Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2262 THE Master -1

Oooooomnn—

The golden scale emerged from the vortex that was devouring the sky over half the planet and descended with a terrifying calmness and dignity, as though it was not traversing the distance between heaven and earth at all, but rather imposing its existence upon reality itself step by step.

An immense pressure settled upon the hearts and minds of every being present, whether human or beast, until even the air seemed to have become too heavy to breathe, and even the act of drawing breath felt like an effort against an invisible mountain pressing down upon the world.

Everything stopped.

The beasts stopped roaring.

The humans stopped breathing.

Even the distant sounds of battle seemed to extinguish themselves all at once, as though the entire battlefield had been forcibly muted by a higher authority that tolerated no distractions.

There was no hostile intent directed at them, nor was there any force deliberately pressing down upon them with threats or malice, yet that thing affected their souls directly in a manner none of them could resist. It bypassed flesh and thought alike and reached the very foundation of their existence, causing their minds to fail beneath overwhelming awe and leaving them unable to form complete thoughts.

The scale descended calmly before everyone until it was revealed in its entirety.

It was golden.

Two identical pans hung from above by chains, while its main frame contained two large rings positioned beneath one another, one slightly larger than the other. Every part of it appeared remarkably simple, free from excessive decoration or complexity, yet it carried a feeling that made merely looking at it difficult, as though the eyes instinctively understood that they were observing something far beyond their station.

”This...” From the distance, Wade managed to open his mouth and mutter with a lost expression, his gaze completely fixed upon the descending symbol.

It was said that this symbol had hovered around His Majesty during his battle against the Ancestor of the Space Beasts.

If the scattered stories were true, then this was the symbol and manifestation of the Master Law of Balance!!

”Holy—!!” Harper wanted to shout something, but he remembered how close he was to His Majesty, so he immediately raised a hand and slapped it over his own mouth. His eyes were opened as wide as possible, and his heartbeat had become noticeably faster. Someone of his status within the Shadow Swords undoubtedly understood what was happening.

Lord Robin...

Had most likely achieved a breakthrough in the Master Law of Balance.

And judging by the rings upon the frame, this was the Second Stage!

”This... is beautiful...” Pistu muttered, tears streaming from his relaxed eyes as though he had just witnessed a beloved dead relative return to life before him, his face displaying a mixture of gratitude, relief, admiration, and reverence that was difficult to describe.

”Didnʼt you tell me to stay quiet? Why are you talking?” Harper pulled his hand away from his mouth and asked in a low, irritated voice. The sight of Pistu crying like this was incredibly embarrassing, especially considering that they were both veteran cultivators who had survived countless battles.

”...I wanted you to stay quiet because I wanted to meditate in peace.” Pistu gestured toward Robin without removing his eyes from him. ”As for His Majesty, even if the arrays vanished and the sounds of beasts and death echoed everywhere, it wouldnʼt affect him. Once he enters that state, even if the planet explodes, heʼll remain seated exactly where he is... Heʼs not human. He canʼt possibly be like you and me... at least from my perspective.”

”....?” Harper looked back toward Robin with slightly furrowed brows, finding it difficult to dismiss Pistuʼs words entirely after everything he had witnessed today.

His Majesty had briefly raised his hand when the scale descended, but afterward he lowered it again and continued his slow drawing with the same steady rhythm as before, neither speeding up nor slowing down.

Even after the scale descended and produced a phenomenon that terrified the fiercest battlefield in the universe, he neither looked upward nor stopped drawing, as though the appearance of a Master Law symbol was no more worthy of attention than a passing breeze...

It was obvious that Pistu had not been exaggerating.

At that moment, Harper almost turned around to observe the scaleʼs effects on the battlefield so he could write his reports later and properly document this unprecedented event, but he noticed something instead...

”Hm?”

His Majesty had lowered his hand to a different area of the drawing, to a location where two other circles connected.

And at this exact moment...

He was connecting the final two points together.

”What the...?” Harper was bewildered.

A mere drawn point had captured his entire attention.

Those focused eyes and that precise movement made him feel as though he had entered a narrow temporal fissure where nothing moved except that pen, where the flow of time itself had slowed to accommodate that single insignificant-looking action.

