Rowan rcer had never believed a word Gate said.
Promises from an exiled angel were worth less than dust.
By the ti Rowan ever considered "saving" Gate, he would already stand at the absolute peak of his own pathway. At that point, bargaining would be unnecessary. He would simply take what he wanted.
"Good," Rowan said calmly. "Then let collect a little interest."
He activated his divination in full.
Just as he had done before with other ancient beings, Rowan began forcibly extracting knowledge directly from Gate’s existence. Streams of information poured into his mind. Structures, symbols, hidden laws. Everything related to the Gate pathway.
Gate did not resist.
Instead, he smiled.
A thin crimson thread slipped along the divination channel, seeping quietly toward Rowan’s consciousness.
An attempt at contamination.
Rowan noticed imdiately.
"So you’re trying to stain my mind."
He did nothing to stop it.
Not yet.
Rowan continued harvesting information until every accessible fragnt of Gate’s pathway knowledge had been stripped clean. Only then did he sever the connection and shift his divination toward the invading crimson force itself.
"Trace the source."
Reality folded.
What appeared before him was a vast, obscene silhouette. A monstrous form composed of layered flesh, countless reproductive organs fused together, crowned with massive wings that blotted out perception itself.
Understanding detonated inside Rowan’s mind.
The Mother of Corruption.
Origin of all depravity.
The undying outer sovereign.
Ruler of the World and Primordial Womb pathways.
A voice echoed directly inside his soul.
"I am your mother. Beco my devoted child."
The pressure surged.
The outer god had realized Rowan was stealing information and began amplifying the corruption through the divination link.
Rowan felt genuine danger.
Even separated by the ancient barrier protecting the world, even acting only through a reversed divination channel, this entity’s presence dwarfed that of ordinary gods.
One mistake could leave a permanent scar on his consciousness.
"So this is the power of an outer god."
Rowan exhaled slowly.
Then, with faint amusent, he murmured:
"rge."
Across countless worlds, fragnts of Rowan’s soul answered.
All avatars collapsed inward.
They beca one.
A titanic ntal barrier ford around Rowan’s true self, layered and reinforced by the combined strength of every incarnation he possessed.
The crimson corruption slamd into the shield and shattered.
Seeing that further contamination was impossible, the Mother of Corruption withdrew instantly, severing the connection before Rowan could drain more from her.
Silence returned.
Rowan opened his eyes.
"So Roselle was tainted by her as well," he murmured.
Much beca clear.
The Mother of Corruption had been one of the earliest children of the Original Creator. Later, she had mated with that sa being, giving birth to most of the ancient outer gods.
During the earliest age, when the Original Creator briefly awakened, she was stripped of her primordial essence and two authorities.
Those stolen authorities beca the Mother and Moon pathways.
Since then, she had been desperately attempting to reclaim what was taken.
She corrupted the progenitor of the bloodline in the Second Epoch.
She corrupted Gate in the Fourth.
And in the Fifth, she used Gate to lure Roselle to the moon, placing her mark upon him as well.
That contamination was precisely why Roselle had never dared to return.
If he did, he would beco a living conduit.
A doorway for catastrophe.
Rowan raised a hand.
"Expel."
Overwhelming spiritual force surged outward, erasing Gate’s residual mark embedded within the bracelet’s power.
The contamination vanished.
Gate himself could not normally influence every user of his pathway. Even a true god lacked such reach. Only those who carried a direct imprint—like the bracelet—beca vulnerable.
The Magician had simply been unlucky.
During full moons and red moons, the Mother of Corruption’s influence strengthened, allowing Gate to piggyback on that surge to whisper.
Rowan handed the bracelet back.
"Don’t use it again. The whispers will stop."
The Magician trembled violently.
"T-thank you... Thank you..."
The faint shockwaves from the earlier clash had nearly crushed her sanity. She now understood just how close she had co to annihilation.
Rowan steadied her unstable spirit with a gentle touch of power.
A mont later, flas wrapped around them.
They returned to Backlund.
The night ended.
The following days passed quietly.
Rowan studied the imnse knowledge he had extracted while continuing to finalize his modified locating magic.
Sunday morning, cradled in his mother Chris’s arms, Rowan opened his eyes.
"It’s done."
The spell had been fully converted into this world’s magical frawork.
"Locate: Roselle Gustav."
The world responded.
A clear direction ford within Rowan’s perception.
Ordinary divination could never pinpoint soone of Roselle’s stature. Even gods would face interference.
But Rowan’s thod belonged to an entirely different system.
It bypassed this world’s defenses.
Roselle’s soul location beca unmistakably clear.
"Ti to inform Bernadette."
She had likely failed to locate the naless island. It no longer mattered.
As for the Mother of Corruption’s interference?
Her true body could not enter this world.
At most, she could channel power through Roselle.
Rowan was unconcerned.
If necessary, he would pull Roselle directly into his personal world, isolate him completely, and cleanse the contamination at leisure.
A sudden voice broke his thoughts.
"Huh? Why is there so much fog?"
Rowan looked up.
Outside, a massive curtain of thick gray mist rolled across Backlund’s eastern district.
Not ordinary fog.
Rowan’s eyes narrowed.
"Witchcraft."
Specifically—
Despair Witch plague fog.
A deadly miasma capable of wiping out tens of thousands of ordinary people.
Rowan went still.
King George’s move had begun.
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