Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2225 THE creature

Swooosh—

Tanoya advanced at terrifying speed, a massive smile spread across her face.

Most likely she would suffer injuries once again.

This was the first time in several cycles that she had been wounded to this extent overall.

And the first time in her entire existence she had ever suffered injuries like these at the hands of one of the creatures born within the classified universes.

Her energy reserves had dropped noticeably.

And her body had begun recovering more slowly than before.

After all, this body had never been designed for regeneration or prolonged warfare.

It had been created for overwhelming force.

For absolute durability.

For decisive extermination against the creatures of the universes.

Its very foundation had been forged to remain nearly immune to injury from the beginning.

But none of that mattered.

After suffering another injury this time, she would still possess enough energy to restore herself completely.

Meanwhile, Robin Burton would either already be dead...

Or moments away from breathing his final breath.

It was an acceptable exchange.

Oooooomnnnn—

The enormous eye followed Tanoyaʼs rapid movements as though observing a crawling snail.

A suffocatingly superior gaze.

One that made Tanoya feel tiny.

Insignificant.

Meaningless.

Yet she chose to ignore it as she always had.

Then the familiar sound echoed once again.

Krrrr—

The Gear of Inevitability, the Symbol of Causality, began rotating until it struck against the broken tooth.

Then patterns emerged from them.

Patterns that quickly translated into:

Then the Gear released a golden thread toward the spacetime cube.

”Hmph!” A mocking smile spread across Tanoyaʼs face.

So he would not be struck?

Fine.

That had never been her true objective in the first place.

He merely needed to continue abusing the Sovereign Laws...

And eventually he would kill himself with his own hands.

”Come onnn!!” The instant Tanoya entered a certain range, she deliberately shouted and thrust her mace directly toward Robin.

Her eyes remained fixed entirely upon the network cube.

According to the Gearʼs judgment and the threadʼs connection, Space-Time would transfer her attack and force it to miss the target.

That much was guaranteed.

The important thing was that after Space-Time moved her position, she needed to—

Kssshhh—

”.....?!!?”

Tanoya suddenly felt her body stop.

And her mace pierce through something.

Then she slowly looked forward.

It was Robin Burton.

His face stood less than a foot away from hers.

And her mace had pierced directly through the area beneath his chest.

The pointed tip entered first...

Then continued tearing and advancing until nearly half of Robinʼs abdomen burst out from the opposite side.

The entire region between his ribs and navel had almost completely disappeared.

Only two strips of flesh along the sides of his body still connected the upper and lower halves together.

Immediately, Tanoya turned toward the Gear of Inevitability.

Toward the Master Law that was supposed to force her failure.

But something strange had happened.

Hoo~

The golden words dispersed.

Then new words appeared in their place:

Then slowly...

Tanoya raised her eyes once more and stared directly into Robinʼs eyes in complete astonishment.

”...The first sentence was a trap?” Her brows slowly tightened. ”The Gear of Inevitability does not produce human language. Only patterns...” Her expression became increasingly strange. ”You deliberately continued translating the patterns in order to lure me into this trap from the very beginning?” Then her voice lowered faintly. ”...Amazing.” Her eyes narrowed further. ”You manipulated my thoughts and forced me to kill you with my own hands.”

”Khh—”

Robin coughed out chunks of flesh.

Then he revealed an unbelievably faint smile while staring directly into the Executionerʼs eyes.

”Did you truly think...” His voice came out shattered and weak. ”...that I planned...” Blood continuously dripped from his lips. ”...to die at the hands of... some fuckinʼ beast?”

Then he slowly raised his right hand upward.

”...That who can make me...” Robinʼs blood-covered eyes sharpened terrifyingly. ”...wish to die by their hand....” His trembling fingers slowly tightened. ”...Has not been born yet.”

Woooosh—

The handle of the golden cleaver fell directly into Robinʼs hand.

”...?!”

For the very first time, Tanoya genuinely sensed danger the moment she saw the cleaver raised less than a foot away from her.

”Hmph!”

She immediately activated the Law of Void inside her mace, intending to erase Robin entirely from existence.

”A filthy creature like you never should have—”

Tanoya suddenly froze mid-sentence.

The Law of Void was not functioning.

For some reason—

She slowly raised her gaze upward.

Ooooomnnnn—

The gigantic Eye of Truth above her stared directly into her with overwhelming intensity.

