Chapter 2453: Interim agreement

"...I think I got my answer." Robin muttered quietly as he gave a few slow nods, as though Helmor’s explanation had finally confirmed something he’d already begun to suspect.

"And what exactly is that answer?" Helmor asked, his annoyance becoming clearly visible in both his expression and tone. "That we’re trying to survive a hopeless situation where the outcome has already been decided for us? We’re nothing more than pieces in a game being played far above our heads. The Transcendents are the ones who return all the planets to Primordial Chaos and wipe out every living creature upon them so those same worlds can be used again in a new cycle. When that’s the reality we’re trapped in, what else could we possibly do except try to secure our own individual survival?"

Then he raised his voice slightly as he tried to make his point even clearer. "In the chicken farms of mortals, does a chicken have the right to decide one day that it no longer wants to lay eggs? Can it walk up to the owner of the farm and demand that he stop slaughtering chickens? Of course not. They all ultimately share the same fate, unless the owner of the farm happens to take a particular liking to one specific chicken and decides to spare it from that fate by keeping it as a pet instead."

"Heh~" Robin released a long sigh before laughing at the comparison Helmor had chosen. "So we’re nothing more than chickens sitting around waiting for the day we’re slaughtered... That’s a little depressing when you put it that way."

"This is simply the situation we opened our eyes to, the reality we were born into and therefore the reality we have no choice but to deal with exactly as it is." Helmor gradually calmed down again as he continued, "We, the Wards, those of us who have patrons outside this universe, eventually came to understand that unnecessary struggle and endless resistance against something we cannot change would accomplish nothing except exhausting us further, so we decided to cooperate with one another and make each other’s tasks easier so that we could all increase our chances of surviving together. By doing things this way, every one of us will at least have a genuine opportunity to survive when the end finally arrives... but you?"

"Hmm..." Robin nodded slowly, appearing to understand the reasoning even if he wasn’t necessarily accepting it for himself. "Making the decision to leave behind everything you’ve spent millions of years building and then looking toward surviving entirely on your own, separated even from your own families and everything connected to your lives here, must be difficult enough just to contemplate, but I can understand why you reached that conclusion... These cycles truly are cruel when you look at them that way, don’t you think?"

Helmor furrowed his brows for a moment at Robin’s words before eventually replying, "...For your information, there are other universes out there that remain unnamed, unowned, and so numerous that their exact number isn’t even known... Those universes have no patrons standing above them, they aren’t included in the rehabilitation system at all, and they aren’t bound by the many complicated and confusing rules imposed upon universes like ours. Naturally, they don’t suffer from the punishments associated with those rules either. Those universes simply continue to exist as they are, waiting until the day a new Transcendent appears and claims ownership of them."

"....?!" Robin was greatly surprised by this revelation, clearly not having expected Helmor to suddenly mention the existence of universes operating outside the system he’d just described.

Helmor smiled when he saw Robin’s reaction. "You might immediately assume that those universes must be extraordinarily powerful. After all, they contain living beings whose ages can be measured in billions of years, while having no punishments or restrictive rules hanging over their heads, so what could possibly prevent them from growing endlessly stronger, right?" Helmor raised his head slightly before continuing, "In truth, however, their condition is actually much worse. With no leader to guide them, no clear goal standing before them, and nothing sufficiently great for them to fear... the inhabitants of those universes continued reproducing, multiplying, and spreading until eventually even their vast universes became too cramped to contain them comfortably, and afterward, as is so often the case with humans, devastating wars inevitably broke out among them."

Then he added in a quieter and noticeably deeper voice, "Every single one of those universes, without exception, was devastated. Their condition is many times worse than B-14’s; life within them has become scattered and is gradually dying out, while plagues and monsters have been left to run rampant without restraint. Yes, there are indeed people among their inhabitants whose ages are measured in billions of years, but people like those make up the majority of those who eventually become Scrapper Transcendents or ownerless Transcendents. Most of them use jinn to commit all kinds of atrocities in order to forcibly attain Transcendence when they’ve already reached an extremely advanced age. If we’re talking about justice and the destruction they’ve caused along the way, then their continued existence serves no useful purpose in the Land of Final Shelter, and remaining behind in their own universes would’ve been more dignified for them." ℴℴ𝘮

Then Helmor gestured toward himself as he returned to the point he’d been trying to explain. "You might think the rehabilitation program is cruel because of what happens when a cycle ends, but it renews life among humans, renews the drives that push them forward, and restores devastated lands to their natural state after everything inflicted upon them. It’s a cycle, a cycle of life that must eventually be completed... Humans simply can’t be allowed to remain alive indefinitely without an end before them, because sooner or later they’ll destroy themselves with their own hands. There has to be a final day that returns everything to its proper place and allows the process to begin again." Then he spread his arms as though arriving at the part that actually concerned them. "But none of that truly concerns us, the elite, because we—"

"We’re the pet chickens!" Robin raised his voice cheerfully, immediately completing Helmor’s explanation with the same comparison he’d used earlier.

