Lord of the Truth

Rinara didn't immediately realize she had just been insulted. Her mind took a moment to catch up, her thoughts stalling in sheer disbelief. Her eyes widened to their absolute limits, flashing with shock and confusion. Then she screamed, her voice cracking with disbelief,

"Robin Burton, what the he—?!"

But the rest of her words never made it past her throat.

They got stuck—trapped—choked by what her eyes had just witnessed.

Because before her, something extraordinary was happening. Something beyond comprehension.

Vrrrrrrrrroooooooom!!!

A deafening sound ripped through the air like the roar of a world tearing open.

Above Robin, a gargantuan silver gate had appeared, hovering with regal dominance in the sky. It was a perfect circle, impossibly vast, spanning dozens of meters in diameter. Its surface shimmered with ethereal light and runes that pulsed like a heartbeat. From within the arc of that gate poured out a force — no, a tide — of pure soul force. It surged and rippled through the atmosphere as though Robin were attempting to replace the very fabric of air itself with unfiltered soul force.

"No… This can't be real..." Rinara whispered, more to herself than anyone else. Her voice trembled.

Her knees nearly buckled.

It felt like the floodgates that had long held back the true essence of soul force in this world had been shattered in a single heartbeat. And now…

Now the torrent behind it had tasted freedom.

Far above, the woman in the black dress furrowed her brows deeply. A flicker of tension crossed her otherwise composed face.

She had fought Robin before — not his full form, but one of his soul shards. She knew he was powerful, that much was never in doubt. But back then, his shard had barely scraped past 60,000 units of power. She had measured it herself.

Yet what she was witnessing now…

What poured from the gate was far beyond that.

And the terrifying part?

He hadn't even formed a new shard yet.

"JURI!!"

Robin's voice cut through the sky like a blade, loud and resolute. It held no hesitation, no fear.

"I'm going to shatter the limits imposed on soul force in this world to push back against this external invasion! Aid me, if you choose… or attack me if you must! I will not stop!"

"Ahh—!"

Juri heard him. She heard every syllable echo in her bones.

But she had no time — and no strength — to respond. Her entire being was already strained, focused on maintaining the balance above. Even if she wanted to use the law against him… with what?

Her arsenal was already locked in a battle for the skies.

Baah. Baah.

One by one, every knee not yet humbled met the ground. Even those who stood moments ago, believing themselves immune to awe, now felt it.

The very sight of that silver gate, the shape of the unleashed force, the divine aura around Robin — it sent a cascade of conflicting emotions through every soul present. Fear. Reverence. Confusion. Hope.

This… this is the power... of the Emperor?

"Oh no, oh no, the lunatic is doing it again! He's really doing it again!!" Hulak stumbled backward in terror, his legs giving out beneath him as he landed flat on his rear. Sweat poured from his brow like rain. He couldn't even process what was happening. He had seen Robin act serious only once before — and now, the storm had returned.

None of Robin's children had ever seen their father at full power.

They had all been ordered away on the Day of the Dome, they saw nothing of his battle against Pythor and shat happened afterwards.

Only one brave Shadow Sword had managed to snap a hazy image of Robin's soul shard mid-battle, captured from hundreds of miles away. But the photo was useless — just a blur of energy and light. It couldn't capture the feeling. The pressure. The soul-crushing gravity of Robin's presence.

Hulak had felt it.

He had felt it once… and he was feeling it again now.

He had always known, deep down, that he was insignificant compared to Robin when the man was truly serious.

That's why he had kept his mouth shut when Robin scolded him in the cave. That's why he had never feared Rinara's soul shard. Because he could feel that even at its peak, it was weaker than Robin.

Richard. Caesar. Sakaar. Amon.

All of them, struggling under the invisible weight of that pressure, managed to lift their heads.

They stared upward at their Lord. Their Emperor.

He stood like an immovable mountain in a hurricane, his eyes locked in fierce focus, his body glowing with rising power.

And still…

He kept pouring out more.

Was this… the true power of Robin Burton?

Not far off, a girl dressed in black moved with trembling hands. Her fingers clawed into her spatial ring, pulling out a device.

She fumbled, dropped it, then scrambled to grab it again. Finally, she pointed it toward Robin.

The device activated — a light recorder — and the display began to capture the image of the man standing beneath that great silver gate.

That girl was Kiri.

And in that moment, her mind finally caught up.

She understood.

