Chapter 2229: Reaction
Seconds earlier—
"Haha, more reinforcements are coming, haha!!" Asir raised his voice with a thunderous laugh as he watched more and more Royal Soul Masters surge through the gate like a living tide.
The number had already reached seventy, and it was still increasing at a frightening pace.
There were major Stellar Academies that did not possess even a single Royal Soul Master under their banner. Even Althera herself had once resorted to endless schemes, covert negotiations, and secret meetings just to secure the temporary services of one Royal Soul Master, not even full allegiance but merely partial cooperation, and despite all of that... she still failed.
Yet here, seventy had appeared within mere minutes.
That fact alone displayed the terrifying foundation Lord Robin had built from nothingness, and revealed the unimaginable readiness of his followers.
At the decisive moment, his forces would flood into battle without hesitation, without delay, and without questions.
They simply came.
By Blokan’s orders, the Royal Soul Masters completely ignored the nascent space beasts, leaving them for Arkalon to handle, while the adult space beasts were entrusted to Morgana, Asir, Althera, and Blokan himself.
Instead, all Royal Soul Masters concentrated their full power upon the young space beasts.
Every group of ten Royal Soul Masters united against a single young space beast, exploiting the fact that the creatures were trapped beneath the effects of the Soul Freezing Array and the Eternal Mourning Array. Their attacks descended in perfect coordination, either killing the beasts outright or inflicting devastating permanent injuries before swiftly moving on to the next target.
The massive battlefield had evolved over the course of nearly twenty-five minutes into its current form, a battlefield where defensive and offensive coordination had reached an astonishing level.
An unbelievable coordination that made it possible to confront an entire nest without suffering losses...
In fact, they were the side gaining victory.
"Do not slack off!!" Blokan roared after sensing that some fighters had already begun celebrating the direction the battle was taking.
His eyes quickly swept across the battlefield again, only to notice signs of severe exhaustion appearing on several Royal Soul Masters already.
Sweat poured from their bodies, breathing became heavier, and the fluctuations of their soul force had started destabilizing.
So he immediately turned toward the middle of the battlefield and shouted:
"Brother Arkalon, help us transport the exhausted ones toward the sanctuary Lord Robin created for resting, otherwise they’ll be forced to withdraw from battle!"
"Understood!" Arkalon laughed loudly, visibly delighted that a Mid Dominator had addressed him as brother.
Then he immediately began tearing open a path through the enormous wall of corpses while simultaneously coordinating with the Tree Father to create a safe passageway through the battlefield.
Roots emerged from beneath the shattered land while gigantic branches twisted together overhead, forming something resembling a living corridor amidst the carnage.
"Excellent!" Blokan nodded with satisfaction, then BAM! smashed aside an attack launched by one of the adult space beasts.
But immediately afterward, he noticed something strange.
His expression froze.
Then he suddenly pointed toward Morgana.
"Lady Morgana, you are overexerting yourself far too much. You must divide your energy over the longest possible period until more reinforcements arrive. I want you to—"
DA-DOOOOM
Blokan abruptly stopped speaking.
An overwhelming danger had suddenly descended upon the battlefield from a specific direction.
And the instant he turned toward it, he found the Executioner staring directly at him with an unsettling smile.
HOOOOOM
Blokan’s body immediately began glowing brilliantly.
He threw all concepts of conserving energy out the window and unleashed his full strength without hesitation, activating the Fundamental Reflection Law and forcing himself into peak combat condition within a fraction of a second.
He was terrified.
Terrified to the point his instincts were screaming at him to flee.
But even so...
He would fight.
And he wouldn’t fall that easly.
Fortunately, the Executioner eventually shifted her gaze away from him and turned toward Althera instead.
WOOOSH
Althera did not even bother looking back. The moment she sensed that gaze locking onto her, she immediately shot toward another direction without hesitation. The Repetition Law formed countless mirages behind her while her sword emitted a violent metallic hum, like an enormous bell struck by a mountain-sized hammer.
The Executioner merely watched her for a brief second before losing interest and turning toward Morgana’s back instead.
HWOOOSH
The specter residing inside Morgana instantly manifested itself without permission, warning, or coordination.
It appeared almost instinctively.
Its hostile eyes locked onto the Executioner directly, meeting her gaze head-on like a true equal.
Morgana herself did not understand what was happening.
She did not even realize she had already stepped into a life-or-death confrontation.
She simply continued directing her soul creatures as if nothing unusual had occurred.
The Executioner, who had still been casually conversing with Robin Burton moments ago, slowly shifted her gaze away from Morgana and her strange specter...
Then her eyes landed upon the last remaining human nearby.
"Aaah, what are you all doing?!" Asir shouted loudly while raising both hands in disbelief. "Why did you suddenly abandon your positions?!"
His cry was filled with genuine grief as he shouted toward Althera and Blokan.
The moment both of them moved, the remaining ten space beasts immediately launched a simultaneous assault with overwhelming force, and the battlefield’s role distribution collapsed entirely.
No more careful coordination.
No more controlled exchanges.
Only chaos remained.
Asir could choose to leave the situation to the oblivious Arkalon, who had completely entrusted responsibility for those monsters to the four of them...
Or personally intervene and attempt to block the attacks of all ten space beasts simultaneously.
A choice any sane person would hesitate before making.
Yet Asir did not hesitate even for a single breath.
He chose the second option.
BOOOOM
The space around him exploded apart as he unleashed his soul force to the limit.
His bow appeared in his grasp once more while countless glowing arrows condensed around him, each one trembling violently from the sheer amount of compressed energy packed inside it.
Then the ten monstrous figures descended upon him together.
"AAAAAH!!!" Asir screamed at the top of his lungs while desperately compressing time around the mouths of six space beasts simultaneously. Veins bulged across his forehead while blood leaked from the corners of his eyes under the terrifying pressure. "I can’t... I can’t hold them back any longer... Lady Althera... Lord Blokan... any hel—"
BSH
"Eh...?"
Asir’s vision suddenly changed.
One moment he had been staring into the jaws of gigantic monsters rushing toward him from every direction...
The next moment—
Everything vanished.
The beasts disappeared.
The battlefield disappeared.
Even his own outstretched hands disappeared.
Instead, he suddenly found himself standing directly before Lord Robin, exchanging gazes with him from an unbelievably close distance.
And then...
Pain.
An indescribable pain exploded through him.
Not across his chest.
Not through his soul domain.
But from his hair itself, as though someone were violently yanking his head upward with brutal force.
Asir instinctively tried raising a hand to see what was happening to him.
But...
He could not feel his hand.
His expression slowly froze.
He attempted to look downward to understand why he could no longer sense his body at all...
Yet even his eyes refused to move.
Why?
Why could he no longer breathe?
Why did everything suddenly feel so cold?
And what...
What was this terrifying sensation creeping over him?
His thoughts began slowing.
Not gradually.
Rapidly.
As though his consciousness itself were drowning beneath black water.
The only thing remaining within his fading vision was Lord Robin staring directly into his eyes while darkness slowly swallowed the world around them.
And during those final moments...
Asir could feel it.
He could feel his soul domain collapsing.
Cracking apart.
Dying.
Inside Lord Robin’s eyes, he saw countless emotions colliding together violently.
Shock.
Pain.
Regret.
Helplessness.
And something else as well...
Something cruel.
Why?
Why was Lord Robin looking at him like that?!
The answer never came.
Because the final thing Asir saw, as his eyes rolled upward one last time, was the enormous golden eye hovering above the battlefield like a divine sun.
Silent.
Cold.
Watching everything.
Then...
The world became quiet.
The pain disappeared.
The fear disappeared.
Thought itself disappeared.
"Haha, farewell!" the Savage Executioner laughed cheerfully while holding Asir’s severed head by the hair, his expression still frozen in confusion and fading disbelief.
Then her figure dissolved into the folds of the void and vanished completely.
"ASIR!!"
Althera finally reacted.
Her scream exploded across the battlefield like thunder while disbelief flooded her beautiful features.
For a moment, her entire mind became blank.
Asir...
Dead?
That cheerful fool who had followed her for tens of thousands of years...
Gone?
Yet despite the scream tearing from her throat...
She did not move.
Because fear had already rooted itself inside her instincts.
"...!!"
Blokan staggered backward in horror, his pupils violently trembling.
He had seen everything.
Every movement.
Every fluctuation.
Yet his body had completely failed to react in time.
That horrifying power...
That monstrous speed...
If the Executioner had targeted him instead, he would have survived for one or two seconds at most before sharing the exact same fate!!
As for Robin Burton...
He remained completely silent.
His half-open eyes continued staring toward the direction where the Executioner had disappeared, while his lips trembled violently with fury, helplessness, and suffocating rage.
His fingers twitched.
His body attempted to move.
But it no longer possessed the strength.
Then—
"Pffft..."
Robin Burton suddenly coughed out a massive mouthful of blood.
Dark crimson blood spilled from between his lips and drenched the front of his clothes before his body finally lost all remaining support.
His head dropped forward.
And he collapsed unconscious.
HOOOOOM
The gigantic Eye of Truth hovering above the battlefield began fading apart.
The four divine symbols surrounding it shattered into countless streams of light before disappearing one after another.
Meanwhile, every stellar manifestation illuminating the battlefield also crumbled away completely.
The heavens themselves seemed to dim.
And worst of all...
Arkalon suddenly sensed the gate he had emerged from beginning to shrink rapidly.
His expression changed instantly.
Panic exploded across his face.
"Ohhh dear!" he shouted in alarm while hurriedly throwing a seal toward Morgana. "Good luck!"
The surrounding roots immediately began retreating while the wall of corpses lost coordination.
Then Arkalon himself leapt toward the gate at full speed without the slightest hesitation.
A single second later—
VWOOOSH
The soul gate vanished completely.
