Trials End

Rowan walked up without wasting a second, much to the surprise of everyone who had seen him take his time for all the trials. He looked to Jason, who was also the only person that would fight him. Everyone else had now seen his prowess when he did not even have full access to his cultivation. How lethal would such a person be now that they were at full power? Rowan, on the other hand, was happy to feel the full extent of his abilities flood his body once more. The storm circulated through his veins and the cloud giant that protected his mana space flexed its body in approval as his soul force regained its original hue but this time things were different. His mana was slowly changing into the glittering purple that it had been that day so long ago when he fused with Akari for the first time. His mana was approaching its final stage. He had laid all the groundwork , now he just needed to cultivate.

Jason made his way to the arena and stood across from Rowan. "I hope you stepped up here prepared for your death." Rowan looked at him sideways and was about to summon the Storm glaive when he thought better of it. Why dirty his weapon on such trash? "You know what, I really never expected that some necromancer's experiment would be so brazen to talk to me this way." Jason blanched immediately, and a murmur had spread throughout the crowd while outside of the Trial world. Everyone had slowly turned to look at the senior Slate. He shook his head, though he could not fathom how the boy had found out the truth. "The boy is spouting nonsense. Just watch how Jason teaches him for running his mouth."

Everyone nodded their head to his answer except his accomplice, who slowly removed himself from the gathering and began to prepare for the inevitable that would proceed after this. The senior Vitesse had seen enough of what Rowan could do to tell that whatever happened next, Jason would reveal the truth, maybe through his own stupidity and by then they would all be doomed. His only chances were to create reasonable doubt when the time came and everything came crashing down. He shook his head as he thought to himself "If only we had just left the boy to his own devices. We could have avoided all of this and all achieved our goals."

Rowan stood on the stage with a smile on his face as Jason began to summon his equipment, while Rowan just kept his hands in his pockets. Jason was wrapped in armor that was golden and silver and had a massive symbol of a sun in the center. That wasn't it. After he was fully equipped, his body began to bulk up. Stripes spread across his skin, and he became closer to eight feet tall while a tail grew behind him. Rowan smiled at the transformation as his nose began to wrinkle. As his body transformed, so did his senses. His hyper vision had evolved countless times while the rest of his senses were not only sharpened but evolved in themselves. He had found recently that different elements of mana had different scents, and the scent of death mana was like the smell of roadkill.

Jason finally stopped transforming and held a massive scythe in his hands that had not one but four blades. It was like it was a claw instead of a normal scythe. He looked over at Rowan and smiled and revealed sharp teeth. Rowan was focused more so on the fact that the smell of death mana had gotten overwhelming after the transformation, which made Rowan realize that it was highly likely that all the person's "talents" were just stolen and grafted onto Jason. Rowan just shook his head and looked directly at Jason. "How despicable." It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Jason slashed forward with his scythe and yelled out. "Slaughter Claw." Sickly red mana coated the weapon, and an image of a mighty tiger swiping at Rowan appeared before him. Rowan looked at the weapon that was moving towards him in what seemed like slow motion and realized his earlier assumption was right. Jason Slate was pitifully weak compared to him.

Empry spoke up as Rowan walked towards the strike like it wasn't even happening. "Fret not Rowan, you have plenty of opponents waiting for you when you ascend but yes, the weapons souls that you have awakened have boosted you in ways that not even I can fathom thanks to your body becoming a sacrifice to this new soul form you are taking. You have reached a level of ability that dwarfs what is supposed to be possible on the second layer, because you are still not even a demigod, while you may be bored all you have to do now is become a demigod, complete your task and be done."

Rowan nodded to no one because he was moving faster than most people could see anyway while the world around him was frozen. He knew that what Empry was said was right, but there was one last thing he had to do. He had to be sure that his friends would have no problems until they, too, could ascend. He no longer would be able to climb with them, so the least he could do was eliminate the threats. He grabbed Jason by the Jaw and the tiger man's eyes never widened as Rowan's grip closed. The reason he had become so overwhelming was because, along with his new advancements, there was one weapon that had awoken to the soul stage that mattered the most to him and it was the body.

Martial arts were a thing long before him. His master had even coached him in hand to hand combat and relayed an important message about it. Swords could, of course, slice through flesh and bone, just like any bladed weapon. There were blunt weapons that had the same that could crush and concuss. There were plenty of effects that would leave sickening wounds or damage to a body, but nothing quite shocked people the same as knuckle meeting flesh. Nothing sent people a message more than the sound of fist thudding into flesh. Rowan's hand that he had used to grab Jason was covered in a purple and platinum aura as he just let the motion continue and Jason was powerless to stop it as his body bent backwards and the back of his skull collided with the ground.

Jason who was free now, healed rapidly and retreated while swiping through the air with his weapon and sending arcs of lethal mana but Rowan just swatted them like they were flies before he appeared before Jason once more and send a punch into his gut that tore through his midsection and sent blood splattering across the floor. Jason swung the scythe inwards with just the flexibility of his wrist and, for a second, it looked like they would both be impaled on the blades. Rowan dropped an elbow directly onto the wrist and shattered, causing the scythe to clatter to the ground. The aura on Rowan's hands had now extended to his elbows. Jason was not worthy of his storm glaive, or the power it now held. Rowan decided to send a message to everyone watching. Rowan swept with his foot and knocked Jason off balance and before he could even recover, one punch collided with his face and crushed most of his skull. At the same time, Rowan had snatched his badge and threw it off stage. He did not care if he got any points from this battle.

Jason just kept healing over and over. The death mana rebuilt his skull, and he was ready to rise when Rowan appeared over him. "It matters not how many times you heal abomination. You only prolong your own suffering. Rowan punched him in the chest and collapsed one of his lungs, causing blood to shoot from his mouth. What followed next would be a scene that anyone to ascend in the next hundred years would remember for the rest of their lives. Rowan would begin to throw punches so rapidly and with such force that the whole arena shook. Blood splattered over and over again as it splashed from what was now the crater known as Jason Slate. Rowan stepped out of the hole covered in blood with not a drop of it being his and surveyed the crowd. He summoned storm point and cleansed the blood from himself while inside the pit Jason Slate, who was a little more than just lumps of flesh was wiggling and trying to put himself back together.

Rowan never bothered to look back as a cloud appeared above the hole and a light rain of pure life mana poured into it. Necromancy relied on death mana, and Rowan simply countered to end the cycle of Jason's healing. There was a mournful scream and then silence while Rowan approached Feng and the queen, who were both looking at him in stunned silence. He turned to the queen as if he was not still covered in Jason's blood and smiled. "Would you mind sending me out of here early , I have one more Slate to kill before the day is out."