Chapter 202 The Whispering Infants The first split vision showed him the two Dominators he saw fighting with the mercenaries, Suriel Sight stripped them of their disguises, and he saw they had long blond hair, and their shape were willowy with pointed ears. They were about to leave the range of Suriel's sight. Are they elves? Why are there no longer any Legendary State Dominators with them? Why are they so afraid? Did I not clear most of the horde in the Continent? Pushing those questions away from his mind, the second vision panel showed him Rico and Nana. He had suspected the older woman, but she hid more deeply than he thought. She was approaching death, maybe that was why she reduced all energy emissions from her body to zero. The last figure was below the ground. It was not a man but a golden beast, and at this time it was a few miles away from the underground cavern where Rowan was. It was a giant rat wearing a white jacket with the buttons opened, and a black top hat. It was moving through the ground with a supernatural ability because the earth parted around it as it moved, and with the look in its eye, this beast was intelligent, and it was muttering to itself. Rowan had a theory of these beasts gaining more intelligence the higher their level, and he was correct, and his elation of this new feature of his Angel was curbed by a growing chill. This creature had been following him all these while! Rowan may have felt a pinch of reluctance blowing a hundred thousand Soul points into creating the Angel, but now he realized it was an intelligent decision, the utility of Suriel's Sight alone was more than worth the investment he placed into it. If the Ouroboros bloodline was to be his fist. The Angel's bloodline would be his eyes. The Golden beast was the strongest he had ever met, and with its disguise ability, it would have been impossible for Rowan to know he was being followed. If it was adept at assassination, Rowan could have lost his head without realizing it. He was going to kill this creature. But he had never personally killed any being beyond the first Circle before, so that could be a problem. His Serpents were too far away from him at this time, and if they were to return, it would take at least four hours. Rowan would have to battle this creature and kill it without having any aid from his Serpents. That prospect did not phase him, he just had to make sure it did not escape, that was the most important aspect of it all. He did not know how long the beast had been trailing him or how much information about him, it knew. His mind began whirling around as he began thinking about the consequences of his abilities being exposed to the beast behind the curtain—The massive dragon lying in wait on the third continent. He could afford no mistakes in this fight, Rowan had not begun testing his Ability Runes with Aether and now was as good a time as any to do so. Using Suriel's Sight was not disorienting to him, as Rowan allocated a single pillar of Consciousness to the task while leaving another for himself, so he had a full view of his surroundings and paired with his Empyrean sense, he felt he had the whole area under control. Then he felt an urging from Suriel and also the Lady of Shadow, they wanted to be the one fighting. From Suriel it almost seemed painful to watch Rowan fighting, yet there was also a hint of awe in the heart of the Angel. That was… interesting. If the Angels see him as their father, he may understand the reason for this emotion, but Rowan placated him, with the message that war was coming sooner than he thinks, and he would have more than his share of blood and mayhem soon enough. Rowan kept the Palace of Ice back into his Mental Space and swept his mind through his Spatial Bracelet, idly noting that he had been levitating the bracelet all these while without any conscious thought. His robes of shadow faded, and Rowan materialized the clothes inside his bracelet onto his body, since his experiment to create clothes out of flames had been cut short. From the movement of the golden rat, he determined that it would be quick as its motion was impressively fast, so Rowan had to focus on the Agility Attribute. Because he had only two pillars of consciousness, and one of them was dedicated to Suriel's Sight he had to make do with one, that meant he would burn his vitality, but to a limited degree, maintaining it was difficult as it would be like fighting two wars, one with his bloodline and another with the golden rat that was as large as an elephant. Burning only two percent of his total vitality, he focused the burst of energy on his Agility and the world slowed further, he crouched, retrieving two spears from his bracelet. The Golden Rat was twelve miles away from the cavern, and it was beginning to slow down. Rowan's entire senses focused on the creature, he would have to kill it as quickly as possible. Here goes nothing. Rowan activated his Flesh Light Ability Rune using his new purple black Aether, and in his heightened perception brought on by his high Agility Attribute, he watched the grains of purple black Aether fly up and touched the Ability Rune for Flesh Light, and the Rune shook. And then a sudden storm began inside his Mental Space, as lightning and a loud scream of pain escaped from the Ability Rune of Flesh Light. Lamia! That bit*h has been in my Mental Space all these while! His Palace of Ice began releasing a suction force on the Ability Rune, and before the flames of Flesh Light could manifest the Ability Rune was drawn into the Palace of Ice. The heart representing Flesh Light froze and turned black, and began to disintegrate into dust, and the dust soon vanished. The palace of Ice flashed, and it seemed to have gained something from devouring the Ability Rune. He had just lost Flesh Light! Lamia's will was inside the Ability Rune! Does she know my location? Rowan was shocked, but he shrugged it off, this was not the right time to start obsessing over what had occurred. It would seem he could not activate Ability Runes with his new purple black Aether, or the Palace of Ice may consume it. He had a premonition when he began gaining abilities inside the Nexus about the ease by which he was gaining new powers, and he could not yet satisfactorily explain how he gained them. He was once again reminded that the Primordial Record could not help him solve all his problems; it would not alert him to some glaring issues that he might have overlooked. After all, it took for the entire universe to be destroyed before it decided to make a move. Rowan realized that not even his death was the reason it folded an entire timeline into its pages, it was because he had attracted too much attention. Yet he was not too disturbed by that fact. It gave him enough advantages, he did not expect it to solve all his problems, he had all the tools to destroy all the plans of his enemies, he just had to use them wisely. He did not know which of his Ability Runes were corrupted, maybe it was only Flesh Light, and potentially it was all the Abilities he gained inside the Nexus. If that was to be the case, his strength had just been cut down by a lot on the eve of battle against a second circle golden beast.