Lord of the Truth

"...Is that Lady Althera?!" Glatheon’s heart suddenly began pounding, his breathing unconsciously quickening as his eyes remained fixed upon the altered seal.

The image engraved upon the seal was extremely primitive, little more than the rough outline of a few essential facial features without any fine details whatsoever, yet there wasn’t the slightest doubt in his mind...

It was Althera.

"Mhm." Robin gave a calm nod before pointing with his other hand toward that particular seal. "That isn’t merely a drawing. It’s a manifestation of her soul imprint. Through it, I can sense Althera’s location and even perceive fragments of her emotions from time to time. I can kill her whenever I wish, and I can erase the imprint whenever I choose as well, returning her to being an ordinary girl without the golden honor."

He slowly began rubbing his chin in thought.

"The strange thing about this seal is that it doesn’t feel weaker after becoming linked to Althera. Not even slightly. The only difference is that it has become... heavy. I can’t seem to do anything with it anymore, almost as though it has rooted itself somewhere beyond my control."

"What do you mean by do anything with it?" Glatheon asked, unable to fully understand what Robin was implying.

"Look." Robin reached out and grasped one of the remaining seals.

Hummm...

The seal, which had previously existed only as a construct of golden light, gradually condensed layer by layer until it took on an entirely solid form.

It resembled a golden coin roughly the size of a human palm, its intricate patterns remaining perfectly intact despite becoming tangible.

"That...?" Glatheon’s eyes widened to their absolute limit.

"Ugh..." Robin immediately released the golden coin, allowing it to dissolve back into its original state as a floating construct of golden light above his palm. "Tsk, tsk... that felt absolutely terrible. It was as though a piece of my own body had suddenly separated itself from me."

"Those things can actually take physical form?!" Glatheon exclaimed, completely caught off guard by what he had just witnessed.

"Mhm." Robin nodded. "Nine of them feel completely free, as though I can materialize them whenever I choose. But the one connected to Althera has completely lost that ability. No matter what I try, it refuses to leave its current state."

"Well... that doesn’t sound all that terrible." Glatheon gently waved his hand after thinking for a moment. "Materializing them hurts you anyway."

"You’re right about that." Robin shrugged. "I still don’t know what practical purpose their physical form serves, and I have no intention of experimenting with it again anytime soon. The overwhelming sensation of weakness I experienced the instant I materialized one... doesn’t suggest anything good."

He then slowly turned his face toward another pair of seals, the expression on his face gradually becoming more serious.

"What truly concerns me... are the eighth and ninth seals."

"...?"

Glatheon instinctively shifted his gaze toward them as well.

Each was only half the size of the others.

There were no portraits upon them.

No unusual markings.

Nothing except the unmistakable fact that they were noticeably smaller.

Then, all at once, his eyes flew wide open as realization struck him.

"Lord Hedrick... and Lady Renara?!"

"Mhm." Robin nodded. "I can’t think of any other explanation. Not only are those two seals only half the normal size, but their effect on my cellular transformation has also been reduced by half. Likewise, the amount of golden momentum each of them can contain has fallen by half as well."

He slowly shook his head.

"Unfortunately, I distinctly felt myself becoming weaker after promoting Renara... then I experienced another wave of weakness after promoting Hedrick. And now I find these two diminished seals before me." His gaze never left them. "It’s becoming increasingly difficult to convince myself that there’s any other possible explanation... removing someone’s limits costs me half of one seal."

"Golden momentum...?!" Glatheon looked as though he were on the verge of tears, the appearance of those two diminished seals already leaving him deeply unsettled, only for Robin to casually introduce yet another completely unfamiliar concept before he had even managed to process the previous one.

The sheer volume of information striking Glatheon with every passing moment had already reached a terrifying level, each new revelation overturning everything he believed he understood about Master Laws, breakthroughs, and Robin himself before he even had the chance to digest the previous one.

