Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2321 Message

Robin used his enormous soul units to envelop his weapon, compressing layer after layer of soul force around it until the surrounding space itself seemed to tremble beneath the pressure, then burned a portion of his life force to grant an additional boost to the Space-Time Law, allowing its principles to intertwine with the weapon and accelerate it even further until it produced a thunderous BAAANG as it struck, the shockwave spreading outward in visible ripples that distorted the air for an instant.

Robin smiled as he watched Marlik being sent flying backward once again, his body cutting through the air before crashing away into the distance, already opening his mouth to shatter whatever remained of the man's pride with a few mocking words, fully believing the exchange had once again confirmed the overwhelming gap between them.

But almost immediately, he fell silent, the smile fading before a single word could leave his lips, and took a single step to the side with calm precision, his instincts reacting before conscious thought had the chance to fully process the danger.

Whoosh.

At that very moment, a small stone shot through the exact spot where he had been standing, carrying enough speed and force to pierce straight through his ribs as though flesh and bone were no more durable than paper. It was the very stone Marlik had kicked only moments earlier during the brief exchange, something so insignificant that Robin had not spared it even the slightest glance, yet it had silently transformed into a deadly projectile.

"Hmm?" Robin lowered his golden eyes toward the ground beneath his new position, his expression remaining composed even as his thoughts rapidly reconstructed everything that had happened during the previous few seconds.

Then, without the slightest hesitation or the smallest trace of complacency, he leaped backward with explosive force, abandoning the location before whatever hidden danger lay beneath could fully reveal itself.

Froooom!

A pillar of magma reinforced by Marlik's power erupted beneath his feet with terrifying violence, molten rock surging upward like the jaws of a monstrous beast seeking to devour everything above it. It was the stab Marlik had driven into the ground while charging forward, a seemingly meaningless movement that had in reality planted another concealed killing move.

"...?" Robin's gaze swept across the battlefield with far greater caution than before, no longer observing only Marlik himself but every piece of terrain, every fragment of debris, and every lingering movement that might conceal another prepared attack.

Marlik had prepared something else.

And whatever it was... it was certain to produce another result, because neither of the previous arrangements had been isolated attacks, but parts of a sequence that had clearly been planned well in advance.

Then Robin abruptly looked upward, toward the direction in which Marlik had swung his sword earlier, finally understanding why that particular slash had seemed strangely meaningless at the time, and his eyes instantly widened.

A wounded Beast King was plummeting directly toward him, its massive body descending with astonishing speed after having been launched into the sky during the earlier exchange, and had Robin hesitated for even a fraction of a second longer, its razor-sharp beak would have pierced straight through his chest before he could raise a single defense.

Whoosh.

Robin instantly activated Space-Time, swapping places with a mass of air occupying the exact location where he had originally been standing with flawless precision, making it appear as though he had never moved at all, while his true body reappeared safely several dozen meters away before the descending Beast King could complete its fall.

WOOOSH! BOOM!

Behind him, the Beast King crashed into the ground with a deafening explosion, its enormous body smashing into the battlefield with enough force to send rocks, dust, and shattered earth flying in every direction.

"No!!" Zavaros shouted as he rushed toward it to examine its condition, his attention completely abandoning the battle for the briefest moment as concern for the wounded Beast King overwhelmed everything else.

Robin, however, kept his eyes fixed on Marlik, his brows tightly knitted as countless calculations rapidly passed through his mind, replaying every movement Marlik had made since the battle began while connecting details that had seemed unrelated only moments earlier.

Three indirect attacks.

Every single one of them possessed enough power to wound him severely, each emerging from a completely different direction and relying upon an object or circumstance that had already existed on the battlefield before Robin had even realized it.

Yet none of them had been intended to kill him directly, nor had they relied upon confronting him head-on where his strength was greatest.

Their true purpose had been to create even the smallest opening in his defense, forcing his attention away for the briefest instant and allowing Marlik to slit his throat in a single decisive strike delivered at precisely the right moment. Judging from the speed, timing, and overwhelming strength Marlik had already demonstrated, such an outcome had never been unrealistic, because even someone with Robin's reactions could not perfectly respond to every danger simultaneously forever.

