Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2446 The seer's past-1

"...Those Seals sound extremely valuable." Robin spoke in a low, almost absentminded voice as he continued drawing, his hand moving steadily across the paper as though the conversation itself were merely something he was listening to while occupied with something else.

Naturally, the first thing that appeared in his mind when Helmor spoke about those Seals were the hexagonal Seals that had recently begun appearing on him. As for whether they were truly valuable, there was absolutely no doubt about that from Robin's perspective; if there were actually a way to obtain another one through something as simple as a transaction, Robin would be willing to sell half the sectors currently under his control in exchange for just one additional Seal... but naturally, Helmor didn't need to know anything about that.

"Sound?" Helmor immediately furrowed his brows upon noticing Robin's choice of words. "Didn't the Seer tell you about the Seals? They're the Seals that appear on their bodies once they meet the conditions required for Transcendence, after which those Seals begin changing their bodies themselves, gradually transforming them into a form of life superior to ours."

"So those are the Seals..." Robin slowly shook his head after finally connecting Helmor's explanation with what he had personally seen. "Unfortunately, he didn't tell me anything about them. You know him... It's extremely difficult to extract any useful information from him." Then he chuckled lightly as though remembering something amusing. "You must have noticed that yourself while killing his previous Candidates alongside the rest of your little group."

"Not one of those Candidates had two Unbound standing beside him while personally possessing several Master Laws!" Helmor furrowed his brows even more deeply, and for the first time, genuine suspicion began creeping into his heart as he carefully considered the contradiction before him. "How could he possibly give you all of this and place that much of a bet on you, yet still refuse to tell you anything?"

"...." Robin maintained his silence without attempting to answer the question, simply continuing his drawing with perfectly natural breathing and the same steady movements as before, without showing the slightest reaction that might reveal anxiety, hesitation, or concern over the direction Helmor's thoughts were taking.

"...?" Helmor continued staring at him for several seconds, carefully observing his expression and movements as though trying to find something hidden within them, then eventually gave a small nod when another explanation occurred to him. "I suppose that's actually natural. If he told you his true objective, you'd immediately start negotiating with him over it. Perhaps he's still making you believe that you're struggling for some noble purpose, like fighting to protect the universe from evil people or something along those lines."

"Hmm, that's right." Robin nodded naturally, apparently finding Helmor's explanation reasonable enough. "He told me that I had to stop his rival from winning and seizing the resources, but after hearing what you're saying now, I think there's a missing link somewhere in the story!"

Robin hadn't lied with those words, not even regarding what the Seer had told him, but inwardly, he was laughing at the direction the conversation had taken.

"His rival? The Seer has no rival." Helmor immediately revealed a gloating smile, as though Robin had unknowingly said something particularly amusing. "The Seer has either haters who despise him or those who go after him, along with people who simply don't care whether he's alive or dead, but someone you could actually describe as his rival? No."

"Haters and hunters? Plural?" Robin released a soft whistle upon hearing Helmor speak of them as entire groups rather than isolated individuals, his interest in the subject becoming more obvious. "It seems he's managed to anger quite a lot of people."

"You might not know this yet, but the Seer is extremely powerful. He's someone who comes from eras so ancient that none of the beings currently alive in this universe ever witnessed them," Helmor began explaining, apparently willing to continue now that Robin was listening. "But there are many others like him who are known as Transcendents, and among them are individuals both older and more capable than he is. Compared to some of those people, the Seer is little more than a child... not necessarily in terms of his raw strength, but certainly in terms of age, accumulated knowledge, and overall capability."

"And in terms of strength?" Robin asked, his attention remaining fixed upon the particular distinction Helmor had deliberately made.

"That depends on which Transcendent you're talking about," Helmor replied, his tone becoming more explanatory as he continued. "...The Seer's relatively young age actually gave him the advantage of possessing an abundance of Seals. He ascended three cycles ago while already carrying more Seals than over half of all the Transcendents possess, but there are also a number of other Transcendents who have won several cycles over the course of their existence and accumulated an even greater number of Seals, as well as those who have lived for an incalculable amount of time and, through Transcendence, transformed their bodies to an extremely high degree."

