One More Week Later — Planet Donara
"....."
Enjoying the profound silence that seemed to seep into the very marrow of his bones and wash through every corner of his mind without obstruction, Robin lifted his head toward the vast sky above, his eyes closed and his features calm, untouched by any expression or emotional fluctuation, as though he had become a natural part of the world around him.
Then, after an unknown amount of time that could have been minutes or hours for all an observer knew, he slowly lowered his head. Extending the hand that held a high-level epic pen recently brought to him by the Shadow Swords after considerable effort, he began drawing something upon a sheet of white Treant bark laid neatly across the table before him.
His grip on the pen was flawless, steady and precise to a degree that seemed practiced over countless years. Although his arm was still somewhat thin after only a month had passed since his awakening, with traces of his recent weakness still visible beneath his sleeve, his fingers held the pen so firmly that their tips had turned pale, and every line he produced seemed like a cosmic truth that could not be challenged, altered, or denied once it had been written into existence.
Very slowly, Robin continued drawing, his movements measured and deliberate, never hurried and never pausing unnecessarily, as though every stroke had already existed somewhere within his mind long before the pen ever touched the bark.
After many long hours passed beneath the shifting light of the day, some distant outlines finally began to emerge from the seemingly random collection of lines.
It was not an especially complicated drawing, not like the golden Truth patterns that blinded those who gazed upon them and overwhelmed weaker minds with impossible information, nor like the difficult-to-comprehend Balance patterns that changed every time one looked from a different angle, presenting entirely new meanings and relationships depending on the observer's perspective.
It was something that resembled overlapping circles...
More specifically, five irregular circles, one of them noticeably larger than the other four and occupying the central position of the drawing in a way that naturally drew the eye toward it.
Each circle contained a number of strange yet visible inscriptions, symbols that appeared ancient and meaningful despite their unfamiliarity. Every circle intersected with the others in a different way, creating an intricate web of connections and relationships, and at every intersection there was an incredibly tiny symbol, almost impossible to notice without careful examination, appearing as though it belonged to both circles at once while simultaneously possessing an identity entirely its own.
Bzzzt
At that moment, an instant spatial gate opened not far from Robin with a brief fluctuation of spatial energy, and a familiar Shadow Sword stepped out from within the distortion before the portal quietly collapsed behind him.
It was Harper, the Shadow Sword who had dealt with Robin during his stay at Dawnlight Stellar Academy and who had remained one of the more familiar faces among the organization even after so much time had passed.
With a slight sweep of his distant senses, Harper noticed Robin sitting at his usual table in front of his glass house, his right hand resting steadily upon the board without the slightest tremor.
He also noticed Pitsu sitting some distance away, watching His Majesty with eyes opened as wide as possible for some reason while maintaining an unusual degree of stillness...
There seemed to be nothing unusual at first glance, nor any visible disturbance in the surrounding area that would explain such behavior.
Thus, Harper advanced with steady steps until he entered Robin's line of sight, then knelt respectfully and lowered his head.
"I greet Your Majesty. His Highness Theo and the other numbered swords are occupied carrying out Your Majesty's orders across several different locations, so I was assigned the task of delivering the news as a familiar face. I ask that Your Majesty grant me this precious opportunity and hear me out."
"..."
The response took a very long time, so long that Harper gradually became aware of the wind passing through the nearby trees and the faint sounds of distant life elsewhere upon the mountain.
"...?" Harper raised his head only slightly and lifted his eyes, wondering whether His Majesty was looking at him with anger, disdain, a smile, or perhaps simply ignoring him while occupied with something more important...
Yet he found that Robin was still staring at the board. His right hand held the pen motionless above it without moving even a fraction of an inch, and his expression displayed an extraordinarily high level of concentration, as though his thoughts had traveled somewhere far beyond the physical world before him.
And his eyes...
His eyes radiated an intensely brilliant golden light, brighter than any Harper remembered seeing before, as though each contained a planet overflowing with treasures, endless mysteries, and immeasurable knowledge. The golden radiance seemed to flow endlessly within them like vast rivers of information, as though he could see both the past and the future simultaneously while observing countless hidden connections that ordinary beings could never perceive.
Those eyes...
Poof
"Emmm!!"
Harper suddenly felt someone clamp a hand over both his mouth and eyes before dragging him backward with a force from which he could not escape no matter how he instinctively tried to resist, his feet barely maintaining contact with the ground as he was pulled away.
Only after reaching the edge of the cliff did he feel the grip loosen. He immediately spun around aggressively, his energy stirring instinctively as he glared toward the culprit.
"What the hell are you doing, Lord Pitsu?!"
Of course, Harper quickly understood part of what was happening as soon as he recognized who had grabbed him.
Pitsu was a Nexus State, and it was said that he had recently advanced into the Mid Nexus State after following His Majesty for some time and receiving opportunities that ordinary cultivators could only dream of. He was undoubtedly an object of envy among countless people, whether they admitted it openly or not.
"Shh!!"
Pitsu placed a hand over his mouth again, then pointed toward Robin and spoke in an extremely low voice, as though even slightly raising his volume might disturb something important.
"In that state... no talking... just meditate in silence... and wait..."
"...?" Harper turned back toward Robin, his confusion only growing as he tried once more to determine what exactly was happening.
"Meditate what exactly?"
