Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2429 Step towards the front

Mid Sector 750—Heaven-Avoidance Cave

Woop The recording finally came to an end, and Qarun's image immediately disappeared from the projection, leaving behind nothing but the silence that followed his final declaration.

"..."

Crack Marlik tilted his head and forcefully cracked his neck to the left, then without wasting another moment, he turned and began walking directly toward the exit as though he had already made his decision. "Please excuse me. I'm going to kill him, and I won't be long."

"Wait." Sevar casually waved his hand twice, stopping him before he could actually leave. "Putting aside the simple fact that you won't be able to do it, why exactly do you want to kill him?"

"Didn't you hear what he just said about you, Boss? He actually spoke your name!!" Marlik had clearly lost his temper by this point, although despite the fury visible throughout his expression, he still managed to keep himself from raising his voice too much. "That well-dressed brat deserves to die for what he just did, and I'm absolutely certain that I can kill him!!"

"What exactly did he say? That I'm bad?" Sevar waved his hand dismissively, apparently finding nothing particularly shocking about the accusation itself. "He hasn't said anything new that people haven't already heard before, so calm down a little."

"...." Marlik gritted his teeth hard enough for the tension in his jaw to become obvious, but despite his unwillingness, he finally stopped where he was instead of continuing toward the exit.

"That speech wasn't actually targeting me in the first place. He was merely using me as an example for the comparison he wanted to make." Sevar chuckled lightly as though he found the entire matter somewhat amusing. "He's simply telling everyone that Robin Burton is as bad as I am, or perhaps even worse than me... Isn't that nice?"

"No, it isn't nice at all. Your name shouldn't be spreading throughout the universe and passing from tongue to tongue this casually." Marlik furrowed his brows deeply, clearly considering that part of the matter far more serious than Sevar was making it sound.

Sevar's name wasn't particularly widespread among the ordinary public, but at the same time, knowledge of it wasn't something restricted exclusively to the highest elite of the universe either. The Syndicate had deliberately allowed his name to spread among practically everyone who possessed some degree of usefulness or importance throughout the universe; any renowned general whose actions carried weight, any ruler with enough influence to matter, any researcher possessing genuine ability... anyone who could be considered useful in some meaningful way knew the name Sevar.

And why had they deliberately allowed that information to spread among exactly those kinds of people? Because doing so made it possible to track what was being said about Sevar throughout those particular circles, since Sevar possessed the ability to activate a certain power that allowed him to determine both the location and the intent of whoever spoke his name. That ability made it considerably easier for him to track down the other Candidates whom the Seer had sent to kill him, and it wasn't merely something theoretical either, because he had already used that very method in the past to locate and kill two of them.

But now that Sevar's name had suddenly been spread on such an enormous scale and had even been repeated more than once by Qarun himself before an audience of unimaginable size, that ability had effectively been rendered completely useless. There was simply no way for Sevar to track the coordinates of countless people scattered everywhere while they were all speaking about him at roughly the same time, and beyond the loss of that ability's usefulness, the mystery and terror that had always surrounded Sevar had also diminished considerably now that people were openly discussing him in such a casual manner.

Then, as Marlik thought through all those consequences and understood exactly how much Qarun's words had affected them, he finally raised his voice in anger. "That overdressed bastard even conveniently forgot to put his own name on that honorable list of his! If he'd actually included a list of everything he's done as well, he would've surpassed every single person on it!!"

Sevar slowly began tapping his fingers against his thigh while considering the situation from another angle. "...This is Qarun's response to me because I refused to cooperate with him or coordinate any of my movements with his plans. He struck directly at my ability to monitor my enemies, diminished my standing by spreading the idea that I'm merely working on behalf of someone else instead of acting according to my own will, and at the same time made me look like some kind of fool who's secretly playing games with Robin Burton."

Sevar then turned his head toward Marlik with a small smile still resting on his face. "Now all our clashes with Robin Burton and all the battles we've fought against the Shadow Swords have become nothing more than a weightless joke in everyone's eyes. Instead of people watching those confrontations with fear and anticipation, Qarun has transformed the entire thing into a game between brothers and some ridiculous performance we're supposedly putting on together."

"Let me kill him!!" Marlik immediately took another step forward, his desire to act clearly becoming even stronger after hearing Sevar describe the consequences.

"Tsk~" Sevar shook his head slowly. "If we attack Qarun now, we'll only confirm everything he just said, and it'll immediately look as though we're desperately trying to silence him so that he can't continue revealing the so-called truth to the people... Besides, doing so wouldn't accomplish anything useful anyway. You wouldn't be able to kill him, while I still need some time before I can return to the peak of my strength, and even if I completely recovered right now... I have no desire to fight a Causality user at the peak of the fifth degree. Things throughout the universe are accelerating too quickly, and if I suffer a serious injury during a battle like that, no one can know whether I'll manage to recover from it in time."

