Stepping forward in response to the god sphere's provocation, a veiny chill breezes through and past Rowan's neck, prickling his skin and forcing a broad shudder to gallop across his body, the ends of his hair stiffening.
The room's silence was deafening, a quiet ring crawling along the edges of his ears, tickling his earlobes as it squirmed to make contact with his brain.
His heart's measured tempo fell apart as its thundering echoes impacted against his ribcage, the sensation of bursting forcing him to clench his chest with one hand.
As each pace took him closer and closer to the god sphere, Rowan felt his heart's pummels strengthen in potency, the throbbing pain forcing him to wince ever so slightly.
It wasn't until he was just a few steps away from the god sphere that he was finally able to let go of his chest, his surroundings now black and his hearing gone.
Rowan's guts pitched upwards, frantically searching for his surroundings as he lost sight of which way was down. He dipped into a free fall, the ground sizzling out from under him as he yelled out in shock.
It was only after a few seconds of flying off into the abyss that his descent ceased, his face flopping down from the sudden shift in momentum.
"What the hell is this?" He inquired, linear lips and furrowed brows plastered on his face.
Rowan felt a sweat run down along his nape, the sensation of heat etching a sharp dichotomy to the previous sensory deprivation that'd first incurred his confusion.
Rowan awkwardly fluttered his arms and legs, twisting his body inch by inch to the opposite direction.
After struggling for a couple seconds, he could barely discern a large, winged beast in the corner of his eyes.
As he finally twisted his torso facing the gnarly beast, his vision grew dreary, the sudden shock from such a towering figure relinquishing his lucidity.
Rowan closed his eyes, rubbing them to make sense of reality.
Parting his eyelids, he refocused his vision to again look on at the beast, the creature's details even more vivid than before.
It seemed to have been gutted and mutilated, a gaping wound in its stomach revealing its innards just barely obfuscated by black, hardened blood.
A putrid green peeked through Rowan's mouth, washing over his tongue to remind him of the acidic aftertaste of bile.
His hands compelled to reach for his mouth, Rowan fought through the building pressure that made his cheeks stick out, gulping down his puke while biting back his gag reflex.
Rowan wiped away the remaining liquid on his lips, his sleeves--tattered by the flying sparks of Kaia's flames--just barely getting the job done.
There were a number of smaller cuts running across its chest, arms, legs, and face, all far less gnarly than the cavity in its stomach.
It had two overbearing protrusions from its back, most likely having been wings had they not been clipped and marked in the same darkened red that ran along the rest of its wounds.
In one of its mangled hands laid a large sword, inscriptions similar to the ones in the grimoire circling the handle and lining the blade.
Rowan looked on at the creature's face, immediately forming the thought that describing it as a beast was a little incorrect, ignoring its ridiculous size.
There was snow white hair raining down from its scalp, a chiseled jaw and well-mannered face painting the serene picture of angelic beauty, seen only in fictions.
"You..." the big creature spat out, his eyes gaping open to reveal pure blue eyes that somehow managed to reflect light in the infinite gloom.
Red drops as large as three-story tall buildings spat out from its mouth at blistering speeds, surely having broken the sound barrier had there been air in this realm.
Rowan flinched, horrified by the deep groans of the ghastly thing and its flying spit and blood.
One drop whizzed just a few feet from Rowan, surely having turned him into a puddle of red had it connected.
Rowan's already horrified expression was now one of terror, his mouth hanging wide as he stood frozen by pure fear.
The towering creature's finger twitched, its hold on the blade loosening. It consequently reached for its own face, lifting the back of its hand towards itself.
The creature was... wiping away its spit, puckering his lips as if he were an old lady fixing themselves in a powder room.
"What are you..." Rowan asked, fear still hammering away at his bones.
"What am I... hah, how ironic coming from you! Let me give you one better: What are you?" The creature retorted, amusement peeking through his hollow expression by the ever so slight crease in his lower lip.
Rowan's mouth twitched and then balked in surprise, the words clinging to the back of his throat but just barely holding themselves back from escaping through the trembling of his lips, like an annoying tonsil stone unwilling to dislodge.
"Ah, I see, it must be my current appearance, huh? Don't worry about me, I acclimated to the pain around a thousand years after I was trapped in this shoddy work of Kaido--sorry, barrier arcana."
The creature was now fully embracing his unseriousness, his eyes closed while grinning ear to ear.
Rowan, caught off guard by the sharp contrast between the creature's mutilated appearance yet light-hearted conversation, smiled in response, a bout of laughter breaking loose from his gut.
"Hey, why are you laughing?" The creature questioned, now concerned in his facial expression with eyes vying for an answer.
"Hah ha ha! It's not you, it's just that when I first saw you, I thought you were going to eat me alive or something -- brrgghhhh!"
The sudden shift in pressure forcefully expelling the air in Rowan's lungs, the creature grabbed him with his thumb and index finger, inching Rowan closer to his face.
The creature's lips parted to reveal the cavernous extremities of his teeth and mouth, red plastered in the gaps between his canine teeth.
"You know, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea."