Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2207 The disk

”Damn it, damn it all!” Althera raised her short sword and charged forward despite everything, not knowing why she was moving, nor toward what kind of ending she was throwing herself.

There were more than a million beasts ahead of her. Even after all those that had already been slaughtered, the nest still looked untouched, endless, as though nothing meaningful had happened at all.

The sea of beasts simply refused to shrink.

All she truly knew was that Robin had advanced first and asked them to help him.

And somehow... that alone had been enough to make her move.

”This is madness! Madness!!” Blokan raised his voice loudly. The mere sight of Robin and Althera charging toward that endless tide was enough to send a violent chill through the body of the Mid sector Monarch.

The scale of the scene was completely absurd.

Countless gigantic monsters floated across the void like living planets while the tiny figures of Robin and the others advanced toward them like grains of dust rushing into a cosmic storm.

Whoosh

Blokan suddenly caught sight of a shadow surging rapidly past him. Without saying a single word, without releasing even the slightest battle cry, the figure accelerated straight ahead and caught up to the other two.

It was Asir.

”Has everyone lost their damn minds?!” Blokan took another step forward and shouted in disbelief, ”Is there poison in the air and Iʼm the only one not affected by it?!”

Blokan was not exaggerating in the slightest.

The Stellar Academies themselves had originally been established to hunt only a few hundred of those creatures at most, and even after tens of millions of years, some of those same monsters were still hiding within the universe itself... so why would any person in possession of a functioning brain willingly attempt to fight such things head-on?!

Only after his own voice faded and he glanced backward, seriously debating whether he should abandon them and flee toward the gate immediately... did Blokan hear Asirʼs calm voice beside his ear.

”The Cosmic Elder would never trust a lunatic.”

That was all.

Blokan froze briefly.

Then, before he could even curse again, Robin exploded forward like an arrow released from the heavens themselves, a massive grin spread across his face, ”Haha, finally time for some exercise!”

Remaining isolated while contemplating the universe and inventing new things had undoubtedly been Robinʼs greatest goal and highest ambition all along, and yet... even the hobbies closest to oneʼs heart could eventually become suffocating if pursued endlessly without interruption.

And was there truly any better form of rest than testing his own creations in real combat?

Kak keek keek

The very first beast within the advancing tide resembled an enormous river fish, its body covered in black scales while countless sharp teeth rotated inside its mouth like grinding blades. The instant it opened its jaws, a mass resembling concentrated black lightning began gathering and cooking violently within its throat.

”Come on!!” Robin instantly noticed what was happening through his blazing Eye of Truth and thrust his spear directly toward the beastʼs open mouth.

Boof

The mass of black lightning vanished immediately before it could even be released.

Then Robin surged farther ahead and raised his spear overhead like a massive staff. At once, chains of golden tattoos spread rapidly across his body as he activated the Seal of Pure Strength.

His muscles immediately swelled until they reached at least twice their original size. Veins bulged violently along his arms, shoulders, and neck while the pressure surrounding him exploded upward.

Then, like an enraged hornet diving toward prey, Robin slammed the spear downward onto the beastʼs skull.

BONK

”RAAAWR-” The beast released an irritated and pained roar as the strike smashed its enormous body downward through the void, yet that was all. It did not appear to have suffered any truly serious damage.

”Oh, this is honestly terrible for my dignity...” Robin raised an eyebrow in annoyance before casually waving his hand behind him.

A gigantic gate instantly opened.

The gate slowly retreated backward until an enormous white-and-gold tree emerged from within, so massive that even compared to nascent space beasts it still appeared gigantic.

BANG

The Tree Father immediately swung one of its primary branches and struck the same beast again. This time the branch pierced directly through the creatureʼs skull in a single devastating blow before dragging the corpse backward and hurling it into another beast that had only just arrived nearby.

Then, with its countless branches, the Tree Father began lashing outward wildly like divine whips, punishing everything that dared approach its master.

The surrounding void itself began shaking beneath the storm of branches.

BAM Robin continued advancing beneath Hovenheimʼs protection while striking left and right relentlessly with his spear.

With every single attack, the golden tattoos covering his body shifted and transformed. Every strike altered his physique, movement, and combat style entirely...

At one moment his body became thinner and incomparably faster.

The next moment his attacks became piercing and concentrated.

Sometimes thin beams erupted from the spear tip.

Other times blazing flames exploded outward.

Every strike landed upon a different beast, injuring it painfully before Robin immediately abandoned it and moved toward another target without wasting even a moment finishing his prey.

He looked less like a warrior and more like someone rapidly testing countless inventions in the middle of battle.

But despite all this destruction... the tide did not stop.

Not even slightly.

