Chapter 2447: The seer’s past-2

"Guess what happened." Helmor raised his head slightly as he looked toward Robin, clearly waiting to see what conclusion he would reach after hearing everything that had happened up to that point.

"Hmm, judging from everything you’ve said so far, the situation sounds extremely bad." Robin nodded slowly as he considered the circumstances Helmor had described. "But I have a feeling the Seer’s patron doesn’t do much competing anymore."

"Doesn’t compete at all would be the more accurate way to put it." Helmor immediately understood the sarcasm hidden within Robin’s words and continued explaining. "The anger the Seer’s patron drew from the other Transcendents brought about an extremely powerful reaction. Under normal circumstances, something like that would’ve resulted in fines, or perhaps threats of greater interference in his universe during future cycles in order to prevent him from cheating again and stop him from creating any additional Transcendents, but a variable appeared in the middle of all of this..."

"The Seer." Helmor’s voice gradually grew quieter as he reached the most important part. "The Seer cooperated with a number of those ancient Transcendents, and together they agreed upon a covenant and formed an alliance under his orchestration. In the end, they successfully trapped the Seer’s patron, sealed his powers, and imprisoned him. Those Transcendents obtained his Seals, while the Seer received Universe A-7 itself and became its new master after him."

"Imprisoned him?" Robin’s expression showed genuine surprise when he heard the final outcome, finding that particular detail strange. "Why didn’t they simply kill him?"

"Transcendents can’t be killed." Helmor gently shook his head as though the answer were something completely natural. "Those Seals transform their cells into immortal, indestructible cells. That’s one of the main reasons Transcendents generally avoid fighting among themselves, since fighting doesn’t accomplish much when both sides possess immortality, and the greater the number of transformed cells a Transcendent possesses, the more difficult it becomes to deal with them to the point where even something like imprisonment gradually becomes virtually impossible."

"..." Robin let out a long whistle as his eyebrows rose noticeably upon hearing that explanation.

Those transformed cells were indeed far stronger than ordinary ones, something Robin had already personally experienced and understood through his own body, but to think that their transformation could actually continue until they reached the point of true immortality and became indestructible? That... was incredible!

"Ever since the Seer’s patron, the Transcendent known as the Custodian, was successfully imprisoned and control of the universe was handed over to the Seer, certain things began changing among the ranks of the Transcendents," Helmor explained further. "After all, this young man who had only recently Transcended had managed to dispose of an ancient Transcendent and then take control of a Class-A universe for himself. And beyond that, he somehow managed to find a loophole in the covenant they had made and seize a number of the Custodian’s Seals during the process of besieging and imprisoning him, specifically the very Seals the Custodian had earned from that cycle the Seer himself had won on his behalf, which meant that the Seer emerged from the entire affair even stronger and considerably more dangerous than before!"

"..." Robin folded his arms across his chest and began tapping one finger against his forearm with a serious expression, silently processing everything Helmor had just revealed.

Apparently, from the very moment the Seer first appeared among those beings above, he had immediately turned their entire situation upside down and caused an enormous disturbance among them. Perhaps he hadn’t done so in the best or most peaceful manner imaginable, but he had unquestionably done it... and when Robin thought about the Seer’s personality and the way he usually handled things, that actually suited his style somewhat.

"After that, the Seer found himself entering an entirely new struggle." Helmor resumed his explanation when he noticed that Robin had finally begun listening with genuine interest rather than merely drawing and occasionally responding, something that clearly pleased him. "After leaving Universe A-7 in the middle of the process of cleansing, rehabilitation, and reorganization, and after that universe earned the new name A-3 following the spectacular victory achieved during that cycle, the Seer shifted his attention toward something entirely different... toward establishing his own standing among the Transcendents."

"...And his standing among them certainly wasn’t the best. The Transcendents had originally intended to use him as a means to bring down the Custodian and strip him of his Seals, but in return, the Seer himself walked away with some of the Custodian’s Seals and then took his place as master of the universe. Because of that outcome, the older and more powerful Transcendents began looking at him as nothing more than an intrusive rat, someone who had harmed his own master and then played them for fools in the process, and some of them even told him openly and directly that he would eventually regret what he had done."