"So we're simply going to stand here and let him do whatever he wants?!" Marlik pointed angrily toward the disc from which Qarun's recording had just been played.

"....." Sevar turned his gaze toward the disc as well and remained staring at it silently for a moment. "Robin and I are brothers, and all our battles are nothing more than an act, huh?" Then he nodded twice as though he had finally settled upon something. "Then you fight him."

He gestured toward Marlik with his head as he continued giving his instructions. "Reduce any confrontations with Burton from now on. Focus only on heavily reinforcing Mid Sector 89, and leave the upper side toward Sector 118 open so that he can move through that area however he wants. We won't interfere in anything concerning him outside Mid Sector 89, and we'll simply let Qarun deal with him since he's the great protector."

"...." Marlik furrowed his brows slightly as he considered what Sevar had just ordered, then looked back toward him. "Do you think Robin Burton will get to him?"

Qarun resides all the way in Mid Sector 250 alongside the Council of Thrones, and there isn't a single major power occupying the enormous stretch between Mid Sectors 118 and 250 that could stand as a true obstacle along that path... which means that if Robin Burton and his army continue their steady advance in that same direction, expanding from one sector to the next as they have been doing, then sooner or later they will eventually reach him.

Perhaps that would happen after a thousand years... or perhaps it would take a hundred thousand years... but regardless of how much time passed, they would eventually reach him as long as Robin continued moving forward while possessing two individuals whose limits had been completely removed!

"Whether he eventually reaches him or not, that has absolutely nothing to do with us right now." Sevar casually waved his hand, showing little concern over how far into the future such a possibility might lie. "Qarun has voluntarily taken a step forward and decided that he wants to join the game himself, so let him play and see what happens. Perhaps he genuinely thinks that Robin Burton is an easy opponent and that I've merely been going easy on him all this time because I personally chose not to take things seriously enough. If that's what he believes, then let him try dealing with Robin for himself."

Then Sevar simply shrugged his shoulders, treating the immediate consequences of Qarun's speech as something they could easily endure. "His words haven't actually affected us in any meaningful way. We're an underground organization anyway, so public opinion was never something we depended upon in the first place. Continue gathering resources and taxes exactly as usual, and put greater focus on developing the army and properly training it. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the era when scattered gangs could handle everything for us is no longer suitable when we're dealing with someone who loves using enormous armies and engaging in direct warfare."

Then he chuckled softly, his interest apparently shifting away from what Qarun had done to him and toward the other person who had been targeted far more severely. "Heh~ I'm actually looking forward to seeing Robin Burton's reaction when he learns about this recording. He took a serious blow today, one that was delivered directly against his reputation before everyone... I want to see exactly how he'll clear his name after this."

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Mid Sector 99—Dawnlight Cosmic Academy

"...."

The Cosmic Elder's children remained exactly where they were, staring fixedly at the disc in complete silence, still stunned by everything they had just heard and seemingly unable to immediately process the accusations that had been thrown before them... while some among them had already begun crying.

"Father might have—!!"

"Silence!" Their eldest brother suddenly raised his voice before any one of them could finish saying anything that couldn't be taken back, then lowered his voice and muttered firmly, "Silence... We will not speak about matters we know nothing about, and we won't reach conclusions about things we don't understand."

"What exactly don't we know?!" One of the younger boys immediately pointed angrily toward the disc, unable to accept that answer after everything they had just watched and heard. "How else are we supposed to explain what was said?"

"...." The eldest brother maintained his silence for a moment, struggling to control himself even though his trembling body clearly showed that he wasn't nearly as calm as he was trying to appear. "...We'll explain it through the words of our own father, the same father who hasn't allowed a single day to pass since we were born without singing the praises of our Godfather and speaking highly of him before us... Respect your father's judgment and intelligence, and don't allow the words of strangers to manipulate your opinions so easily!"

Then he stood up, forcing himself to take control of the situation before the emotions spreading among his younger siblings could overwhelm them. "Father has said it repeatedly throughout our lives that our Godfather is the reason we even exist in this life, and that isn't something he only told us once or twice. He's our second father, just like Father Zolan, so before we believe anything being said about him by outsiders, we have to listen to him first!!"

Then he began looking around toward the distant horizon, his gaze passing over the other groups scattered throughout the academy who were similarly gathered around and watching the same recording. "Spread out and gather all of our brothers and sisters together. No one is allowed to say a single word about this matter before we're all together and see what we're going to do as one!!"

"Understood."

"..." Temari, who had been secretly watching everything from a distance, finally released a long breath that she had seemingly been holding for some time, finding herself both relieved and frightened at exactly the same moment.

She was relieved because the Cosmic Elder's children had evidently inherited enough of his levelheadedness to avoid immediately allowing that recording to dictate what they believed...

And she was frightened because she couldn't even begin to predict how Robin Burton and his empires would react to everything that had happened today after such accusations had been spread before everyone.

Hell was coming!!