Chapter 2212: B-14
"...the terrifying space beast does not seem very terrifying in the end." Robin revealed a small smile, then his eyes slowly moved up and down, carefully examining the creature standing before him despite the crushing pressure assaulting his body from every direction.
What he saw was a nearly humanoid being... with a figure resembling that of a woman.
That female possessed skin as dark as the surrounding void itself, darkness so pure it almost seemed to absorb the nearby light. She had a nose, eyes, lips, and cheeks similar to humans, yet every feature was refined to an absurd degree, as though an artist had spent centuries sculpting a statue titled perfection.
Her ears were long and stretched backward elegantly, while her eyes were completely white without visible pupils, accompanied by white feather-like hair drifting weightlessly behind her as though underwater.
But all of that rested on one side of the scale, while a certain detail tipped the other side entirely and pulled all of Robin’s focus toward it...
That female was wearing armor.
Black armor covered in distinctive engravings that emitted faint silver glimmers under the light of the Eye of Truth, armor clearly forged rather than naturally grown. In her hand rested a metallic weapon that could not be identified as either a mace or a spear, its structure too strange and unfamiliar for Robin to classify properly. She also wore something upon her forehead, something resembling a headpiece of armor. That small piece extended downward along her cheeks while stretching upward past the limits of her head through five long protrusions.
That headpiece looked like... a crown?
Robin’s smile quickly vanished without a trace.
Why would a space beast wear human armor and place a crown upon its head?!
The feeling was wrong.
Deeply wrong.
This was no longer a mere beast wearing random equipment scavenged from corpses.
The armor fit her perfectly.
The weapon rested naturally in her hand.
The crown... looked symbolic.
"...Is this truly what an ancestral space beast looks like?" Althera muttered, her astonishment at the sight making her momentarily forget her fear entirely.
"It- no... she is undoubtedly an ancestral space beast." Blokan noticed the trembling of the surrounding beasts, especially the adult ones whose instincts clearly recognized the creature before them.
Then he narrowed his eyes and began noticing what Robin had noticed as well... the creature’s clothing!
A strange unease slowly crawled through his mind.
Space beasts were savage monsters.
They devoured.
They slaughtered.
They evolved.
But armor?
Crowns?
"Beast," Robin slightly raised his head despite the blood still dripping from the corner of his lips, "since you seem fond of our human appearance and have taken it for yourself, why not consider this a good chance for introductions, hm?" He continued with a faint smile, "We exchange names, perhaps a few stories, then each side goes on its way."
His tone sounded casual, almost playful.
Yet everyone behind him understood what he was truly doing.
Buying time.
Testing reactions.
Gathering information.
Then his expression gradually darkened.
"But if you still seek slaughter... that is acceptable as well. I may die today, but you will lose much in return, and once you enter the universe, you will eventually find someone capable of finishing you off completely."
The ancestral space beast stared at Robin silently after those words, her expression remaining almost completely frozen.
After Robin’s words, sound returned to the void once more, and everyone fell into tense silence and anticipation, whether beasts or humans alike.
Even the surrounding space beasts stopped moving entirely.
The battlefield itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then after nearly ten seconds, the mouth of the female space beast opened ever so slightly, the first visible change to her frozen expression, before Robin heard a soft voice echo directly inside his mind.
"...The strength of humanity... to what extent has it reached within Universe B-14?"
"...?!?!?!?!?!"
Robin’s pupils contracted violently.
"The crack in the shell... was shocking enough... but now..." the voice continued echoing through Robin’s mind, smooth and strangely calm despite the horrifying pressure hidden beneath it, "...someone using the Master Truth Law at this level? What exactly is happening inside B-14?"
"......!?!?!?!?!?"
From the reactions of Althera, Blokan, Morgana, and Asir, it was obvious they could hear every single word as well.
Shock filled their faces completely.
Universe B-14?
Crack in the shell?
And more importantly...
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Robin’s expression darkened immediately.
"Such a waste." The soft voice continued with unmistakable pity, her tone calm in a way that made the surrounding void feel colder. "You appeared far too early. B-14 would have had a far better chance if you had remained alive... or perhaps I should say, you became intoxicated by yourself too early by piercing the shell. You should have used your talent to understand what was best for you... to understand that the proper time had not yet arrived, as you yourself said earlier."