She understood now how this man had defeated Pythor!

One hundred thirty thousand soul units...

One hundred seventy thousand soul units...

Rinara stood there, breath caught in her chest, eyes stretched to their very limits as she watched the impossible unfold before her.

"Impossible..." she whispered, her voice shaky, barely audible.

She had already been utterly stunned when she assumed this backwater nobody had managed to gather more than 9,000 soul units — an amount that alone would take even a genius thousands of years of tireless cultivation and accumulation.

And now? This... this was on an entirely different scale, a level that shattered any expectations she had ever known.

Up above, the woman in the black dress narrowed her gleaming eyes, a flicker of surprise passing through them — but it was quickly replaced by something much colder.

Sharp. Final.

"...And what do you plan to do with all that soul force, Burton?" she said with venom.

"Intimidate me into running away?"

Her voice carried with it both astonishment and disdain, like she was challenging the very sky to deny her power.

"...You dared call me a whore again today, you disgusting little rat. That was the last straw. There's no more room for talk. You've just signed your own death warrant — along with the death of everyone in your miserable little home."

Rinara's trance broke. She snapped back to the moment like someone pulled from a dream with cold water. She shouted upward with desperation in her voice,

"Wait — I won't let this happen! There's still a way—"

"SILENCE!"

Robin's voice struck like thunder. His hand snapped sideways in a powerful motion.

In an instant, a massive portion of his overwhelming soul energy surged into motion, transforming into thick, serpentine chains that shot through the air with supernatural speed.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Rinara's eyes widened once again. "The Chainbreaker technique!"

She threw her hand forward, trying to muster every ounce of refined technique and combat knowledge she had. Even if her total soul force was far beneath Robin's, she possessed countless high-level techniques, honed and multiplied to push her limits. Surely they could hold off some of his force.

But...

KRAAAAAASSSHH!!

No technique, no strategy, no finesse — could stand against absolute, raw force.

Robin's chains smashed through every layer of her defense like divine spears, ripping past protective auras and layers of force like they were made of mist. They coiled around her body violently, heavy and unrelenting like vipers.

"Ahh!!"

Rinara screamed as the chains slammed her down into the ground like a sacrificial lamb bound for slaughter. She writhed against them, eyes wide with disbelief and outrage.

"You... You dare?! Do you even realize who I am?!" she yelled, her voice cracking.

Robin didn't even look directly at her. He cast her a cold, sidelong glance.

"That no longer matters," he said. "Who you are... what you represent... None of it matters now. I don't want to hear another word from you. Do I make myself clear?"

Then, his eyes lifted upward once more, fixing on the blackened sky above. "...So. I'm supposed to put my nose to the ground, huh? HA! Hahaha!"

The woman in the black cloak threw her head back in laughter, a laugh that echoed like a death knell across the broken sky.

"Still pretending to be strong, little rat? Trying to bluff your way out of this with empty theatrics? What can you possibly do against me? Even if you had a million silver soul units, you still wouldn't be able to lay a finger on a being who's reached the Nexus State!"

She dove down through the air like a falling star, gathering every ounce of her power.

"Return to the primordial chaos that birthed you!!"

CRAAAAAAACK!

The already-shattered sky of Planet Jura cracked further, groaning and caving in as if the heavens themselves could no longer bear the pressure. The celestial fabric tore and distorted.

All across the planet, the destructive ripples caused untold casualties. Cities crumbled. Mountains cracked. Oceans surged. The death toll could no longer be counted.

But even after unleashing the full brunt of her might...

The sky did not fully break.

Robin's sharp mind instantly calculated:

She would need four... maybe five more of those apocalyptic strikes to achieve whatever cataclysmic goal she had in mind.

Shooooo...

The massive silver portal floating above Robin finally closed — its purpose fulfilled.

It had poured out a staggering total of 220,000 soul units, perfectly measured.

Of those, 20,000 units were dedicated to maintaining Rinara's restraints.

With that done, Robin's golden eyes — glowing with an otherworldly intensity — locked straight onto the woman in the sky, looking not at her face, but deep into the core of her soul.

"I know," he said quietly, with absolute certainty.

"I can't defeat you by myself. Not with just 200,000 soul units. Not with my strength alone."

He clenched his fists.

"But I'm not fighting alone..."

The air thickened. Force began to spiral around him once more.

"...And neither my Silver Soul Units are ordinary!"

Clatter... Clatter...