Chapter 2264: THE Master -3
Chapter 2264: THE Master -3
"Shhh!!" Glacion ordered Holak to be quiet, then looked upward with his mouth slightly open and eyes filled with disbelief at what they were witnessing, his expression becoming increasingly rigid with every passing second.
".....?!"
He too had experienced the strange spatial disturbance that accompanied their transit, the kind of disturbance that should never occur after the near-perfect state the gates had achieved under Intiras’s guidance and countless generations of refinement.
For a brief and unpleasant moment, he had even suspected that some conspiracy had been arranged to assassinate him through that very method, that the gate had been deliberately tampered with to send him to his death somewhere within the endless currents of distorted space.
But after the gate spat him out and he sensed what was happening around him, the blood in his veins seemed to freeze.
The Laws around and within that planet were extraordinarily disturbed.
Everything was operating outside its familiar natural order.
Even the general sensation of the world itself felt distorted in a way that was difficult to describe with words, as though an enormous number of opposing forces were being forcibly made to coexist within the same space despite having every reason to reject one another.
There was even a Law vortex overhead.
And that vortex was moving in a bizarre fashion, shifting back and forth, occasionally stopping altogether as though it were incapable of making a decision or uncertain of what it was supposed to do, before resuming its movement again with equal uncertainty.
He knew that vortex very well.
It was the breakthrough vortex of the Dominator Realm.
Yet this was the first time he had ever seen it behave in such an irrational manner, as though it had forgotten every rule governing its existence and every instinct that should have guided its movements.
And also...
A scale.
A serpent devouring its own tail.
A gear.
Three recognizable symbols belonging to three Master Laws.
Symbols that nobody possessing even the most basic knowledge could possibly mistake, much less someone of Glacion’s standing.
"By the heavens... what is happening here?" Glacion muttered.
The tremendous pressure weighing upon his soul did not prevent him from speaking, even though it felt as though entire mountain ranges had been piled atop his existence and were slowly sinking deeper with every breath.
"Tsk tsk... that person... always loves showing off..."
From behind Glacion came Holak’s voice, sounding as though he had finally understood part of what was unfolding before them and had reached a conclusion far simpler than the countless possibilities racing through Glacion’s mind.
"That person?" Glacion quickly turned around, immediately catching the wording. "Do you know what’s happening?"
Glacion noticed Serfon lying on the ground.
The man had suffered internal injuries from the gate incident and was continuously coughing up blood.
However, Glacion did not spare him another glance.
Serfon was already activating healing talismans and would be fine within a short period of time.
What truly mattered were those three symbols!
"I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but it’s definitely the Boss." Holak looked upward confidently. "Those symbols were hovering around him during his battle against the Space Beast Ancestor."
"Hovering around him? Isn’t Lord Robin a Truth Chosen? What is he doing with Balance, Causality, and Creation? Just what in the—"
Glacion suddenly stopped.
Then his eyes widened to their limits, as though his mind had been slow to process the final part of the sentence and only now managed to grasp it.
"Y-you said his battle against who?!"
"Hehe." Holak found an opportunity to laugh and refused to let it go. "Didn’t the Shadow Swords tell you what happened four months ago? Tsk tsk~ Looks like you’re such a low-level follower that informing you or not informing you wasn’t important."
Then he confidently began walking forward, passing Glacion as though he were taking an ordinary stroll rather than moving through a place crushed beneath such horrifying pressure.
"Now excuse me. You stay here and admire the Boss’s greatness, I have gotten used to it. I’m going to see what my mighty men are doing."
Holak could feel tremendous pressure weighing upon his existence.
Every step required genuine effort.
His muscles tightened.
His bones protested.
Even breathing required concentration.
Yet his irritation toward the scene before him was far stronger and pushed him onward with little difficulty.
They had emerged from a gate located on the edge of the battlefield.
A gate used for transporting maintenance personnel, corpse fragments, and waste generated by the fighting.
And what he saw before him was roughly twelve hundred Space Beasts standing motionless and frightened in a manner that was almost pitiful.
The enormous gate continued spewing out more beasts without interruption.
Every newcomer entered, became shocked by what it saw, and froze in place like a statue.
Then another beast behind it would shove it forward and enter as well, only to suffer the exact same shock.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
As a result, the area surrounding the gate had become an extremely crowded mass of confused bodies, tangled limbs, folded wings, tails, claws, and terrified eyes, while the numbers continued increasing without pause.
So many sheep standing there waiting to be slaughtered.
At the same time, he could see all of his subordinates standing silently and watching the spectacle just like everyone else, staring at what was happening without moving in the way he had come to expect from them after years of warfare.
Normally they would already be charging forward.
Normally they would already be carving through the enemy ranks.
Normally the battlefield would be covered in blood and screams.
