Lord of the Truth

Clatter… Clatter…

"…!!"

Terror flooded Robin's mind—an overwhelming tide that surged without warning. In a fraction of a second, he felt his core foundations—those pillars of strength he had spent centuries building—begin to unravel. Not crack, not shake—dissolve, like stardust blown into the void.

Moments ago, he had stood at Level 50, the product of two and a half centuries of ruthless dedication.

Now?

Level 45.

And still dropping.

If my foundations are going to vanish anyway… then damn it, I'll make them useful first!!

With desperation burning behind his sealed eyes, Robin shouted inwardly. He tried to spread the golden patterns across his limbs, seeking to activate the Law of Spacetime—a last act of rebellion.

But nothing happened.

A thick, unnatural silence swallowed the attempt.

Damn it all!! Robin howled in his own mind.

It wasn't just his movement that had been sealed.

It was his very essence—his laws.

Anyone else, even a being like Lord Hedric, would have failed to enact such a suppression. For no known law could seal a Master Law.

Except this one time…

When the prison itself was forged from another Master Law.

Robin had barely got to the 4th stage of Truth, and only reached the 3rd stage of Spacetime.

But what engulfed him now… was Balance, at the 6th stage.

Level 41...

Level 37...

AAHH! AAAAAGHH!!

Robin's soul screamed in silence.

Had he tried to scream aloud, his lungs would have imploded—not from agony, but from the pure weight of loss.

This wasn't physical pain.

This was erasure.

The theft of hundreds of years of struggle, comprehension, and sacrifice—torn away like dried leaves in a cosmic storm.

After his ascension, he had clawed his way from Level 1 to Level 44 over the course of a hundred relentless years.

He had ascended to the Mid-Belt still at Level 44, and it had taken him another 160 years—battling against restrictions, against cosmic forces, against fate itself—to claw his way to Level 50.

Now all of it…

All of it…

Was unraveling.

As if time were undoing him.

Level 18...

Level 15...

With his soul backed into a corner, Robin reached out the only way he could.

(Neri!!) he cried inwardly.

(I need your help! I can't access the soul gates—activate your Gift! Anything—anything—to slow that cursed old man down!)

But…

(….)

No answer.

There was nothing but silence.

Even the spiritual link that once bound him to Neri had been severed.

The doors to his spiritual domain were sealed shut, locked from the inside and out.

No thoughts in.

No prayers out.

Isolated.

Mute.

Powerless.

And so… Robin exhaled—not with lungs, but with will.

He crushed the rising panic, and simply… let go.

There was nothing more to be done. Not now. Not like this.

With both his energy foundation and soul domain sealed, he was paralyzed in every conceivable sense.

Even if he had been at full strength, would it have mattered?

Could he, with all his powers in use, challenge a being like this?

No.

So then… what was left?

Suicide?

Some grand final act of defiance?

No.

His life was too valuable. Too unique.

It wasn't worth throwing away just to make a statement the universe would never hear.

Level 3…

Level 1…

And then…

Nothing.

A blank space.

——

…Sigh...

A sigh deeper than breath.

A sigh born from the marrow of his soul.

Robin's heart sank beneath the weight of despair.

Even in his most brutal battles against Helen he had at least retained a thread of power.

But now…

Even that had vanished.

He was no longer a cultivator.

He had become… less than mortal.

"Good. The first step is complete."

The blind elder's voice broke the air like a crack in glass.

He drew in a slow, long breath—and the very air around him changed.

It thickened.

It compressed.

It began to crystallize, as though reality itself were turning to diamond.

His skinless muscles tightened.

Strands of light danced along his body like angry comets.

"Now… we begin the second step," he said, voice gaining force.

"To erase all remnants of the Master Law of Truth… from your body!"

Disturbance… Rupture…

The skies twisted again—no longer blue, no longer sky.

The clouds cracked like glass.

The atmospheric pressure plunged, as if the planet itself were preparing to die.

The elder's right hand, still outstretched toward the sea, began to rise.

And as it rose—

So too did the ocean.

Massive beasts, one after another, were lifted into the air—

Not one of them smaller than five meters.

Dozens became hundreds.

Creatures of the abyss—scaly, horned, ancient—were ripped from their kingdom and forced into the light.

But that wasn't all.

Tiny islands began to rise.

Massive gems larger than ships floated upward.

And finally—from deep beneath the Sea of the Seeing Stone, a volcano burst from the depths, climbing skyward like a mountain being born.

The creatures thrashed.

They tried to scream.

They tried to flee back into the safety of the sea—

But the bubbles that encased them made even breathing impossible.

"Let the Fair Exchange… begins," the blind elder whispered.

…!!!

