Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2333 Double guilt

”..Destroy fifty percent of your wealth?” Robinʼs smile vanished almost instantly, only to slowly return a moment later as another possibility crossed his mind and he reconsidered the meaning behind Zavarosʼs words. ”Ah... you mean you invest it? Or perhaps you hand it over to him?”

”If I had been investing it, I certainly wouldnʼt be standing here in my current situation.” Zavaros slowly shook his head with a bitter smile. ”If you gathered together every resource that has ever passed through my hands since the day I first set out on my journey, I would undoubtedly be competing with Intiras by now.” Then he released a long, weary sigh. ”And how could I possibly hand it over to him when he died immediately after my success? He made me swear an oath to carry out this final wish for the rest of my life, and only after extracting that promise from me did he quietly pass away.”

”....” Maintaining the exact same smile, Robin slowly rose from his sofa and began walking toward Zavaros with calm, measured steps, his expression betraying nothing despite the growing intensity in his eyes. ”You... have been continuously destroying half of your wealth? Not merely your Pearls, but like, your entire fortune? Does that include Emeralds, ancient plants, planets, territories, rare treasures, and every other valuable asset in your possession?”

”Yes.” Zavaros looked at Robin in obvious confusion as the latter continued closing the distance between them. ”I calculate the total value of everything I own, then destroy assets equal to exactly half of that value. So, if everything I possess is worth ten trillion Pearls, I personally choose assets worth five trillion and destroy them with my own hands. Naturally, most of what I sacrifice consists of consumable resources such as Pearls, Emeralds, and similar valuables that can be replaced more easily than irreplaceable inheritances or unique artifacts.”

The moment he finished speaking, he instinctively turned toward Glatheon, only to discover him staring back with unmistakable fear written across his face. Then he shifted his gaze toward Kiryan... and what he found inside Kiryanʼs eyes was unmistakable killing intent that seemed to grow stronger with every passing second.

”....?!” Zavaros frowned deeply, genuine confusion appearing across his face. What exactly was wrong with them?

Step.

Robin came to a stop directly before Zavaros. Because of the tremendous difference in height separating the two of them, Robinʼs head barely reached the level of Zavarosʼs own despite standing only a short distance away.

Without making any effort to raise his head, Robin spoke in a low, restrained voice that carried far more weight than if he had shouted. ”...Why?” After allowing a brief silence to linger between them, he quietly continued, ”What reason do you give yourself to continue doing something like this year after year?”

”I donʼt give myself reasons. They were given to me.” Zavaros sighed deeply, sounding more exhausted than defensive. ”The old man told me this method would force me to focus entirely upon the pursuit of strength instead of becoming attached to resources and material wealth. He said that continuously throwing away half my fortune would temper my resolve, strengthen my determination, and prevent greed from taking root within my heart. He also claimed my enemies would never waste their efforts trying to rob me so long as I remained permanently poor, no matter how much wealth flowed into my hands.”

”Oh...” Robin answered with exactly the same cold composure as before. ”And did any of that actually work?”

”Not exactly.” Zavaros awkwardly scratched the back of his head, his answer carrying an uncomfortable honesty.

Bang.

Robin drove his foot directly into Zavarosʼs knee with every ounce of strength available to a Ten-Star Royal Soul Master, the impact echoing throughout the garden.

Then—Baaang.

He immediately grabbed one of Zavarosʼs horns with a powerful grip and violently forced the towering Behemoth downward, driving him onto one knee before he could fully react.

”Argh... what are you doing?!” Zavaros almost resisted purely on instinct, his body naturally preparing to retaliate, but at the final possible moment he forcibly restrained himself and suppressed the impulse.

”Release Father immediately!!” Around seven of Zavarosʼs children standing nearby, every one of them a Law Dominator, instantly drew their weapons and unleashed their auras without the slightest hesitation, their killing intent erupting alongside overwhelming Soul Power.

The golden radiance within Robinʼs eyes intensified dramatically as intricate golden runes rapidly spread across every inch of his body. His Soul Power quietly surged while he calmly prepared to discipline all seven Law Dominators simultaneously without showing the slightest hint of concern.

But—

Whooosh.

Kiryan drew his spear in one fluid motion and swept it through the air with overwhelming force, the weapon humming as it cut through space.

An immense, razor-sharp wave of Soul Power crashed directly into everyoneʼs Soul Domains like an unstoppable tidal wave. All seven of Zavarosʼs children instantly felt an incomparably oppressive pressure descend upon them, each of them instinctively realizing that if they dared take even a single step forward, their lives would end before that step was completed.

”Not one step!” Kiryan roared, his deep voice carrying the absolute authority of Conquest itself as it echoed throughout the entire garden. ”If your father is judged guilty, every single one of you will die here today.”

”What is happening here?!” Zavaros shouted in complete confusion, unable to understand why the atmosphere had escalated so violently in only a few moments.

Whoosh.

The blade of Kiryanʼs enormous spear slowly came to rest against Zavarosʼs neck with absolute precision. Without removing his eyes from Zavaros for even a single instant, Kiryan addressed Robin in a voice overflowing with unmistakable killing intent. ”Donʼt dirty your hands... Iʼll do it myself.”

