Chapter 2537

2537 - The Dividing Line

Theo forgot that he had intended to leave, and stood there looking toward the ground with complicated expressions...

At first, Robin told them to prepare for Nihari's upgrade a thousand years after the coronation. No one knew how he intended to achieve the Breakthrough or how he intended to protect Nihari after its upgrade, but they took his words as sacred orders and began working to accomplish the matter.

Then later, after they began establishing the Cradle and the Grave, forging alliances, and laying the foundations of power for the coronation, Robin asked to accelerate the pace again so that the appointed time would be 850 years after the coronation, due to the Syndicate's dominance and the fear that it would storm the safe zone around the Nihari Galaxy and discover its treasures.

As for today, after Robin no longer cared about the Syndicate, but rather fought it openly, the final 850-year deadline no longer had any value. Everyone knew that, but they hoped Robin would postpone the upgrade so that it would be a thousand years after the coronation as it had been before, not make it faster!

"Is there a problem?" Robin asked.

"No... no, never." Theo replied calmly. "On the contrary, I'm extremely excited that my restraints will be lifted, and all the upper ranks in the empire think the same way, but..." Theo fell silent, then began to nod, "We'll speed up the pace. Zara, Emily, and the rest just need to tone down their idealistic dreams a little."

"...?" Robin raised an eyebrow. "Alright, now let's not say foolish things. Who said I don't want an ideal celebration? This is my glorious coronation. I'm the only person who has ascended an entire galaxy from the young belt, and it must be a grand event that everyone is invited to, with my coronation held across all the lands conquered in my name!"

"Then don't rush us!" Theo raised his voice slightly.

"I'm saying there's no deadline anymore, that's all." Robin raised both hands in surrender, "Neither the year 850 poses a threat... nor has even the year 1000 become a final limit. All days are the same now."

Robin felt proud as he said this sentence... The All-Seeing God's shard that was supposed to drag him to hell if he failed no longer existed at all!

"The picture is clear now..." Theo nodded, "We'll prepare everything that gives you the desired scene without waiting to reach maximum perfection, good?"

"Good!" Robin nodded.

Then he grabbed the sword's sheath from his thigh and tossed it calmly toward Theo, "Give this to Hedrick, my sword needs a good sword."

"....!!" Theo caught the sword, but he took a step back automatically, for the sword's misty aura was menacing, deadly, and suffocating.

"Don't worry, the sword will be polite to you until it reaches Hedrick, and it will be polite to him during the feeding process as well." Robin stared at the sword, "Right?"

Znnn— the sword vibrated and began to emit calm patterns through its misty aura, and it seemed as though it were nodding its head in agreement.

Pleased by the reaction, Robin smiled toward Theo, "I fed it some transcendent momentum, something it seemed to be longing for, and I believe that in Hedrick's hand it will display greater power than it showed with Marlik, because my momentum flows through Hedrick's body..." Then he scratched his head, "Just tell Hedrick that this sword's sheath is with Marlik, so he can retrieve it from him himself."

"...." Theo felt a sense of calm when he found the sword acting with enthusiasm!

Then he turned to Robin. "Why don't you keep it for yourself? You don't have a good weapon, I know you prefer spears, but nothing we've bought or found suits an event you're fighting in."

"Tsk tsk~" Robin shook his head. "If it's not a spear I can use with the precise strikes of the law of truth, then find me a cleaver or a spear—that suits my style better..."

Then he reached out and took a cold drink from the table. "Speaking of weapons..." He set the cup back down calmly. "What's the news on the relics?"

Knowing this question was extremely thorny, Robin stared into Theo's eyes with a mix of seriousness and hesitation.

"We haven't made much progress." Theo let his left hand, still gripping the scabbard, rest beside his body, and stared at Robin's face gravely. "We haven't found anything you're willing to pay for."

"...." Robin nodded and fell silent.

The matter of the relics and what they contained had been left forgotten for a long time due to the accelerating pace of events—until the planet spirit of Ghost Valley Planet finally emerged and requested to meet Morgana. There, it told her that there was a treasure buried within it, that they must take care of it and extract it, that it was an important planet, etc.~

This reopened their eyes to the relics. After a brief investigation with the planet spirit about what had been happening previously, Theo discovered that the tower was absorbing soul imprints—that was its food and its demand.

Blood, corpses, and slaughter—none of it is necessary for the tower; it only wants soul imprints, many of them. But of course, there is no way to obtain soul imprints except by killing directly atop the tower, and that is what the Syndicate was doing with the slaves.

According to the planet spirit, they had killed nearly 130 million humans and half-humans, and based on the relic's condition, at least a similar number of soul imprints would be needed before the relic could be opened and its contents taken.

Robin refused to do it.

So Theo brought in a Monarch to destroy the relic entirely, but he could not... and when he asked a Behemoth to try, he was told that he had tried in the past and that it was impossible—relics cannot be destroyed.

As for the history books, there are proofs of planets that had relics and then exploded, while the relics remained floating in space, completely intact, until they were towed and made to fall like meteors onto other planets as if nothing had happened.

Even the Stepped Pyramid on the Orphan Blood Planet was confirmed to be a relic requiring the collection of pieces from the energy levels of the people killed on it, and its condition stated that over the course of the cycle it had collected 21 million pieces, and still required about four times that number.

There was another relic that Zargul was feeding, requiring a unique drop from each life artery. This relic had 310 million dead found in it, and still needed only about 17 million more to open... It was clear that Zargul had been working on it seriously.

And another one with Darvion required a unique piece from the soul domain, and it had been fed with 410 million victims... This was the closest to completion.

This applied to all the relics they had found so far, dozens of them, for all of them required the sacrifice of countless humans in an indirect manner.

And all of them... Robin had rejected.