The sea beasts froze.

Something… something was happening.

But they couldn't comprehend it.

They felt no heat.

No pain.

No force. Enjo-y@ the st@or$y by r*ea-din.g$ on M|V^|#LE%%@M^PYR.+

But their bodies…

Their entire beings…

Began to vanish.

Not burnt.

Not broken.

Not consumed.

They simply… ceased to exist.

In mere, fleeting moments, hundreds of huge beings around the planet vanished—extinguished from existence without trial, without understanding, without even the mercy of knowing why.

They did not know what crime they had committed, nor who had sentenced them… and they never would.

The rising islands, the massive crystalline gems, the erupting volcanoes, and every arcane relic or mysterious structure pulled from the depths of the sea—all of it began to fade, dissolving like illusions at the edge of waking. One by one, they crumbled into nothingness.

And soon… the skies were clear once more.

Too clear.

As if none of it had ever existed.

And then… something changed inside Robin's bubble.

Not a physical shift, not a breeze or tremor—

But a cosmic violation, a bending of laws no mortal should ever feel.

A sharp, blinding light ignited at the center of his abdomen—just below his navel.

The glow didn't flicker like fire or shimmer like energy.

It pulsed, steady and merciless, like a scalpel of divine will.

Then it happened.

Something so unthinkable, so wrong, that Robin's thoughts fractured:

No… no no NO!!

He felt the patterns of Truth—those sacred golden runes that defined him, that labeled him as a wielder of a Master Law—begin to unravel.

One by one, they faded from the walls of his energy gathering center, their radiant shapes crumbling like ancient scripture under acid rain.

These weren't just symbols.

They were identity.

They were proof.

To lose them meant more than losing power.

It meant being erased from the path of Truth itself.

These patterns were meant to be permanent—etched into the soul's marrow. The only known way to remove them was by obliterating the entire energy gathering center.

Yet here they were… vanishing.

"Hmm?"

The blind elder tilted his head slightly.

He had sensed it too—the fading had stopped.

"…Incredible," he murmured. "I've performed this cleansing on three others before… False Chosen, each with the potential to comprehend Balance. I used a mere quarter of the sacrifices I've spent now. That should have been more than enough to erase your entire core—even if you were a genuine one."

He leaned slightly forward, voice low and curious.

"And yet… all it erased was a single mark?"

….…

Hope—faint and fragile—began to flicker inside Robin's chest.

Yes. A rune had been lost.

It would scar his path, perhaps alter his future...

But stopping now meant his connection to Truth still existed.

But that thought was cut short.

"…No matter," the elder whispered.

He slowly lowered his hand from the sea, letting the last remnants of the sky-bound ritual dissolve.

Instead, he raised his hand to his own chest.

"My time… draws near," he said, eyes unblinking.

"My life thread has already been… compromised. There's no time to seek another. No power to try again."

"You… will be my final candidate."

And with a motion swift and sharp,

He stabbed two fingers deep into his own heart.

...?!

Robin's body convulsed, not from pain, but from instinctive horror.

Even trapped, even sealed, he felt what that meant.

"Bff..."

Blood burst from the elder's lips, painting his robe in vivid crimson.

He opened his mouth again, voice ragged and rattling like a crumbling tower:

"Half… of what remains… of my life…

As a wielder of Balance… Of the Sixth Stage…

I offer… to resume… the cleansing."

F L A S H

Once more, the blinding light exploded from Robin's core—this time brighter, heavier, more ravenous than before. It didn't flicker. It didn't pause.

It devoured.

This was no longer ritual.

It was sacrifice.

The elder's blood, his years, his lifeforce—everything—was now fuel for the erasure of Robin's Truth.

This time, the patterns didn't vanish slowly.

They were ripped from him, torn away in violent flashes.

Fourth-stage runes vanished in a blink.

Then the third.

Then the second.

Then… the first.

The once-ornate walls of his energy core—etched with the legacy of a lifetime—became smooth, untouched, infantile.

As pure and blank as the core of a child born seconds ago.

"…Kh… khhh…"

The elder coughed violently.

"...Congratulations," he whispered hoarsely. "You've been freed… of the infection…"

He didn't lower his hand.

His body was trembling.

His face pale like carved bone.

But he still held the ritual.

"My sacrifice… is still greater than what's been done to you so far.

Now… I will use the remaining power of the sacrifice to rebuild you.

I will help you form your foundations anew…

All the way to Level 50—

This time… in Balance."

"And then…"

His voice began to fade.

"I will teach you… piece by piece…

So that you may understand… what Balance truly is…"

F L A S H

Again, light surged beneath Robin's navel.

But this time… it wasn't for cleansing.

This time… something new was being built.