Well, he had tougher odds before!

The golden beast with clothes suddenly stopped when it was a few miles out, and began to vibrate. Rowan did not attack, as he was curious about what it was doing, and also cataloging what he could do without using any of his Ability Runes.

The vibration increased in intensity and the golden rat began to scream and curse, and like a stuck page on a book being forced open, the golden beast split into two identical copies, down to the clothes, except the color pattern had changed.

The sounds that were made when the split occurred were sickening. Like flesh being ripped apart by unearthly strength.

The first beast wore a white jacket and a black top hat, while the second wore a black jacket and a white top hat. The golden rat both panted for a bit, while making low moans of pain. The former relaxed and ordered the latter to proceed.

Rowan cocked his head to the side while observing this interaction. This golden rat had the ability to clone itself, and judging by the speed in which it did so, it could do it in under twelve seconds.

The information Rowan lacked however was how many more times could it clone itself, and how long was the duration of the clone’s existence.

Most importantly, was the first rat that was giving the orders a clone or the real beast? And how much information about him has this beast gathered?

Due to the fact that Rowan could not detect this beast normally, as its fur seemed to be in a constant state of invisibility. Without Suriel Sight this beast could have been close to him for an extremely long time, and he would have had no idea.

Rowan kept back his weapons, he could no longer use this creature as an experimental subject for his apparent corrupt Ability Runes, he would have to wipe it out at once, and he still had the means.

He called up the Lady of Shadow from the Palace of Ice, and she appeared beside him. Silent and mysterious, she appeared to understand what he needed, and she brought a single cupped palm up to her face and began whispering inside the palm.

From the knowledge from his bloodline, he understood she was performing a spell. His angels were also capable of performing spells, but in a very limited manner. She specialized in spell craft and had virtually no physical capability.

Yet her powers were enhanced to a ridiculous amount, the only detail about her powers she could tell him was that her spells all fell under a branch of Enochian Spells, like always, she did not elaborate what that fully meant.

With a final harsh sound, she removed her palm from her face and opened it. On her palm were many tiny faces as small as ants. The faces resembled those of infants, and they were all whispering to each other. It was a small mercy to Rowan that all their eyes were closed.

Bringing back the palm closer to her face, she puckered her lips and blew into her palm, releasing the thousands of whispering babies, and they flew with a mystical wind through the rocks, and then they separated in two.

One of the clusters of whispering babies entered the ears and eyes of the golden rat closer to the cavern and covered it, while the other went after the waiting golden rat. They did not seem to notice that their eyes and ears were now filled with the heads of the whispering babies.

It was an eerie sight because it almost appeared as if they were filled with writhing maggots.

The two golden rats suddenly jerked as if they were both electrocuted and began moving towards him, doing away with any of their previous stealth.

Before long, they both walked into the cavern, phasing through the rock and ice, and moved towards Rowan where they stopped and laid down on the floor.

Rowan watched a creepy and fascinating event unfolding. Whatever spell the Lady of Shadow had cast it was one that was both subtle yet deadly.

The eyes and ears of the golden beast were filled with the faces of the whispering babies who were doing one thing: feeding them lies, it would show them another reality and make it their truth. This spell reminded Rowan so much about the Nexus that he grimaced.

He was like this once, and thinking about all the Ability Runes in his Mental Space, perhaps his freedom was still a bit far from him.

The golden rat with black jacket and white top hat was on the floor and on its back, and it was making motions as if it was crawling through the earth, while muttering to itself,

“—telling Sharky what to do. Sharky is strong and… and. Sharky fierce. Sharky moves forward with big steps, not baby steps. Grrr…”

Clearly, this one was retarded. Was it a feature of the cloning process? Creating new clones with similar powers but reduced mental acuity? Yet, it was a golden beast at the second great circle, and a powerful weapon in its own right.

Rowan looked towards the other who was more crafty, as it was muttering to itself, it was mostly repeating the same thing and Rowan caught the gist of it, “I have to be careful about this one, can’t take it too far. His presence is not normal, but if I can kill him, I can consume the people he protects and return with news of the six heavenly beasts killing our brothers. Vraegar should already be aware, but I can give him more details, about their size, even their smell… he he he… I can’t wait to feast.”

Rowan believed that this one was also a clone, its mental state seemed pretty one – tracked. He could now easily kill these creatures, or he could feed them lies and release them. Suriel would follow them back to their base on the third continent.

After thinking through these series of actions, he decided it was the best, and brought out a dagger from his bracelet, seizing the retarded golden beast, he began slicing into it, and he underestimated the tenacity of their fur and the dagger snapped.

Rowan finally decided to pick the weapons of bones he had been ignoring and selected a long dagger with a wicked curved blade. It did the job, but Rowan had to really apply force to cut through the flesh of the golden beast.

He cut off one of its arms after hacking at it for a while, and crushed most of its ribs, knowing how much these golden beasts could regenerate, he ripped out its heart, and then he noticed something inside the stomach of the creature.

It was an orb, and from it, he was sensing such potent energies as from a volcano, he almost dragged it away from the beast and consumed it.

Checking out the second beast, he also saw the same orb, with a similar level of energy, although that one may be slightly more potent.

Rowan had to assume this was the upgrade path for beasts outside the paths of Dominion.

Dominators created Realms in the second circle, while these beasts created a concentrated orb of energy inside their body. Which was more advantageous? At this time, he could not tell, but it was fascinating to see other branches of power outside the Paths of Dominion.

Rowan crushed the orb of energy inside the butchered body of the golden rat, keeping a small part remaining. Even though he would be feeding them lies, without proper evidence it would not sell the lie.

Rowan thought this amount of damage should be enough to simulate a tough battle with him, and come out victorious.

Taking the body parts he collected from the butchered beast he fed them to the other golden beast, as this should be enough to enhance the lie that it returned and fed on the convoy.

Now he just had to wait for the whispering babies to complete the lies in their head and the scene would be complete.