Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2390 Eat

”...Examine me with your eye and tell me exactly what you see.” Robin spread his arms wide, giving Jabba a completely unobstructed view of his body and waiting for him to begin.

”What?!” Jabba immediately sprang to his feet as though Robin had just suggested something utterly insane, then instinctively took two quick steps backward to put some distance between them. ”Forget it! Have you already forgotten what happened the last time I tried something like that?!”

When Jabba first obtained the Eye of Truth back on Greenland, he had been so delighted and fascinated by his newfound ability that he kept it activated almost constantly, using every opportunity to examine whatever crossed his path. Then, at one point, completely unintentionally, he raised his head and his eyes happened to meet Robinʼs glowing golden ones directly.

What followed was a pain he could still remember with frightening clarity even to this day... At that instant, it had felt as though a hundred sharp needles simultaneously pierced straight through his eye, then continued deeper inside his skull before brutally wreaking havoc throughout his brain!

”Donʼt be a coward!” Robin shouted forcefully when he saw Jabba retreating without even trying. ”This time I wonʼt activate the golden Eye of Truth, so stop making excuses and just do it!”

”....” Jabba lowered his gaze while gritting his teeth, visibly struggling with the memory for a few moments before finally gathering enough courage to raise his head and face Robin again. This time, however, he deliberately kept his gaze fixed on Robinʼs abdomen, refusing to let his eyes wander any higher and certainly not daring to meet Robinʼs eyes directly.

Then his eyes began rotating steadily, and almost immediately an enormous stream of numbers and letters started appearing within them, countless pieces of information swirling together in a seemingly bottomless vortex that continued pouring forth without any visible end.

A small window then appeared beside Robin:

Name: Robin Peter Burton

Race: Hybrid

Percentage of Humanity: 99.99999999995%

Percentage of—:

Poof

Before even reaching the next line, Jabbaʼs body suddenly went limp and he collapsed unconscious where he stood.

”.....” Robin stared at the scene for a moment before raising a hand and scratching through his hair in confusion, though he made absolutely no move to rush forward and rescue his unconscious disciple.

Perhaps Jabba himself hadnʼt noticed what had been happening to his body while concentrating on the information appearing before him, but Robin had clearly seen every change from beginning to end... From the very moment Jabba activated his eye, his entire body had begun sweating profusely and trembling uncontrollably, his condition worsening with every passing second until even his lips gradually lost their moisture and became visibly dry, before the overwhelming exhaustion finally exceeded what he could endure and caused him to collapse.

After watching him for another few seconds, Robin pointed toward Jabbaʼs unconscious body and turned toward Sakar with a puzzled expression. ”Did that little bastard try to modify something about my Identity or something?”

”My Lord, he begged you to leave him alone before he even began.” Sakar slowly shook his head, showing no particular surprise at what had happened. ”Dealing with anything related to you always seems to end like this.”

”.....” Robin let out a long sigh, then bent down, picked Jabba up, and seated him back on his chair properly. He circulated a stream of ordinary energy together with life energy throughout Jabbaʼs exhausted body to stabilize his condition, then simply left him sitting there with his head thrown backward against the chair and his mouth hanging open.

”Let him take his time and recover naturally. Rushing to wake him now would only harm him.” Robin sat down as well after making sure there was no immediate problem, then shifted his attention completely away from Jabba and turned toward Sakar with a small smile. ”So, how are things?”

”...Excellent.” Sakar immediately stopped paying attention to Jabba altogether the moment Robin addressed him, straightening himself slightly as his entire focus returned to the reason he had come here. ”Iʼm ready to receive your new orders whenever you wish to give them.”

”Theyʼll come.” Robin smiled faintly at his response. ”The orders will come without a doubt, and you wonʼt have to wait long for them.” Then he gestured toward Sakar, indicating for him to speak first. ”But before that, tell me a little about Young Sector 101 and how things are going there.”

”There isnʼt much to say about it, My Lord. We did what you wanted us to do, and in the end we reached exactly the result you wanted.” Sakar spoke calmly and methodically, as though merely reporting the completion of a task that had already been settled. ”Our forces are currently spread throughout every starfield in Young Sector 101. Of course, we donʼt have soldiers physically stationed on every single planet, since the number of planets there is simply beyond counting and doing so would be meaningless, but there is no longer any major planetary empire there besides ours, nor is there any starfield remaining outside the scope of our control.”

