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~Rowan~

It was a brand new day, and Rowan was feeling rather disgruntled after the events of yesterday. While he was thoroughly rested, he could not help but feel a bit irritated at having to stay up to listen to that guy's ridiculous story about how he was called the "light bringer" or some crap like that. Not only did it sound a little farfetched, but he sounded like he was trying to be some messiah or something like that. It was completely absurd, and so was his repeated nonsense about dragons from other worlds and such. Rowan thought to himself, a bit frustrated at having to deal with such a person. He was simply glad that he and Blake were able to get away from the man and continue their journey. After all, he wanted no part of journeying with the man to Yuki-no-Okoku, and he did not want to continue to listen to whatever ridiculous stories the man wanted to make up. As such, the two of them had pointed out where he needed to go to reach one of the cities, going their separate ways. Before the man had even left their line of sight, Rowan had picked Blake up and teleported away.

Getting to the Sky Platform was rather difficult, having to teleport many times in order to reach it. Luckily, Rowan's greaves were able to get him and Blake from the ground all the way up to the island that rested in the center of the area. The reason Rowan had picked it was because it seemed like the most likely place for dragon-like creatures. Prideful creatures like dragons would undoubtedly inhabit the largest area. That's just a fact. That why, if there are dragon-kin, they would be living in this general area. Rowan thought to himself, now walking through the forest with Blake. "Blake, I'm not upset with you about what happened yesterday, but I'm not pleased at all by it. You let some crazy man into our camp without even taking into account that he could have tried to kill us." Rowan stated, obviously not happy with the way things had turned out. If it was up to Rowan, the man would have left that Kazuki guy to freeze in the wilderness. Maybe he would have survived, but the two of them would not have had to fight a dragon. That was for sure.

After walking quite a ways, Rowan came across a scroll of parchment that was trapped underneath a rock not too far away from a humanoid skeleton. The sight of it might have unnerved most people, but he and Blake were pretty used to dead bodies at this point. As such, Rowan was rather unaffected by the sudden discovery of a corpse, although he could not tell how Blake was feeling about it. Carefully, he moved over to the piece of parchment and picked it up, reading it carefully. "Focus your mind and form a third eye within yourself. By doing so, you will open the gates to any possibility." Rowan read, looking at paragraphs that were hastily scrawled across the parchment. There were also pieces of diagrams drawn on the parchment to display how to focus the mind or something like that. Reading through it, Rowan began to understand what it was saying more and more, eventually coming to a conclusion that he could definitely use the technique it was describing should he need to. Upon figuring out how the technique worked, however, the scroll lit up and glowed, bestowing him with an ability, as if it merely needed to be understood to be activated.

Once the light dissipated, the scroll was nothing but ash in Rowan's hands, and the man was staring forward with a rather strange look in his eyes. Suddenly, he turned towards Blake and spoke. "There's about thirteen animals around us right now. Five of them are small, two large bird-like creatures, and six of them are snake-like." He stated to her, trying to figure out just what the scroll had done to him. Upon stating what was on his mind, however, he simply held up his hands and spoke again. "I... can feel the things around me that I can't see. And... there's all sorts of thoughts pulling me in different directions. It's like I can see more than I actually can..." Rowan stated, unsure of what was going on anymore.

~Rowan~

Blake was definitely right in regards to the dragons. The two of them did not have the polar bear with them, so it was very unlikely that they could skin the creatures and still manage to walk around all that well. It was difficult enough with all of the weapons the two of them had. Adding dragon materials to the list of items they were carrying would simply burden them twice as much. "Yeah, we should leave that stuff there. Besides, it's not like we're going to be needing money for a long time. With all the dragon materials we got back in the forest, the two of us aren't going to be living a poor life anymore. We're pretty much rich." Rowan stated, shrugging a bit as he put away his sword and looked over towards Blake. "And if we're rich... then I'm not sure what we're supposed to do after this. Having a regular job and living in an apartment seems a bit... unlikely. That kind of life probably isn't something we can return to." Rowan stated, not sure if the two of them could live such a... normal life. Their pockets were practically lined with gold and they had numerous powerful items.