His Majesty spent nearly ten minutes drawing that single point, yet Harper never felt the passage of time.

It was as though the entire world had begun revolving around the tip of that pen alone.

As though every sound, every breath, every movement, every thought within the surrounding world had gradually lost significance while that final connection was being completed.

As though—

DOOOOOOM

”....!!!”

Harper lost control of his body and dropped to his knees.

The radiance of the golden scale suddenly intensified, and the immense pressure striking his soul multiplied severalfold, spreading through his consciousness like an invisible tide and making even the act of thinking feel sluggish and difficult.

With tremendous difficulty, Harper raised his head upward, lifting it as though someone were standing upon it and forcing it toward the ground with overwhelming strength. Every inch of movement felt unnatural, as though his neck no longer belonged to him. There, he saw something that struck the very core of his being like a hammer and left his mind momentarily blank.

It was a gigantic golden serpent.

One with three eyes.

The serpent lowered its head from within the vortex as though it had finally discovered the lair of its prey after an impossibly long search, then continued descending with overwhelming dignity until its colossal length was fully revealed. Its body stretched across the heavens as though it were part of the horizon itself, an ancient and eternal existence that had always belonged there and had merely chosen this moment to reveal itself. Golden scales covered its endless body, each one radiating a faint brilliance of its own. Then it suddenly curved inward, seized its own tail with its three fangs, and began slowly swallowing it!

”Ahh... ahhh...”

The newly recruited Imperial Guards collapsed to the ground.

Many of them could no longer maintain consciousness properly. Their bodies trembled uncontrollably while their minds struggled to process what stood before them.

Meanwhile, the Royal Soul Masters scattered throughout the battlefield hurried away from the sky in alarm, abandoning their previous positions without hesitation. After all, no beasts still dared to flee upward anymore.

They were all on the ground.

All of them kneeling.

All of them trembling in fear.

Every one of them had lost the instinct to kill and charge toward the planetʼs core to destroy it. The beasts looked like nothing more than chicks staring at a real serpent that had come to devour them, and only their survival instincts prevented them from losing consciousness entirely. Their wings folded, their claws dug into the earth, and even the most ferocious among them no longer displayed the slightest trace of aggression.

”Good heavens...” Harper was literally shaking. His voice emerged hoarse and uneven. ”Is that the Ouroboros? The symbol of the Master Law of Creation from the legends?!”

Then he stared with trembling eyes at the face of the great serpent, forcing himself to continue looking despite every instinct urging him to lower his gaze.

”Three eyes... three fangs... Third Stage?!”

Poof

Harper turned toward the sound beside him after hearing something hit the ground.

Pistu was lying flat on his stomach, both arms stretched forward as though prostrating himself before a sacred existence, muttering repeatedly in a voice filled with awe and emotion,

”Oh Great One... Oh Great One...”

”...?!” Harper was stunned for a moment, but no words came to mind.

After all, he himself was kneeling against his will.

His own condition was hardly any more dignified.

Then he turned his head back with great effort and directed his gaze toward Robin.

Still sitting.

Still moving his hand.

Still completely focused, as though everything occurring around him had nothing to do with him whatsoever.

The golden scale had descended.

The Ouroboros had appeared.

The entire battlefield had fallen into terror.

Yet the movement of his pen remained unchanged.

...Was this their lord?

A person who had achieved two consecutive breakthroughs in Master Laws spoken of only in myths and legends, all while casually sitting there suffering from injuries, drawing on a wooden board as though he were completely detached from the upheaval shaking the world around him?

Was this their lord?!

A thin layer of tears began gathering within Harperʼs eyes, blurring his vision and forcing him to blink repeatedly.

The same kind of tears he had looked upon Pistu with contempt for shedding only moments ago.

Yet now he understood.

Perhaps this was not shameful at all.

Perhaps there were moments when words simply became too small for what a person felt.

Yes...

Yes, this was their lord!

The man who had carried them through disasters, impossible wars, and battles against enemies who should never have been defeated.

The man who continued advancing forward while everyone else struggled merely to keep up.

The man sitting before them now as though miracles were the most ordinary thing in the universe.

Oooooooommmm—

The golden radiance intensified once again.