Chapter 139: The Town (5)
Rowan played around with the three Flesh Light crystals, before placing them inside the Spatial bracelet, he had collected them before he left, and although they were smaller than the first one he used, they were altogether more powerful.
He did not make too many contacts with the people of this world before leaving this planet. The issue with the Origin Treasure in his Mental Space was not necessarily a good thing for him. Too many eyes would become focused on this planet and, for the moment, this would be a hostile place to develop.
This new issue was a fresh complication in his already tangled life threads that he wishes to do away with.
His goal was to find Envy and take the next Teleportation Portal out of this planet. He did not much value the Covenant or any of their gifts or promises, sooner than most might think, he was bound to exceed that level.
He was only going to make a minimum effort to recover his weapon, if he couldn't, he would leave the planet as soon as possible. His goal was to leave the entire sphere of influence of the gods and all the wars they were fighting.
Although he sensed there was something off with his train of thought, if he were to make his survival the most important thing to him, then he was making the right choice.
Now that the battle was over, Rowan decided to wear the full tactical gear including the shirt, jacket, boots and pants, they were of high quality, but only came in black.
Rowan had not worn a shirt or jacket before the fight because he noticed that a few were missing to make a complete set. He had sighed back then, as even General Augustus also made mistakes in arranging his clothes in proper order.
Heading west, Rowan began to run. It began as a light jog that rapidly ate through the distance as he was enjoying the freeing sensation of seeing the ground blur under his feet, then he slowly began adding juice, and he started going faster.
He left the town far behind, and as he ran, he noticed the trail of wolves, and he veered slightly off their path of origin, while his curiosity wanted him to follow, he had no desire to know where they originated from.
The farther he went from the town, the more troubled he became inside his mind, and he finally paused and decided to access the actions he was about to take.
Should he not at the least check out the town and collect valuable information about what was going on? He could restock and plan his movements effectively. Get a map of the world and the locations of the most important areas of concern.
He still had plenty of spaces in his Spatial bracelet, and he could fill them up with supplies. Tossed carelessly by the side were more than a dozen crates filled with heavy gold coins that powerful Dominators only saw as dead weight as they had other means of transaction, but it was widely adopted throughout the empire as a means of valid exchange.
But, Rowan thought that the town was too small, it would most likely not have any significant information about the world, as the true world of power was often unknown by most people, also most of their stock would be low quality and would not be able to satisfy any of his needs. From his quick scan of the town, it was relatively small.
Yet, he could still collect enough information about where he was in order to avoid flying blind, a good map could be as valuable as an extra limb.
Face it. You would rather not see their faces. Everybody on this planet to you now is just a set of statistics. You can ignore them because they are truly of no concern to you. You have bigger fish to fry and greater enemies to contend with, and their blades are not far from your neck.
I mean, that is what you are going to tell yourself. But you know if you enter that place, if you step into that town, that you refuse to know its name and the memory of those that were left behind in the Nexus returns to you. It will haunt you.
How much help can I give them? It's not my fight!
Yet by your actions, you brought a scourge into this world.
Rowan shook his head and continued heading west, and for the next five hours he ran while pushing every thought away from his head.
With his speed, he had covered more than 1200 kilometers and had crossed through small mountains and forests, as he went farther away from any of his concerns.
After he had crossed the 1000 kilometer mark, he began sensing a deep rumble beneath his feet and a great disturbance in the wind.
His sights showed him great plums of dust that had covered the entire horizon on his far left, turning the day to darkness, and he stopped and sent his Spatial Sight forward to investigate.
Rowan could understand the sight of an army ten thousand strong, hell even a hundred thousand strong army could be imagined, it all fell within a certain bound of reason.
But, what about an army of millions?
Rowan went stiff as he sights kept going further and further, yet the bodies did not stop, they had covered the entire surface and everything living in their path had been consumed, right down to even tiny insects.
That golden wolf and its followers were only a small offshoot of the enormous gathering of monsters.
His sights kept traveling for thousands of meters as he fueled it with his Aether and he could not even see the end point of this horde.
At his present condition, there was no way he could survive if he decided to challenge something like this. Checking his Primordial Record, he was sitting on a thousand Soul Points. It would not be long now, and he would be able to free himself from this curse.
Rowan swept his Energy gaze throughout the masses of creatures and saw several alarming spikes of energy inside the horde, he stopped counting when he passed a hundred, most of them were at the level of the golden wolf, the rest were stronger.
There were all manners of creatures gathered here, from those that crawl such as snakes, alligators, caterpillars to many alien looking creatures, also beasts on four limbs that carried hoofs or claws, and when he shot his Spatial sights into the darkened sky, it was filled with animals that flew.
Dead bodies of the unlucky flying beast that died either due to accident or fatigue, kept plummeting like rain, and were quickly eaten by the rest for replenishment, it was the same thing happening on the ground, the weak and tired were being mercilessly culled.
What sort of madness was happening here?
Interspersed among the massive horde were gigantic golden figures of various species that Rowan had previously seen with his Energy Sight.
They were the curse that had emerged from his flesh.
So, this is how this world dies. Not by an unknown calamitous event like a meteorite or an insane god, but by countless claws and fangs.
This thing afflicting him was truly a curse, as Rowan looked through the horde, he knew most of these animals would not last for more than a month, they had been forced away from their natural habitat and forced to embark on a journey that would destroy their bodies.
The strain on their bodies was too much for anything to carry, and there were virtually no infants inside this horde, most likely they had already died and had been devoured.
They would not last, but, by then the damage would already be done, and every living creature on this planet would be mostly slaughtered. There was no rhyme or reason to this madness, only chaos and the end of all life.
The cunning he saw inside the eyes of that wolf was not one to preserve its life, but to bring forth death.