Chapter 31 Stepping Into Hell Three Abominations larvae were shambling towards them, and Maeve deliberately slowed down and allowed Rowan to take the lead, he knew this was her way of teaching him. Learn by doing. Rowan would have it no other way. Seeing these monsters ahead, he leaned towards them. They were all women in the loosest sense of the word—Nothing about them was human anymore. They were the favored gender for the larvae of Abominations. He would have felt hesitation to kill these women warped by the touch of the Abominations. But it had been studied and there was proof that the mind was the first to die when you were infected by an Abomination. You simply become a conduit to the will of the Core. The monstrous babies tied to the women's chests made low crooning sounds like birds, yet their eyes were filled with darkness and bloodlust. His Spatial Sight made it possible to keep perfect track of everything around him, and he let his intuition take over. The first Abomination larvae was a few feet from him when she swiped with black-tipped claws, Rowan did not dodge because he was faster. He simply stabbed with the short sword at the Abomination's chest, his target the head of the child. The blade was sharp, and his strength was tremendous, the sword penetrated through the head of the baby into the chest of the Abomination, who shrieked at him, yellow saliva spraying all over his face. With a low grunt, Rowan applied pressure upward and his blade sliced the Abomination larvae in two, erupting from the top of her head in a flood of yellow blood and brain matter, the body fell on its knees and parted into two like an open book. Rowan lifted his legs and stepped across the twitching Abomination. The second one was too close for Rowan to make any effective movement, but he had already planned his next series of actions. He pushed her to the left, his strength enough to make her stumble, and he buried the shears in her neck, the Divine Weapon emitted a wave of chills that froze her in the spot. The last one was on him, biting and clawing, the legs of the Abomination were wrapped around his waist and her teeth were trying to find purchase on his neck. Rowan let it happen for a few seconds and when he saw the attacks were ineffective he seized her by the neck and pulled her away from him. He raised his sword and swung at her head, even with all his advantages, his angle of descent was wrong and instead of neatly cutting through her skull, the blade went through halfway and stopped. Rowan grimaced and wrenched the blade to the side forcefully, exploding her head like a watermelon. Turning to the last frozen Abomination, it took a single blow to free the head off her body. He picked up the Divine weapon and shook both of his wrists, flinging away the gore on his weapons. He had wavered when he was about to kill the second Abomination. A trace of concern for their wellbeing crept over him, and his hands shook. Even with the horror these things represented, he had assumed he was sufficiently motivated to put an end to them. He did not know how to feel about this apparent weakness of his, but the screams coming from his town were getting worse, and suddenly all his concerns were dust in the winds. "If there are Abomination larvae, roaming this far from Calcutta, then we have to be careful not to be surrounded." Maeve said, "Ahead. There are four more by the side of the trees." "Five…" Rowan said, "One of them is perched on the top of the elm tree in the middle." "Oh… Is that so," Maeve smirked, so you missed the two below the ground.? "Son of a…" Rowan muttered. "It would seem you have other sensory abilities besides your eyes, Master. Yet, you don't use them effectively" Maeve said as she abruptly shot past him, the massive blade she held shimmered away and was replaced by a giant hammer. "Watch your steps!" Her words drifted into his ears, as she leaped and pounded the ground with her hammer, causing a mini earthquake. The ground shattered before that blow, pulverizing the Abominations inside the ground, the wave of destruction spread to the trees and uprooted dozens of them. Rowan, anticipating the spreading wave of force, leaped in the air, his Spatial sight revealing there was more behind this hammer blow of Maeve. Besides the sheer force, the ground seemed like it was humming. Before his feet touched the ground, every single Abomination was dead. The hammer blow had flung them up, and she replaced the hammer with her long sword, and like a dancer from hell, she twirled through the falling Abomination slicing their heads off. Rowan heard her whisper, "1.5 seconds" with annoyance in her tone. They began moving again, and Maeve took a step back, allowing Rowan to dispatch the wandering Abominations he saw along the way, giving him advice on proper weapon usage, scouting his surroundings for hostility, and the act of killing efficiently. He did not think he could utilize everything she thought to him presently, but he kept all her instructions inside, and he would slowly absorb them as time passed. For now, his movements were more refined, and the swings from his sword were smooth and direct, he began holding back his strength as he did need to put his all behind the weapon, a tenth of his present strength was enough to cut through the Abomination larvae. He began holding his Spatial sight around him always like a bubble, occasionally shooting a burst of them into the ground, ahead and behind him. He wrapped his sight around Maeve, wishing to duplicate her movements. She had a peculiar method she used to accelerate her motions instantly. It was a freaky thing to witness her going from zero to a hundred in a heartbeat and going back to zero in the next breath. When they reached the edge of the fog, both of them paused, Maeve bent down and began to set up a beacon, materializing various components. Rowan took the time to call up his Primordial Record, and looked at his Soul point progress, in addition to rescuing his people, he hoped to harvest sizeable amounts of souls for his growth PRiMORDiAl RECORD Name: Rowan Kuranes Age: 11/11 Strength: 45.7 Agility: 44.9 Constitution: 92.4 Spirit: 47.9 Class: None Title: Plane walker Aspect: Spatial Sight (Tier 1) Skill: (None) Passive: Decipher language (complete), Icy soul (level 4) Records: TWO HEADED OUROBOROS [ATAVISM]- level 0 [490/3000] SOUL SEIZER – level 0 [0/1000] Soul Point:75.4288 Remark: Divine Runt That was a healthy amount of soul points he had collected so far, he poured seventy of those into Ouroboros, and his body made cracking sounds as it compacted, and he grew another inch, Maeve turned and looked at him, and went back to assembling the beacon. Rowan was sure she had noticed his height increasing; however, his shell served as a shield to all outside probing, so he doubted she would know the earth-shaking changes happening inside his body. These were his stat increments: Strength: 45.7 – 52.7 Agility: 44.9 – 51.9 Constitution: 92.4 – 112.4 Spirit: 47.9 – 48.5 Two-Headed Ouroboros: 490 – 560 His spirit did not benefit from Ouroboros, but the more souls he collected his Spirit grew slowly as a result, but this was slow to him compared to his other stats. For anyone else to grow their spirit this quickly was impossible. Yet, this was not the most thing that had happened to him at the moment. His Constitution had reached the Rift state and everything inside him was beginning to change. "The Beacon is complete," Maeve said, as a bright blue light shot from the components she assembled. It would be their guide on the way out and also serve as a waypoint. Rowan nodded and both of them stepped into Hell.