Chapter 2227: Non-existent wall
Outside the shell—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The explosion of the adult space beast crystal was catastrophic.
The crystal that normally remained stable and dormant even under attack, the crystal that was usually unimaginably enormous, closer in size to a small continent... that crystal became covered in inscriptions that forced reactions to occur, while other inscriptions corrupted the spacetime shell compressing it, allowing it to return to its true size moments before the detonation.
For a single instant, the surrounding void seemed to freeze.
Then everything collapsed into destruction.
"Argh!!" Althera, Blokan, and the others felt an overwhelming wave of explosive force slam into them from the front.
It struck them with horrifying pressure and unbelievable heat, enough to render the sun hovering above Robin meaningless, useless, devoid of light. The massive burning sphere that had dominated the battlefield moments ago was swallowed completely by the violent radiance of the explosion.
"Damn it!" The moment Arkalon realized the explosion might tear apart the humans belonging to the Master, the golden soul force vortex swiftly expanded around them protectively.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The massive waves of destruction collided against the vortex... and stopped. No, they vanished entirely.
It was not a clash of powers. The vortex was not carrying greater energy or anything similar, nor was it suppressing the explosion through brute force, yet it accomplished its task perfectly and beyond expectations... even Arkalon himself furrowed his brows in confusion.
But he quickly attributed it to the golden coating, that strange material covering the vortex... it was erasing the explosive force the instant contact occurred, as though the destructive energy itself had never existed.
The surrounding space beasts, however, were not nearly as fortunate.
The explosive wave struck Arkalon’s wall of corpses first and erased more than a quarter of it instantly, the bodies unable to endure before vanishing completely. Layers upon layers of dead space beasts disappeared in moments as though they had never existed.
Then the burning destructive wave surged outward, extinguishing the lives of tens of thousands of soul creatures!
Screeches, roars, and collapsing spiritual fluctuations filled the battlefield in an instant. Countless weaker soul creatures were incinerated before they even realized what had happened, while others lost limbs or exploded apart from the sheer force.
"This is bad!!" The Royal Soul Masters of the Burton Family rapidly retreated while placing several layers of protection around themselves. None of them even dared glance backward for a moment. Every instinct they possessed screamed at them to flee farther away from the center of the catastrophe.
But all those side events failed to enter the minds of two particular individuals...
"Eeeeegh!!" Tanoya was violently hurled away. Even she could not simply resist the pressure of an adult space beast’s explosion.
Her body spun uncontrollably through the void while waves of destructive heat repeatedly smashed against her armor and flesh. She only managed to stop herself after being thrown a distance comparable to that between a planet and one of its moons.
Then, almost immediately, she looked toward her elbow, staring at it with crazed eyes.
She had felt what happened from the very first moment of the explosion... but she refused to believe it.
Her soul senses and her body had already informed her of the truth, yet she could not comprehend it.
And even now... as she stared with both eyes, she still chose to deny what she saw.
...Half of her arm no longer existed.
The severed area was grotesque and incomplete, flesh and bone destroyed so violently that even her regeneration struggled to begin properly.
Yes, she had fought countless battles. She had been created for combat, slaughtered endlessly, shaped to become an executioner that harvested lives.
But she had never lost a limb.
Never even lost the nail of a finger.
Throughout her endless years of slaughter, no enemy had ever pushed her into such a state.
Yet now... before her own eyes, half her arm was gone.
Her eyes began trembling violently while her mouth slowly opened, unable to process reality. She repeatedly attempted to send signals to open and close her hand as usual, but there was no response.
There was no hand anymore!!
Tanoya became completely consumed by her severed arm and ruined joint, forgetting everything else around her.
Had she bothered inspecting herself, she would have discovered burns and wounds covering every part of her body. She would have realized that her energy reserves had dropped to a dangerously low level. She would have noticed the heavy bleeding pouring endlessly from her arm...
"You..."
But she seemed utterly unaware of all that. The only thing occupying her mind was what her comrades would say, and what the Transcendents would do when they saw her in such a state.
An executioner missing half an arm...
To her, that humiliation felt more terrifying than death itself.
"You... you cut off my arm?"
She continued repeating the words in a low voice while her remaining arm trembled uncontrollably.
Then she looked toward Robin and raised her voice, "You cut off my arm?!?"
She kept repeating the question with fury and confusion, as though her arm would somehow reattach itself if she shouted loudly enough.
