the incarnation of Rowan, then he was nothing before the real deal. "My—my lord," he stammered, and in his consciousness, he heard the castle snicker, but he was too weak to curse her out; this back-stabbing partner of his could have warned him about what he was flying into. Rowan’s glowing red eyes looked down upon the shivering crow. Noctis was not even aware that his body was shaking uncontrollably, and his spirit and soul were being lulled into a state that was close to delirium. Rowan had noticed the effect of his body on the weaker lifeforms around him, and he was working hard to restrict the influence of his dimensional flesh evolving into its complete form. In essence, Rowan was becoming a being who was gaining the power of the ninth-dimensional level, even though he still remained in the seventh dimension. Initially, only a ninth-dimensional being should be able to attain Origin, but Rowan’s foundation was so great that he could occupy multiple Origins without destabilising his overall level. However, gaining Origin would aid him in the comprehension of all his Wills up to the ninth-dimensional level, which for someone like Rowan could be barely useful since he had so many advantages when it came to comprehension. With the ever-shifting tides of Fate, Rowan could no longer follow his laid-down plans, as everything needed to be adjusted. Focusing on the crow, he asked, "You have been to the Abyss, tell me everything you have seen."