The gate the City of Sheol was presently using was extremely thick, and Rowan doubted that even his Sovereigns would be able to through it. Yet, it had nearly been breached.

The shock in Rowan’s heart was monumental, during the period when he had not been in complete control of his powers, someone living inside him had been trying to break into his bloodline, and from the deep scratches on the gates of his City of Sheol, if he had delayed for a few more months in reality, that would give the intruder enough years to tear their way into his bloodline center of power.

How had he not been aware that he was in danger? How could Eva or any of his Angels allow such desecration on his bloodline? He had thought the trend where his body betrayed him was past, but a shadow had remained, a weak point that he had overlooked, or maybe it was something new, something he had no defense against because he had never encountered it before.

Rowan smiled, he was experiencing an emotion he had never felt before, and it was not rage he felt, it was something deeper than that, approaching what he felt about his father.

He had sacrificed and schemed for the opportunity to escape the hold over him from all sorts of enemies who sought to control or kill him, and when he was on the verge of freedom, something else inside of him thought he was weak enough or sufficiently distracted that they could infiltrate his bloodline without his knowing.

“Who is it? What the ** did I miss?” he was on the verge of ascension, and he did not have the time to properly investigate all avenues of weakness he had but it was not hard for him to narrow the list of suspects down to one individual.

He had previously been warned of the dangers in the past by the Lady of Shadow, or perhaps the rot went deeper than he suspected. Rowan hoped that was not the case.

Yet their plans were on the verge of failure, Time and Luck were not on their side for Rowan was here.

His consciousness touched the gate of his City of Sheol, and a bright light exploded from it. Accessing his bloodline deeper than he had ever done before since he usually did this with the Primordial Record, he had to brace for a deluge of information that nearly blasted his single consciousness into nothingness, but he had succeeded in giving the order for ascension, and Rowan hurriedly tore his consciousness away from the gate.

The Primordial force sleeping deep inside the City of Sheol was activated and a pressure pushed back the purple haze for miles.

Surrounding Sheol was the Primordial Sea, half of which was black, and the other half was bright sparkling water, on the black side of the sea were endless rows of kneeling Angels of Char. There were now many strange and powerful figures among their numbers, which had multiplied over the years, their numbers were now as numerous as sands on the beach.

His Angels of Char were arrayed in the eastern part of Sheol, and on the western part were his Awakened Angels, their numbers were not as plentiful as from the Angels of Char, but their presence overshadowed their fallen brethren. They emitted the light of life and power, like tens of thousands of stars.

In the North of the Sheol was a single massive gate, which had grown more ornate over the years, filled with eldritch scripts and profound carvings, it was his Purgatory Gate, and finally in the South were Soul Origins.

They took the shape of glowing orbs the size of apples, they all had different colors, and they were stacked into large mounds the size of small hills.

Although the eruption from Sheol had pushed back the purple essence for miles, it was not enough to reveal the full extent of the Soul Origin stacked here.

The Soul Origin and his Awakened Angels were all arranged in the part of the Primordial Sea that was filled with sparkling water, and the Angels of Char and the Purgatory Gate were situated in the Dark parts of his Primordial Sea.

Overshadowing all of them in the distance but could be barely discernible were several massive souls frozen in place, and at the bottom of these gigantic souls were mounds of Soul Crystals.

With his consciousness inside this place, everything was frozen in time. The Primordial Sea had waves that had gone still, and the flames from the wings of his Angels were frozen in various positions. This should be the right moment to investigate who was trying to betray him, but he needed to ascend his bloodline.

His consciousness felt the pull from the City of Sheol and waves of Soul Origin and Soul Crystals began flying towards the city. As they neared the City, they melted into a column of purple light and slammed into the center of the city. A loud blast escaped from the city and like a thirsty whale it began swallowing the purple light.

Rowan’s consciousness was focused on his surroundings, if his enemy wanted to make a move, this was the best time, because after now, they would never get the chance again. This was the last time that he would ever be vulnerable and they knew that.

The city of Sheol trembled and began to let out a harsh crackling sound as its massive buildings that resembled fortresses began to collapse into themselves as if a black hole had been dropped into the center of the city.

This process accelerated as more Soul Origin and Crystals were channeled into the collapsing city, and it shrank from a city that was at least a thousand miles in diameter to become something smaller than a thousand feet and it continued shrinking while drawing on an ever-increasing amount of resources.

‘What are you waiting for? Your chance is almost out of the picture. Let’s sweeten the deal a little more. I don’t believe you will not eat this savory meal under your nose.’

Rowan’s consciousness suddenly collapsed with a painful groan. His appearance all this while resembled a pale white smoke with a humanoid form. Now this smoke was on its knees, and it looked at the edge of dissipation.

It was not even that difficult to feign that he was gravely hurt and needed time to recuperate. Upgrading his bloodline with a single consciousness was like a mortal pushing a mountain. He might have succeeded but he had gravely injured himself, if he had muscles then it would translate to him tearing every single fiber of muscle he had in his body.

Rowan was used to pain, and at his level, such injuries could be shifted to the side while he focused on other things. He only needed to appear as if he was in his weakest moment for his enemies to….

“BOOM!!!”

… Strike.

A massive clawed hand seized Rowan’s consciousness and slammed it to the ground. He felt a wave of cold power flood his consciousness, emerging from the hand that grabbed him.

The cold power healed all his injuries until his consciousness was in peak condition, but it also gave his consciousness flesh.

The smell of rot and burning dead flesh entered his nose, “This is the part where you beg for your life, Creator, and allow me to control your kingdom on your behalf. You are far too young to understand how to manage your creations properly. I am here to ease you of the burden.”

The voice of his captor was unknown to him, sounding neither male nor female, but it had a rasping quality to it as if the throats of the person had been scorched repeatedly, and speaking of any form was accompanied by great pain.

Rowan wanted to turn to see who was responsible for holding him down, but his face was pressed back to the ground and he felt an intense burst of pain that went from his back to his chest.

He wheezed as his lungs became filled with blood, clogging his airways and depriving him of the energy to concentrate. His face was turned to the side and something heavy was dropped beside him.

It was his beating heart that was furiously pumping out the last of his blood inside of it, some of it sprayed on his face, and Rowan felt its warmness, and for a brief moment he recalled and missed the feeling of being a mortal.

Updated from frewebnovl.