Lord of the Truth

"Enough!!" Robin raised both his hands high, his voice rolling like thunder across the battlefield, and his gaze locked unflinchingly with that of the Specter King. "We do not seek war, and you do not wish to see more of your soldiers crushed and scattered… we will withdraw if you allow it!"

From the depths of Robin's soul, there was nothing he wished more than for this towering entity to accept such a truce. He had not come to the Specter Valley Planet to lock horns with local monarchs in duels of life and death—he had come to harvest units of soul essence, to seize a chance for breakthrough, to advance his path forward. A meaningless clash here was not his desire.

"A strong soul…" The Specter King's voice was deep, like a cavern filled with echoes. His hollow gaze slid from Robin's head to his feet, weighing, measuring. "You shall become my right hand, once I tear the chains that holds you in that materialistic weak body."

Robin's eyes turned to ice. "I was never the right hand of the living, how could I debase myself to serve the dead?" His tone fell like a blade, his hands lowering slowly, deliberately. "So then… there is no road to reconciliation, is there?"

"Give me your soul, and reconciliation shall be ours." The corners of the Specter's twisted mouth curled into a fiendish smile, his form trembling with malice.

"My soul?" Robin's expression darkened, irritation cracking across his features. "It was never yours to claim. But…" His voice hardened, and his arm swept outward with authority, "you may take my soul force—if you can!"

CRACKLE

The motion of Robin's hand birthed a sudden shockwave, air pressure condensing and bursting outward like the roar of an unseen beast. Dozens of specters were thrown aside, their incorporeal bodies flung helplessly. Yet that was only the beginning. The pressure twisted upon itself, began to churn, and in the span of a heartbeat it unfurled into a spiraling maelstrom of fury. It seized every nearby specter in an invisible grip, dragging them into its raging core.

RUMBLE RUMBLE

A colossal cyclone rose to life at Robin's right flank. In the blink of an eye, it was brimming with black-green specters, shrieking as they were spun within its furious spiral, as though a storm had been unleashed from the abyss of the underworld itself.

"...." Specter King Arkalon's laughter faded, replaced by silence heavy with thought. That cyclone, which contained nearly twenty-five thousand soul units, was not slaughtering the specters. No—it dragged them in, then flung them across vast distances. The concept was deceptively simple, yet because it did not pursue carnage, its consumption of soul units was minimal. That storm could whirl endlessly, an eternal tempest haunting the battlefield.

But Robin was far from finished. WHOOSH His arm lashed out again, carving through the void. To his left flank, a second cyclone burst to life, pulling in the tide of shrieking specters and hurling them outward like leaves in a gale.

His arms then moved like the waves of a great ocean, swaying and commanding, and the storms obeyed. Slowly, but with devastating momentum, the twin cyclones drifted across the field, carving erratic paths that spread ruin and terror.

RUMBLE CRACKLE

"These techniques…" Specter King Arkalon's voice rumbled as his hollow gaze followed the storms, "this cyclone now, the net, the force field you conjured before… I have witnessed many of their kind, crafted many imitations. But never have I seen them shaped in this particular form. Tell me, are you their true creator?"

Robin arched a brow, his lips curling with a half-smile. "Oh? A Specter with culture and curiosity? Yes, I am their creator. Do you wish to purchase them from me?"

A grotesque laugh tore from the Specter King's throat, broken and jagged. "Hehh… hehh…" Then he swung his staff with force.

BOOM

Nearly a thousand specters were ripped toward him, clawing, screaming, colliding as he smashed their forms together. The impact erupted in a massive explosion that split the ground and darkened the air.

From within the haze of ruin, his voice rang out once more, darker and heavier. "What I desire… is not the technique. I desire the creator himself!"

HUMMMM

Robin's eyes narrowed into blades of steel. Something monumental, something unnatural was unfolding before his sight. The hundreds of specters Arkalon had dragged together exploded into pure soul force, but their essence did not scatter. No—it melded, it fused, weaving itself into something new, something vast, something unholy.

BAAAAAAAAAAM

Out of the converging essence, a colossal specter was born—its body massive, supported by four mountainous legs, its torso sprouting a hundred faces and a hundred arms. The earth shook beneath its descent, every impact of its weight blasting the ground like a series of bombs. A new terror had been forged.

And without warning, the monstrous fusion raised its colossal right arms high into the heavens and struck down with a force that seemed to split the very air.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

The ground convulsed, stones shattered like glass, and the world itself trembled.

"Damn it!" Robin's heart lurched as he felt that terrifying surge of soul force—so immense, so crushing it seemed capable of pulverizing his very existence. Without hesitation, he unleashed the full torrent of his soul force, his body surging like a comet away from that cursed spot. In an instant, he was torn from the fragile haven he had carved for himself, abandoning the safety of the twin cyclones that spun like guardians at his flanks.

BAM BAM

The fused abomination did not hesitate. It twisted its grotesque frame with a shriek of snapping bones and gave chase, every titanic footfall smashing down upon the battlefield with cataclysmic weight. Each step shattered the ground and flattened entire clusters of specters beneath its monstrous legs, reducing them to dust and scattered essence. The earth itself seemed to scream beneath its pursuit.

"Stop!!"

Robin's instincts flared. From the corner of his eye, he saw another horror tearing across the battlefield—a giant lizard, armored in dark scales, its form radiating menace. The sheer density of its presence made Robin's breath catch. That beast carried no less than ninety thousand units of soul force, a walking calamity charging straight for him!

"Back off—both of you!!" Robin roared, his voice cutting like lightning. He thrust both arms outward, the motion like a command to the heavens. "Shield of Nexus!!"

HUUUUUUUM

From his body burst wave after wave of translucent barriers, countless layers overlapping one another, drifting outward like endless pages of ghostly scripture. They spread across the battlefield like wings of light and shadow, vast and unyielding.

BAM!

Each time one of those phantom shields struck a specter, it shoved it back violently, sending it stumbling away. But the magic of the technique lay in the rhythm: as one wave drove the enemy away, another crashed into them, then another, pushing them farther and farther until the very idea of approaching Robin had become forbidden, taboo, impossible.

"Damn it!!" Robin snarled, breath ragged, sweat flickering down his temple as his body pulsed with strain. He could feel it—nearly a hundred thousand more soul units had already been burned away fueling the cyclones and the shields!

His reserves, though vast, were bleeding out like water through broken stone.

No… no, staying here was nothing less than suicide. His instincts screamed louder than the roar of the battlefield. "Wade! Malek! To me—now! Gather around me!!" Robin's shout rang out like a warlord's decree.

"Yes, my lord!!" his two guardians responded in unison, their voices unwavering even amidst chaos. Without hesitation they obeyed, each weaving through the collapsing battlefield with mastery over their domains—Malek bending time, Wade folding space. With every breath, they twisted reality itself, slipping past claws and fangs, closing in on their master with unyielding determination.

Hearing their voices, Robin exhaled, a flicker of grim relief flashing in his eyes. He threw himself forward with greater speed, racing to meet them. The battlefield churned in chaos, yet his will burned brighter.

But still… the truth weighed heavy on him. The Specter King was strong—too strong. Strong enough to sever the very rifts of space. If he could break space itself, would he also shatter spacetime?

Robin's face twisted with fury and grim calculation. Spacetime… his greatest weapon, his deadliest blade. But every strike with it consumed the foundation of his very being. Each use was a gamble with his own existence. Was the cost worth it?

He shook his head with savage force. If escaping death itself was not worth such a price—then what else in this universe ever could be?

Specter King Arkalon had crossed the threshold into a realm Robin could no longer face with ordinary means. There remained only one path—the path of sacrifice. To invoke a Master Law, to burn destiny itself either to strike down his foe or carve a path of escape!

"....." Robin's tightly knit brows slowly unfurled as clarity dawned. His breath steadied, his heart pounded.

A realization cut through the haze: a Master Law against him—that was the key.

But why was he shackling his thoughts to spacetime alone?

Had he forgotten? He possessed not one, but three Master Laws. Spacetime was not his only hand to play.

BAAAAAAAAAAAM!

The battlefield convulsed once more. In that instant, everything before Robin shifted, the world re-writing itself. The endless tide of specters, that relentless sea he had been forcing back with the endless shields of the Nexus—gone. Vanished in a heartbeat. In their place, one single shadow descended from above like a star fallen from the heavens. It struck the ground with the impact of a meteor, the earth cracking and vomiting dust.

Steam hissed and boiled from its massive body, each exhale like the breath of a furnace. The stench of death and power thickened the air. And then Robin saw him, standing so close the distance could be measured in heartbeats—Specter King Arkalon himself, his monstrous form crouched only a single meter away.