And that entire exchange barely lasted half a minute.

Robinʼs eyes suddenly began darting wildly in every direction...

The endless tide of monsters was already beginning to surround the Tree Father from all sides.

And surround him as well.

The Tree Fatherʼs enormous branches began eroding and tearing apart at an increasingly terrifying pace. True, every single time one of those massive branches was ripped away, one of the surrounding space beasts would inevitably become infected by the Purgatory Flame and begin screaming in agony, yet despite that advantage the Tree Father was still consuming horrifying amounts of soul units without pause just to continue holding the frontline together!

”Move aside!”

At that exact moment, a shout erupted from behind, followed immediately by a powerful wave of force crashing into the swarm.

Althera had joined the battle from the left flank.

The Monarch who had only moments earlier been capable of restraining dozens of young space beasts found almost no meaningful resistance from the nascent monsters. Every single swing of her short sword tore through flesh and bone alike, killing at least one creature every time her blade moved.

Sometimes two.

Sometimes more.

Black blood exploded around her while severed limbs drifted endlessly through the void.

”Not allowed!!” Asir rushed in from the opposite side while raising the hourglass toward the beasts attempting to surround Robin.

Under the influence of the artifact, the nascent beasts suddenly began moving backward unnaturally as though time itself had reversed around them for several moments. Their charging bodies were forcibly dragged away from Robin while confusion spread through the swarm.

Then Asir pulled out his bow and immediately began attacking as well.

Every arrow he released carried distorted temporal force capable of disrupting movement and shredding weaker monsters apart the moment impact occurred.

”FUUUUUUCK!!” From atop the Tree Father itself, Blokan advanced forward wrapped in a crushing suppressive aura that violently shoved aside everything in his path.

His massive pressure spread outward like a storm while beasts were smashed backward by sheer force alone.

”If we die here, Iʼll never forgive you, Burton!!”

”Heh~” Robin saw the three of them fighting beside him and smiled before nodding slightly, ”Thatʼs fair enough.” Then he immediately returned to battle himself as though this entire situation genuinely entertained him.

The scene unfolding around them had become epic beyond words.

In truth, reality resembled four ants attempting to fight an entire nest of cosmic rats.

Words like brave or powerful were nowhere near enough to properly describe what was happening.

Each of them understood perfectly well that the battle before them was fundamentally hopeless by any rational standard.

And yet they continued fighting anyway.

But courage and strength both possessed limits before overwhelming numbers.

Especially numbers this monstrous.

Within only five minutes, the nascent space beasts had completely surrounded all four of them.

They became trapped inside something resembling a hostile circular prison, a deadly ring whose center was occupied by the Tree Father while Robin, Asir, Althera, and Blokan revolved around it desperately trying to hold the line against the endless tide.

The swarm no longer attacked recklessly one by one.

It had become coordinated.

Wave after wave crashed against them relentlessly from every direction.

The first among them, Robin, was somehow still experimenting while wearing an enormous grin on his face, though every now and then he stole brief glances toward a particular direction as though waiting patiently for something specific to happen.

Meanwhile the other three... it was painfully obvious they had already reached the limits of their endurance.

Asir, who had spent several minutes recovering outside beforehand, appeared slightly better than the others, but even he was beginning to slow down.

Blokan was struggling visibly.

His breathing had become rough, his suppressive aura unstable, and several wounds had already begun covering his body.

As for Althera, she could no longer even fully open her eyes properly. Her movements were still fast and lethal, but the exhaustion spreading through her body had become impossible to hide.

Without the Tree Father continuously assisting with defense, they would have already been wiped out entirely... yet even that support was rapidly approaching its limit.

The Tree Fatherʼs countless branches had been almost entirely torn apart now.

Gigantic wounds covered its body.

And the circle surrounding them was steadily shrinking tighter and tighter.

It was obvious that the nascent space beasts had grown far bolder after receiving the furious reprimands from the young beasts earlier. They now rushed fearlessly toward the soul creature, tearing away its branches using claws and jaws without the slightest hesitation, while those infected by the Purgatory Flame merely retreated screaming in agony as new beasts instantly replaced them.

Even the cowardice that might once have preserved their lives no longer existed.

The swarm had fully committed itself to killing them.

”What the hell are you doing?!” Blokan suddenly shouted furiously toward Robin, every trace of respect completely gone from his voice now, ”Where is the plan?! Where is the support?! Did you drag us here just to die for nothing?!”

”.....”

After staring silently toward that distant direction for several long moments... Robinʼs smile only widened further.

”No, we wonʼt die today.”

Then, slowly and calmly despite the collapsing battlefield around him, he raised the array disk he had been holding throughout the entire battle.