Rowan was stunned by the selfless acts of these souls for his sake, comparing the vigor of their souls with his, was like comparing a candle flame to a burning tree.

Even though his soul was on its last wisp, it was still a soul with two Omnipotent bloodlines, especially as one of the bloodline domains was of the soul itself.

These souls were tiny flames…

Grunmir...Voramyr...Svegrim...Torernir...Gragvar. Grarnir... Thogir...

𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯… 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦.

What they were doing was futile, it should be impossible for them to affect his withered flames, yet…

Alana…Morin… Branrik... Ragodr... Fjarmir...

They came and did the impossible, from the tiny flames they gave out, they reignited a forest.

𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘪𝘯.

Each soul that touched his left him their goodwill.

"Young Noble, thank you for saving my son… He is a little dumb, but he has a strong back and quick fingers. It is my honor to give you my flame…"

"Kick their nasty behind, sir… Those demons are me in front of my children…"

"Why did I never consummate my marriage after three months… Those bastards killed my Gregori... Kill them all…".

"Take it easy, young Noble, Alana is cheering for you. Please live well, and Alana will be happy"

𝘈𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘢… 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

Rowan's soul came ablaze with a glow that rivaled every color put on a canvas. He did not know what to feel at this time, it was a complex mixture of amazement and sadness.

When he places these souls inside his Jaws of Dagon, it occurs to him that if he was able to collect souls, why could he not collect his own like a Lich? He had not been sure that he might succeed, but he was never one to lay down and die without fighting.

He had asked himself: If he was in the final moment of his life, was it possible to extend that duration for as long as possible? Rowan had succeeded, yet he had also failed.

He could safeguard his soul for a moment, but ultimately, his Soul Seizer bloodline's Jaw of Dagon was still too weak to harbor a soul like his own. His soul was unique, a merger of two different souls from two separated Universes.

It may never be possible to know how someone like him came to be—but he was.

Already he could feel the surrounding strain. Only if he could place the Jaws of Dagon inside his body, he might be able to start upgrading his bloodline.

But a Soul Storm raged around his body, preventing him from descending, and more souls gave up their flames, and he burned brighter. His strength grew, as his unique soul, became… More!

With a yell, he began forcing the Jaws to push through the storm and enter his body, he strained and pushed with everything he had, but as he began inching closer to his body, the storm increased.

Keepers! 𝘈 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮e, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥!

When he knew he could not move a single inch more, he stopped and watched the last soul flame enter his, and he gave his silent acknowledgment to these people who had given the ultimate sacrifice.

The Jaws could keep him safe, yet its speed was slow, and it was heavy. He scrutinized the soul storm around his body, it would tear him apart.

He was too angry to care all that much, he had made promises, and he was too tired of failing them.

Rowan pushed his blazing soul out of the Jaws and into the storm.

His soul was breaking, as his flames began to dim. The pain he experienced was horrendous, as everything that he was, became fragmented.

But his Soul was light and fast, and even as his flame died, he touched his body and gave a single order, before his soul collapsed into darkness.

*******************

The Sylvan lakes were dark and empty. Every trace of life had been killed and devoured, nothing else existed in the lake except evil.

The lifeless water was cold and surprisingly appeared to be very clean.

Life held many things, chief among them being chaos. Life was messy and out of order. Things fail or break. Life dies and is renewed. Even in death, life thrives.

The lake was empty of even death itself. Just filled with the cold and silence of emptiness.

A silence that was broken by a thumping sound reminiscent of a new heartbeat. The sound echoed sporadically, and not in any particular order.

At the bottom of the lake lay the head of a woman, from a distance, her features seemed perfect. But a careful observation would bring about some oddities.

Because you could see the head lying at the bottom of the lake even when you were outside of it, and this observation was important because the lake was quite deep and if this was not a trick of the light, then that would mean that the head must be gigantic.

The face was blue with yellow stripes that ran all through and her hair was black and flowing in the silent waters.

Even in her gigantic size, her face was still beautiful, in a primal way.

Nevertheless, the veneer of beauty was all from a distance. A closer look would reveal the horror beneath.

The head lay on a field of bones, and it must have laid there for an inestimable amount of time, for there were multiple layers to this grotesque bed it rested upon.

At the top layer were bones of humans and beasts of all shapes and sizes, and beneath were bones of giants that looked like rocks. Beneath were the bones of Nobles in varying forms. Some bones of Nobles were as tiny as ants, and some were as tall as mountains.

Beneath the bones of the Nobles were the bones of Demons, and some of their remains could not be described, for their shape was too chaotic. And beneath all that rested a winged skeleton.

The skeleton was inside a diamond-shaped crystal that served as a coffin. It held a great sword and was armored in gold.

It was clear this was the first creature entombed here.

Her strands of hair were as thick as pythons, almost six feet in diameter. Clustered within her hair were countless closed eyes. The eyes were all pierced with long spikes.

Except for one eye, out of that eye crawled out a tiny tadpole-like creature that swam upward, it gingerly maneuvered through the dense locks of hair as it swam upward, until it became bigger, and it slowly morphed into a small infant with yellow eyes that glowed in the water.

The moment the tiny creature broke the surface of the lake, another tadpole was spawned from the eye.

The infant Abomination swam towards the shore, where hundreds of bodies were placed, most were dead, but interspersed in between the corpses were signs of some that were still breathing…. moving.

Strangely, these bodies were not from the town, most of them were strangers that had no reason to even be close to this location. Some were Arathians who lived at the far edges of the continents, some were Belmains, which were a group of seafaring people, and multiple other races.

The bodies were surrounded by tens of Giant Abominations. The tiny infant creature crawled through the bodies and selected the body of a young woman, and with eyes gleaming with delight, it unhinged its jaws and began to swallow.

A sound came like a crack of thunder and a tiny glow shone on the surface of the lake and two glowing figures stepped through from the light. The figures grew until they stood at a man's height.

They both wore mysterious metallic armor with a strange mask that had a central piece resembling the trunk of an elephant.