Would his decimation of these offshoots trigger retaliation or more attacks from the horde? Maybe, but as long as the convoy kept moving, and he continued getting stronger, he saw no reason not to whittle out the herd.
He even managed to get his hands on one of those monster bikes, their top speeds were nothing to scoff at, and although slower than his all out sprint, they would serve just fine.
With the wind blowing his hair behind him, he set out for the first of the offshoots, and placed the pedal to the metal and did not ease up until he saw the dust ahead and his Spatial sight revealed the presence of five Incarnation State beasts and a single golden creature.
Rowan parked the monster bike a few miles from the horde. They resembled giant apes with the golden beast leading them having two heads, as he reached the horde on foot he brought out two long spears, and pumping Aether into his Dash skills, he was within their midst before they were aware and the slaughter began.
He was here to hunt as quickly as possible, and he did not hold back on his Aether, although he did not use his flames because they gave out too much sound and light. His Berserker Skills were more than enough for the job.
Twenty minutes later, he was done, he had 900 Soul points and 4,000,000 energy points by devouring the golden two-headed ape and he proceeded to the next.
The only concern he had was that during the battle, the golden ape almost seemed like it wanted to communicate with him. Rowan began to feel the beginning of a headache. Exterminating these creatures would be multiple fold more difficult and complicated if intelligence came into play.
There was nothing benign about these creatures, and they were not born from goodwill, but from madness, and only the privilege of his flesh gave them a sustained form in the universe.
Intelligence would not breed understanding among them, only an increasing depravity. If they killed before on instinct, now they might begin to enjoy it.
Rowan’s desire to kill began to ramp up, it was also fueled knowing such Abominations cane from his flesh.
He rapidly made his way to the other offshoots. These were made up of giant spiders, and he was surprised to see three golden spiders with heads resembling that of a cow. It was an eerie combination, and they were troublesome creatures to put down because of their agility.
Rowan had to resort to throwing his spears, and thankfully he had more than enough, each of them were only slowed when he had peppered their bodies with dozens of spears, and he finally took them down. This battle took much time because of this, but he was done in an hour.
He came out with 1,300 Soul points and 15,000,000 energy points, and he checked the maps he collected and beelined for the next.
There were a dozen offshoots of the horde a few hundred miles around the convoy, and his goal was to eradicate them all, and in the next seven hours he did just that.
His face held a grim light, when he noticed more signs of intelligence among the golden beasts.
He traveled from one to another and crushed them all, he may be wrong about the number of beasts he had killed in those seven hours of mindless savagery, but a safe bet would be between 90,000 to 130,000 beasts of all shapes and types fell to him.
The benefits from the battles were apparent as he raked in 7,500 Soul points plus 32,000,000 energy points. He finally had everything he needed to break the curse.
His next goal now was to find a safe place to do just that and evolve his bloodline as he readied himself to break through to the Rift State.
It did not take long for him to find a small mountain, and he climbed to the top, where he used his Spatial Sight to perform extensive sweeps over the entire area for hundreds of miles around. If he was going to be surprised he needed a few seconds as a buffer, he never thought he was ever completely safe.
He was going to miss the meeting, but getting back into peak condition was what he deemed the most necessary.
In a matter of hours he had gathered 9,700 Soul points, not his biggest haul, but it was quite a sizable amount of returns for his efforts.
Rowan looked around him one last time, and he brought his open palm to the ground, a brief burst of Flesh Light melted a sizable hole into the mountain, he held himself with his Telekinesis, and as he levitated downward he continued burning his way through the mountain, his goal was to stop at the center of it.
He used a short burst of Bone Fire to collapse the cavity he made and buried himself in apparent darkness. Yet, before his myriad senses, it was brighter than daylight inside this small cavity he made for himself.
Rowan only intended to be inside here for a short time, as he still took care to stay away from any unknown eyes.
He cleared his thoughts before closing his eyes and calling up the Primordial Record, he began pouring the remaining Soul Points needed to finish off the Legendary State of his bloodline.
His blood began to seethe as pure life force and other mystical components the Soul Points transformed into for growing his bloodline flooded into him. Rowan Attributes began to increase at an astonishing speed, and the surrounding air began to warp with the heat emanating from his body.
His sixth heart was beating erratically as it grew larger inside his chest, this growth did not stop until this heart grew so big it was remarkable it all fit inside his chest, but Rowan knew that his body, especially his hearts possess properties beyond the three dimension.
When Rowan reached the peak of the Legendary State, the growth stopped, and the other five Ouroboros Serpent crawled out from the void in his chest and began feeding the new heart with a red mist that resembled blood.
As Rowan watched this development for a while, his senses also wrapped around the curse on his body, and he sensed it began to retreat from his growing vitality.
Whatever this curse was made up of, it was tenacious, and his growing vitality and strength returned the command of the field back to his favor. His body could no longer be influenced by this curse.
The curse, however, refused to be dispelled and shrank to a tiny pale dot on his chest.
Rowan snorted, he already had vestiges of the goddess presence in his Mental Space, and he would destroy those the moment he reached the Rift State and gain better control over his Aether. But he would be damned if he allowed the goddess curse to exist in his body, the part of him he had greater control over.
He clenched his teeth and opened the floodgates, Rowan’s impressive vitality had been freed up, and he began burning all his vitality, directing all the energy towards that last curse fragment. His body began to glow like the sun and a golden light spread out from his body, even beginning to penetrate the mountain he buried himself in.
Rowan had never truly unleashed the full might of his physical Essence, and now with such a hated curse sinking its roots inside him, all his instincts roared at him to pull it away from his flesh.
Commandeering all that power, he focused it on that vestige of the curse rooted stubbornly in his body, and he began to burn it out of him.
His blood roared in annoyance, and a hidden shackle that Rowan had always subconsciously held over his nature was broken.
No matter how he postured, deep within Rowan had always seen himself as human first and then an Empyrean. It was the reason his body assumed a more human shape the stronger he became, his height and weight even began to reduce.