”Doing what?!” Zavaros shouted furiously, unable to suppress his anger any longer. His aura instinctively began surging around his body as he prepared to defend himself if necessary, yet before taking any further action, he deliberately chose to direct his words toward Robin first, hoping to understand what had caused such an abrupt change in attitude. ”What is going on? Were you after my wealth all along?!”

”You stupid beast.” Robin tightened his grip on Zavarosʼs horn and pulled him even closer without the slightest hint of hesitation. ”You didnʼt merely poison ninety percent of the inhabitants of the universe—youʼve also spent millions of years systematically and continuously destroying the wealth of the entire universe. Tell me, how many quadrillions of Pearls have you personally destroyed over the course of those tens of millions of years? How many million-year-old plants have you reduced to nothing? How many precious beasts have you executed? How many planets have you erased from existence?”

Then he drew him even closer until Zavaros could clearly feel Robinʼs warm breath against his face, while Robin continued staring directly into his eyes with an unwavering, almost oppressive gaze. ”You... you stupid beast... have accomplished something that neither the Plague nor the Space Beasts themselves managed to accomplish even when working together. You are a scourge—”

Then—

Bang.

Robin violently shoved him backward with overwhelming force, sending the towering Behemoth stumbling before crashing heavily onto his backside.

”A mindless scourge that deserves nothing less than being stumped to death!”

”Iʼll do it!!” Kiryan roared as he raised his spear high into the air, his face filled with unrestrained fury and contempt.

Had Kiryan heard, at any point before today, that Zavaros habitually disposed of half of his wealth simply by destroying it, he would have dismissed him as nothing more than an unbelievably foolish idiot, laughed once at the absurdity of such behavior, and forgotten the matter entirely only moments later.

But after everything he had learned today about the universes, about the Seerʼs rival, about the forgotten technology, about the horrifying revelation that Zavaros had truly spent millions of years poisoning the entire universe through the blood of his own children... and now discovering that he had simultaneously been destroying unimaginable quantities of resources year after year...

...all of those events somehow traced back to the words of a single mysterious man who had appeared without warning and died almost immediately afterward?

There was obviously something profoundly suspicious hidden beneath the surface of this entire story.

”I wonʼt allow anyone to bully me like this inside my own home!!” Zavaros rose back to his feet as his aura exploded outward with increasing intensity, his muscles tensing while his body prepared to shift into his beast form at any moment if the situation escalated any further.

At exactly the same time, a crimson aura slowly began enveloping Kiryanʼs spear from end to end, its oppressive killing intent steadily intensifying as he calmly prepared to thrust it forward the instant Robin gave him permission or the slightest opening appeared.

”Enough!” Robin raised a hand toward Kiryan, signaling him to hold back the strike for the time being, before turning his full attention toward Zavaros once again. ”...That man told you to pursue strength above everything else, yet at the very same time demanded that you swear to destroy your own wealth. How could those two ideas possibly coexist without contradicting one another? In this universe, individual strength alone eventually reaches its limit once youʼve climbed to my level. From that point onward, true domination requires an empire. It requires followers. It requires countless capable subordinates and an enormous foundation capable of supporting your ambitions. Only then can you truly seize control and impose your authority upon the universe.”

Then he pointed directly at Zavaros without lowering his hand. ”And thatʼs exactly what you ended up doing. You established an empire. Naturally, an empire required an army. That army required weapons. Those weapons required craftsmen. Your people required infrastructure, supply lines, research, cultivation resources...” Then a cold smile slowly appeared on his face. ”Which meant you needed resources. Then you destroyed half of those resources. Then you needed even more resources to compensate for what you yourself had erased. So you bred your children with beasts... and eventually began selling the blood of your own grandchildren in order to sustain the cycle.”

His expression gradually hardened with unmistakable anger. ”Do you honestly believe that someone capable of creating techniques this extraordinary, techniques that no one else in the universe had successfully developed, wouldnʼt have possessed enough intelligence to predict exactly where all of this would lead? He fed you a handful of shallow, convenient explanations for his request, and you accepted every one of them without question because they represented your only opportunity at the time. You were nothing more than an ambitious young man desperately chasing greater strength. Then, as the years became centuries and the centuries became millions of years, you clung to those same explanations with even greater blindness, simply because admitting they were wrong would have meant admitting that your entire life had been built upon a terrible mistake.”

”...Morpheus harmed the universe by preventing Soul Strength from spreading beyond the borders of his own galaxy, while Antiras harmed the universe by preventing everyone else from ever touching the Fifth Stage of the Law of Space, the single most important Law governing warfare, development, expansion, and transportation. At the very least, however, both of them were completely open and honest about what they were doing...”

Then he pointed toward Zavaros once again. ”You, on the other hand, have been harming the universe in two entirely different ways at the same time, and youʼve done so in a manner that is both hidden and infinitely more despicable. You poison people while simultaneously destroying the very resources they need to progress. You allowed the words of a strange and deeply suspicious man to awaken the ugliest parts of your own nature, and then you allowed those very same words to blind your eyes, deafen your ears, and prevent you from recognizing the truth that had been standing directly before you all along.” Then he clenched his teeth so tightly that the muscles in his jaw visibly tensed. ”Zavaros... there is absolutely no doubt that you deserve to die.”