A world Forgotten

Rowan followed the memories that he had taken from Slate Senior and flew through space with his wings for what seemed like an eternity. Rowan spent most of the time speaking to Empry while he would also occasionally land on a planet during the travels. He had landed on numerous worlds that were hardly out of the earliest cycle of their lives. He met different races and learned about them while traveling and, even at times, fought with zombies on several planets. Rowan took his time reaching his destination because he knew that after it, it may be a long time before he was able to return to the second layer. His life would change drastically after he ascended, a fact that he had already accepted but more so because as the Fairy king Rowans mastery of the laws of the soul had already reached a point of mastery and he was slowly progressing even farther down the path but to do so he had to interact with different souls. In the story of his life, people would refer to this time period as the voyage, because even with knowing where he was going and his wings being just as fast as the ships others used to traverse space. He had already been traveling for a year.

Empry was the one that kept him up to date on how long it had been, but Rowan did not care. During his travels, he was also polishing every part of his cultivation. At the same time, because he had broken out of the conventional path of cultivation, he suspected that he would never achieve the god rank. Not by normal standards, at least. In the past year, he and Empry had gone through the ranks of cultivation and realized that after the initial ranks thanks to his focus on his soul, Rowan had been able to bypass most of the traditional requirements, so his next step would be the step that put him on equal footing with his master, the only person known to achieve the god king rank. Rowan knew that he needed to reach mastery in all the laws he focused on as well as find a way to fuse all of his weapon comprehension into that into his cultivation, that would be what pushed him past the god rank and directly into the ranks of god kings.

He just needed the time and the accumulation of soul force to prepare himself for the push but after a year, he had finalized his path and begun to speed down it. Now, though, he had finally reached his destination as he stared at it from space. Empry immediately came out of the bracelet on his wrist and looked at the planet by his side. "This should not be possible. This world should not exist here. In fact, for some reason, despite staring at it right now, the systems on the Ark still does not register this as here. I would advise you to be very careful from this moment onwards, Rowan." Rowan looked at the planet looking for something special, but other than the fact that it was covered mainly by massive oceans, the planet looked ordinary. In fact, it was quite small. His own unnamed planet was at least three times bigger than this. He could sense a massive mana signature coming from the planet, though, as he made his way towards it.

"Empry, if you know this place, then what is it called? Why should I be worried?" Empry was silent for a while as Rowan followed the mana signature after reaching the planet and was currently flying over a massive ocean and approaching what looked like a massive city surrounded by bridges In fact it reminded Rowan of the way the first layer was built, with the massive brides that connected New Ark city to the other continents. Empry finally spoke up as he passed a sign that was faded and covered in vines and read "Welc T N Y k" Empry's voice sounded kind of somber for the first time as he answered him. "If I am not wrong, then this is Planet Earth, same name as the element. It is the birthplace of your master. If the head of the necromancer association is here. Then it is highly likely that it is someone from your master's past which does not spell good things for us. The experts from that time were much different."

Rowan took the information in stride as he slowly lowered himself down on a main street that he sensed the signature at the end of and began to walk the rest of the way. He was slowly making his way and looking at all the buildings that were covered in vines and overgrowth as he passed until at one point he noticed another mana signature and turned forward to see someone standing across from him further down the road. It was a young man,his eyes glowed with an orange red light and he had a massive spear by his side stuck into the ground by the handle. It was pronged and instead had two blades instead of just the one and his spear seemed to be giving off enough heat that the surrounding air was distorting, but the young man was standing next to it as if it were nothing.

Empry, on the other hand, immediately left the bracelet and stared at the figure with wide eyes. "Impossible, you can not be real. How dare you use that image?" The young man smiled and shook his head. "To tell me that I can not use my own image is incredibly odd, but I suppose a lot has changed since the last time I even walked these streets. I was instructed to let you both pass, but I was asked that you keep your mouth shut, sir guardian. Things have already reached this point, you mind as well watch the ride. This world has been shielded, so you won't be able to report back to your master until after our business is done. If my nephew kept the secret, then you can as well, at least until the end of the day." The young man then turned and looked at Rowan. "I will follow orders and you can be allowed to pass, but first, I need to see if that little brat, Regius, was a good teacher." I will attack once. After the attack, you can continue down this path to see who you came for. My name is Balthazar. Prepare yourself."

He took his spear in his hand and the heat that Rowan could see before was now so intense he could feel it. Rowan took his storm glaive out and prepared himself as his body entered its battle state and his body became the galaxy bound by platinum tribal lines that radiated might. He had gathered all of his power as the weapon morphed into its spear state as well, which made Balthazar's eyebrows rise. He started his approach at a leisurely walk from close to 100 yards away, but after the second step, he had become two. By the third step, there were four and by the fifth step, there were ten. On the sixth step he stamped down and all the images shot forward at once, shattering the sound barrier. Rowan braced himself as he heard words echo as it passed through the mouths of all the clones. "Waltz of the endless sun!"

The spear now looked like each clone was holding the sun in their hands as the onslaught began while Rowan shot backwards with one flap of his wings before setting a line of storm points "Storm Stoop!" he reached the speed of light and the falcon image formed while all the clones danced through the sky towards him while the light from their spears reached such an intensity that they began to melt their surroundings. The clones and the main body all moved in this rhythmic way as they coalesced on Balthazar and the spear became a white hot beam as he lunged forward right as the storm stoop reached him. The two weapons met, and the world exploded. The buildings on the side were turned to dust and the two spells clashed in midair, fighting for dominance until finally the storm stoop overpowered the attack and the falcon image continued forward. Balthazar grimaced but knew the attack was on its last legs as he stabbed out several times before the weapon's glow began to recede and Rowan came out of the falcon image and landed in front of him. He clapped his hands while staring at Rowan. "Congrats you passed. Turns out little Regius really could teach someone. Continue down this road and you will find who you are looking for. He's waiting for you."

Rowan had noticed almost instantly that the person in front of him reminded him of his master, and the way he fought definitely did so which caused his mind to race as he continued down the now broken path towards the villa but at the same time he reached out to Empry. "Empry, what's going on here? Explain." The man appeared next to him and shook his head, "I will follow you from this point forward, I don't know what is going on here but if my guess is correct, then I now know why it was that Valentine told your master that he was not able to defeat this target. It would be best if you just continued. We will have answers shortly.

Rowan noticed several other people as he reached the villa and made his way towards the mana signature he had felt before. No one stopped him or got in his way as they went about their own business while Rowan came to a grand hall where a man draped in a black cloak that obscured any sight of him sat waiting for Rowan's arrival. His voice was warm and full of energy but also stern, "Rowan Raid, first disciple of Regius Lowe, it is nice to finally meet you, I am the head of the necromancer association but not in actuality, they gave me that position but they are all just failed products who failed to overcome the effects of death mana on the mind and allowed it to warp their minds."

He stood up, and the cloak fell from his body. His left eye swirled with a red and black color while his right eye was ash gray like death mana. He smiled as Rowan kept approaching, but Empry had stayed right at the door, frozen in shock. "I have gone by many names, the king of destruction, the hero of the battlefield, the Lich, but the one I suspect that you will know is Leon Lowe."