At the eleventh level of the nameless technique, Rowan was able to bear the entire weight of ten million lives. After getting to the next level of power, he was able to bear the weight of fifty-two billion lives, clearing out every single bone inside the cave.
Yet this cave had simply been there to protect him from the full might of existence that would be pouring down upon him. Rowan should not be doing this; every particle in his body was screaming at him to run back into the cave and avoid the burden of carrying so much weight on his shoulders.
"If not me, who?" he growled as, instead of following what every part of him was telling him, he opened the doors to his body wider, and the bones pouring from the skies began to crash against his consciousness like a flood.
Pain like no other filled him completely, but Rowan welcomed the pain; instead of fleeing from it, he used it to ground himself, to focus his spirit so he could truly reflect on his reasons for bearing this burden.