Instead, they stood there staring upward like pilgrims witnessing a miracle.
How could he not be angry?!
"Hey..." Holak began lengthening his strides with force, his voice already carrying across the battlefield before he had even finished speaking. "Wade, Malik, Latania, Drake, Nancy!"
Then he started running at full speed while raising his voice until it echoed across the battlefield and bounced between mountains, cliffs, and formations alike.
"And the rest of you useless hatchlings of the Guard!!"
Then—
BOOOOM!
His legs smashed into the ground, producing a tremendous explosion that sent cracks spreading outward beneath his feet and blasted dust and fragments of stone into the air.
The sound became the only noise within hundreds of miles besides breathing and the faint whisper of the wind.
Even the beasts nearest the gate visibly flinched.
Immediately, the five squad leaders and even the rest of the Imperial Guards turned toward Holak.
He was descending from above toward the gate like a meteor.
The same pressure affecting them weighed upon him.
He suffered beneath the exact same burden.
Yet he moved freely and powerfully as though nothing had happened.
His movements were not graceful.
They were not elegant.
They were simply unstoppable.
Some of them immediately began standing and moving.
The passion and fire within their chests finally stirred at the sight.
Their commander was once again proving why he was the commander.
Why he remained at the front despite everything.
Why nobody had ever succeeded in taking his place.
BOOOOOOOOOOM
Holak landed beside the gate, where the battlefield was at its most crowded, and unleashed the strongest punch in his arsenal.
One of the giant beasts’ heads exploded instantly.
Then the terrifying force continued beyond it, piercing through the abdomen of another beast and tearing a tunnel straight through its massive body.
The momentum kept advancing until it struck the ground, releasing a shockwave that violently threw five additional beasts aside while the effects of the Merged Quake Law spread in every direction like an invisible storm, shattering bones, rupturing organs, and causing countless fractures throughout the tightly packed formation.
Only after landing did Holak stand there drenched in black blood, fragments of flesh scattered across his body and armor, and roar toward the Guards.
"Come help, you faggots, strengthen your hearts, or your next training period will be on the other side of that gate!!"
"Y-Yes, sir!!"
Their excitement and confidence disappeared instantly and were replaced by fear.
Every single one of them knew that Holak was fully capable of carrying out such a mad promise without hesitation or mercy.
They had all seen his training methods.
They had all heard stories.
Some had survived them personally.
Immediately, every Guard began moving toward the nearest Space Beast available, even if they had to crawl to reach it, as though they feared a future worse than the battlefield itself.
Their attacks were weak and disorganized.
Their techniques emerged hesitant and slow compared to their true level.
Their formations lacked precision.
Their timing was imperfect.
Yet it was enough.
The beasts remained trapped in shock.
They had neither moved nor fully processed what was happening around them.
Most were still staring toward the sky.
Others were staring toward the mountain.
Several seemed incapable of deciding where to look at all.
"...?!" Glacion was greatly astonished by the sight of Holak.
He knew perfectly well the magnitude of the pressure weighing upon him.
He understood how much strength was required merely to speak or move.
So how could someone in the Martial Emperor Realm behave like this and move with such absurd ease?!
And not only him...
The Guards moved and fought after only a little encouragement?
And furthermore...
Their sluggish movements and hesitant techniques had exposed what they normally used against the Space Beasts...
"Time, Space, Gravity... Is that the Fundamental Major Body Law? And that one... seems related to frequency waves?" Glacion’s eyes gradually widened with every new discovery.
Every passing moment revealed something new.
Every glance uncovered another secret.
Every exchange of attacks exposed abilities that should have belonged only to elites raised through immense investment.
That formation over there was capable of crushing the Endless Chaos Empire by themselves without requiring any assistance.
Holak had not been exaggerating when he said he would bring an army of Black Hornets!
If anything, Glacion now suspected that statement had been understated.
And also, before anything else...
Why were there so many Space Beasts here in the first place?
And why were the Black Hornets fighting them?!
The scale of the battlefield alone made no sense.
The quality of the combatants made even less sense.
Then he looked upward again toward the symbols for several moments.
The Scale.
The Ouroboros.
The Gear.
Their golden radiance still dominated the heavens.
Eventually, he lowered his gaze slightly toward the center beneath them.
Toward the peak of the mountain.
There, he could see a figure with shining golden eyes seated in dignified stillness amid all the surrounding chaos and upheaval.
Countless beasts were dying.
Thousands of soldiers were fighting.
Master Law symbols illuminated the sky.
And yet that figure appeared completely composed.
"Lord Robin Burton..." Glacion muttered quietly.
"What exactly are you hiding here?"
Then he turned around and grabbed Serfon by the back of his clothes.
"Come. It would be improper for me to meet Lord Robin for the first time alone."
"Urghhh..."