The man cracked his neck and bringing up the blade to his shoulders, he chuckled and walked across Rowan’s shattered body, “Now, where was I before…”

Rowan thought that blow had killed him! When his head disappeared, the world went black for a fraction of a second, but then his consciousness entered his Mental Space where the beam of red light had somehow found its way into, that light smashed into his Palace of Ice with a resounding noise.

A purple membrane covered the palace and shielded it, but it only slowed the progress of the beam. The red light burned on the shield for a while before tearing the membrane apart and bombarded the Palace of Ice tearing a long trail of destruction throughout the structure before disappearing.

The purple-black Aether around the wings of his Angels of Char was cut in half as the Aether rushed into the sites of destruction in the Palace of Ice, and the Palace began to rebuild itself. The Lady of Shadow aided the repairs with chants and mystical gestures.

Rowan’s mind went cold, if he had the normal garden variety soul, that blast would not only have vaporized his head but his soul as well! He would have then had no choice but to use his lifespan to resurrect himself once more, and with his current capability, he would have used thousands of years worth of lifespan to do so.

Only the unknown nature of his Palace of Ice had saved him. He was on a slippery slope now, and he was not afraid, only extremely angry.

His Aether had already regenerated to its maximum level, and it only took two seconds for his Palace of Ice to heal all the damages, but his near death was not what made him extremely upset, it was the other effects the red blast had accomplished.

Rowan rose from the ground, his head was the last to grow, his mouth opened wide as he sucked in the cool air, and his hair exploded behind him as it had regrown and fallen across his back.

The man paused and turned, “I could not see your weak point, so I blasted your head, you always go for the head, never fails me… until you.”

He faced Rowan fully his eyes were probing, and he suddenly gave a full belly laugh, “Seeing as I was the one to make the first strike, then I think I should be the first to introduce myself. Some call me…”

“You’re dead motherfu*ker!” The armor of Enrage wrapped around his body, followed by his energy cloak.

Rowan does not curse much, if at all, but the casual beam of energy Dorian used to disintegrate his body had not stopped after doing their job. It had traveled down the plain, punching through hills and trees and slicing past the convoy.

His convoy!

He could not estimate how much damage was caused by that blast, but a third of the vehicles were aflame.

Rowan’s thoughts mocked him, “Kinda hypocritical don’t you think? You are willing to condemn an entire Continent to death with who knows how many innocents, yet the death of a few thousand people has you raging to the high heavens?”

Yet, he understood why he was angry. It was because of his promise. He had given his word that he would preserve a seed. His enemies and his bloodline problems were too powerful for half measures, and it would be impossible to survive if he did not commit atrocities. His only sense of comfort was that he was willing to make a chance for the people he was going to hurt, he would preserve something of them, and as an Empyrean the actions of this man had mocked his grace!

When did I become such a douchebag? Well, this is what this world has made me.

The man continued speaking with a grin, “Hey, no need to behave like that, buddy. Just let me finish, I am Dorian Kuranes, some call me the Son of Scarlet, I’m…”

That was when the Mace Rowan had imbued three stacks of Smash and a healthy dosage of Aether smashed into Dorian, pushing him back for twelve feet, his feet digging into the ground before he grunted and slapped the Mace away with his blade.

However Rowan had closed the gap and was already in front of him, close enough to feel his breath on his body, after applying three stacks of Dash on his body his movement in a short area could as well be Teleportation, and then he unleashed Combo Attack with all the Aether his Earth level Berserker Aspect could take.

This skill was the most peculiar skill of his Berserker Aspect.

Two phantasmal bodies of Rowan appeared, and they surrounded Dorian, and with the amount of Aether Rowan had placed inside the technique he was indistinguishable from any of his clones, as they all wore energy cloaks with Enrage activated.

Combo Attack at the Earth level created two phantasmal clones, and the more Aether he could push into the technique, the closer to the power of his real body they became, and most importantly they could wield other Berserker techniques, but at the Earth level, they were restricted to using only one technique at a time. It was enough for Rowan’s purpose.

He suspected at higher levels, these clones could present a surprise to him.

All three held short swords to enhance the speed of their strikes, heavy weapons would not work against someone faster and stronger than him.

The first clone went low, and the second directly body slammed Dorian leading with the knives, it failed to shake Dorian, and he replied with a punch through its chest. Yet the first clone could not perish from such a grievous injury, holding Dorian tight, the clone exploded.

The explosion was less spectacular than all the previous explosions, the Aether inside the clone freezing Dorian for a few seconds because Rowan compressed his Aether when the clone exploded, not allowing it to lose energy by creating excess ice outside the body.

Rowan was learning fast about his abilities and how to properly use them in battle, creating massive blocks of ice around his target to freeze them would not work, as proven by Dorian smashing a mountain of ice like nothing. What he needed was to force the ice into the body of his target, compressing the explosion to shoot inward, thereby creating a thin sheet of ice around the body that was multiple times stronger than the previous blocks of ice, allowing it to spread evenly all over the body.

Dorian was frozen in the act of punching, and the second clone that went low slid Dorian’s feet away from him and he slammed to the ground on his back, he was beginning to regain a bit of motion and Rowan denied him when the second clone exploded freezing him once more in the act of rising.

Rowan’s action was fluid, and instead of using his short sword, he let them drop to the ground as he swung the hammer he had been holding behind his body with Telekinesis on the head of Dorian.

He had shown the man an image of him attacking with short swords in order to hide the fact that he had been activating Smash repeatedly on the great hammer he hid behind his back and underneath his energy cloak which had a great function of muting energy signatures.

Rowan slammed his hammer into the face of Dorian sending his face into the ground, as a web of cracks spread around his feet, and the rest of Dorian’s body spasmed as if he was electrocuted breaking the ice freezing him in place, but before he could move, the hammer exploded, and he was frozen once more.

Rowan was already creating another two clones.

Another hammer was already been primed and Rowan saw a red glow below the ground where Dorian’s head was buried then a sudden blast of red light vaporized Rowan’s head again, he had anticipated that move, and unlike before, his clones were still in play, so he had visibly been priming his attack making a very obvious target, while his clone hiding its technique smashed Dorian’s body with a great axe unleashing its freezing attack and exploding once more to keep him in place.

Crowd Control B*tches.