Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2272: The deadly wait

Mid Sector 750 — One of the Obscure Planets

"..."

Sevar was in his hidden cave as usual, far from the rays of the sun, with barely any light around him.

But this time, he was not leaning lazily on his right arm, nor did he wear his usual sleepy, indifferent expression.

He sat with his back straight, both hands gripping the armrests of his stone chair, his posture rigid with tension.

His expression was no better. His black eyes were wide open, his teeth clenched tightly, and a mixture of anger and incomprehension dominated his face.

Before him now... was a strange sight.

It was a gigantic serpent.

Although it was inside the cave, Sevar could see it stretching toward the horizon, its body nearly the size of an entire planet in diameter, colored a dark crimson like blood.

The serpent’s head was staring directly into his face, three golden eyes fixed upon him coldly—the eyes of a predator looking at prey, of a serpent looking at a newborn mouse.

The three-eyed serpent was flickering.

Its body flashed with a ruby-red glow, vivid and threatening, its radiance greater than the sun’s and its heat even higher.

Its body flickered... flickered, appearing for a moment before fading into nothingness until it almost vanished completely, then reappearing once again with suffocating density and realism.

That serpent was not real, of course. No serpent in existence could make the Archon feel threatened.

But the threat was real.

"...." Sevar extended his hand toward the serpent’s head until he reached the horn between its nostrils, then pulled it toward himself forcefully. "Get out of my face!"

Whooosh

The serpent did not resist. Instead, it surged in that direction with overwhelming force and speed, a speed many times greater than light itself. Its colossal body could be felt shifting instantaneously every moment, yet it continued rushing beside Sevar for several hours. It seemed long enough to stretch between suns, and its belly appeared vast enough to house millions of races.

But everything comes to an end.

The serpent’s enormous body gradually narrowed, and it became obvious that the tail had finally arrived.

This continued until its speed slowly decreased.

Then something appeared.

A person.

A human with a light beard and short hair, standing confidently with his hands behind his back. His entire body flickered with a crimson glow even more powerful and threatening than the serpent’s...

At that moment, he was looking directly into Sevar’s eyes.

Looking with realism and killing intent...

Then fading from existence...

Then appearing once more and staring at him again.

"Robin Burton..." Sevar muttered in a low voice, hostility obvious in both his tone and gaze.

How many years had passed?

How many years had passed since a tiny red thread first appeared before him? A ridiculous, insignificant thread that was disconnected because its owner possessed no weight or influence yet. A thread so trivial that it was only noticed because of its hostile color.

One of the greatest reasons he had established the Hidden Hand Guild and specialized it in information and major interests was to ensure that his followers were aware of every person of significance in the universe, great or small, and even every minor merchant connected to them, whether positively or negatively.

That made it easier for him to connect any thread he desired.

It made it easier for him to see everything.

It made it easier for him to control everything.

It made it easier for him to arrange the causality of the universe.

What did it mean for there to be a thread unconnected to him?

It meant that person was as worthless as the dust of the earth, so insignificant that even the guild’s lowest-ranking soldiers had never seen him before.

That was why, when he first saw the red thread, he laughed at its absurdity.

He laughed at the idea that someone like that was thinking of harming him.

Someone who did not even exist on the stage.

How long had it been since that thread appeared?

A hundred years?

A thousand?

Ten thousand?!

Why...

Why had that insignificant, laughable thread transformed into a serpent that devoured the sky itself, a colossal embodiment of danger and the symbol of the greatest threat he had ever perceived through his abilities?!

"That flickering..." Sevar muttered in a low voice, his gaze fixed upon the constantly shifting image before him while countless thoughts crossed his mind in rapid succession.

He was not referring to that deadly crimson radiance, whose mere presence seemed capable of crushing souls beneath its weight, a radiance that would have shattered the soul of any Martial Emperor who witnessed it directly and understood even a fraction of what it represented.

No...

He was referring to Robin’s manifestation appearing, fading away, and then reappearing once more, over and over again, as though reality itself could not decide whether to acknowledge his existence or erase it.

