Chapter 2399: The two steps

"...But you consumed it, and that’s what matters." Robin revealed a broad, satisfied smile. "I still don’t know exactly where your kind fits into the grand scheme of the multiverse, whether you appear only in our universe or exist in all of them, or whether your existence is something that occurred naturally or was deliberately designed by one of those Transcendents. Your very existence remains a mystery to me, and your true purpose is just as mysterious, but at the very least, I’m finally beginning to understand the way your bodies function, little by little."

Robin slowly looked Sakar up and down, examining him as he spoke. "It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the reason for your existence is to act as predators of humans. At a certain point, ordinary animals and beasts cease to pose any meaningful threat to humans, and then your kind appeared to fill that position. Whether your emergence happened naturally as some kind of reaction from the heavenly laws or because someone deliberately created or arranged it, that’s something I’ll have to discover later."

"The good thing I’ve noticed about your kind is that your bodies can digest practically any living blood and extract whatever useful things it contains. Since humans are your primary prey, human blood is naturally what directly increases your strength, but you can still survive entirely by feeding on beasts, just as you used to do on Jura, and you can also sate yourselves and gain a powerful boost and considerable momentum from consuming space beasts—or, to put it more precisely, from absorbing that extremely faint substance present within their blood."

Then he pointed directly toward Sakar. "And just look at yourself now. Your body is currently digesting that substance contained within the Executioner’s blood, while at the same time digesting the Executioner’s blood itself because her original nature is human. Both effects are occurring together, which is why your body’s toughness has increased so dramatically while your actual level has risen as well."

"...?!" Sakar immediately began examining himself again in shock, paying much closer attention to the changes occurring throughout his body. "Amazing..."

Sakar could indeed detect a slight but undeniable increase in his level as a Dominator demon, and such a seemingly small increase was actually enormous when considering his current level of strength and just how difficult it had become for him to advance any further. Better yet, beyond the increase in level, he could clearly sense a strange new power permeating his body along with an unnatural degree of toughness that had never existed there before.

His entire body was made from pure blood, with even his bones and internal organs being nothing more than blood solidified to varying degrees, yet right now Sakar genuinely felt that even if an entire planet were hurled directly at him, his body wouldn’t suffer any meaningful damage!

Then he turned toward Robin again, unable to hide his growing curiosity. "Ordinary space beasts... do they have this same substance inside their bodies as well?"

"Yes." Robin nodded without hesitation. "But you’d have to eat ten juvenile space beasts in their entirety before you could extract the same amount of that substance contained in that single drop of blood you just consumed. And when I say eat, I mean actually eat their bodies, not merely drink their blood, because that substance permeates every part and detail of their bodies, just as you already noticed when examining the severed arm."

"....." Sakar immediately fell silent upon hearing that comparison.

A single juvenile space beast could rival a small planet in sheer size, so how many years would he have to spend opening and closing his mouth, chewing without pause, before he could even finish eating a single finger from one of those enormous creatures?

"Don’t let that discourage you." Robin chuckled when he saw his reaction. "Those beasts are originally injected with only a tiny amount of that substance, after which it circulates and spreads throughout their bodies for an unknown number of years. We still don’t know the actual composition of that substance, nor do we know whether there’s a practical way for us to extract it ourselves... at least, not yet."

"Not yet?" Sakar asked in surprise, immediately catching the implication hidden within Robin’s final words.

"For the coming period, I want to start a project to extract the black substance from space beasts. It’s obvious that we have an enormous supply of them available to us, so why shouldn’t we find a way to put all of that to some useful purpose?" Robin winked at him. "But just as I’m telling you not to be discouraged, don’t become too optimistic either... A substance created by the Transcendents won’t be something easy to deal with, even if what we’re attempting is merely extracting and separating it from the rest of the body. I only realized there was genuine hope of succeeding when I saw your body handling and digesting a considerable amount of it without rejecting it... I’ll most likely use demon blood itself as a reference to study how that substance can be separated."

"That would be...!!" Sakar hesitated before finishing his words, deliberately restraining himself as he tried to conceal the excitement that had suddenly surged within him.