"I simply gave it that name. I don’t actually know what it truly is." Robin tilted his head toward the floating seals as though he were observing a phenomenon alongside Glatheon rather than explaining something he completely understood. "Golden momentum is what determines why one seal shines brilliantly while another appears dim. From everything I’ve observed so far, that momentum gradually replenishes itself at a perfectly steady rate. I have no idea where it comes from, nor have I discovered any method to accelerate or interfere with the process... but there is one thing I know with complete certainty."

Robin paused briefly, organizing his thoughts before continuing.

"If, in the beginning, I could store the equivalent of ten units of golden momentum across all ten seals, now I can only hold eight full units. Those two miniature seals together are only equal to one normal seal, bringing the total effective capacity down to nine."

He let out a quiet sigh.

"In other words, the total amount of golden momentum inside my body has dropped from ten units to nine. Renara and Hedrick alone have permanently reduced my strength by ten percent."

"...."

Glatheon’s mouth slowly fell open as his thoughts became increasingly tangled before he hurriedly asked,

"Master... why are you so certain you’ve become weaker when you still don’t actually know what golden momentum truly is? Isn’t it possible that you’re misunderstanding its purpose entirely?"

"I’ll show you." Robin replied calmly. "Then you can decide for yourself whether I’ve become weaker or not." He gestured casually with his free hand toward the open field beside them. "The midday sun has begun beating down on us... shall we enjoy a little shade?"

Hummm...

From deep beneath the fractured earth, a tiny sprout slowly emerged.

It continued growing before their eyes.

Its stem thickened.

Its branches stretched outward.

Fresh leaves unfolded one after another until a great tree stood before them, broad enough to cast cool shade over both of them while still leaving the distant horizon completely unobstructed.

"..."

Glatheon instinctively looked around in astonishment.

This very location had been utterly devastated by Hedrick’s breakthrough.

The land itself had been crushed beyond recognition.

The vitality within the soil had nearly vanished.

Under normal circumstances, something like this couldn’t possibly have grown here for thousands of years. There simply wasn’t enough remaining life within the earth to support even the smallest seed, much less a fully grown tree appearing within moments.

Then Robin’s voice quietly interrupted his thoughts.

"Now... look at the first seal."

"...?!"

Glatheon immediately turned back toward the floating seals.

The answer became obvious almost instantly.

"The first seal... it’s noticeably dimmer than before?!"

"And I didn’t experience the slightest bit of fatigue." Robin shrugged. "You know... before that day, before obtaining these seals, even the simplest use of a Master Law would weaken me considerably. It wasn’t merely a matter of consuming my foundations or my life force. Sometimes I’d find myself suffering from an inexplicable exhaustion that lasted for years. It always felt as though I were an ant trying to lift a dragon... forcing myself to accomplish something completely beyond my natural limits."

He slowly exhaled.

"Even during my battle against the Executioner, I had already begun sensing the hidden connections between the Master Laws, and my use of them had become far more refined than before. I even relied upon Balance to restore my strength and reinforce my existence as a human. Despite all that, I still consumed only three mature nascent space beast cores simply to remain capable of speaking to the Executioner near the end of our confrontation and threaten her, even though my body itself was overflowing with vitality and energy..." He gave another quiet sigh. "And after all of that... I still fell into a coma for several months."

"So it’s safe to say that wielding those Master Laws was never something human beings were meant to do however they pleased, regardless of how powerful they became. There are always limits, no matter how cleverly you try to work around them or how many methods you invent to lessen the burden..." He turned his attention back toward the floating seals. "These, however... they store golden momentum, allowing the use of the Master Laws to become as effortless as breathing itself. They draw the burden onto themselves instead of allowing it to fall upon my body. As long as the seals continue glowing and golden momentum remains within them, I won’t suffer exhaustion or any of the usual consequences associated with using the Master Laws. At the very same time, all ten seals continue transforming my body from the inside by gradually upgrading my cells, little by little, without ever stopping."

He slowly narrowed his eyes.

"...It’s still far too early to state this as fact, but... I can’t shake the feeling that, without realizing it, I’ve already stepped onto a path of evolution that lies beyond the limits of humanity because of these seals..." His gaze settled upon them once again, lingering there for several silent moments. "The very seals from which I’ve already lost ten percent... without even understanding what they truly are."

Gulp.

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