Rowan did not hurry to attack or interfere with the destruction of his Ouroboros Serpents, without killing him, any casualties caused to his Serpents were useless, he would rather wait, as far as he was concerned every single moment that passed, he was getting stronger.
His Ouroboros Serpents had already finished healing inside the void in his hearts, and rearing up for round two, roaring their anger at their killers, they curled around the ring in his chest that was his World Engine, their blood burning.
Rowan kept them in check, they had already played their part for now. He had to be careful with the way he moved his pieces to achieve the best results possible.
Rowan had tasted the power of a Major God, and the abilities of Tenma, the so-called leader of the gods, must be at their very peak, as he was most likely not a Major God, but a High God.
He was quiet as he listened to the god speak, Rowan quietly pulled his Berserker Intent closer to himself, reducing his presence as he began to prepare himself for the battle and the slaughter ahead.
"I'm Tenma, the Ruler of Music and Darkness, the appointed leader of the gods of the Cerulean Galaxy, and you are the monster who comes to our shores without any provocation from any of our number. You have slaughtered our kin, and you have crushed our children to ashes. Whatever you are, you shall pay for your crimes in full. Yet, I'm a merciful god, and this is a place where civility and honor hold sway. I will give you the chance to state your case and plead for forgiveness, and then you shall submit yourself for our justice. Accept this condition or accept death!"
The voice of the god crossed through space, and Rowan noticed that it was not carried by Aether itself, but from every shadow and every darkness present around, the voice even appeared from the shadows around Rowan, and there seemed to be a bit of dissonance coming from the voice around him as if it was seeking for something but it could not find it.
It was not surprising because Rowan had no shadow.
He noticed it was gone when he lost his Soul and created Eva, in a manner, Eva was his shadow.
There was a power in that voice that was cleverly hidden but ultimately turned out to be useless against him. This was a new method of application of a god's power that Rowan found fascinating, as it was not Intent but something else; Authority.
A power that Rowan had recently begun to understand.
For every god, their utmost quest in life was to master an Authority. Without mastering any Authority a Minor God had no hope of becoming a Major God, because one of the prerequisites to becoming a Major God was to master at least one Authority, and a god without an Authority was not necessarily weak, but they would never be able to ascend pass the first stage of godhood.
Murrihm, the Stargazer was a god that had not mastered any Authority, and this reflected inside his Divine Kingdom as it was bereft of life!
If the Stargazer had mastered the Authority related to his power and Divine Spark, then his Divine Kingdom would be stronger and the billions of starlight he had given names would be much more animated and powerful, he would have been able to send his children to spread his will all through the universe and in that way, he would have rapidly grown stronger.
He knew that Tenma was a god that had mastered at least two Authorities. The lowest threshold to become a High God was to master two Authorities and from the information he had gathered about the Cerulean Galaxy, this god was an ancient monster that was even older than the gods of Trion, having lived for endless millions of years, his true roots were buried in darkness, and he was the primary reason why Rowan wanted to be sufficiently strong enough before he attacked this galaxy, not for the impressive lineup of gods, but because of only one god… Tenma.
What struck Rowan as odd was the recognition in the eyes of this god, he knew he had never come in contact with him before and it did not take long for his many Consciousness Pillars to find out the possible reason why Tenma recognized him.
There was only a single instance where the true image of Rowan had been spread out and it was his bounty issued by the Order of Broken Eye.
Trion was a powerful world and was one of the strongest and most influential forces in the known universe. A bounty such as those placed on Rowan could not be hidden for long, and there were various channels where news of that sort of high bounty would spread, even outside the Empire of Trion.
For a god as old as Tenma, it was very possible that he had many sources from where he collects information in the universe at large, for it was impossible for him to survive for so long without any method of gathering a large amount of information.
What Rowan found interesting was that god was wily enough to not reveal the fact that he recognized him, and Rowan decided to play according to the expectations of this god after all the details from his bounty meant he must have at least one Origin Treasure on him, not minding the bounty placed on his head.
The bounty placed on his head was valuable enough to warrant the attention of those not even inside the Empire, but on the grand scale of things, the bounty placed on him was still too small for the present Rowan.
Rowan did not think Tenma would feel he was a minor target because the bounty placed on him was not even equal to the smallest bounty placed on a Minor god, after all even the least powerful Minor God would have a bounty that was hundreds of times greater than what Rowan bounty was.
Rowan had already slaughtered two gods, a feat even a Major God would find hard to replicate, and Rowan smiled internally at the statement from Tenma.