Had Robin not slapped Marlik away at the very beginning, sending him flying and ruining all of those carefully prepared arrangements before they could unfold in the intended sequence...

Had he remained where he was and chosen to toy with him for even a brief moment, believing the battle to be completely under his control as he so often did against weaker opponents...

He would not have walked away unharmed, because one of those prepared openings would inevitably have aligned with Marlik's sword.

That much was certain, and Robin understood it the instant the entire sequence finally became clear inside his mind.

The slap at the beginning had been intended merely as humiliation and mockery, nothing more than a casual display of superiority meant to crush Marlik's confidence before the true battle had even begun.

Yet somehow...

It had saved Robin's life by unintentionally disrupting an elaborate chain of preparations that had clearly required precise positioning and timing to function as intended.

No...

Had he been holding any weapon other than the one currently in his hand, one incapable of withstanding Marlik's terrifying power, it would have been cut apart without question the moment their weapons collided, forcing him to flee using Space-Time in an utterly embarrassing fashion while abandoning every trace of composure he had displayed until now.

So this...

This was the true capability of Marlik the Butcher, a strength that did not rely solely upon overwhelming force but upon turning every insignificant detail surrounding him into part of a perfectly coordinated killing method.

Causality accumulations?

The Master Causality Law was terrifying without question, not because it ignored reason, but because it manipulated reason itself until ordinary events naturally converged toward the outcome its user desired.

Robin might possess immunity against direct applications of Causality—things such as severing fate or reading destiny, methods that attempted to impose the law directly upon his existence—but turning the surrounding environment itself into a weapon against him, arranging countless ordinary events so they naturally converged into lethal opportunities without ever directly targeting his body...

That was entirely possible.

And he had just witnessed it with his own eyes, experiencing firsthand how easily insignificant details could become deadly once they had been silently guided by such a law.

Those earlier attacks had merely been probing strikes rather than true killing moves. Marlik had been measuring Robin's reactions with remarkable patience, evaluating the limits of his Space-Time and Balance Laws through every response, every dodge, every counterattack, and every instinctive decision Robin made under pressure. If this had truly become a battle to the death without either side holding anything back, Robin would undoubtedly have emerged bearing some losses, especially considering the weakness his body had recently suffered and the fact that he had yet to fully recover from it.

As for Marlik...

He remained standing in the distance, looking toward Robin as well, his breathing steady despite everything that had happened, as though the previous exchange had answered a question he himself had been asking since the battle began.

But not because he was reconsidering his plans.

Nor because he was angry over being struck.

His face was filled with shock, a rare expression that almost completely erased the cold composure he usually maintained.

His eyes were fixed on one thing in particular—

The object Robin held in his hand.

At the same time, he slowly raised his other hand to the cheek that was still turning red, almost absentmindedly touching the place where he had been struck while continuing to stare at the strange weapon without blinking.

"Is that...?" Marlik murmured, his voice carrying disbelief that even he found difficult to conceal.

That object...

That weapon which had struck him with enough force to send him flying despite his own terrifying physique...

Was nothing more than an arm.

A black arm with five fingers and a forearm, severed cleanly at the elbow, its surface appearing strangely intact despite having long since been detached from its original owner, while an oppressive aura continued to radiate from it as though it had never truly lost its vitality.

Nothing but an arm.

Yet its aura...

Its toughness...

Its very appearance reminded him of something he knew all too well, something he had encountered often enough that the recognition surfaced almost immediately despite how impossible the sight should have been.

"An Executioner's arm." Robin casually tossed the arm into the air with a smile, catching it again as though he were merely playing with an ordinary object instead of one that carried such terrifying significance. "Do you like it?"

".....?!" Marlik slowly rose to his feet, every movement noticeably slower than before as though even his body needed time to accept what had just happened. His eyes were opened as wide as they could in utter disbelief, mixed with unmistakable anger that continued growing with every passing second. "The Knower sent you an Executioner's arm to use as a weapon? Has he gone so far as to start handing you physical objects?!"

"Hah?" Robin's brows immediately knitted together, genuine annoyance appearing across his face. "Your habit of looking down on me is starting to get on my nerves."

