Chapter 169 Palace of Ice (3)
The darkness that rested against his back previously was ephemeral, it had no physical weight, but he could feel its touch on his soul, but as the limit for the bloodline continued to increase the sensation changed from only sensing the shadow on a spiritual level, he began feeling its weight in the physical.
The Soul Reaver bloodline was not supposed to be able to touch the material world at will. The implications for the bloodline to be able to freely exist and interact with the material world was beyond what he had first expected.
The weight grew, slowly as the color of the black and purple smoke condensed, until it began as black as coal, and the purple dotting its skin became like countless burning stars that glinted in that darkness.
From it touch on his back, Rowan began to sense a chilling cold that penetrated his Empyrean body, and indeed around him, frost began to spread as black ice grew under him.
The ice had streaks of purple inside of it, and it shone within the black ice, giving it a mystical air, around Rowan the air began to freeze, and they began to arrange themselves in a subtle manner, as slowly the black and purple ice began creating a structure around him.
There was a whooshing sound as air began to rush towards Rowan into whatever structure was being created around him, and it began to grow.
Yet, that was not the most disconcerting thing happening, the Ouroboros Serpents all these while had not disappointed him, feeding him a steady diet of Soul Points and the Limits of the Soul Reaver bloodline had been extended to 7,650 points, and it was still growing.
On the page of the Primordial Record, the name of the bloodline began to warp and distort, as if it was changing to become something entirely different, and Rowan could perceive faint screams like the lamentations of trillions of souls who were being mercilessly tortured.
Whatever the Soul Reaver bloodline was before, it was being disassembled piece by piece, and Rowan had a growing horror that somehow this change was now being directed by something besides his bloodline seeking to advance itself.
He did not feel any rejection from the Primordial Record, so his mind eased a bit. Rowan was sure that if there was really any danger to him, the Primordial Record would have stopped him.
It was not very communicative, but Rowan knew that it was aware.
The shadow that rested behind him, began going through changes that Rowan found alarming, at first, the shadow was in the general shape of a man, closely resembling Rowan in size, but slowly it was transforming into the shape of a woman.
He began noticing the shape behind him compacting, and gaining more curves, noticing the soft swell of breasts and the long black and purple shadow that signified hair, falling like a cloak around them.
The hair was so long, it reached their knees. A billowing mass of black and purple light.
Why is my bloodline transforming into a woman? Was it at all related to that mysterious goddess, and how could the gaze from a goddess influence an Empyrean bloodline? What was his bloodline consuming behind the blank face of the goddess?
You would think, for someone with Otherworldly colossal serpents living inside his body that nothing would ever be too strange for him.
Because he knew his bloodline of his down to the roots, he was not too worried if he could ultimately control it, but he understood it could be influenced.
Clearly the blank face in his Mental Space had more mysteries than he had first thought. Rowan thought deeply for a moment, then he made a decision.
Still maintaining the ongoing upgrade of his bloodline, he split his Soul into two, which turned out to be far more difficult than he thought, for apparently his Spirit was responsible for powering the actions of his split souls and seeing how every bit of it was being channeled into the growth of his bloodline, he had to fight for scraps to make the action possible.
It was difficult, but he slowly began to accumulate Soul power by the side, the first one he gathered was brutally sucked away by the upgrading bloodline. He had to be more conscientious with his actions, and he slowly accumulated Soul power, and then he created a split soul.
Holding that split soul, be channeled it into the Demon Ohrox's Origin Treasure. If he was truly to find the truth, then he would need information he could only get from gods.
The Soul sense he channeled into that Origin Treasure went blank, and he began feeling that pull as if his senses were being dragged along across eternity. Massive distances going by in a fraction of a fraction of a second, and eerie wails escaping from the darkness his Spirit was traveling through.
He saw the Statue of the Demon once again. As massive as a planet, and emanating bloodlust and destruction, and as if it had an immense gravity of its own, he was drawn helplessly inside of it.
His mind slammed into the Demon's body, and he experienced a new sensation once more—Of experiencing the world through a different lens.
As before, he detected that the body of this Demon was like a stone and the presence of his Soul began giving it life, and he could confirm once more that this stone material was the same as the blank face in his Mental Space.
Was it not the same material he had been consuming all these while to upgrade his Soul Reaver bloodline, or were they different?
If he was ever going to look for answers, then this place had enough hints for him to rummage through.
His flesh became fully transformed from the stone, and he noticed that he seemed to fit better into the body of the Demon. His senses grabbing more details from the environment.
It was as if he were wearing a brand-new shoe and every time he used them, they fit better.
Bad analogies aside, Rowan did not want to be here longer than was necessary. Looking around, he saw the same four statues. Arlushan Endirius, the so-called leader of the Covenant, Khoron, Prince of Strife, Fiona Shadowsoul and finally Ulremazz Igorin.
He looked at their statues and waited for any movements from them, as far as he knew, the last time he was here, it appeared that they were summoned by the Oracle.
Speak of the devil.
"Welcome Ohrox Prince of Destruction." The genderless voice of the Oracle resounded inside the palatial hall.
Rowan waited for more words, but it would appear the Oracle chose to remain silent after welcoming him.
Rowan looked around and wanted to speak before he noticed a blue gem floating in front of him, with his senses, it was impossible for something to be here and him not notice.
That meant, he noticed this gem because it just appeared in front of him that instant or it chose to reveal itself. The gem was hexagonal and hovered in front of him, softly releasing a mellow glow.
"Oracle, are you present?" Rowan called out, the deep rumble that originated from his mouth shocked him, Ohrox had not sounded like this the last he possessed this body.
Remembering his bad analogy and the feeling that he had integrated more deeply with this demon made Rowan frown a little.
"I am ever present Prince of Destruction."
"Good, what is this gem before me?"
"That is your Interdimensional Storage Space paired with your seat on the Covenant. It contains all the resources that have been allocated to you to bolster your reignition of your Infernal Spark."
Fantastic. Rowan would love to delve more into this Storage space, but he had limited time, as he could already feel his soul beginning to slip away from the Demon's body.