God of War

Rowan allowed them to reach the main battlefield in a matter of an hour and what they saw amazed them. The battle was still in full swing on a scale that Rowan had only seen on the second layer. The battlefield was a mess of mana and blood and body parts as the two forces clashed. Farther away from the main battlefield, Regius and his generals did battle with primordials, with him holding back three of them alone. Rowan surveyed the battlefield before he let his aura permeate the entire field as the clashing of weapons slowly came to a stop and they turned in his direction.

Wisps of purple mana drifted from his body to form a massive bulging storm cloud above him. He projected his voice and looked at everyone "The spider queen has fallen, in good conscience I will allow you all to surrender and be assimilated into the Ark, your race can start from the second layer and work its way up to be equals of the Ark, this is the only offer you will get." The moment he finished speaking, though, a primordial in the shape of a praying mantis stepped through space and cut towards his throat.

The Gu blade sung through the air as Rowan's left arm moved while the rest of him stayed staring at the two armies. A bolt of purple lighting shot from the storm clouds above him and collided with the blade as it moved towards the primordial. The lightning slammed into the blade and was stored in it as it caused the blade to accelerate, but nonetheless, while Rowan's strike was quick, this was still a primordial. The praying mantis caught the blade with its arms and shuddered, not expecting the strike to be so heavy while its blade arms began to go numb due to the lightning. It was so focused on that it had never stopped to realize that the finger that was stretching towards it was the true killing blow.

The primordial could not fathom that a finger would be what killed it, but as Rowan reached across his body, it did exactly that. His pointer finger slowly slid into the beast's forehead right between its eyes and Rowan touched its soul and it began to collapse until all that was left was a gem that Rowan snatched from the air. Rowan looked around, hoping that this action would be the deterring force that got the insectoids to take the way out he was offering, but it instead had the opposite effect. They had just seen one of their gods killed in front of them and instead of fearing what came next; they met the denizens of the Ark with absolute rage.

Empry shook his head and chimed in at this point "The insectoids would rather die than submit, most of the forces in the myriad realms seem to have that in common. To submit would be no worse than death. Factions rise and fall all the time out here and are lost in the annals of history. They would rather fight to their dying breath than accept your offer." Rowan froze for a moment as he took in Empry's words. "Fine then, I suppose it is only right we end this then." Rain started to pour from the sky and Rowan, who had activated storm steps, teleported to anywhere the rain touched. Everywhere he appeared, a primordial would fall shortly after and his aura would rise further and further each time. After another couple hours of battle, they were left only with the primordials that had been locked in combat with Regius, who was rapidly ending the battle.

Rowan did not wait as he dove into the final fight and dispatched the remaining primordials by his master's side, who stood in space smiling at him. "I see you have taken your final step. Now it is just you and refining your godhood. I assume you already know how to do that?" Rowan nodded his head and locked eyes with his master. "Yes, In fact, even if I didn't I don't doubt you would have been ready with more hints, isn't that right master? A sly smile came over Regius' face, but Rowan's piercing gaze never left his face. "How long were you planning all of this that even Empry did not notice? Has your council of seers evolved to such a point that my entire journey was mapped in your mind?" Regius shook his head while the smile served to irritate Rowan further at his master's meddling.

"You are on the mark, but also further than you think. The seers while powerful can only point me in directions, for example, they can say things like, the next god to rise will need a place where they can commune easily with the laws of the world, or the next god to rise will need a means of comprehending more weapons than just the sword. If you are asking if I knew that these things would be prepared for you specifically, then the answer is no. I had no clue for a very long time and I gathered what they told me to. At the same time, several others could have been in the position that you currently find yourself in, but ultimately they were not able to overcome the hurdles necessary."

Regius floated in front of him and places his hand on his shoulder. "You have earned your right to stand here today as much as I have helped put you here. Do not discount your own hard work god of war." Regius placed his hand over his chest and it slowly started to glow., when he pulled it away, a shining light followed his hand. "You ready for the big leagues, Rowan? This is what you asked for, so show me what you will do with it. Show me why the seers said you would be my god of war." The glowing object in Regius' hand was the necklace that was the core of the ark. It allowed anyone with it to tap into the power of the ark. Regius was supposed to split the ownership and give Rowan a portion and that's what this was.

Originally this necklace had a wolfs heads pendant that showed nine gems on it but as he handed it to Rowan the pendant slowly changed into a feather with exactly four and a half gems on it. Rowan smiled and accepted the necklace and placed it around his neck. His cultivation and accumulation of soul force kicked into overdrive and he felt pure power like none other pour into his body. He knew that now he could truly do it. His plan could bear fruit now. He looked at his master and sighed.

"One day there is going to be someone that comes from the bottom just like you did that will see us as the villains once we continue down this path but I'm willing to continue down this path with you master because I too want to see what else this worlds pinnacle has to offer." Rowan looked around, and Regius moved to his side. Then, much to Regius' surprise, Rowan did the last thing he expected and projected his voice to the entire arks both first and second layers and told them the exact situation of the Ark. He instituted a follow up to his master's original rules that included that people could challenge both Regius and he for partial ownership of the ark with the understanding that the price of the challenge was their lives." Regius' jaw dropped while the entire population went through flips.

"Now, now, master, this is only the beginning. Transparency is important. Now everyone knows exactly what they fight for. A chance to become a god and stand equal to us. It also means you will be challenged directly by the strongest beings that your Ark gives birth to. You can devour the losers and get much more than having Empry sort and sift through abilities. This is for them, but this is also part of my gift to you, but the next part will be the same, and for all the years you kept your people in the dark, you will pay a price as well. Rowan Raid was never anyone's pawn, and I don't like that. I was a piece of a game. This next part is my answer to that."

Rowan had only told one other person of his plan, so only she, who was close by, knew what came next. The second grand act of Rowan Raid could only happen thanks to her original gift to his storm. She allowed him to see what it meant to be the storm. Akari made him better than he would have been without her, and she was able to do that based on how unique she was and nothing else. A golden cloud formed in between Rowan's hands and started to rumble. He slowly spread his hands and the storm only got larger and larger. Finally, it was so large that he released his wings and both tips touched the cloud and started to expand it further while Rowan drew mana from the Ark and let it instantly convert into soul force as he fed the storm.

All of a sudden, rainbow lightning spread through the golden clouds before shaping itself after weapons of all shapes and sizes. Then the rain started. Rain that was a perfect mixture of life and death fell from the clouds, giving everyone it touched this hollow feeling before filling them with massive warmth. Wind formed as silver spirals before becoming twisting snake-like dragons made of wind that intertwined in the clouds. It reached a point that eclipsed the entire Ark when Rowan looked at his master once more. "Your path has never been and can not be the only way to godhood. Cultivation of mana should be about a person being their truest self, as they slowly commune with mana in their own way. No two cultivators should ever feel as if their journey was the same. They should always be able to feel like an individual. Astra has been the cornerstone of everything you have built, but they are holding us back."

Alarm grew on Regius' face as he looked up at the clouds and this time any trace of a smirk was wiped from his face as he felt as if something was locking on to his very being. "Rowan, what have you done?" Rowan looked absolutely drained at this point, but he kept feeding the storm. "I am giving creativity back to the people of the Ark and to you, master. This is my gift to the denizens of the Ark to help them on the road of being the elites of the myriad realms. Now without further ado, I present the Astra storm. The storm released itself and the denizens of the Ark felt the pain flood their souls first.

Rowan's chest was pulsing in tandem with the storm as it got to work. Weapons made of rainbow lighting weaponized the rain and winds and besieged every living being inside and outside of the Ark. Rowan felt himself start to strengthen as the purple and golden lines along his body began to gain runes reminiscent of the ones that covered Astra. Rowan was getting stronger and stronger as the storm did its gruesome work. Everyone coughed blood as they finally realized what was happening. The storm was destroying their Astra. It was only targeting Astra and nothing else. In the case of Regius, though, he was currently experiencing a pain like none other.

His cultivation technique had him build Astra in each of his cells, so it currently felt like he was being gnawed on by ants as through the mana spaces that hid in his cells the Astra stored within were turning to dust one by one. Rowan watched all of this with wonder as Regius stared at him with bloodshot eyes. Rowan held his gaze the entire time. He had put everything he had ever learned into this storm, including the means to affect people's very souls. His own soul was so unique that only he could do what he was doing now. Everyone had lost their weapons and looked towards Rowan with rage in their eyes when it started to happen. In each cultivator's soul, an item was being born. The amount of mana to do this was astronomical, and the ark was not enough, so while the denizens of the ark were giving birth to items within their souls, the storm began to move.

The Ark seemed to lock itself in time as people froze. Rowan swept his hand and put everyone back into the Ark with a passing cloud as he positioned the Ark right above the storm and followed it. The storm grew larger and larger while everyone in the Ark was frozen in time as the process happened, everyone but Regius, as he was forced to feel every second of the pain. The storm devoured Astra across the myriad realms, stealing the mana that went into their creation and using it for the Ark. Everywhere they passed, all the Astra were destroyed. The issue was that not a single soul beside the denizens of the Ark was going through this change, so this act stripped the entire myriad realms of Astra, but in return Rowan gave birth to the soul armament. It made it so that each denizen of the ark would give birth to a unique armament completely unique to their soul on birth.

Regius went through a qualitative upgraded as his soul shadowed the mana spaces of his micro cores and created weapons in each of them while his soul armament was a blacksmith hammer bringing him back to the days before he had mastered Astra. The Ark would become public enemy number one, marking them as criminals by all factions, with orders to kill on site. Rowan's action had blessed the Ark with an ability that not even they could fathom but at the same time it would embroil them in a war for hundreds of years to come.