"You love space beast blood just like all of your kind do because of the powerful feeling of satiation that this substance gives you, but despite that, you still need human blood if you actually want to become stronger and increase your level." Robin explained, "With a considerable amount of that substance, your physical body will become substantially stronger, and on top of that, I’ll have the Shadow Swords provide you with the bodies of those killed in the wars fought by Army One and Army Three. What do you think?"

"....." Sakar understood immediately that they had finally arrived at the decisive point of this entire conversation, so after a brief silence, he gave the simplest possible answer. "Command me."

"Hmm, dealing with you is comfortable as always." Robin turned his back to him and spread his arms wide toward the darkness surrounding them. "Here, Sakar, outside the shell of the universe." Then he slowly lowered his arms while continuing, "From what I’ve heard, you can imagine this entire place as an unimaginably vast ocean, with a number of small spheres scattered throughout its waters, and each one of those spheres represents a completely independent universe."

Then he deliberately slowed his speech as though allowing Sakar enough time to picture what he was describing. "That number could be dozens, hundreds, thousands... perhaps even hundreds of thousands." Robin narrowed his eyes slightly as he stared into the endless darkness. "...It would still be a small number compared to the sheer size of this ocean."

"...." Sakar remained silent and listened with complete attention, following every word Robin said.

"And naturally, this vast ocean isn’t completely devoid of inhabitants. Of course there are fish living inside it." Robin smiled as he continued the comparison. "The fish here are the space beasts of all their different sizes, while the sharks—the creatures standing at the very top of the food chain and representing the true pillars of power in this place—are the Executioners."

Then he continued, "And among those stubborn fish and those sharks, there are tiny seahorses belonging to the spheres, creatures that occasionally try to escape from the side of their sphere and venture into the ocean to explore it, only for the fish and sharks waiting outside to devour them... Those seahorses represent people like Athena and the Cosmic Elder who tried to leave their universes, as well as myself. And judging from what the Seer said to her, there are many others who have attempted the same thing."

Then he shrugged lightly, as though his entire description had reached its natural conclusion. "That’s everything. There’s nothing else in this enormous ocean except darkness and death."

"....." Sakar slowly nodded after considering Robin’s description. "It seems that won’t remain the case for much longer."

"Heh~" Robin revealed a broad smile at those words. "I was threatened that an entire Executioner Brigade would arrive after several thousand years, and if a single Executioner is capable of controlling a million Reapers by herself, then I honestly don’t even want to imagine the size of the army that will arrive on that day."

Then he turned around and looked directly at Sakar. "Am I supposed to simply sit inside the shell until then and wait patiently for it to shatter over my head?"

"Of course not." Sakar revealed a frightening smile, his meaning obvious from his expression alone. "If the Lord’s orders are for us to hunt space beasts and gradually reduce their numbers, then we’re the ones for the job."

Anyone else who heard those words would undoubtedly tremble in fear. There were entire academies that had to mobilize their forces and experts merely to drive a single space beast away from inhabited regions and force it into the region between sectors!!

"Hunt them? No." Robin shook his head, immediately rejecting that interpretation. "As long as I don’t know the actual number of Reapers out there or how they’re distributed throughout this place, simply hunting them would accomplish practically nothing. Perhaps we could kill ten million of them only to discover afterward that they have a trillion more. What exactly would I have gained then? No, the objective won’t be to target the space beasts themselves."

"....?" Sakar was deeply confused by that answer and stared at Robin for a moment before asking, "Then the objective will be...?"

Robin spread his arms wide once again. "The first phase will be an advanced defense." Then he smiled as he explained, "I want you to clear the space beasts from every direction around us, and every time you successfully secure an entire spherical region, advance farther outward and double that distance... You and the rest of your mutated kind can now survive and live outside the shell without any problem. All you’ll need is some artificial ground where you can feed and reproduce, which means nothing more complicated than providing you with a few vessels."

"...Understood." Sakar nodded slowly, already grasping the scale of what Robin intended. "And the phase after that?"

"Hehe." Robin chuckled, the smile on his face widening as he finally revealed the next part of his plan. "Finding other universes and subjugating them, of course."