"...So he began using his usual methods to try to get closer to the other Transcendents whose hostility he hadn’t earned yet, particularly those Transcendents who had already lost most or all of their Seals. He tried to gather those people around himself and bring them over to his side, but he quickly discovered that accomplishing something like that was extremely difficult, because those people wanted only one thing from anyone who approached them: Seals. Give one of them a Seal, and he’ll work under your command for whatever period of time the two of you agreed upon... But the Seer had absolutely no intention of giving up the Seals he’d only just managed to gather for himself. Instead, he wanted to recruit those ancient beings using the nonsense that came out of his mouth and the grand dreams of the future he presented to them, but in the end, he failed."

"...The Seer is undoubtedly intelligent, but he was dealing with entities many, many times older than himself, beings who had lived long enough that his usual tricks and methods simply didn’t work on them, so eventually he gave up and ignored them, and that in itself earned him their hostility, especially from those people who felt that they had wasted their time listening to his nonsense while he tried to convince them to join him." Helmor then continued without stopping, "After that, the Seer turned toward what could be considered his last refuge: the middle-ranking Transcendents, those who were similar to him and were merely trying to coexist within that extremely harsh environment without becoming involved in unnecessary trouble, hoping that perhaps he could find a place for himself among them... But even that attempt ultimately failed."

"That class of Transcendents doesn’t want to create problems with the Seal whales standing above them. They don’t want conspiracies or troublesome schemes; they simply want to preserve the Seals they already possess, and perhaps increase their number by another one or two every once in a while by securing a good ranking during the cycles. From their perspective, forming groups and going out of their way to protect a newcomer like the Seer carried no meaningful value or benefit whatsoever, especially after he’d already made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t willing to give up even a single Seal in exchange for their support... So why would any of them bother themselves with him?"

"That sounds like an extremely hostile environment..." Robin slowly let out a breath as he imagined what Helmor was describing. "...Especially for a place where no one can actually be killed."

"Believe me." Helmor furrowed his brows slightly as his expression became somewhat more serious. "Some of the Scrappers up there have reached the point where they genuinely wish they could die."

"The Scrappers... Let me guess, that’s the title given to those Transcendents who’ve lost their Seals." Robin sighed as he quickly understood what kind of people Helmor was referring to.

Apparently, even reaching such an unimaginable position, even attaining immortality itself and becoming someone who couldn’t be killed, wasn’t actually the end of the road as one might naturally imagine.

"Yes." Helmor nodded in confirmation. "It’s an extremely individualistic environment where everyone ultimately acts for themselves and pursues their own interests, and the so-called allies up there are companions over a cup and a few pleasant words, but once the time for actual competition arrives and the Seals begin changing hands, those same allies are the first ones to turn around and tear into each other."

"I understand..." Robin nodded slowly, having gained a considerably clearer picture of the environment surrounding the Transcendents from Helmor’s explanation. "So what happened to the Seer after he discovered that he couldn’t find himself an ally?"

"What else could he possibly do?" Helmor revealed a broad smile, apparently finding what happened afterward rather amusing. "He tried surrounding himself with an aura of absolute genius and hostility, presenting himself as someone far more formidable than before. He even chose several additional titles for himself, such as the Knower, the Capable, and others, and deliberately spread the word that he’d achieved yet another breakthrough in one of his Laws and that the number of Seals he possessed had increased, but instead of improving his position, all of that only made his situation even worse and caused the greed of those surrounding him to grow further."

Then Helmor continued, "That situation persisted until the next cycle finally began, when the Seer started finding Candidates of his own and attempting to develop the universe under his control—A-3 at the time—but he was soon shocked to discover that the whales above had actually begun carrying out the threats they’d made against him. Their previous words hadn’t merely been empty threats meant to frighten him. It didn’t take long before the universe began collapsing from within, and before even the first million years of that cycle had passed, the Plague had already overrun the entire universe and all life within it had perished. The Seer suffered an absolutely devastating loss, one severe enough to drop him all the way to the very bottom of the rankings, destroy the standing his universe had previously achieved, and send it tumbling back down until it became A-40."