His Majesty's eyes were mesmerizing, capable of drawing one's very soul toward them as though they concealed endless depths that could never be fully explored, and the serious, handsome features on his face were enough to make even the hearts of men beat with confidence, admiration, and an instinctive sense of trust, but not to the point of contemplation and complete spiritual immersion to such an absurd degree that someone would willingly sit motionless for an entire day simply watching him breathe and move a pen.
"Hm?" Harper finally noticed something after staring for several more moments. "His hand is moving?!"
"Yes..." Pitsu nodded without taking his eyes off Robin for even a fraction of a second, as though doing so would cost him an irreplaceable opportunity. "He's been drawing for hours. He doesn't normally draw by hand, and when he does, it never takes this long, nor does he focus like this. Usually, whatever he wishes to create is finished quickly, as though the answer already exists in his mind before he begins... something is going to happen."
"What is going to happen?" Harper asked in confusion, glancing between Robin and the unfinished drawing while trying to understand what Pitsu had seen that he had somehow missed.
"Tch!" Pitsu shoved Harper away with obvious annoyance. "Go away and come back tomorrow if you intend to keep chattering. Some things aren't meant to be interrupted every few seconds by pointless questions."
"Fine, fine, I'll watch and stay quiet!" Harper straightened his clothes, brushed the dust from his sleeves, and sat cross-legged beside Pitsu, deciding that remaining here cost him nothing while leaving might cause him to miss something important. Thus, he settled down and observed as well.
He didn't know exactly what he was watching, nor could he identify anything special within the incomprehensible collection of circles and symbols being slowly formed beneath Robin's pen.
Nor did he know exactly what he was waiting for, or even whether there was truly something worth waiting for in the first place.
But remaining here on the mountaintop beside Lord Robin was certainly better than going outside, where those things existed, where death wandered openly across the battlefield and where even experienced Imperial Guards could vanish between one breath and the next!!
An entire day passed—
"....." Harper began yawning repeatedly, stretching his jaw so often that it started to ache.
His Majesty was still moving at the same slow pace, working on a drawing that looked as though it would never reach completion no matter how long one waited. The pen continued to move little by little across the white Treant bark, adding tiny details so gradually that Harper sometimes questioned whether any progress was being made at all.
Whenever Harper glanced to the side, he saw Pitsu staring at the scene with eyes stretched wide open and breath held in his chest. He would take a single inhale every couple of minutes, then release it several minutes later, afraid that even the sound of breathing too loudly might disturb His Majesty. His eyes had become red because he was terrified of blinking and missing something important, and the muscles around them occasionally twitched from strain, yet he stubbornly continued enduring the discomfort without complaint.
The sight was so strange that Harper tried several times to wave his hand in front of Bitsu's face, convinced that the man had fallen asleep with his eyes open and was merely pretending to be profound, but every single attempt earned him a strike to the back of the head powerful enough to leave him rubbing the sore spot for several minutes afterward, so eventually he stopped trying and accepted that Pitsu had somehow become serious beyond reason.
Feeling a crushing level of boredom that even cultivation could not completely suppress, Harper turned his head away and began watching the battle against the Space Beasts, hoping that endless slaughter would somehow prove more entertaining than observing a man draw circles for a full day.
Around the mountain, a horrific battlefield still raged without pause or sign of exhaustion. Nearly a thousand Space Beasts fought against roughly ten thousand Imperial Guards in a terrifyingly bloody spectacle, with explosions, roars, flashes of laws, and collapsing bodies constantly appearing across every visible section of the battlefield.
The sky above them still trembled and twisted into massive vortices formed by colliding energies and unstable spatial currents, while the ground had been churned into a muddy paste by endless quantities of blood, flesh, shattered armor, and pulverized stone. The sea itself had transformed into a substance that resembled falsehood made tangible, its waters stained and distorted by so much power that it no longer looked like a natural body of water.
The smell of the battlefield was unbearable, thick with blood, death, and burning flesh. Its aura was impossible to withstand for ordinary cultivators, its dangers beyond calculation, and its very existence something that felt unforgivable to witness for too long without losing a part of one's sanity.
It was a true hell, a hell where the finest warriors of the universe were forged through suffering, desperation, and bloodshed, where weaknesses were burned away and survivors emerged stronger than before, and where they also perished just as easily when luck finally abandoned them. Only yesterday, three newly recruited guards had been killed after surviving countless earlier engagements.
As for today, according to appearances, it seemed that—
Ooooooommmmn—
".....!!!"
Harper felt an aura erupt behind him, an aura so immense that it seemed as though the heavens themselves had suddenly collapsed onto his chest. His heartbeat faltered for an instant, his thoughts froze, and every instinct in his body screamed at him to turn around immediately.
Although he was still facing the battlefield, he could already see the golden light of that thing reflected across the world around him. The radiance covered the entire mountain, swallowed the shadows between the trees and rocks, and then descended farther, illuminating the battlefield below like a second sun that had risen directly from the earth.
Slowly and fearfully, Harper began turning around to see what was happening. During that motion, he noticed Pitsu staring straight ahead in terror, his lips trembling and his eyes wet with longing, emotion, and a reverence so intense that it bordered on worship.
Then Harper continued turning his head with great difficulty, like an infant struggling against the grip of an adult holding him firmly by the neck, until at last he saw it with his own eyes and understood why Pitsu had been waiting so desperately all this time...
There was a gigantic golden scale.