The two of them seemed to be moving forward through the forest again, eventually coming upon an altar that seemed to stand out from the rest of the area. Its sudden appearance caused Rowan to simply stare in slight disbelief. There were not any signs of this altar around, almost as if the landscape had grown around it and covered it up. Blake seemed to have found a piece of paper in the rubble of the destroyed altar as well, saying something about it being a necromancy spell or something of the sort. "I guess you got pretty lucky in that regard. It's not all that often you find something like that." Rowan responded, picking up some of the rubble and examining it closely. It had a strange script on it, undoubtedly being something native to the region that they were in. Did that mean it was the dragonkin language or something similar? Curious, Rowan decided to place the piece of rubble in his bag. Maybe he could find someone that he could trust who might translate what it said for him. Not like that'll ever happen. Rowan thought to himself and sighed a little bit, turning his attention back to Blake.

"Of course I'm still feeling the effects of that thing. And I think I know what it was... at least... I have a general idea. We learned about things like that in the Academy... but we were told not to mess around with them too much. They're scrolls that grant abilities to people. That can be through instruction, or they can simply engrave themselves into people in a way. They do, however, have strict requirements to use them. Not only do you have to meet whatever requirement the one who created it set, but you have to be compatible with the ability itself. As such, if I found a scroll that contained a water ability, it would be useless to me. There's no way I could use something like that." Rowan explained to Blake, trying to get her to understand what the scroll as that he had found. While Mages might not know too much about them, or even most Knights, anyone who went through military training would have a basic knowledge of scrolls like the one that he had found. Not that I know too much about spell scrolls. Those things are beyond my knowledge... although I am vaguely aware of their existence.

After the two of them had started moving through the forest again, he noticed the Blake was starting to turn more and more red as the two of them walked. Curious, he moved around the woman to stare at her face, only to see that she was blushing pretty heavily. What's wrong with her? Is she thinking about what had happened last night or something? Maybe that guy really did capture her interest. After all, he was pretty mysterious and seemed to come out of nowhere. Women are supposed to be interesting in that kind of crap, right? Although, she wasn't blushing last night too much. Eh, whatever. Not like it matters too much. Rowan thought to himself, his curiosity quickly fading from his mind as he stopped pondering Blake's embarrassment. Whatever it was, the woman would eventually talk to him about it, just as she had with most of her problems. His attention was taken away from the topic completely, however, when the two of them came across some sort of temple that seemed to be dragon themed.

Some dragon man seemed to walk out of the entrance only to be capture by Blake before he could alert anyone to the two of them. Blake seemed to have a plan in mind, although Rowan was largely unaware of anything except an extreme desire... to slay every single thing within a ten mile radius. The desire crept up on him slowly from earlier, although now it was an uncontrollable rage. Before Blake could even suggest that the two of them head into the temple, Rowan was already charging forward, brandishing Balmung. The dragonkin seemed to cry out in shock before he was sliced by Rowan, instantly being slain by Balmung. His body hit the bottom of Blake's makeshift cage, the cage itself also splitting in half from the attack Rowan had used. "I.... I'm going to kill you all!!!!" He screamed as he disappeared into the temple, out of Blake's sight. With his speed and teleporting ability, It was very unlikely that the woman was going to be able to catch up to him, much less try and reason with him in this berserk-like state of mind he seemed to have.

As for Rowan, he was simply rushing through the different pathways in the temple, ripping everything that he came across into shreds. At times, he would find himself surrounded by enemies, only to teleport out of the way and start cutting through them with many multi-strike attacks from his blade. It did not take long for him to cut down any of his enemies, given that they were all dragon-like and were affected by his Armament in a very negative way. The temple even had dragons guarding certain parts of it, blocking off entrance ways and other places that seemed important. Nothing, however, could stand up to the onslaught that was Rowan. Peoples' screams were actually filling the temple, echoing off the walls and throughout the structure. Those screams, however, were merely met with violence from Rowan, the young man brutally destroying anyone that he came across. Somehow, Gram had pretty much possessed him with a blind rage that told him to destroy every last dragonkin that he came across. Soon, fear and panic was completely spread throughout the temple, and shouts of "Gram" were echoing all throughout it.

