Chapter 2400: Demons’ power

"...Finding other universes and subjugating them, of course." Robin revealed a ruthless smile, one that made the meaning behind his words feel even heavier.

".....?!" Sakar swallowed hard as he stared at Robin.

The King of Kings of the demons, someone whose strength had already reached the level of the ancient plagues that had nearly destroyed the entire universe back in the Abyss of Desolation, a mere Crimson Plague who had risen until his strength rivaled that of a Blue Plague and had even surpassed some of them in sheer power...

And yet, despite everything he had become and all the power he now possessed, at this very moment he genuinely felt terrified of Robin.

"I realize this is a huge request." Robin raised both hands slightly, acknowledging the sheer scale of what he had just proposed. "But there’s no one else who can accomplish something like this except your kind."

"..." Sakar clenched both fists tightly as countless thoughts ran through his mind. "Has anyone ever attempted something like this before? Perhaps you heard something related to it but didn’t include it in the soul fragment you gave us?"

"No, no one has ever tried." Robin shook his head without hesitation. "And I’m certain of that because the Seer specifically told the Executioner to go and search for individuals who had escaped from Rank-Thousand universes. If there were someone out there establishing an entire buffer zone around their own universe, something of that scale would be impossible to overlook, and he undoubtedly would have mentioned it."

"And we’re supposed to do something that no one has ever done before?!" Sakar raised his voice slightly, unable to keep the disbelief from entering his tone.

"Exciting, isn’t it?" Robin chuckled at his reaction, seemingly finding the idea far more appealing than frightening. "Haha, only things that have never been done before are capable of bringing true glory!"

"My Lord!!" Sakar took a step forward, clearly unable to simply accept such words without objection.

"I told you, I know this is a huge request." Robin gestured for him to stop where he was before he could continue. "We can’t even occupy a single sector completely with everything inside it, so how are we supposed to surround an entire universe? ...Isn’t that exactly what you were about to say?" Then, placing both hands behind his back, he calmly added, "I want you to answer that question yourself."

"....?!" Sakar was stunned by the response and stared at Robin in disbelief. "You want me to answer for myself how we’re supposed to blockade an entire universe, while also searching for other universes?"

"Heh~" Robin smiled faintly, then stepped forward and patted Sakar on the shoulder before walking past him and heading toward the gate. "Come back to the other side. Unlike you, this place isn’t particularly comfortable for me to remain in."

HummHumm

"Listen, Sakar," Robin spoke as he walked toward a relatively safe spot among the severed limbs constantly falling around them and the blood splattering across the surroundings. "Put aside your insatiable hunger for blood and your ability to acquire the Reapers’ traits with relative ease... What other major strength does your kind possess?"

"...." Sakar remained silent and thought about the question for a few moments before giving the answer that immediately came to mind. "Reproduction."

"Correct." Robin nodded approvingly. "Until this very moment, you’ve been deliberately suppressing the reproductive rate of all the demon nests under our control, and despite maintaining those restrictions all this time... how many of you are there now?"

"A little over two billion demons in Young Sector 101 alone, and there are roughly five billion more demons across Young Sectors 100 and 99." Sakar replied quickly, clearly familiar with those numbers.

"Seven billion demons, and that’s while enforcing strict birth-control policies to keep your population from growing freely." Robin nodded slowly. "Throw those policies aside completely. Push your reproductive capabilities to their absolute limit and allow the nests to reproduce without those restrictions. Those seven billion could become seventy billion within a single year, correct?"

"Correct, if we want to preserve the health of the newborns..." Sakar lowered his gaze toward the ground as he answered.

Ten births per year was extremely easy for them. They could produce far more offspring than that if they truly pushed themselves, but limiting it to ten within a single year would be good for both the mother and the cubs, allowing them to maintain their health throughout the process.

"The cubs reach adulthood within a single year, right? That means that after just one additional year, we’ll have seventy billion of them reproducing and multiplying until they become seven hundred billion." Robin laughed loudly, clearly amused by the sheer scale of the numbers he was casually throwing around. "Within a century, wouldn’t we have more than enough to completely encircle the universe’s shell? And within a millennium, wouldn’t we have enough soldiers to establish advanced defensive bases throughout the surrounding region?"

"...." Sakar remained silent for a moment before slowly nodding. "There’s a reason even the ancients never dared to unleash reproduction to this extent."

"Food? You already have the solution in the blood of the Space Beasts. From what I’ve heard, their blood kills a large number of those who try to drink it anyway, and today we already have an enormous stockpile of the blood and flesh of those creatures, while you’ll naturally provide even more yourselves in the future as you expand... And as for human blood, wars never stop. You can also establish a number of unofficial nests throughout the Young Sectors so they can continue supplying and funding you independently without relying entirely on us. The problems are practically solved."

"..." Sakar didn’t know what to say or how he was supposed to respond to something of this scale.

Only a few minutes ago, he had been feeling marginalized and wronged, believing that his kind had once again been pushed aside despite everything they had accomplished, yet now he suddenly felt as though an unimaginably immense responsibility had been placed directly before him, one so enormous that he wasn’t even certain he could properly shoulder it.

"...Sakar." Robin spoke in a serious tone as he looked directly at him. "Your ancestors have always been a source of fear for the universe, something its inhabitants dreaded whenever their name was mentioned. It’s time for you to become a source of safety instead, to become the universe’s first shield... Don’t you want the demons, your own kind, to finally hold such a position?"

Then he winked at him and continued, "...Once everyone recognizes you, at the right time, as the protectors of the universe, after they become accustomed to seeing you as the ones standing between them and the dangers outside... who would still be able to stop you from moving freely throughout the Young and Mid sectors however you please?"

Sakar remained silent for a long while before finally nodding. "...We’ve never followed an order of yours without eventually finding good in it, no matter how strange it seemed at first." Then his expression turned serious as he spoke firmly, "What you said will be done."

"That’s the Sakar I know." Robin spread his arms and laughed loudly, visibly pleased with the answer.

Then, Whoosh, Robin reached into his storage and pulled out the Executioner’s hand once again, bringing that ominous black limb back into the open.

His eyes immediately began flashing with golden light, and without taking his gaze off the arm, he raised his other hand and pointed toward it.

Fwoooo The arm slowly rose into the air under his control, and beside it appeared the symbol of Creation and the symbol of Primordial Chaos, both rotating calmly around it as Robin continued focusing.

Then, Shooo, more droplets of blood began emerging from the arm one after another, slowly being pulled out and gathering beneath it.

"...?!" Sakar’s nose immediately started going wild again the moment those droplets appeared, reacting almost uncontrollably to their presence, so he quickly shut it off before the overwhelming sensation could affect him again.

But his spiritual sense didn’t deprive him of the pleasure of witnessing the scene as he watched those droplets being slowly drawn from the arm and floating beneath it, gathering one after another. Even the Grade-Seven space of the Mid Sector seemed as though it could barely support this strange blood!

After nearly a full minute, Robin finally extended his hand and returned the arm to its place, then pulled all the floating blood droplets toward one another and merged them together into a single enormous drop roughly the size of a fist before slowly pushing it toward Sakar.

"...!" Sakar cautiously stretched his hand forward to receive it, but at the same time planted one foot firmly behind himself to brace his body, as even before touching it he could already sense the tremendous weight contained within that sphere of blood.

"...?" Yet the moment it reached him, he was shocked to discover that it simply remained floating above his palm as well, surrounded by a faint golden glow that prevented its terrifying weight from pressing down upon him.

"No spatial ring can hold it, but I’ve secured it so that it’ll remain easy for you to carry and move around with for one year." Robin placed his hands behind his back as he looked at the massive drop. "This amount is a hundred times what you consumed earlier. Drink as much of it as your body can handle, and summon Amon, Malgra, and the rest of the kings as well. Give each of them a few drops and let them absorb what they can... The coming period won’t be easy for any of you."

Then Robin released a long sigh and turned his gaze toward his glass house at the top of the mountain, clearly preparing to leave everything that followed in Sakar’s hands. "...I’ll rely on you for the rest."