2229 - Reaction
Seconds earlier—
"Haha, more reinforcements are coming, haha!!" Asr raised his voice with a loud laugh as he saw more and more Royal Spirit Masters rushing through the gate.
So far, the number had reached seventy, and it was still increasing.
There were major star academies that didn't even have a single one, and Althera herself had been resorting to tricks and secret meetings to secure the services of a Royal Spirit Master, even partially without full allegiance, and she kept failing.
But here, seventy had appeared within minutes.
This alone demonstrated the power that Lord Robin had built and established, and showed the extent of his followers' readiness.
At the decisive moment, the forces would flock without hesitation, without delay, and without questions.
By Blokan's orders, the Royal Spirit Masters ignored the Nascent Space Beasts, leaving them to Arkalon, and also ignored the Adult Space Beasts, leaving them to Morgana, Asr, Althera, and Blokan himself.
They focused all their power entirely on targeting the Young Space Beasts.
Every ten Royal Spirit Masters gathered on a Young Space Beast, taking advantage of it being under the effect of the Spirit Freezing Array and the Eternal Anvil Array, killing it or causing it a chronic disability, then moving on to the next.
The massive ongoing battlefield had evolved over approximately twenty-five minutes to reach this state, featuring defensive and offensive coordination at the highest level.
A coordination that made it possible to confront an entire nest without losses… In fact, they were the victorious side!
"Don't slack off!!" Blokan raised his voice when he sensed that some fighters were beginning to rejoice at the direction the battle was taking.
Then he noticed that some of the Royal Spirit Masters were already showing signs of severe fatigue.
He turned toward the center of the battlefield and shouted:
"Brother Arkalon, help us get the exhausted ones to the shelter Lord Robin created for rest, otherwise they'll be forced to leave!"
"Alright!" Arkalon laughed happily because a mid-level dominator had called him brother, then began opening a gap within the wall of corpses and coordinating with the Father Tree to create a safe path.
"Excellent!" Blokan nodded, then
Bam
He neutralized an attack from one of the Adult Space Beasts.
Afterward, he noticed something and pointed toward Morgana.
"Lady Morgana, you're overdoing it too much; you need to conserve your energy for as long as possible until more reinforcements arrive. I want you to—"
Da-dooooom
Blokan suddenly fell silent.
He had sensed a great danger approaching from a certain direction.
When he turned toward her, he found the Executioner looking at him with a disquieting smile.
Hmm.
Blokan's body began to glow. He had cast Energy Division out the window and used his full power to activate the Fundamental Reflection Law, placing himself in an optimal combat state within a fraction of a second.
He was terrified.
But he would fight.
Fortunately, the Executioner averted her gaze from him and turned toward Althera.
Whoosh.
Althera didn't even look back. The moment she felt the gaze, she dashed in the opposite direction without a second thought, the Law of Repetition forming mirages behind her while her sword hummed like a bell struck by a mountain hammer.
The Executioner looked away from her and turned toward Morgana's back.
Whoosh.
The spirit dwelling within Morgana revealed itself instantly, without permission or coordination, and stared at the Executioner as an equal with hostile eyes.
Morgana herself didn't understand what was happening.
She didn't even know she was facing life or death.
She just kept directing her spirit creatures.
The Executioner, still speaking with Robin Burton, averted her gaze from Morgana and her strange spirit, then her eyes fell on the last human nearby.
"Aah, what are you all doing?!" Asr raised his voice and his hands together. "Why did you suddenly abandon your positions?!"
He shouted at Althera and Blokan in anguish.
Their movement caused the remaining ten space beasts to attack fiercely and simultaneously, with no further division of roles.
He could have left them to the oblivious Arkalon, who had entirely delegated their responsibility to the four to handle…
Or he could intervene himself and try to fend off the attacks of all ten at once.
He chose the second option.
“Aaaah!!!” Asr screamed as he compressed the space around the mouths of six beasts at the same time. “I can’t… I can’t hold them back any longer… My Mistress Althera… Lord Blokan… any he—”
*Bish*
“Huh?”
Asr’s field of vision suddenly shifted.
Instead of the giant beasts…
And instead of his hands stretched out before him…
He found himself directly in front of Lord Robin, exchanging glances with him.
And he felt pain…
Pain in his hair, as if someone was yanking it violently.
Asr tried to raise his hand to see what was wrong, but he couldn’t feel his hand at all.
He tried to look down to understand why he couldn’t feel his body… but he couldn’t move his eyes.
Why can’t he breathe?
And what… is this terrible feeling?
His thoughts began to slow.
All he could see was Lord Robin staring directly into his eyes as the world gradually darkened before his sight.
He felt his Soul Domain collapsing.
He saw shock, pain, regret… and even a hint of cruelty within Lord Robin's eyes.
Why?
Why is he looking at me like that?!
The last thing Asr saw, as his eyes rolled upward for the final time, was the gleam of the Huge Golden Eye hovering on the horizon.
Then the world fell silent.
The pain vanished.
Thought ceased.
"Haha, farewell!" The Executioner grabbed Asr's severed head and disappeared into the folds of the Void.
"Asr!!" Althera finally reacted, with a thunderous scream and an expression of disbelief… but she did not move.
"…!!" Blokan retreated in terror and panic. He had seen everything but was unable to move to stop it.
That terrifying power…
If she had attacked him, he would have lasted at most one or two seconds!
As for Robin Burton, he continued staring in the direction the Executioner had left, his eyes half-open and his mouth trembling with rage and helplessness.
Then—
"Pfft…"
Robin Burton spat out the remaining blood in his chest, then his head fell forward as he fainted.
*Huum*
The Huge Eye of Truth and the Four Symbols dissipated, and all the star manifestations vanished.
And worst of all…
Arkalon felt the Gate he had come through shrinking, and he panicked.
"Oh, my dear!" He quickly tossed a seal toward Morgana. "Good luck!"
Then he jumped inside The Gate quickly before it disappeared.