The patterns of the Law of Void dispersed before they could even fully gather.

”No...” Tanoya whispered faintly.

The primitive instinct of fear and survival hidden inside every living creature screamed at her to flee immediately.

Without hesitation, she violently tried pulling back her mace while escaping at maximum speed.

But—

DOOOOOOOOM—

Terrifying blue energy assaulted Tanoya from above and below simultaneously.

The blessing of Nihari Galaxy crushed the void itself and violently compressed Tanoyaʼs body from every direction.

It did not seem as though Tanoya was about to shatter beneath the blessingʼs power...

But it immobilized her for a single moment.

A single moment...

Long enough.

Then she heard a voice...

A voice that sent violent chills across her entire body.

”...Your neck is tempting.”

Robin spoke slowly.

Coldly.

With murderous calm.

”If I strike it with the cleaver...” His golden eyes remained locked onto her without wavering. ”...Iʼll sever at least half of it.”

Tanoya slowly raised her head and stared directly into Robinʼs golden eyes.

Eyes that gazed calmly into her very existence itself.

Eyes carrying suffocating majesty.

The pressure within them no longer resembled the gaze of a dying human.

It resembled the gaze of something standing above death itself.

”But I wonʼt do it...” Robinʼs voice remained terrifyingly steady despite the blood endlessly pouring from his ruined body. ”I wonʼt cut your neck...” Then his gaze sharpened slightly. ”Do you know why?”

Then Robin suddenly raised his left hand and grabbed Tanoyaʼs right arm while concentrating more than half of Nihariʼs blessing directly onto it.

The surrounding gravity instantly distorted violently.

”...Because you challenged me.” Robinʼs brows slowly furrowed while he raised his nose upward slightly in contempt. ”You said your bones could never be broken by a creature...”

Then the blood-covered smile across his face deepened faintly.

”So Iʼll show you whether THIS creature can do it!!”

Swooosh—

Robin brought the enhanced cleaver crashing downward directly onto the Executionerʼs elbow, empowered simultaneously by Nihariʼs gravity and the acceleration of Space-Time itself.

”AAAAAH!!!”

Tanoya screamed in pain.

A genuine scream.

But she finally managed to free herself from the crushing force of gravity afterward, immediately slamming her leg violently into Robinʼs chest before ripping her mace free and shooting backward like an arrow toward the opposite direction.

”Argh!”

While flying away like a released arrow, she instinctively glanced toward her right elbow.

Instantly—

Fury exploded inside her chest.

That human had managed to cut through skin, flesh, and nearly halfway through the bone itself.

The impact shock had also damaged the remaining portion of the elbow severely.

And if Robin had followed that strike with another attack, he undoubtedly would have severed her arm entirely.

Her armed limb.

The limb forged personally by the Transcendents themselves.

The limb that could never regenerate if severed!

Then Tanoya glared toward Robin with both rage and mockery burning within her eyes.

Rage because he had inflicted this degree of damage upon her.

And mockery because he would still die without ever achieving his impossible dream.

Yet—

She found him staring toward her with strange sleepy eyes.

Eyes carrying neither joy...

Nor sorrow.

Only exhaustion.

Only terrifying calm.

That expression angered her even more.

”What exactly is that per—”

Kssh—

”—AAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

Tanoya suddenly felt violent pain explode from her right elbow, forcing her to halt abruptly in the middle of her escape.

She immediately spun backward while raising her mace defensively—

And instantly, her expression froze solid.

”Oh...”

It was the massive stake launched toward her earlier.

The very same one that had supposedly missed.

It floated silently behind her now.

And she was absolutely certain the Master Laws had not interfered with it after launch, otherwise she would have noticed.

That thing had been floating through the endless void on its own...

Only to embed itself directly into her wounded elbow from behind.

Then suddenly—

Tanoya opened her eyes wide in terror, she seemed to remember something.

And instead of attempting to remove the painfully embedded spear from her arm...

She slowly turned her gaze back toward Robin.

”Since when...” Her voice had noticeably lowered now. ”...have you been planning for this moment?”

”....”

Robin did not answer.

He could not.

His body no longer possessed enough strength for speech.

But he smiled.

A small smile.

A terrifying smile.

The smile of someone who had already gambled everything long ago.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—

The adult space beast crystal embedded inside the stake tip exploded.