Then Helmor raised his palm slightly and began moving it from side to side, as though physically indicating the position he was describing. "You could say that the Seer currently stands somewhere in the middle, between those Transcendents who have suffered repeated losses until they're on the verge of losing everything they possess, or have already lost everything entirely... and those ancient monsters who have existed for ages and still want to accumulate even more Seals."

"So the haters you're talking about are the ancient Transcendents who lost most or all of their Seals, while those lying in wait are the whales who have their eyes on the Seals the Seer currently possesses. Did I understand that correctly?" Robin pursed his lips slightly with obvious interest, quickly arranging the groups Helmor had described into something easier to understand.

"Correct, but don't let the way I'm speaking about those haters fool you into thinking they're weak. Even if they've already lost their Seals, those Seals had previously transformed a large portion of their bodies and elevated them to a higher level, and the degree of bodily transformation they've undergone surpasses the Seer's by a considerable margin. So even though the Seer currently possesses an advantage because of the number of Seals still in his possession, he can't afford to underestimate even a single one of those people if matters actually reach the point of direct combat," Helmor explained, making the distinction between possessing Seals and having already benefited from their transformations clear.

"What a troublesome situation the Seer has managed to find himself in..." Robin smiled lightly after hearing the explanation.

"He brought it upon himself, in a way." Helmor looked away slightly as he began speaking about events from far earlier times. "The Seer was originally born right here in Universe B-14, although at that time this place was called A-7... That happened three cycles ago, not counting the current cycle, and during the very first cycle in which he was born, he was actually a Candidate belonging to another Transcendent. He used his own methods to squeeze more and more benefits out of that Transcendent, and once he eventually learned about what was happening above, about the Seals and everything else connected to them, he began exploiting his official patron and the owner of the universe at the time with every trick, scheme, and bit of cunning available to him, especially since he was fundamentally a Causality user."

"...By the end of that same cycle, the Seer had already managed to gather six Master Laws, and he succeeded in controlling all six of them simultaneously and connecting them together in a manner that allowed them to function in harmony, thanks to direct assistance from the patron supporting him at the time... By then, he had already acquired the qualifications necessary to become a Transcendent and had actually begun undergoing the transformation itself, and in return for everything he had received, the Seer helped his patron achieve victory during that cycle. And how could he possibly fail to do so under those circumstances? The Seer was already a young Transcendent competing against ordinary humans like you and me."

"....." Robin completely lifted his hand away from the drawing this time and stopped what he had been doing, giving Helmor his full attention as he began listening with genuine interest to every word that followed.

The situation Helmor was describing sounded strangely familiar to Robin in certain ways, even if several of the details were clearly different.

"...As for the competitors of the Seer's patron, they weren't able to react quickly enough once they finally discovered the truth behind what had happened. A-7 at that time was held under an iron grip by the Seer, and there were no outside agents operating within it or other patrons with competing interests there, so naturally, he successfully pulled off his little act of cheating and achieved victory, allowing the patron behind him to win a large number of Seals."

Helmor then smiled before continuing, "But the story certainly didn't end happily after that... The Seer's patron won the cycle and reaped whatever benefits he was able to obtain from that victory, but afterward he suddenly found himself facing several serious problems. First, his competitors became absolutely furious with him because he had deliberately created an entirely new Transcendent solely for the purpose of securing victory in that cycle, and from their perspective, their numbers were already more than large enough and they had absolutely no desire to see another one added to them; in their eyes, what he had done amounted to cheating, shamelessness, and a blatant crossing of the boundaries they accepted.

Then Helmor continued, "...And the second problem was that another Transcendent had now emerged from the exact same universe that he himself ruled... In other words, he had personally created a competitor for himself with his own actions, and now he had to find an appropriate way to deal with that new Transcendent, otherwise his own rule over Universe A-7 would be threatened with passing into the hands of the very Transcendent he had created with his own hands."

Then Helmor laughed as he looked directly toward Robin, clearly reaching the part of the story he had been building toward. "Guess what happened?"