"..." Helmor slowly lowered his outstretched arms as he stared at Robin, the momentum of his explanation completely interrupted. "I can no longer tell whether you actually understand what I’m trying to explain to you or you’re simply making fun of me."

"Both at the same time." Robin sighed with a faint smile, making no attempt to deny either possibility. "I honestly don’t know what to tell you, Helmor. I’m in a bad situation right now, with too many things that still need to be considered, and I can’t decide which path I should take yet. More importantly, I can’t simply judge the Seer and everything he’s done based solely on the words of his enemies, no matter how convincing those words might sound... I’ll wait until my next contact with him, hear what he has to say for myself, and only then make my final decision."

Helmor stared at Robin with visible annoyance, clearly dissatisfied with the answer after everything he’d spent so long explaining. "....I never expected the famous Lord Human to be such an indecisive person when the situation was placed directly in front of him like this."

"I prefer to call it wisdom and being careful before making a decision, but if that’s how you see it, then so be it." Robin shrugged lightly, showing no particular concern over Helmor’s description of him.

"Clearly, I’ve been wasting my time talking to you." Helmor spoke coldly as he placed both hands behind his back, his earlier enthusiasm having largely disappeared. "Some people simply refuse to believe the sun is hot even while they’re standing beneath it and burning in its flames."

"If it’s any consolation to you, then you haven’t actually wasted your time. You’ve given me a great deal of information and plenty of things that I need to think about carefully." Robin revealed a faint smile as he looked at Helmor. "And until I finally make my decision, I no longer want any personal problems between me and you or your companions. At the very least, I understand now that what you’re trying to do is escape an inevitable death awaiting you at the end, and that none of you actually see yourselves as traitors for choosing that path... That understanding alone gives us some common ground from which we can talk instead of immediately treating one another as enemies."

Then he continued, making his intention clearer, "I’ll offer all of you a truce for a while, enough time for me to settle my affairs, think everything through properly, and eventually give you my answer."

"A truce?" Helmor’s brows furrowed deeply at the proposal, obviously unwilling to accept such a vague arrangement without questioning it first. "You mean we simply pull our hands back, stop making major moves, and watch everything from the sidelines while you take as much time as you need? And what happens if, after however long you want this truce to last, you ultimately decide to continue opposing us exactly as before?"

"Then you’ll at least have gained some time for yourselves without me accidentally snapping someone’s neck in the meantime." Robin revealed a faint smile that made the meaning behind those words perfectly clear. "I almost did exactly that an hour ago."

".....?" Helmor’s eyes immediately sharpened as he glared angrily at Robin, but instead of responding to the provocation, he focused on the proposal itself. "Exactly how long do you want this truce of yours to last?"

"I don’t know yet. You’ll receive my answer when the proper time comes." Robin placed one hand over his chest as he spoke, his expression becoming more serious. "But you have my word on one thing... I won’t make any major move against you or bully any one of you before announcing my decision beforehand. Treachery isn’t part of my nature—I, Robin Burton, give you my word on that."

Then he continued seriously, laying out what the arrangement would mean in practical terms, "In the meantime, my forces won’t withdraw from any sector they’re currently occupying, but they won’t continue advancing either, and there will be no major moves launched against you Wards during this period. You can continue fighting them calmly and rationally, exactly as you’re doing now, without launching any large-scale attacks, or you can choose to stop fighting altogether, and in return they’ll remain exactly where they are as well."

"...." Helmor raised his head slightly as he considered the terms Robin had offered before finally giving his own condition. "If this gives you enough time to think clearly and eventually jump over to our side, then fine. I’ll halt any major moves against you for the coming period as well, but only for a maximum of ten years, not a day beyond that." Then a smile appeared on his face as he added, "We certainly don’t want to sit around waiting until Nihari ascends according to the Seer’s plan and gains even greater strength, only for us to return afterward and start wailing about how much stronger you’ve become, do we?"

"....." Robin’s eyelid twitched slightly for a brief moment when he heard that sentence, but he wasn’t particularly surprised that this particular piece of information had somehow leaked out and reached Helmor by now.

Then he nodded once, accepting the limit Helmor had set. "Ten years." With that, he casually waved his hand. Hum

The golden doorway immediately closed, cutting off the connection between the two sides and leaving nothing behind where it had stood.

"....." Helmor remained where he was and continued staring silently at that empty spot for several minutes, seemingly processing everything that had just been discussed, before finally raising his head and looking upward toward the enormous dragon that had watched the entire exchange from beginning to end. "So, do we continue or what?"

"....."