Chapter 1502: Manifestation
*TSHHHH* *TSHHHH*
The blood of the spectral lion—or rather, the broken core of its entire reserve of soul units—burst outward in a violent tide that swept across Robin’s soul domain. Tens of thousands of soul units scattered like a storm of meteors, each drop burning black as it fell.
Grass was drowned, lakes boiled, and rivers turned to sludge as the darkness spread. The land itself groaned, half its vastness consumed in a tide of corruption. What had once been contained at ten percent had, in the span of a single heartbeat, expanded to engulf half of Robin’s soul domain.
"Oh no..." Evergreen’s voice trembled, her hands pressed hard against her mouth as if to hold in a scream. "This... this can’t be repaired..." Her knees shook as she watched the paradise around her drown in oily blackness.
Even Neri, her usual calm unshaken, widened her eyes until they gleamed with disbelief. The devastation before her was not a wound, but a mortal blow, greater than anything Robin’s soul domain had ever endured.
And as though fate itself was cruelly laughing—
*SHOOOOO*
A black orb, small but dense as a star, shot free from the lion’s mangled remains. It streaked through the air, its surface writhing like tar, moving with the speed of a curse set free.
"That’s—!" Neri’s voice broke into a scream, her finger stabbing at it. "Robin! Catch it! That’s the lion’s initial soul! Don’t let it corrupt the domain—seal it, seal it before—!"
*BAA* *BAA*
Before Robin could act, the orb was intercepted. A circle of drill-headed dragons surged from the walls of the domain itself, surrounding the black core and pinning it in place.
Then—
*BOOOOOOOOOOM!*
One lunged without hesitation, its spinning head drilling straight through. The orb cracked, splintered, then detonated in a spray of darkness.
"Noooo!!" Neri’s cry rang like a knife through the domain. The world trembled as memories, grudges, and malice burst outward. The lion’s hatred spread through the air like poisonous ash, infecting the very skies. /What is Robin thinking?! Has he abandoned his domain entirely?/
Her gaze snapped to the prisons. If even one of them broke now, if the negativity spilled in, then—
*BAAAAAAAAAAM!*
The drills crashed into the nearest prison. Its walls shattered instantly, bursting apart in fragments of soulsteel. Screams erupted as over a thousand specters spilled into the open.
"SHAAAAAKH\~!!"
The cries were a mix of triumph and terror. Some burst apart at once under the violence of the drills, their cores splintering before they could even breathe. Others scattered, laughing and shrieking, tasting freedom after endless captivity.
But it was a freedom measured in heartbeats.
*SHAA* *SHAA* *SHAA*
The drills lunged, precise and merciless. Each strike tore through a specter’s body; each follow-up shattered its black core. Essence spilled like rivers of oil, soaking the ground, feeding the corruption.
A thousand specters—slaughtered in less than a second.
".....!!!" Neri froze, her throat tight, words torn from her.
"Fall back!" Evergreen grabbed her shoulder and dragged her away as the floor itself darkened beneath their feet. The black was no longer simply ink; it was as if the sky had fallen, as though they stood on the edge of an endless abyss.
They could do nothing. None of them. All they could do was watch as the drills ripped through one prison after another, tearing down the domain’s heaven piece by piece.
---
Outside—
"SHAAAAAAAA—///"
A specter lunged, skeletal hand gleaming like a dagger, reaching for Robin’s neck to sever his head in a single stroke.
But then—
*HUUUUUUUM!*
A detonation of soul force thundered out of Robin’s body, a tide so violent it seemed the world cracked.
*BAAAAAAAAAAM!*
The blast flung every specter backward, crashing into one another like puppets cut from their strings. Even Specter King Arkalon himself was driven back several steps, forced to cross his arms, staff braced before him as he snarled. "...What?!"
When his gaze rose, his expression faltered. Robin was ablaze. His entire body leaked soul force—not merely leaked, but poured, flooded, overflowed. And this soul force was not the pure transparent energy it had always been. No, streaks of midnight black ran through it, heavy and thick, as if shadows themselves had been woven into light.
The energy did not stop. It shot skyward, a colossal pillar that tore the clouds apart. Transparent brilliance, shot through with veins of darkness, rising until the heavens themselves seemed split open.
Robin stood at the heart of it, his figure framed by that storm, like a sovereign stepping out of legend. His aura was no longer simply overwhelming—it was suffocating, a mountain of will crashing upon the battlefield.
"This... no..." Arkalon’s eyes widened, for the first time betraying fear. "...This power... more than a million soul units? That’s impossible—this should not exist within a Silver Soul!!"
Robin’s lips curved, a grimace and a smile all at once. Veins bulged along his arms, his chest, glowing faintly beneath his skin. His breath trembled with pain. "I suppose... I must thank my Elastic Soul Domain once again. It has saved me countless times... and now, today, it lets me go mad one last time." He coughed, dark blood at the corner of his lips. "But today... today I will test it to its limit. I will learn if it is strong enough... to keep me alive for even a little while longer."
Slowly, agonizingly, he opened his eyes.
*FLAAAAAAAAAAASH!*
Twin suns ignited within his sockets. The Eyes of Truth, at their full, one hundred percent, blazed into reality. The battlefield shifted. Night became day. Shadows screamed as they burned.
"But you..." Robin’s voice rolled like thunder, each word shaking the earth. "...you will not remain... to witness my life... or my death!"
The storm of energy compressed, folding inward, collapsing into itself like a star turning to a black hole. The torrent roared into his energy core—
*OOOOOOOOOOOM!*
The core blazed golden. Its glow filled his chest, light bursting from his skin.
From its heart, a filament of golden thread snaked outward, binding itself into his lifeline.
Robin’s lips twisted upward. "There... look. I’ve succeeded, It seems that my sacrifice didn’t go in vain this time."
"Succeeded... in what?" Arkalon whispered, torn between awe and fury. His instincts screamed, his centuries of wisdom failing him. His heart pounded. Something monumental had awakened.
"In this..." Robin hissed. His veins glowed gold, lines of fire beneath his flesh.
*WOOOOOOOOOSH!*
Around him, a golden cyclone spun to life. Three rivers—soul force, natural energy, and life itself—wove together in its current. The cyclone climbed skyward like a divine tower, piercing the heavens.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM!*
A shockwave spread across the land. Darkness was erased, light cascaded in floods. The ground beneath them glowed as if cast in molten glass.
And then, silence. The cyclone vanished.
Above, something else appeared.
Not a sun. Not a star.
An **Eye.**
Colossal. Golden. Radiant. Its gaze pierced every shadow, stripped every lie. It revealed. It judged.
The battlefield froze. Specters staggered back, trembling, their claws clattering. Some collapsed, their forms quivering as if before a god. Even Arkalon’s breath caught, his massive body rigid.
The Eye of Truth had descended—and all creation shuddered beneath its sight.