There were two people in the universe whose manifestations of fate and threads he could not see: Athena and Zolan.

Those two had already reached the pinnacle of power long before Sevar’s own rise, long before he had established his influence throughout the universe, so he had grown accustomed to seeing absolutely nothing concerning them, neither threads nor chains nor any indication that his abilities could affect them in the slightest.

There were others whose manifestations of fate possessed chains with links as large as mountains, individuals whose destinies were so vast and deeply rooted that even he could not casually meddle with them without paying a tremendous price, but despite that he could still see them, still observe their existence, still comprehend where they stood within the greater framework of causality.

This was the first time in his life, throughout all the countless years he had spent observing the universe and manipulating its hidden connections, that he had seen someone transition from visible to invisible right before his eyes.

That flickering between appearance and disappearance usually meant one thing:

The person was standing on the edge of a boundary that separated natural existence from something beyond it.

He had not yet taken the final remaining step required to vanish completely from the sight of fate itself, but there was not much left, not enough to dismiss or ignore.

Of course...

For a step like that, "not much" should normally mean millions of years, perhaps even longer for most beings, because such a distance could not be measured by ordinary cultivation, talent, resources, or opportunities.

But for someone who had risen from an unconnected thread to a sky-devouring serpent within a mere few centuries, someone whose growth had repeatedly violated every expectation and prediction that should have governed the universe...

No.

This had become far too imminent, far too close for comfort.

Far too bizarre, to the point where even Sevar could not easily accept what he was seeing!

"The Knower... oh, The Knower..." Sevar muttered, his voice carrying both annoyance and suspicion. "Did I irritate you that much? What did you hand to your final candidate to bring him to this level of power so effortlessly?... Or did you finally descend personally after all your attempts failed, abandoning subtle schemes and placing everything directly into your own hands?"

Then he stood.

"Predictions and questions are no longer useful now. Not at this point."

He no longer cared for theories or possibilities, because the evidence was already standing before him, flickering in and out of existence with every passing moment.

He then walked toward the hostile manifestation before him.

"I ordered you to be contained and your authority and forces prevented from spreading further, yet your answer was an increase in personal strength?"

Sevar raised his head slightly as though reconsidering years of decisions and calculations.

"Perhaps I was mistaken."

Then he continued while staring directly into Robin’s eyes, his own expression becoming colder and more resolute.

"At first, I did not know your location, so I ignored you. When I learned where you were, I also learned of your close relationship with the Soul Society, so once again the request came from them to ignore you, and I did. Later, you grew stronger, your name spread throughout more sectors, and your connection to Zolan became known, so I limited myself to moving my forces to contain you out of respect for Zolan and that individual from the Soul Society, choosing indirect pressure over direct confrontation and believing that would be sufficient..."

His black eyes then gleamed with a dangerous light.

"But not anymore."

The red threads inside his eyes began moving like serpents, twisting and writhing as though they possessed minds of their own, releasing an increasingly terrifying pressure into the surroundings.

"I had planned to avoid major confrontations until that event, until I could personally witness those individuals and see the difference between me and them with my own eyes, rather than relying upon speculation and fragmented information... But if I allow you to live any longer, if I continue treating you as a future concern instead of a present threat, I will not survive to see that day."

Then he calmly raised his hand, shaping it into the form of a sword.

Hummmm—

A golden light began flowing around his arm like liquid metal until it completely covered it, layer after layer of radiant energy condensing into something increasingly solid and dangerous, and at its edges the golden radiance sharpened into a cutting blade whose mere existence caused the surrounding space to tremble faintly.

"Farewell... Robin Burton. You may take pride in the fact that you will force me into complete slumber until that day—a slumber that will reshape the face of the universe for the remaining two million years, altering plans, delaying movements, and changing countless destinies that would otherwise have unfolded according to my design."

Then—

Whoosh.

Sevar brought the golden blade down upon Robin’s manifestation.