He continued in the same steady tone, ”And throughout the process of accomplishing that, our forces themselves transformed into an overwhelmingly powerful force and accumulated an enormous number of experts. A mere World Cataclysm is no longer sufficient as a proper measure for the strength of the Demon Emperors, and our organic vessels have also begun evolving at an increasingly rapid pace ever since the Shadow Swords obtained ideas and images from the Ancient Era showing the kinds of things the Abyss of Doom used to employ back then.”

Then he continued in the same calm, measured tone, ”Brother Amon and the other Emperors canʼt expand in the same way while Iʼm absent. I understand that perfectly well, and I also understand that you gave us that entire sector because you wanted to feed us properly and provide us with enough room to grow, so I did everything within my ability to fulfill your orders and make proper use of what you placed in our hands. The army is now completely ready for the next step, and Iʼve even sent large numbers of our forces back to Nihari to reinforce its defenses and help protect it. As things stand now, you effectively possess two Demon armies of roughly equal strength, one stationed throughout the galaxy and the other controlling Sector 101.”

Then an ugly smile gradually appeared beneath Sakarʼs mask, carrying a confidence that bordered on savagery. ”Either one of those armies can bring down any Millennium Empire you point toward, and if that isnʼt enough for what you have in mind, then simply point toward any galaxy you want... and weʼll devour it for you.”

”Thatʼs quite a lot of confidence, but youʼve never said something to me and then failed to carry it out before, so Iʼll choose to trust your words this time as well.” Robin smiled faintly, and as he spoke, his eyes gradually began glowing with a golden radiance, allowing his vision to penetrate Sakarʼs armor and clearly examine everything hidden beneath it.

Several purplish-black lines could be seen scattered across different parts of Sakarʼs body, each standing out strangely against his flesh, but the most noticeable were three parallel lines stretching across his chest. Those three were considerably larger and more pronounced than all the others, and at first glance their shape closely resembled the marks left behind by a powerful claw strike.

After examining those strange marks for a moment, Robinʼs expression became slightly more serious as he asked, ”Whatʼs new with your body physically?”

”There isnʼt much to say about it.” Sakar lowered his gaze toward his own claws as though reviewing the changes himself while explaining them. ”The blood of the space beasts didnʼt make us stronger directly, nor did consuming it increase our levels, but it did cause several other changes... For example, it gave us these strange scars appearing across our bodies, though we still donʼt know what purpose they serve, and it also makes us feel considerably more satiated after every feeding.”

Then he raised his gaze toward Robin again, hesitating slightly before adding, ”There is... something else as well, although Iʼm not certain whether I can describe the sensation properly enough for you to understand exactly what I mean.”

”Try.” Robin nodded, showing no intention of interrupting him.

”As I mentioned, the blood of the space beasts doesnʼt increase our levels, but after consuming it, I can clearly feel that it gives me additional energy and strength during ordinary daily activity as well as during actual combat. If one Demon consumed a drop of space beast blood while another Demon consumed none and relied entirely on human blood... then assuming those were the only differences between them, the Demon who consumed the space beast blood would undoubtedly win in a battle between the two.”

”Hmm, so in other words, it gives you endurance and satiation, enough that you could continue surviving on it indefinitely, but it wonʼt actually make you stronger by raising your level. Only human blood can truly make you stronger in that sense, correct?” Robin asked, reorganizing Sakarʼs explanation into simpler terms.

”Correct.” Sakar nodded without hesitation. ”If we temporarily ignore the physical changes occurring within our bodies after consuming it, then that explanation describes the situation perfectly.”

”Then letʼs leave those changes happening inside your bodies aside for the moment. Weʼll return to them and discuss them properly in a little while.” Robin smiled as though he had already reached some conclusion of his own. ”For now, thereʼs just one thing I want to try on you. Itʼll probably be somewhat painful, but youʼre Sakar, so Iʼm sure youʼll survive whatever happens.”

”...At your command.” Sakar nodded immediately without asking what Robin intended to do. It was rare enough for Robin to offer words of encouragement like that before an experiment, and that alone made the expected level of difficulty painfully obvious.

”Good.” Robin thrust his hand directly into the empty space beside him, and his entire arm abruptly disappeared as though it had passed through an invisible opening. A moment later, he began slowly pulling it back out, except this time he was bringing something else along with it.

It was a completely black hand, severed cleanly all the way up to the elbow.

Then, without giving Sakar the slightest warning or explaining what the strange severed limb was, Robin casually pointed at it with a smile and gave him a single, simple command: ”Eat.”