She stood up slowly as if she was a rusted robot going through a long forgotten motion, his perception wrapped around her body, and he could see the struggles she went through with every motion.

Her single muscles on her body were straining against what was inside her, and he could not help because the field surrounding her seemed indestructible to his perception.

Maeve had never given up, she continued fighting whatever was inside of her, Rowan thought that it was most likely whatever was inside her had been dormant, and when they saw his growing ability they sought to bring him to order, by controlling her actions.

Yet, they must have underestimated her Spirit, his painting showed that they had broken her body in countless places. She was not like him, the blows must have been extremely painful, but that did not stop her from fighting for a single instant, she had made a promise to him, and she would always persevere to keep it.

Maeve began to walk to one of the altars and Rowan once again held her shoulders, his voice was wrapped in fury, “Whoever you are, that dwells inside her body, release her, and I promise… of all my enemies, only you, will I not kill. Whatever games you are playing with her body stops now. She is not yours.”

Yet, her movements did not stop, her steps were mechanical, and her eyes struggled inside her sockets. Rowan set his feet and made an effort to hold her.

His attempt to stop her movement was futile, even as she walked slowly, it was like trying to hold back a raging storm with your bare hands, her body was wrapped by an ephemeral force he could barely detect, and they stopped his hands from reaching her.

She continued speaking, it was as if it was all she could do, as if every word she spoke was like she had fought an endless battle for right to speak those words. Rowan roared in fury.

“Young master, you get cold at this time of the year, and yet you always refuse to close your windows, you said you always preferred the natural light of the sun and moon, but don’t you see that you make your mother worry so, and I don’t know if she could cope if you got sick.”

Rowan’s blood was beginning to erupt, and his Serpent released deep growls that began to shake the air, as fury and helplessness threatened to overtake his senses, he pressed everything down and focused and released her from his grasp.

Maeve reached the massive fifty-foot tall altar, and she slowly began to climb it, her fingers dug into the wood, and she dragged herself up the altar, her legs dangling below her like two pairs of loose sticks.

Rowan groaned in frustration and turned towards the blue stone in the goddess grasp, giving a mental command, the Ouroboros Serpent beside him flew towards it but was bounced back by an invisible field.

He saw that Maeve paused, before she started climbing faster, sensing an opportunity, Rowan began pouring essence into Envy, and commanded the second Ouroboros Serpent to directly attack the altars.

The force had built up in the Axe, and judging that it was barely enough, he released it towards the altar Maeve was climbing, the air in front of him shimmered as the vibrational force slammed into the altar like a bomb.

Whatever material the altars were made up of was very durable, as the blow could only shave off some slight shavings of the wood, but it did the most important part and shook Maeve down from the altar.

He loathed the thought of hurting her, for apart from his mother, she was the only family he had.

She fell down while shrieking like a bat out of hell, landing on all fours, she began to scuttle back towards the altar.

He turned towards the goddess statue where the Ouroboros Serpent was straining to reach, and he told it to stop holding back, and they both roared, which was so loud, that a visible wave of force exploded from their mouths, and they began to grow.

In less than two seconds they were more than seven hundred feet and a single Ouroboros Serpent clamped its jaws around the entire statue of the goddess, the invisible field began to throw out large sparks and emit a shrill sound like metal being compressed.

Needle sharp teeth as long as thirty feet inched closer to the statue with every passing moment and the other Ouroboros serpent charged towards the altars as Rowan ran after Maeve, thankfully her speed was still slow, and he tackled her to the ground.

He immediately noticed that the surrounding field had decreased in strength, and it should be because he was attacking the statue with his serpent and whatever powers were used to hold the force field around her body were being diverted to protect the goddess statue.

The Ouroboros serpent attacking the goddess statue roared again in fury as its size increased once again, the goddess statue blazed like a torch as the force exerted by the Serpent had increased a hundredfold.

The bite from the Ouroboros Serpent did not only carry a planet – crushing force, its teeth were supernaturally sharp, it was the sharpest thing Rowan had come across, it was able to slice through Davross and Mithril with ease, and the most important aspect was the devouring force behind it.

The Ouroboros Serpent was not just attempting to crush the statue, Rowan rapidly glimpsed at the Primordial Record and seeing the rapidly rising energy points, he understood that it was also devouring the energy in the fields protecting the goddess statue.

His hands could finally reach Maeve, and as he was behind her, he wrapped his arms around her body and held her while she was shrieking.

A loud explosion happened when the second Ouroboros Serpent bit through half of an altar with a single bite, rapidly swallowing it, it went for the remaining and gulped it down, turning towards the next altar, it was now so large it did not need to move it entire body, just stretching its neck was enough to reach the second altar and that too was summarily consumed.

Maeve’s body began to vibrate as if she were being electrocuted, tears of blood began running out her eyes and her screams became more piercing.

Her condition worsened as the Ouroboros Serpent bit closer to the statue, her falling life force made Rowan understand that his actions were killing her.

His Serpent paused, and Maeve began to speak, her voice was low and each word she spoke brought blood out of her mouth, until her chest was soaked with blood,

“Do you remember young master, the time when you were still a child, barely nine years. You would always choose to read the largest books you saw, and even though you would spend weeks trying to find the meaning behind the archaic terms and long-winded writings, you always persevered.”

“You would sit in your chair by the hearth, and you would read until you fell asleep…”

Rowan began to laugh, it was slow at first, and it went higher in pitch, “Shut your fu*king mouth! So, this is how Sigils works, it’s a very intriguing idea, and its execution is superb, but I’m afraid you made many mistakes… You don’t sound like my hand maiden, and this story you are telling me is of no consequence for in her own way, she had told me her goodbyes a long time ago, and I am not the Rowan you once knew”

Through the jaws of the Ouroboros Serpents, he saw the eyes of the goddess statue shake, and the marble around the eyes cracked and real eyes blazing with an unearthly madness were revealed beneath.