"Co back."
Rowan rcer reached out and pulled Martin Gray’s soul back from the brink, sealing it in place before it could drift away. In one smooth motion, he forced it back into Martin’s body. Restoration followed imdiately, layered magic knitting flesh, bone, and shattered nerves together.
Less than a minute later, Martin drew a sharp breath.
He opened his eyes, staggered once, then stood.
"My King," he said hoarsely, flexing his fingers in disbelief. "Wasn’t I... dead?"
Rowan smiled faintly. "You were. I promised I’d keep you alive. You asked not to interfere in your fight with Lucan Kade, so I waited until he killed you. Then I brought you back."
He looked Martin in the eye. "From today on, you’re soone who has already died once. Your life no longer belongs to you. It belongs to Nason Island."
A ripple of shock spread through the valley.
"He was dead," soone whispered. "His skull was pierced. That wasn’t a near miss."
Gasps turned into outright disbelief. Saving soone barely clinging to life was one thing. Restoring soone who had unquestionably died was sothing else entirely.
Lucan Kade ca running back, breath ragged, clothes torn from his earlier flight. The mont he saw Martin standing there, whole and alive, the fog in his eyes cleared.
"You’re... alive?" he said.
"You killed him once," Rowan said calmly. "That settles the debt."
He continued, voice steady. "The man you hated, the one who destroyed the Trinity Sect, is already dead. There’s no one left to hunt. As for Martin Gray, he’ll remain on Nason Island as one of my guards."
Lucan stared, then suddenly sank to the ground, relief crashing into exhaustion.
"He’s dead," Lucan murmured. "Good. It’s finally over. Master... you can rest now."
Rowan didn’t linger. He turned, took Martin with him, and returned to the golden platform. The nine dragons lifted into the sky, carrying them back toward Nason Island.
Once ho, Rowan forged several new gate-keys and handed them to Mae Jenson. With the island secure and its leadership settled, he withdrew into seclusion to study the Sacred Tree and refine the strange devouring art he had claid earlier.
Elsewhere, in another world, Rowan opened his eyes inside a quiet training chamber.
It was ti to push further.
This body’s genetic abilities traced back to two titans of mutant history. At first, they had been modest. Over ti, magic and ntal discipline had expanded them far beyond their original limits. His psychic reach now rivaled the greatest minds of any era. His control over electromagnetic forces matched legends once thought unreachable.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
True advancent had slowed to a crawl. To break through again would require a fundantal shift, sothing on the scale of rewriting what he was.
Rowan knew the truth of mutant origins. Their gifts weren’t accidents. Long ago, humanity had been seeded with latent potential, a spark ant to grow alongside evolution itself. Given ti and pressure, that spark could ignite into sothing vast.
So mutants had proven just how far that road could go.
Reality-shapers. World-makers.
If others could reach that height, so could he.
He had lacked a path before. Not anymore.
Thanks to an earlier encounter, Rowan now possessed coordinates to countless parallel realities. One of them stood out, a place where an approaching event could sharpen both mind and force to a new extre.
Possibly even grant access to a power spoken of only in whispers.
Rowan slipped on his ring and traced a circle in the air. Space folded. A gateway opened.
He stepped through.
The world on the other side felt right. The architecture, the people, the era. His timing was precise.
"First things first," he murmured. "Stay invisible."
He suppressed his presence completely, wrapping the area in temporal distortion to block detection. Drawing attention from organizations that monitored ti was inconvenient, even if they weren’t truly dangerous to him.
He moved carefully, avoiding ripples that might invite scrutiny.
If all went well, he’d be gone before anyone noticed.
And when he returned, he would be stronger than ever.
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