"What exactly is this? What is with that tone?" Robin took a step back instinctively, his brows twisting violently as countless thoughts collided inside his mind. Then he raised his voice sharply, "Are you a beast or a fuckin’ warden?!"
Then he stepped forward again despite the pain tearing through his body and shouted even louder, his voice echoing throughout the void itself.
"What is B-14? What is this proper time? Why are you speaking like this when you’re nothing more than a damned beast?!"
Then he pointed directly at her, golden pressure surging around him.
"Why are creatures like you surrounding the universe?"
"...."
The female beast slightly raised her head, her white eyes still carrying that same pitying gaze toward Robin, a gaze that did not contain hatred, arrogance, or even anger.
Only disappointment.
"Such a waste. A promising candidate like you is so narrow-minded and short-sighted." Then she slowly pointed her pointed mace toward him. "Do not misunderstand. We are not required to speak with shell piercers. We are only required to kill you and punish the universe you pierced, but I answer you now out of pity for the state of a promising candidate."
"Punish the universe...?!"
Robin’s mind fell into complete chaos.
Candidate?
Where had he heard that term before?
His thoughts rapidly searched through countless memories, ancient records, hidden conversations, fragments of information he had gathered over the years, yet nothing fully connected.
But one thing became clear immediately.
This creature... knew far more than it should.
Far more than him!!!
"Yes," the female beast nodded gently, her voice still terrifyingly soft despite the horrifying meaning behind her words. "A universe that produces a shell piercer is considered to be advancing faster than it should, and that is dangerous to the settings. Therefore, the shell piercer is eliminated and the universe is punished and pushed several million years backward."
Then she tilted her head slightly.
"That may happen through the destruction of random planets... the destruction of major powers... cutting space and dividing the universe into isolated sectors... and there are several other more extreme options as well."
Gulp
Robin’s eyes opened to their limit.
Wasn’t this exactly what the ancestral space beast that Athena fought before had done?
The sectors.
The barriers.
The isolated regions.
The destruction.
"You... want to do all of this to the universe... simply because I broke through the Wall of World’s End?" Robin asked hesitantly, his voice lower this time, almost disbelieving.
"No." The female beast shook her head slowly. "Normally, the universe is judged according to the strength of the shell piercer. Sometimes only one punishment is applied, and sometimes more than one..."
Then she stared directly into Robin’s eyes.
"In your case, I will apply everything mentioned before. In addition, I will narrow the sectors to isolate every solar system from the others. I will initiate the starvation principle by severing your energy supply lines from the center of the universe for one million years. I will increase the percentage of the Law of Chaos across all planets, and I will begin random Law Tribunals."
The moment those words were spoken, the expressions of Althera, Blokan, Morgana, and Asir completely froze.
Even the surrounding beasts fell strangely silent.
The punishment she described was not simple destruction.
It was systematic collapse.
A slow cosmic execution.
"Why the hell would you do all of this?!" Robin shouted in horror, veins bulging along his neck. "And why do you even possess the authority to do something like that in the first place?!"
For a very long time, Robin had been deeply unsettled by the fact that the ancestor of the space beasts had been the one to divide the universe into a thousand equal sectors, while the Cosmic Elder, who had managed to kill the space beast itself, had still been unable to undo that division.
Athena and Sivar had not attempted it either.
Meaning the feat was either unimaginably difficult... or outright impossible.
In truth, merely thinking about the scale of influence involved made its impossibility obvious.
The space beast had not merely erected barriers between the sectors.
It had rewritten the structure of an entire universe.
It had erased life from ninety percent of the universe and compressed those dead regions into gigantic buffer zones separating the surviving sectors from one another.
Meaning the punishment had never truly been simple separation.
The true punishment was narrowing the living space itself and killing ninety percent of the universe’s population.
Entire civilizations.
Entire galaxies.
Entire bloodlines.
All erased simply because one person had become "too strong too early."
All of that... simply because it had witnessed Athena’s strength?!
