Chapter 2374

2374 - Weeping Over the Ruins

"Is that the Lady Althera?!" Glacion's heart pounded rapidly.

The drawing on the seal was extremely crude, just a rough outline of basic features, but it was undoubtedly Althera!

"Indeed." Robin nodded, then gestured with his other hand toward that particular seal, "That's not just a drawing—it's a manifestation of her spiritual imprint. Through it, I can sense Althera's location and a hint of her emotions. I can kill her, and I can erase the imprint whenever I wish, returning her to being an ordinary girl without the Golden Support."

Then he began rubbing his chin slowly, "What's strange about this seal is that I don't feel it has weakened at all after being linked to Althera. I only feel that it has become heavy—I can't do anything about it..."

"Do anything about it how?" Glacion asked in confusion.

"Look, for example." Robin extended his hand and grabbed one of the other Ten Seals.

*Huum*

The seal, which was made of some kind of material, began to materialize until it took on a solid form, looking like a golden coin the size of a palm.

"This...?" Glacion's eyes opened wide.

"Ugh." Robin quickly released the golden coin and let it return to its original form as a light hovering above his hand, "Tsk tsk~ That was a terrible feeling, as if a piece of me had left my body..."

"Those things can take a physical form?!" Glacion exclaimed.

"Yes." Robin nodded, "Nine of them I sense are free and can be manifested, but the one belonging to Althera has lost that property entirely."

"Well, that doesn't seem too bad," Glacion waved gently, "Turning them into a physical form hurts you anyway."

"You're right about that." Robin shrugged, "I don't know what use their physical form serves, but I don't intend to use it anytime soon. The feeling of instant weakness I get doesn't bode well."

Then he slowly turned his face toward a certain direction, "What saddens me are the eighth and ninth seals."

"..?" Glacion also set his eyes on them. Each one was half the size of the rest, with no images of a person or anything like that on them—they were just small.

Then suddenly his eyes flew wide open, "Lord Hedrick and Lady Renara?!"

"Yes." Robin nodded, "There's no other explanation. These two aren't just smaller in size—their effect on cell development has also been halved, and likewise, their capacity for absorbing golden momentum has dropped!"

Then he shook his head, "Unfortunately, I felt a weakening after Renara's promotion, and another weakening after Hedrick's promotion, and now I find these two dwarfed seals before me, making it hard to consider any other possibility... lifting the limits on a person makes me lose half a seal."

"Golden Momentum?!" Glacion nearly wept.

The sheer amount of information striking him every moment had reached a terrifying level.

"It's a name I gave it; I don't truly know what it is." Robin gestured toward the seals with his head, "Golden Momentum is what makes that seal glow while this one is dim... From what I've observed, the momentum refills at a steady pace. I don't know where it comes from, nor do I know a way to speed up the process, but I do know one thing."

Robin continued after a brief pause, "If at the beginning I could hold 10 units of Golden Momentum within the Ten Seals, now I can hold 8 full units, and the two dwarves together equal one seal, bringing the total to only nine."

Then he sighed, "Meaning the amount of Golden Momentum in my body has dropped from 10 units to 9, making me 10% weaker because of Renara and Hedrick!"

"...." Glacion opened his mouth into a perfect circle, then quickly asked: "My Lord, why do you say you've become weaker when you don't yet know what Golden Momentum truly is?"

"I'll show you, and tell me whether I've grown weaker or not." Robin gestured with his free hand beside him, "The midday sun is starting to beat down on us—shall we enjoy some shade?"

*Hmm*

From the folds of the earth, a sprout began to emerge, then unfolded until it grew into a tree large enough to shade the two of them without blocking the view of the horizon.

"..." Glacion began to look around in awe. The very spot they were sitting on had been crushed by Hedrick's breakthrough, and it was impossible for anything like this to grow there before thousands of years had passed—there wasn't enough life in the soil to sprout anything.

Then he heard something. "Now look at the first Seal."

"...?!" Glacion turned quickly, and immediately understood. "The Seal has dimmed by a noticeable amount?!"

"And I haven't felt the slightest fatigue." Robin shrugged. "You know? Before that day, before I obtained the Seals, any simple use of a Master Law would weaken me noticeably, let alone drain my foundations and life force. Sometimes I'd find myself feeling an inexplicable exhaustion for years afterward. I felt like an ant trying to carry a dragon, forcing myself to do what I had no strength for."

Then he sighed, "Even in a fight against the Executioner, at that time I had already begun to sense the connections between the Laws, and my use of the Master Laws was measured. I used Balance to restore my strength and reinforce my existence as a human, to the point that I only used three Adult Space Beast cores to be able to speak with the Executioner and threaten her near the end, even though my body was blazing with energy and vitality... After all that, I fell into a coma for months."

"So it's fair to say that using those Master Laws is not something humans can wield as they please, no matter how strong they are. There are always limits, no matter how clever you try to be..." Then he turned to the Seals, "As for these... they store Golden Momentum that makes using the Master Laws as effortless as breathing. They draw the pressure onto themselves, not the body. As long as the Seals glow and the Golden Momentum exists, I won't feel fatigue or problems using the Master Laws... At the same time, the Ten Seals are transforming my body itself from within, slowly upgrading the cells."

Then he narrowed his eyes slightly, "...Although it's still too early for this, I feel that I've unintentionally set foot on the path of advancement beyond human limits because of these Seals? The Seals of which I've lost 10% without even knowing!"

*Gulp*