But she suddenly fell silent after seeing the scene over there...
Robin, skin stretched over bones, his features barely visible beneath the weakness and the blood pouring endlessly from the holes across his face... Robin, who had a massive hole through the center of his stomach, large enough to reveal glimpses of ruined flesh and shattered organs within... was staring downward with dim eyes, steady and devoid of life.
His entire body looked as though it could collapse into dust at any moment.
"You..." Tanoya began approaching while holding the mace with her left hand. "Do you think you escaped punishment simply because you died?!" Then she slightly raised the mace and accelerated forward.
By now, she had begun feeling the internal injuries spreading throughout her body and the terrifying depletion of her energy reserves. Every movement sent waves of pain throughout her flesh, and the missing half of her arm continuously disrupted her balance and concentration.
Yet she continued advancing anyway, driven by fury rather than reason. "I won’t allow you to die... I won’t allow you to die!" Then she continued resentfully, her voice growing harsher with every word, "That corpse of yours, I won’t allow it to be devoured so easily. I’ll turn you into an eternal puppet, a puppet that lives in my service forever."
Then she spat with hatred, "Even though I despise the idea of seeing that miserable face every day, this is the perfect hell for and arrogant creature like you, Robin Burton!!"
Oooooomnnn—
"...?" Tanoya suddenly stopped.
At that moment, the green aura surrounding Robin began activating once more.
The enormous hole in his stomach healed rapidly and effortlessly.
Flesh crawled back together unnaturally fast, torn muscles reconnecting while destroyed organs regenerated beneath the glowing green radiance. The horrifying injury vanished as though it had never existed.
The wound had been placed in the perfect location, beneath the life artery and above the center where energy gathered. Robin had used spacetime and causality to ensure that outcome, allowing Greenland’s blessing to restore it without requiring much effort or time.
Within moments, his stomach healed, though it now resembled the Cosmic Elder’s own hollow abdomen, sunken inward until it nearly touched his spine.
Then—
Diiing
The scale tilted, and one crystal vanished.
All of Robin’s energy returned instantly.
Tanoya could feel overwhelming vitality and terrifying power surging through his body like an erupting ocean, even though his appearance barely changed. His soul force stabilized rapidly, and the faint dying fluctuations surrounding him vanished almost entirely.
Even after all that... Robin continued staring downward with nearly dead eyes.
"You’re still not dead..." Tanoya revealed a cruel smile, though a trace of stiffness had quietly appeared within it. "Good... fine... this is even better!" Then she raised her voice further. "I won’t take you as a corpse. You’ll come with me alive as a slave. I’ll make you wish for death every single day!!"
Diiiiing
"....?!" Tanoya froze again as the scale moved once more.
This time, three adult space beast crystals slowly rose before disappearing.
Three!!
Tanoya immediately prepared herself, expecting some massive attack aimed at her.
Her remaining arm tightened around the mace while her damaged body instinctively shifted into a defensive posture.
But what happened next was far stranger...
A faint golden rain descended above Robin’s head for several moments.
The droplets were small and quiet, carrying no terrifying pressure, no destructive aura, no overwhelming fluctuation of soul force.
Yet the moment Tanoya saw them, an indescribable unease crept into her chest.
Then, at last, Robin managed to raise an eyebrow and open his mouth with a weak voice.
"You’ll make me... a slave..."
His voice sounded exhausted beyond measure, as though every word required tremendous effort merely to exist.
Then he slowly lifted his head toward her.
"That is an... interesting idea... coming from something like you..."
Then his weak golden eyes fixed directly upon her.
They were dim.
Tired.
Half dead.
Yet the moment those eyes locked onto her, Tanoya felt her entire body tense instinctively.
"I have become weak... as you can see..."
And an extremely faint smile formed upon his face.
It was not mocking.
Not furious.
Not arrogant.
Yet for some reason, the moment that smile appeared, every instinct within Tanoya screamed danger.
"Come... make me your slave."
Whoosh
Tanoya leapt backward like a rabbit spotting a wolf the instant she saw that smile.
The movement was so sudden and violent that even she herself did not fully understand why she reacted that way.
Then she opened her eyes as wide as possible and stared at him, as though terrified of missing even the smallest detail.
Why?
He was dying.
Merely moving his head was a miracle.
He could barely even open his eyes properly...
So why...
Why am I terrified?!
