2274 - Hatred of the Master Law
"What is happening here?!" Sevar gritted his teeth in anger and confusion.
What he was seeing now should not belong to a human, nor to any living creature.
Even germs have a thread of fate!
There is only one thing that possesses this kind of scene... having many destinies tied to and influenced by it, yet it has no future, desires nothing, and is affected by nothing.
These are idols, the objects of pagan worship.
Huge numbers of people place their hopes, build their futures, and make their decisions based on entities embodied in idols, yet the idols themselves are powerless, desire nothing, are affected by nothing, and have no future or past.
In that case, an embodiment like the one he sees appears—an embodiment without an owner, tied to the hopes and souls of many people, yet it itself has no future.
Users of causality, curses, and the Dark Path in general exploit this kind of false embodiment for sacrifices and gaining power.
But... is Robin Burton merely an idol?
Impossible!
That man has a family, a history, an empire, and children. He has a complete life and friends, including the Cosmic Elder himself!
How could it be that he possesses the same fate as an inanimate object?!
"The All-Knowing God..." Sevar's eyes began to bleed after he used all those major techniques on a powerful manifestation like Robin's Manifestation. "Do you want to get rid of me this badly? What did I do to you... for all of this?!"
*Pfft*
Then he spat out blood mixed with pieces of flesh, and fell to one knee again.
Planet Donara — Present Time
"..."
Robin looked in a certain direction, with expressions of annoyance and clear murderous intent on his face.
But he didn't seem injured in any way.
"Is there something, Lord Robin?" Glacion found the opportunity to open his mouth again.
For a few minutes, Robin was busy browsing the panel and paid him no attention, then suddenly turned in that direction for some reason.
"Well... I think we're both injured now." Robin turned back to look at the panel, chuckling. "I bet he didn't expect this, hehe."
"Who are you talking about, Lord Robin, if I may ask?" Glacion asked again. "Who would you care about being injured or not with your current power?"
"Several people," Robin replied calmly. "Including Sevar, of course."
"...?" That was the first time Glacion had heard that person's name explicitly. "Is he the one who..?"
"Mm." Robin nodded. "He tried to kill me by cutting the Thread of Fate." Then he laughed. "Perhaps my breakthroughs in understanding the Laws raised the threat level I posed in his eyes, so he wanted to get rid of me and end the matter."
"...?!"
Glacion recoiled a step in fear.
The Archon moved personally?
And failed?!
"H-How?" Glacion muttered. "How?!"
"How am I not dead?" Robin looked at Glacion with a wide smile. "Because I'm already dead."
"...?!" Glacion furrowed his brows tightly.
"Ohhh, great one, great one..."
The shout from the side drew Robin's attention to Pitso and the person beside him. He turned to them, raising an eyebrow. "How long are you two going to stay like this? The pressure's gone and it's over. Go make me something hot."
"Right away!!" Pitso jumped up the moment he received the order.
As for the person beside him, he stood up with some embarrassment and began dusting off his clothes.
"...Harper?" Robin recognized him. "Do you have a report or something?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." The Shadow Sword bowed. "I can say it whenever you wish."
"Oh... wait a bit, then, until your spirit settles." Robin waved twice. "Go help Pitso."
"Yes!" Harper moved quickly.
As for Robin, he turned back to look at Glacion. "Oh, what was I saying?"
"...You are dead." Glacion forced a smile onto his face.
"Ah, yes, yes..." Robin gently set down the board and leaned back in his simple chair. "Several centuries ago, when the All-seeing God first appeared to me, he said something strange... He said someone like me should not exist."
"....?" Glacion trembled. Even someone like the All-seeing God—was it now permissible to speak of him so freely?!
"At first, I thought he was referring to me becoming a Truth Chosen. For me, I didn't even know there was such a thing as the Path of Truth or the Chosen back then, and I was very proud... But afterward, I went to Nihari and Greenland and fought the Great Serpent Empire, and I realized that being a Truth Chosen was never anything impressive."
"....."
"But the All-seeing God clarified it later..." Robin laughed. "I tampered heavily with what are called the Threads of Fate back then, hehe."
"...?"
"As someone from a Nascent Planet with a combat age of barely thirty thousand years, I became a true Truth Chosen. A person who sought the Path itself and was not granted the Eye of Truth as a reward like most of the Chosen—that alone was enough to tear apart all my future Threads of Fate."
".....?"
"...Add to that the fact that I reached the Truth through the widest of doors—the discovery of the Fundamental Death Law, the Absolute Truth that all creatures will experience no matter how long time passes... This was also a factor. Tracking the Threads of Fate of those who use the Major Death Law is foolishness. How can you trace the future steps of someone who controls death itself?"
"...........?!"
"...And the cherry on top was that I literally tasted death. The original Threads of Fate reached their end just before the moment of my revelation of the Truth and the Path of Death. My discovery of the Major Death Law and the Master Truth came after that, and this makes my discoveries something outside of fate.
And this is what earned me the ability, the Truth Omen, which alerts me to things that haven't happened yet without costing me anything. And this is what earned me an extraordinary familiarity with Causality. That Law does not love me—I have no doubt about that—but it doesn't know how to deal with me. I am considered a loophole within it!"
"...........?!?"
Robin shrugged. "I'm just saying that trying to cut my Threads of Fate, or tamper with my future, is foolishness and a pathetic attempt. In the end... someone like me shouldn't exist. Hehe... hehehehe."