Lord of the Truth

Chapter 1385: Battling a Nexus State

”You! Come here!”

The planetary emperor shouted with a thunderous rage that shook the very air, his voice laced with humiliation and disbelief. The idea that a mere fourth-stage law user had the audacity to defy him was more than just insulting—it was infuriating.

Then, without hesitation, he extended his hand toward her.

WHOOSH!

A blazing crimson energy hand erupted forth from his palm, expanding with terrifying force and speed, slicing through the atmosphere as if tearing apart the threads of reality itself.

”This is bad...” Latania instantly recognized the danger. Her instincts screamed at her that this was not something to block—not with brute force.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she tossed her war hammer aside, took a powerful leap backward, and transformed her right hand into a set of spectral claws—shimmering and humming with energy. She grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, anchoring the strike.

Then—she drove her arm forward like a spear.

”Echo Disintegration!!”

A technique designed to shatter energy constructs from within, using the waves to collapse them entirely.

But she wasn’t done.

Even before the shockwave of her attack rippled out, Latania began her next move. Her fingers formed a net of interlocking signs, her eyes flashing with concentrated focus.

”Interference Veil.”

A powerful defensive technique, this veil was crafted to fracture and scatter energy-based attacks, a buffer between her and inevitable annihilation.

Attack launched. Shield deployed. And then—she pivoted sharply, slamming her foot into the cracked stone beneath her.

With the momentum of that force, she rocketed toward what was once the great city gate.

As she moved, her arms flung wide to her sides, and she pressed her index and middle fingers together on both hands.

”Cloak of Dispersal.”

Instantly, four identical clones burst into existence—each one an exact copy of her, indistinguishable in aura, movement, and energy pattern.

All five Latanias now sprinted toward the gate, each a blur of motion bolstered by the primal might of a fundamental law.

But then—

CRACK!!

The Echo Disintegration arcs met the massive red hand—and disintegrated on contact, unable to pierce the immense concentration of power.

BAAAANG!

The Interference Veil was next. It flickered like a cracked mirror—then shattered into nothingness, unable to withstand more than a fraction of a second under the might of a the Planetary Emperor.

SWOOSH!

The red energy hand closed the gap with terrifying speed, zeroing in on the fleeing illusions.

WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

Each clone scattered in a different direction, a last desperate gamble to divert the titan’s wrath.

The emperor narrowed his eyes.

”Child’s play,” he hissed with scorn.

His palm twisted, and the energy hand responded—expanding instantly, swelling into a colossal force of destruction that blanketed the entire block of the city like an eclipse.

And then—

BOOOOOOOOOM!!

The hand fell like a celestial meteor, crashing down on the gate area, the surrounding ruins, the shattered stone, the corpses, and the very ground beneath them.

All of it—flattened, crushed, and buried under layers of ruin.

The sky was filled with dust and rubble.

A moment passed.

The emperor stood still, composed, his expression cold. This level of annihilation should have activated the epic armor’s last defense—it always did.

But then his brows furrowed.

”Hmph?”

He extended his senses.

...No life signs.

...No trace of divine armor energy.

That wasn’t just unlikely—it was impossible.

”What is this...?” he muttered, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

”All five... completely erased...?”

And then—

SWOOSH.

”What?!”

A sudden distortion tore into his senses.

From his flank—coming in fast—were the unmistakable claws of Echo Disintegration.

”How?!”

The Nexus State casually waved his hand—and with terrifying ease, the claw attack vanished into nothingness, erased from reality like a speck of dust in the wind.

His gaze sharpened, irritated. His body stiffened with tension.

He began scanning his surroundings with growing unease, unleashing his soul sense with suffocating intensity, sweeping across the ruined landscape like a divine tide.

”Where are you?! ...What in the name of the stars is happening here?!” he roared into the void.

At that precise moment, his senses picked up eight identical life signatures—each one carrying the same chilling frequency as the Black Wasp. They were scattered throughout the city, each racing in a different direction, and worst of all...

Each one was preparing to strike.

”Fine,” he growled through clenched teeth.

”Let’s see how long your tricks can last. Let’s see how many of these flawless decoys you can conjure before your fragile body collapses from exhaustion!”

He pointed with a single glowing finger, charging it with wrathful red light.

Bang! A sharp, needle-like beam of crimson shot through one of the figures—right through its heart.

But there was no blood. No scream.

Only mist.

It was nothing but another illusion.

”Hmph. You’re just postponing the inevitable, coward!”

The Nexus State Planetary Emperor launched himself to the center of the illusion web, now fully determined to tear them apart one by one.

Meanwhile, hidden behind the chaos...

”Hoo~”

Latania sat in complete stillness, legs crossed, body relaxed, surrounded by her triple-layered healing arrays, each one pulsing softly in rhythmic glow. She was immersed in deep recovery after the blistering exchanges of power moments ago.

She was currently in a rare, secretive state known as Silent Erasure—a cloaking technique so advanced it completely nullified any trace of biological or soul presence, turning her into a phantom among mortals.

Not only that, but any soul sence touching her would continue onward as if she were never there.

Even a Nexus State being—one of the highest in existence—would require laser-sharp focus to detect the subtle distortions in his soul field.

But how could he focus, when eight deadly echoes of Latania threatened him from all sides, each holding her terrifying Echo Disintegration Claws?

[Elsewhere – A quiet movement begins.]

Malek rose from his sitting posture slowly, his expression unreadable.

With a flick of his wrist, the three formation arrays vanished into his spatial ring.

He turned his head slightly and muttered in a quiet, grim voice:

”At this pace, Latania can stall him for ten more seconds. That’s all we get. Let’s move.”

”Ki ki ki... try not to fall behind, old friend,” Wade cackled, doing the same as he retracted his arrays. He leapt forward, vanishing and reappearing in short, thunderous bursts of speed.

”I’ll go for the vault. You handle the mess.”

With a final step that cracked the earth, Wade blurred forward.

In the next heartbeat—BAA!—he appeared directly above the ruins of the imperial palace.

Raising his hands, he formed a circle with thumb and index finger. Inside that ring, space rippled and liquified like oil over fire.

He brought the ring to his right eye, closed the other, and peered downward—not at the rubble, but deep beneath it.

This was the power of the Fracture Reader—an extraordinary ability that allowed him to generate an ultra-precise 3D map of all fault lines, materials, and density variations within his visual radius.

It was so advanced it could detect the microscopic gaps between grains of sand, building an invisible blueprint of the underground.

”Ki ki ki... there you are, sweetheart.”

Grinning like a madman, Wade dropped his hand, then traced the shape of a cube in the air using radiant energy. With a swift downward thrust of his left hand—

”Isolation Prison.”

VMMMMMMMMMMMM—

The energy cube expanded rapidly, descending like a tomb from the heavens. It plunged deep underground until it surrounded a specific target—then it stopped, locked in place.

”Ki ki ki...”

Satisfied, Wade turned his body. His nose, eyes, and mouth suddenly burst into streams of blood, the backlash of what he was about to do.

Yet, his grin only grew more feral.

”Switch.”

SWOOOOOSH!

A massive metallic vault appeared in front of Wade, replacing the isolated object. It was towering, impossibly large—larger than the entire imperial palace, a construct of unimaginable value.

HUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM—

The earth screamed beneath the weight of the vault.

The ground buckled, cracked, and collapsed entirely, giving way to a titanic dust storm that tore through the area like a tidal wave.

Even the Nexus State Planetary Emperor was forced to look back.

And when he saw it... he whispered in disbelief:

”No...”