Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2495 Ten thousand

”...The early catastrophe?” Billy revealed a terrified smile, the kind of smile worn by someone who had been searching for a raging lion to photograph from a safe distance, only for that very lion to suddenly appear out of nowhere directly in front of him and stare straight into his eyes. ”...W-What... are you talking about?”

”Itʼs something simple that happened a few decades ago, remember? Back when I brought my grandchildren here and handed out the gifts.” Robin smiled faintly as he recalled the occasion and everything that had happened that day. ”That day, I fought an Executioner, or what is known as an Ancestor of the Space Beasts.”

Whoosh Robin casually extended his hand beside him, and it disappeared directly into the space there before he pulled a black arm out from between the folds of space, then Poof, tossed it onto the table in front of him as though it were nothing particularly noteworthy. ”Remember this? Itʼs the arm of that Ancestor of the Space Beasts.”

”....?” Billyʼs eyes opened as wide as they possibly could the instant he recognized what had just landed on the table.

Robin had indeed brought that very arm out in front of everyone that day, allowing all of them to see it with their own eyes, but he hadnʼt said a single word about its origin or anything else concerning it.

That arm... It was nothing more than an object now, something lifeless and completely severed from its original body, yet despite that, Billy could clearly see the space surrounding it becoming disturbed and rippling merely from its presence, and he could feel the air throughout the entire area gradually condensing and becoming heavier and more difficult to breathe.

”Actually, during our usual work of hunting Space Beasts from beyond the shell surrounding the universe, or what you know as the End-of-the-World Wall, an Ancestor of the Space Beasts suddenly appeared with a million Space Beasts accompanying her, including dozens of adult Space Beasts among them. It was a nest almost identical to the one that humiliated the entire universe and nearly destroyed it seventy million years ago.”

Robin knitted his brows slightly as he spoke, as though he remembered that distant day with such clarity that it had happened only yesterday. ”Morgana, Blokan, Althera, and Asir all fought that nest fiercely, and reinforcements arrived from the Burton Familyʼs Soul Forces and from our wings everywhere, as you already know. The protection around Donara was multiplied several times over from that day onward, and from that same day, peopleʼs eyes increasingly began turning toward Donara because of all the commotion that battle caused...”

”...After a fierce battle between us and them, we eventually managed to repel that enormous nest and burned more than half of them during the battle, while I personally managed to defeat the Space Beast Ancestor—the Executioner—and forced her to retreat and flee from the battlefield... But unfortunately, I wasnʼt able to kill her completely. It was an extremely exhausting battle from beginning to end, and I suffered some injuries myself while fighting her.”

”Of course, you remember most of this already, but... there was one thing I deliberately chose to hide that day.” Robin began tapping his fingers against his simple chair while continuing in the same calm manner. ”The Executioner threatened me that day that she would go and report the presence of forces from our universe outside the shell, and that afterward she would return for revenge with the support of an Executioner General and an even larger army of Harvesters, and she specifically said that all of this would happen within ten thousand years at most.”

Then Robin casually shrugged his shoulders, as though the uncertainty surrounding that threat didnʼt particularly bother him. ”...I donʼt know whether she meant a large number of Executioners like herself who are collectively called a ʼGeneralʼ as some kind of military unit, or whether itʼs actually a rank belonging to an Executioner even stronger than her... Either way, I donʼt think itʼll be a particularly pleasant event.”

Baa Billy immediately slapped both of his cheeks at once, as though trying to make sure he had heard Robin correctly. ”You donʼt think?!” Then he raised his voice, unable to understand how Robin could still speak so casually about something of this magnitude. ”How could you keep information like that to yourself?!”

”Out of fear.” Robin sighed. ”I was afraid that high-ranking Causality users like Qarun and Sevar might discover it through their own methods if those words ever left my mouth. If that happened, a disaster might follow... So I decided to keep the secret to myself until the right time.”

Gulp Billyʼs eyes sank. ”What would happen... if they found out?”

Billy suddenly remembered that they were in the middle of a live broadcast. Forget Qarun and Sevar—even infants had heard it now!!

Robin narrowed his eyes slightly. ”Instead of the Executioner traveling to the Land of Eternal Shelter to request reinforcements over five thousand years, then spending another five thousand years returning, one of them could contact one of the Seerʼs enemies through Transcendent momentum and accelerate the process, leaving us with only five thousand years.”

Baa Billy slapped both cheeks again. ”They might actually do something like that?!”

”I donʼt know, and I donʼt want to take the risk.” Robin shook his head. ”Perhaps their survival depends on remaining inside the universe until the cycle ends, but if allowing the Executioners and Harvesters to enter would make their work easier, accelerate the completion of their mission, and neutralize Universe B-14 even before the cycle ends, then what would stop them?”

Poof Billyʼs back dropped against the backrest of his chair, his eyes completely vacant.

”Faced with a situation like this, what am I supposed to do?” Robin ignored Billyʼs exaggerated reaction and calmly returned to examining what he held. ”I immediately began expanding the scope of my influence. Those Sectors under my command when the Executioner General and its enemy force arrive will become my support, my weapon, and my shield.”

”...The inhabitants of those Sectors under my rule will become the heroes who accomplish what our ancestors couldnʼt. Theyʼll defend the universe with my weapons, my information, and my sciences. The resources of those Sectors will go toward building Note-5 vessels to defend the universe, while the nobles of those Sectors will have the opportunity to venture beyond the shell and see the truth that I and only a small handful of my followers have seen, rather than remaining trapped inside, waiting for inevitable death.”

Then Robin smiled. ”I suppose my dreams were a little too idealistic... The other powers noticed what I was trying to do and quickly decided to stop me. Strengthening the universe and gathering it under a single banner greatly harms their interests, and everyone swallowed their story and believed it. Now, instead of focusing on uniting the universe against whatʼs happening outside, weʼve entered a devastating civil war.”

”Hmm?” At that moment, Robinʼs eyes lit up as he held the book. ”Haha, the development of the Space Note-5 fleet has theoretically been completed. They even incorporated that Law into the hulls just as I requested... Amazing!” Then he gestured toward Billy with the book. ”Iʼm certain weʼll have our first working example by the time my galaxy ascends!”

”This...” Billy was actually crying now, trails of tears covering his face with regret and sorrow over todayʼs broadcast, but he forced a smile so Robin wouldnʼt get up and pummel him if he sensed anything strange. ”...Thatʼs... absolutely... excellent... Aheee...”