The body of the Shiik that resembled a large crab after it folded all its legs together was still like a rock, its massive female face was relaxed, and from its nose, a small body emerged and silently dropped down a hundred and twenty feet before landing on the ground without shaking a single dust.
Rowan now had the body of a ten-year-old, his green skin shone with an emerald glow and his red hair was like blood, there was a sort of Aura around him that made it quite difficult to focus on him.
He observed the sleeping form of the Shiik and touched a single strand of its red hair that was as large as a python, 'why do I always carry my children into war?'
He thought he knew the answer to that question, but sometimes when he thought about the weight of their sacrifices, it pained him.
'No more I cannot promise much, but I will never fall so easily again. You all deserve a better father.'
The Shiik had destroyed most of the complex around and the explosion had wiped off the rest.
Rowan turned towards a direction and began to walk. His body was like a spirit being. Naked he glided over the destruction, his young face holding a focus and majesty that was undeniable, no one would look at him and think this was not a mortal.
Before long he found himself before the most elaborate building in this complex, made entirely from black metal and had a trapezoid shape, standing more than a hundred feet; this building had only a single doorway.
In his memories from the Explorer, he knew that this black building was usually glowing with a white light, making it appear like glass. The explosion had only managed to disrupt the process happening inside the building and had not left a single scratch on its surface.
Rowan reached the door. It was sealed and required identification from all three Explorers in order for it to open. Rowan's figure suddenly blurred as he expelled hundreds of thousands of parasitic worms from his body. These worms separated into three portions and began to shuffle themselves quite quickly, and before long, the three dead Explorers stood before Rowan, and even their Aura at the Heroic level was apparent.
The soul was the seat of consciousness and Rowan understood any mortal he had killed more than they understood even themselves, down to every single cell in their bodies. Recreating them was a simple thing for him.
The three naked Explorers stood before the door and placed their hands on the door, and for a while, it seemed that nothing was happening but a blue glow emerged from between their palms and the door and with a sound as if a massive gear had been shifted, the door rose up and vanished.
Rowan absorbed the parasitic worms and entered the facility, knowing his direction he headed towards itThe Teleportation portal. All his plans depended on this device.
To transport the millions of bodies into the Feeding pit without alerting the attention of others then such a facility was a necessity. The destruction of the surrounding facilities and the explosion that followed had disrupted the power being fed into the Teleportation platform and it had been shut off.
Rowan walked towards a blue prism hovering in the air, from his back, tentacles made from parasitic worms carried him up to the prism and he placed his palms on it, accessing the surface encryption he quickly broke through any of its security features and began delving into the secrets of this portal.
Inside the prism, he soon discovered many fail-safes including the ones that would grant remote control over this teleportation facility. Rowan quickly blocked and disrupted them all, he would only allow this portal to work when he wanted it to work and not before.
He quickly learned about the features of dozens of other facilities similar to this one, but he was not interested in those, what he wanted was access to areas filled with conflicts that were on the edge. Places that Calamities had nearly taken over and supervision was lax.
More importantly, he wanted a map of the surrounding territories. There were an unknown amount of continents in Doom Star and the minds of the mortal he would be consuming would not be enough to understand a fraction of the amount. This map was very important to him because when he began to summon his shattered consciousness it might warrant him traveling to those locations.
This might become necessary due to the fact that Rowan was unable to ascertain the sort of commotion that might arise when he summoned the rest of his consciousness. His death had freed his consciousness of the restraint imposed by this world, and it might be necessary that for the first few pieces he collected, he might want to be more lowkey in his efforts.
It took hours but Rowan slowly collected all the information he could from the Prism and he opened his eyes when with the consciousness node he had connected with the Shiik alerted him that they had a visitor.
This was a bit quicker than he expected, this dead continent was at least a thousand miles in circumference and surrounded by a blighted ocean. He had thought the first visitors might reach this place in a few days, but it seemed either someone was patrolling closer to this continent and saw the explosion or someone extremely powerful who could quickly cover the great distance had arrived here.
Rowan hoped it was the former and not the latter or else he would have to escape this continent with this teleportation portal furthering the time he spent as a mortal.
The Shiik had awakened and crouched in the darkness, unmoving and waiting for its prey to arrive. Rowan also watched, his finger pressed against the prism and ready to activate it at the first sign of trouble.
The smoke shifted and was suddenly torn apart, a massive ship pushed its way into space above and a bright beam of energy slammed into the ground a few miles away from the Shiik causing a massive explosion that shook the earth.
Rowan smiled, his trap had worked. If they could not see through the diversion he had set up, then there was no one inside that ship that could stop him.