Chapter 1711: Silence and Dread The Destroyer plunged into the skull of Primordial Soul, and because Rowan had all of his limbs regrown, even his wings, he could push himself higher and angle the blade downward so that it pierced down through her neck before bursting out of her chest as he simultaneously triggered Realm’s Butcher Onslaught while sacrificing another percent of his soul. Despite the pain, he could observe what happened next without passing out because he was using the technique away from his body. The upper half of the body of Primordial Soul vanished, and a frightening crater appeared in the void between Realities. Rowan noticed that his Destroyer had lost almost half of its mass once more, as this technique damaged the weapon as well. Still wrapped around his body were the remnants of Primordial Soul’s flesh, and Rowan unhesitantly pointed his blade at his body and stabbed through the body of Primordial Soul into his own, pinning her to himself. "You are making a mistake, child. We could..." With the blade inside his body, Rowan pushed three percent of his soul into the rune of Realm’s Butcher, and he activated it. ® Inside the Origin Land, there was darkness. Although the City of Sheol had been empty, its glorious light had illuminated the Origin Land, but the battle between Rowan and Primordial Soul had destroyed the entire city, and all that it was had been sucked into Limbo, except for the Purgatory Gate. Rooted firmly in the Origin Land, the Purgatory Gate had survived the collapse of Sheol, and it shielded all of Rowan’s children who had been sleeping, awaiting the day that he woke them all. A massive crater was at the center of what had been Sheol, and it led directly into Limbo, a place where only Old Ones could barely peer into. A large armored hand, bigger than stars, erupted from the crater and grabbed onto space, before another hand emerged holding the remnants of a broken blade that seemed to be made from bones and bleeding flesh, and before long, Rowan dragged half of his body outside the crater. The wound that was made by Realm’s Butcher refused to close, and so Rowan used his Will to force his Origin Land to merge itself over the crater, and so the void began to heal, but it was slow, as if the lingering energy here was fighting for every inch. Everything below his chest was gone, and he turned around and collapsed into the empty space around him, dismissing the armor of the Slaughter Revenant as he regulated his consciousness. A breathless laugh burst out of his chest, and he did not try to suppress it. He had many plans going into this battle, but none of them were fully formed because he decided not to use any of his previous abilities, leaving him with a largely untested pool of power to draw from. Rowan had no plans for banishing Primordial Soul out of Reality because he needed to kill her so she did not merge with her true form. If she did, then a pillar of Reality would be consumed, and while that would not end Reality, it would kill every lifeform inside of it except for extremely powerful Old Ones and the Primordials. With Rowan’s ability to control souls, there was a chance he might be able to step up and bear the burden of carrying every soul in Reality without developing an Origin, but that would leave him severely weakened, and the Primordials would be able to take advantage of him. However, in the heat of battle, Rowan considered all of these points and still decided to go for the kill. There were too many unknown factors in battling a Primordial, and he could not be a hundred percent certain that he had what it took to kill them, and if an opportunity presented itself, he did not have the choice not to take it. A loud cracking sound drew his attention, and he turned to the side and saw the Purgatory Gate beginning to crack. After merging his bloodline and abilities together, he had not yet activated the new changes because of the changes brought by the bloodline of Enoch, and so the Purgatory Gate was like a tree without roots. By all rights, the moment that Rowan had finished with the fusion of his abilities, the Purgatory Gates should have vanished, but it did not; instead, it remembered the wishes of Rowan to protect his children and it endured when it should have disappeared into nothing. Even the battle between two beings whose powers were at the peak of existence did nothing to shake this gate, but in the end, it was starting to fall. Struggling to sit, Rowan began to recreate his body, and because he had done this once before, he was getting better at recreating his body. His perception was drawn to the Destroyer, towards the pommel of the blade where the eye of Primordial Soul had merged with the weapon. The eye that had previously been in a drowsy state was now shining with a weird pale glow, but its gaze was not fixed on Rowan, but away from him, at the closing crater. The wound Rowan had left in space was massive, enough to place a dozen universes side by side just to factor for its length. He had forced the Origin Land to close over the wound, but it was slow, and it would take months for this process to be completed. Following the direction of the eye on his sword, Rowan looked towards the closing crater and saw the upper half of Primordial Soul’s head looking at him. Due to the darkness of this crater, there could be no light inside of it, yet her eyes shone through the darkness like a beast of prey, and then arms began to emerge from the crater, and when they exceeded a thousand, Rowan stopped counting. Pushing his body to heal faster, Rowan began to slowly get to his feet. Something in the air had changed, and he knew that he was now truly facing Primordial Soul, and she had torn off the mask. Like a massive spider made from too many arms with no legs, she emerged from the crater, glowing eyes fixed on Rowan, and she charged at him in silence.