Chapter 238 Forgone Conclusion Rowan picked up the glowing heart, and watched as the heat and light slowly faded from it, and it began falling apart, as six serpents the size of worms drilled their way out of it. They had just consumed Dorian's entire Territory, which was the Mayfly Tree. They had gained enormous benefits from doing so, as Rowan knew that their sizes had increased once more, as consuming material dense with energy were now being allocated to their own growth and not been pushed into the Chaos Engine, he also felt the strain on his body loosen a bit, as he knew he could now push his Avatar of Eve bloodline forward a bit. But the benefits were not over, killing Dorian still gave him more. Rowan suddenly shook, and his breathing became rough, as there was no air on the moon, his body was just going through familiar motions, he felt a dull heat in his spine as a soul the size of a mountain began streaming into his Palace of Ice and expanding the size of the purple moon inside. It was almost painful consuming a soul as large and dense as Dorian, even though it was now damaged as a result of the powers of the blade. If he had tried to consume such a soul when his bloodline was still those of a Soul Reaver and he still had a Soul it would have damaged him, most likely torn his Soul apart, and he would have to take a long time to recover. Dorian soul had a unique quality as he was on the verge of the third circle that made it seem immortal, and he felt he was chewing on a hardened piece of leather as he wrestled to consume the soul fully. There were many flashes of memories, most of them were incomprehensible, as they were just fragments of disjointed lights and sounds with no clear organization, but only one stayed with him, it was the central figure in Dorian Soul, and he felt he held it in such high esteem and sheer terror. It was of a woman with waist - length hair that was red like blood, she was in armor and held a blade made of bone and flames. A name came to him— Scarlet. Was this his mother? So when he introduced himself as Dorian, the Son of Scarlet, he meant that quite literally. Why does this figure seem familiar? I have seen pictures of her before. Rowan thought quickly identified through his messy memories of the prince's life, and he soon came upon a single memory of a lady in flaming armor sitting on a throne, as all the children of Kuranes family bowed to her during their initiation as a Noble when they were anointed with Ambrosia and given the gift of the tongue of Medan. That was the only memory he had of this figure. Most likely she was a higher up of the Kuranes family, perhaps she might even be the ruler of the Kuranes household, the current Ancestor, and the reigning queen of the Bramian Court. Nothing would surprise Rowan at this point anymore, and if he had just ended up killing her son, well, he would cross that bridge when he came to it. The soul infusion stopped after a while after giving him a whopping 122,459 Soul points! From the moment Rowan brought Dorian to the moon, his death was already a foregone conclusion, and he had already deliberated on many ways he could finish him off. His greater concern was the message he was about to spread to the Empire and the hidden undercurrent in Jarkarr, after all, there was a god inside the planet. So Dorian was among the least of his problems, he was just a means to, and he hoped his message had achieved his intended purpose. Rowan's knowledge of future events and his familiarity with Dorian's capability meant this battle was his from the start. During their last clash, Rowan had sensed a lot of his flesh inside Dorian's body, especially when he opened his Territory as he was battling Rico, he had an idea about how it came to be, after all, Dorian was responsible for the death of most of the golden beast on the planet, he was still curious about something else. He had felt he could strip away his powers inside the Territory of Dorian, but he had a thought, what if it was the other way around? Could he enter someone else's Territory? When his Serpents battled the second circle Dominator — Scarvros, for the first time, they had come in contact with the powers of Territory, and he had become fascinated with it, not only because it was the foundation of greater powers going forward, it could serve as a link to a god's Divine Kingdom. He had learned as much as he could about Territories and their makeup, and one thing he understood was that a Territory was unique to each Dominator but was still linked to their bloodlines, and except by the permission of their host, no one could violate the sanctity of a Territory. If a Dominator dies, their territory would be sealed shut, and over time it would drift towards the Divine Kingdom of their gods or Primogenitor where it would be reassimilated, but this would be bad news for Rowan because a Territory had energy dense resources that he needed. Dorian Territory had yield hundreds of millions of energy points that he had assimilated alongside his soul, as he truly consumed him without any waste, as Dorian husk was worth less than ashes at this point. If he would be killing Dominators of the second circle and higher, he needed to begin familiarizing himself with how to infiltrate and consume their Territories to kill more efficiently. His experiment to kill Dorian and enter into his Territory worked. It didn't hurt that Dorian had been eating a lot of his flesh, and they served as a clear beacon for his Serpents to follow. What if he could infiltrate and consume the Divine Kingdom of a god?