What Equal Truly Means

Rowan paced through the mindscape as he thought about the choice before him. To continue with no system or to leave it and lose any hope of ever surpassing his master. Rowan hung his head low as he thought of the options that laid before him. Then he looked down at his hand and the change that was happening to him and realized that his powers were evolving and just because Empry thought there were only the two didn't mean that was actually the case. Rowan's eyes began to glow, and he smiled at Empry. "I choose to sever the system from myself then."

Empry nodded. "That is a wise decision, Rowan Raid. I look forward to seeing what you become as a true cultivator. Allow me to help you." Empry waved his hand and felt a pain cut through the deepest parts of his being before Empry held a wolf pendant in his hand. Rowan looked at Empry exhausted and knew that now was his time. He reached out and grabbed the pendant quicker than Empry reacted and immediately used soul manipulation. His flesh body began to vanish as his new form covered everything up to half of his chest a moment later.

Rowan, on the other hand, was focused on his task; he was touching a part of his master's soul and the information that was flowing back into his mind was threatening to shatter his mind purely based on the volume that was flowing into his mind, the knowledge of billions of beings constantly updated and feeding itself back to his master was enough to break anyone. Rowan tried to ignore the massive pain that was stemming from the feeling of being split starting from his head and dug through the information until he found what he was looking for and confirmed his plan was the right one.

His finger lightly tapped the pendant and pulled a long string of light out of its center before he tossed it back to Empry, who looked at it in astonishment before smiling. "Tell my master he can keep the portion of his soul. I'll keep the system, though." The string of light wound itself around Rowan's wrist and became a bracelet. It was a solid band of platinum metal and there was the scene of a falcon dive bombing a lone wolf on it. The band seemed to be alive as it depicted them keeping each other at bay. Empry began to slowly clap while a smile spread across his face.

"Good ,you have shown that I truly did not make the wrong decision, I will put one of my clones in that bracelet so that it is capable of communicating directly with me, so technically despite my connection to your master, I will be able to fully fulfill my role as your sponsor." Rowans massaged his temples," My sponsor? What's that mean?" Empry tapped the mana picture, and it changed to a bunch of individuals that Rowan knew quite well as his master Royal cabinet, but he also knew that they were his master's closest friends and family. "It is the thing that we were discussing earlier, the king. Your master had to make a choice when he was building the Ark, a choice that his first wife was not very happy with at the end of the day. So she demanded that he give back to all the beings he could by giving them a chance to be his equal. The caveat is that each member of the Royal cabinet must find someone that could replace them officially, but also in case something were to happen."

Empry placed his hand on his shoulder and gripped it firmly, which generated a feeling of warmth for Rowan. "Yes, that means exactly what you think. In case of my downfall, you would step into my position as the right hand of the king. When you become a god, the position will naturally become yours." Rowan nodded his head and looked at the man that looked much like his master. "Why me? What made me special? Ya know, other than the overwhelming talent."

Empry chuckled, and it filled the mindscape with warmth. "Well, other than the overwhelming talent, there are a number of factors. You are a primogenitor of a new race, entering your final evolution before even becoming a demigod. You have somehow gotten access to soul force, which is an even greater feat than the rest, but ultimately, none of that mattered because I chose you for one reason." Empry gently reached out and tapped Rowan on the chest, right where his heart was.

"Rowan Raid, you try your best to be stoic and appear cold but ultimately you are not, I've watched you since you were a child overcome by the grief of losing his parents and saw that it only made you scared of losing more people. You care not just for your companions but for strangers, because that is who you are. If you weren't, then you would not have given Akari free range to do whatever she wanted with the money you amassed throughout your childhood, while knowing she would use it to give back. I picked you because of your heart, Rowan Raid."

"What makes that more important than my talent?" asked Rowan. Empry's face grew serious for a moment and spoke his next words with a solemn tone. "Your master does not need more people like him, and my position is too important. I live for the king, but I also understand him better than anyone ever will and I know that he needs someone like you to challenge him and his decisions. As the right hand of the king, your heart will keep him from becoming a monster. You've already understood the mountain of bodies that had to happen for him to reach this point and I will personally tell you that is truly on the tip of the iceberg because in front of his goal everything else doesn't matter. It's the right hand's job to remind him that it does, even if it's forcibly." Rowan finally nodded his head at Empry, as he had no more questions.

"Now then, moving on since your decision, you'll be able to use the system, but without the ability to trade mana for questions. You are a true cultivator, but removing my master's soul from the system has realistically left you with nothing more than a status page." Rowan smiled and shook his head yes. "Yea, with the change to the quest system, I'm rather certain that other than the head of the necromantic association, I would not trigger any more quests so that portion was not needed" Rowan immediately sucked in a breath of air as he remembered something he was forgetting. "WAIT NO, I never got an inventory." Empry looked at him like he was ridiculous. "Rowan, you can use space magic. Just open a space within the bracelet and then the system can display it as an inventory that should still be functional."

Rowan's eyes lit up, and he looked back at Empry, who was looking at him like he was slightly regretting his decision as he shook his head in a joking manner. "That's the first thing ill do when I wake up from this, but first how is my evolution going? Also, I wanted the system stripped to just the status page. It allows me to track my own progress and improve where I need to, I think there's plenty of cultivators that would like that." Empry smiled "May be a good way to make money when you come to the first layer, you would do well to find a way to make that feasible. Now about your evolution, if I'm not incorrect , it requires that you shed all of your skin, and while I get you won't naturally look human anymore except in shape, but you are a new race, and you are stepping into the true form of the fairy race. Now your mana space, on the other hand, or the fact that you generated soul force, I can only tell you to be very careful going forward. I can not guide you on this. You've stepped into a new place with your cultivation that only you can tread."

Now the problem of the changes to your body, I have a simple solution, actually. Just use the armament spell to create skin the same way you do clothes. The evolution is more related to your mana space and whatever it is doing, but racially, you will finish your evolution when you fully sacrifice all of your flesh to this new form. Rowan nodded his head. Okay then, let's get to this. I've got the king of gods to surpass and now I've got a bone to pick with him." Empry smiled at Rowan one last time as he began to vanish and Rowans returned to his body where he was locked in the cocoon while his mana space evolved once more.