"Die. Die. All of you die!!!!" Rowan seemed to be screaming from deep within the temple. Eventually, Rowan found his way to a huge room that seemed to be almost mountainous in size. It was a giant circular room that dipped down into the earth, creating a large pit that went down for hundreds of miles. While Rowan would normally not think too much of this sort of thing, he noticed that there was something within this pit. In fact, it was large enough to take up the whole pit and even some of the area he had walked out onto. In a brief moment of clarity, he had only one thought. This thing's... larger than a mountain... it's massive... Rowan thought to himself, seeing a gigantic, white wyvern that seemed to be chained very thoroughly to the surrounding structure. Was this temple built to hide this creature from sight, to keep it from seeing the light of day? Whatever had been the intent of the people who chained it up here, Rowan could no longer consider such possibilities. After all, he was soon consumed with rage, and there were several dragons flying around the room that seemed to be the target of this rage.

~Rowan~

By the time that Blake had managed to reach the end of the temple, Rowan had slain all of the dragons that were flying around, their bodies laying at the bottom of the pit as Rowan hung onto one of the chains that were holding the wyvern in place. With all of the creatures gone, his senses were finally coming back to him and realization at his actions was dawning on him. While it was not enough to make him sick to his stomach, the young man obviously felt sort of... not alright in regards to his actions. He had not been in control, and he definitely did not want to slaughter so many people that may not have even fought him should he have left them alone. As such, it was a pretty terrible feeling that he was experiencing, one that did not sit well with him. Just... what's going on with me. What's... happening to me? Rowan though to himself, looking up at the arm that was holding onto the chain. Gram glittered in the firelight, the black armor-like arm shining brightly due to the lighting. This Armament... it was starting to affect him more and more as time went on.

Blake's words were what brought him back to reality, the young woman calling out to him and asking him, very angrily, what he had done. Her venomous tone immediately did not sit well with Rowan, the man scowling slightly and retorting with a rather venomous tone himself. "I took out the enemy! Something that Knights are supposed to do. Not that you'd know anything about that, wanting to leave everyone with minor injuries or to themselves. Sometimes there's no other way except the worst possible one." He stated with a rather spiteful tone, obviously not happy with what he had done... yet he also did not want to hear anything from her about his actions. Moving back and forth on the chain, Rowan eventually flung himself over the edge of the pit, landing on it perfectly. The last thing I need is you nagging me on top of all of this. Rowan thought to himself, shaking his head slightly at the woman as she continued to speak to him. "If I wanted healing from you I'd ask for it. I'm perfectly fine, and I don't need you bugging me about anything either. Just... keep thinking about what you need to do, and I'll worry about me." Rowan stated, looking away from the woman and towards the creature in the pit.

For some odd reason, he was not feeling the urge to slay it. In fact, the young man did not feel anything at all, and the creature in front of him seemed to not be feeling the effects of Gram either. Did that mean that this creature was not a dragon? Rowan had never seen anything like it before, so he had just assumed that it may have been one and the same. His lack of a reaction, however, made him realize the errors of his way. The albino creature seemed to be rather... melancholic. It was not moving, nor did it show any hope in it eyes. Whatever had been done to it had destroyed its willpower, or at least the strength to keep trying to break free. It was a sad scene, and Rowan could not help but teleport around the room cutting all of the chains apart. This creature needed to be free, to fly around and do what it wanted. It was obviously something rare... and it was not meant to be locked away underneath a temple for the rest of its life. Once all of its restraints were destroyed, the massive creature simply picked its body up, its massive head appearing from below the pit and rising above the two of them.

Eventually, it lowered its head down to their level, its pupil being the size of a small dragon as it inspected them closely. Was it... trying to judge them or something? For some odd reason, Rowan sense a kindred spirit in the creature, just as Gram had recognized Rowan as someone it could bond with. Then, suddenly, a symbol appeared on Rowan's right hand, a strange symbol with a tail and wings. Rowan did not know what it was, although Blake might actually understand the meaning of it. It was something that incredibly magical creatures forged with people so that they could never be separated. Essentially, it was similar to the bond with a Knight and Magus, just without any benefits except feeling the thoughts and emotions of each other. This symbol was simply known as a Pact Sigil, a magic symbol that bond two individuals until either of them died. Rowan simply stared at the symbol on his right hand, inspecting it. "He wants to leave... with us. Let's.... get going." Rowan stated, grabbing Blake's hand and teleporting on top of the dragon's head. Once they were on top of the creature, it simply flapped its wing-like arms and soared upwards, destroying the temple completely as it erupted to the surface, crawling from the hole it created. From atop the creature, they could see the entire island that they were on, being as high-up as a mountain almost. The sight was simply amazing.