He continued with an irritated expression, "Just because all of you receive everything you own ready-made doesn't mean I do the same." Then he grabbed the black arm by its middle finger and casually began swinging it back and forth as though it were nothing more than an ordinary club instead of an object that would horrify countless experts upon seeing it. "I severed this arm myself."

"Liar!!"

Marlik roared, his voice shaking the entire Beast Garden as mountains echoed with the force of his fury and waves of pressure spread outward in every direction.

Hoooom.

Another sword appeared in Marlik's hand, materializing almost instantly before he firmly gripped it, leaving him wielding two blades at once. His eyes began darting around with even greater madness than before, constantly calculating and searching for opportunities, and it was obvious he was preparing something enormous, something far beyond the exchanges that had taken place until now.

"Oh, very scary." Robin chuckled before looking the pink-haired young man directly in the eyes with complete disregard for the terrifying aura surrounding him. "Listen, boy. I want you to deliver a message to your master on my behalf while you're tending to his wounds."

"..." Marlik's aura continued to surge higher and higher, becoming increasingly oppressive as the movement of his eyes accelerated even further, almost impossible to follow with the naked eye. Then he took a single step forward, causing the ground beneath him to tremble violently as cracks rapidly spread outward from beneath his feet.

"I want you to tell him the following:"

Robin acted as though he saw none of it, completely ignoring Marlik's growing killing intent as his expression became incomparably serious, every trace of mockery disappearing from his face.

"If you can see me, then I can see you. If you seek to stop me, then I will seek to destroy you. If you narrow my path, I will suffocate your ambitions... and I will not do it through my subordinates," Robin raised his fist, his gaze never wavering in the slightest, "...but with my own hand."

"....!!!" Kiryan's and Zavaros's hearts sank to their feet, both of them instantly realizing that these words were not directed at Marlik at all, but at the terrifying existence standing behind him.

Then Robin lowered his fist and stared straight into Marlik's eyes with overwhelming resolve that left no room for doubt. "Tell him... that the moment I discovered he was a traitor to the universe—and that he himself knows he is a traitor—I no longer needed anyone to assign me a mission to target him. I will do it of my own will... and with the greatest pleasure."

Then a mocking smile appeared on his face, replacing the cold seriousness from only a moment before. "Tell him something else as well. My son's wedding is approaching. If he wishes to talk, he should bring a gift, come meet me with respect, and we'll speak to one another as equals."

"Shut up..." Marlik suddenly accelerated forward, his words sounding as though they were being forced out from the depths of his stomach, soaked in bitter hatred that could no longer be concealed. "Shut up... shut up..!!"

Then whoosh, he shot forward like an arrow, the ground exploding beneath him from the force of his acceleration, and immediately began moving both swords through completely different trajectories, the two blades complementing one another with frightening coordination.

Prepared to thrust and slash from every possible angle around him, leaving virtually no obvious opening within his attack pattern.

"Hmph." Robin slightly raised his head, his expression remaining completely relaxed despite the approaching assault. "If I ever hear that you've forgotten even a single word of what I just said, your punishment will be doubled, Pinky. I'll skin the Butcher alive on a live broadcast if I see you standing in front of me again!"

Then BAM, Robin struck with impeccable timing before Marlik could even complete his prepared assault.

Hooom.

"What?" Marlik was caught off guard by a golden portal suddenly blocking his path, appearing so abruptly that it completely disrupted the rhythm of his charge.

Ksssh!

Marlik slammed both swords into the ground to forcefully alter his trajectory at the last possible moment, carving long trenches through the earth as he attempted to avoid colliding with the portal.

But whoosh, the portal itself moved with him instead of remaining stationary, swallowed Marlik whole before he could escape, and then poof, vanished without leaving behind even the slightest fluctuation.

"Heh~" Robin shook his head with a laugh before calmly turning to face the two Behemoths as though the matter had already concluded. His face looked utterly exhausted, the signs of strain impossible to hide after everything he had just expended, yet the smile on it remained unmistakable. "I told him that not revealing the secret behind kicking him with a shoe would ruin his plans, but he just wouldn't listen."

Then ding, the Scale appeared above Robin once again and poured an enormous amount of energy into him, restoring his depleted soul force, life force, and physical condition with astonishing speed until he completely returned to peak condition as though the exhausting battle from moments earlier had never happened at all.

"..............."