Published at 7th of March 2026 8:56 am

Chapter 2042 The tyranny of the ruler of chaos

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"...Where did human power stand in all this chaos?!"

"You tell me," the Cosmic Elder laughed softly, though there was no real amusement in his eyes. "The legends they spread claim that they fought with all their strength to protect the people-so tell me, does anything I'm telling you now even remotely suggest any kind of true resistance?"

Then he shook his head slowly. "At that point, the universe was only large enough to accommodate everyone for a time. There were many regions that had not yet tasted devastation, and there were people who used special methods to keep their planets in constant motion, forever fleeing danger. As for the very few Behemoths that existed back then, they focused only on protecting their own galaxies... nothing more. That was the reality of that era."

"....." Robin's expression darkened, his features tightening as anger replaced

shock.

Yes... in places like this, when an external enemy appears seeking to slaughter the inhabitants of a land, people do not unite-they fragment.

They form tribes. They isolate themselves.

They draw borders instead of breaking them.

They watch what happens to their neighbors with hollow sympathy, waving empty words like "our hearts are with you," while they rush to fortify themselves with weapons and methods they already know will never truly save them.

Why don't all the people unite to face the coming threat together? If they did, they would most likely win.

Perhaps this is the true survival instinct... everyone wants to stay alive for as long as possible, even if they know their turn is coming, even if they know death is inevitable.

Yes... Robin had tasted this filth many times in his early days.

And that-precisely that-was why he chose imperial expansion.

The Council of Elders, the Assembly of Sages, democracy-

all of it is nonsense.

In critical moments, everyone chooses what benefits them personally.

Rule by iron and fire is the only solution in hard times.

The Cosmic Elder left Robin alone with his thoughts for a few minutes, calmly enjoying the sight of the nascent space beasts fighting in the distance. Then he waved a few times to pull Robin back.

"Setting all that aside," he said, "there's a very important question you should infer from everything I've said... I want you to ask it. I want to know if you're as smart as you seem."

"...?" Robin turned to the Cosmic Elder and furrowed his brows for a moment. "There actually is a question I've been asking myself since you started talking"

Then he continued seriously, his voice steady, focused.

"Why did the space beasts suddenly increase in that era? If they had existed in such numbers from the beginning, human and demi-human Behemoths would never have emerged, civilization would never have formed, and there wouldn't even be something called a universe in the first place."

"Excellent!" The Cosmic Elder slapped Robin on the back with approval. "They didn't exist."

"Huh?" Robin raised one brow in sharp confusion. "You mean they were few?"

"No," the Cosmic Elder said firmly, shaking his head. "They didn't exist at all. Not in small numbers. Not in any form. The universe had never known space beasts before that point-neither nascent nor ancestral. They simply appeared in massive numbers, and the extermination began without any warning."

"But that makes no sense," Robin said quickly. "Those stupid creatures wouldn't wait for millions of years in hiding, restraining themselves. And where were they anyway if there were no sectors? Did they just appear from the atoms of the air? From empty space? Or did they-"

Robin suddenly widened his eyes to their limit. His breath caught.

He slowly raised his hand and pointed toward the gate.

"D-Don't tell me...?!"

"Correct," the Cosmic Elder said quietly. "At that time no one knew the reason or where they came from. Not the great powers. Not the councils. Not even me, when I first fought them."

He tilted his head toward the gate.

"But at that time, they did came from beyond the barrier..."

He paused for a heartbeat.

"...most likely it was a nest like the one you're seeing now-except a far larger one. A colossal nest. One that contained an ancestor among them."

"ANOTHER one that contains an ancestor?" Robin showed a terrified, uneasy smile, the tension clear on his face. "Is there more...? Is there even more than

that?"

"Of course. Two other space beast ancestors chased me once, ahehe." The Cosmic Elder chuckled lightly, as if recalling an old inconvenience rather than a nightmare. "The universe was truly fortunate that the barrier sealed before more of them could enter and cross into our side."

"W-wait, wait, wait!" Robin suddenly stood up and took two steps back, his expression filled with disbelief. "You're talking about a lot of extremely huge events-cosmic, universe-altering events-as if they mean absolutely nothing!" "...." The Cosmic Elder maintained his silence for a moment. "There is a forbidden history-even for the Behemoths, little Robin. A history sealed away by fear itself. But as The wielder of five Master Laws, as the Master of this corridor, I believe you are qualified-more than qualified-to hear the truth."

"....?!"

Robin sharpened all his senses to their limits, preparing himself to absorb every fragment of information, every hidden truth, every buried secret that was

about to be revealed.

Behind him, the war was intensifying to a terrifying degree, to the point that an entire unit of the Imperial Guard had specialized solely in dragging away the corpses of their fallen comrades and the bodies of nascent space beasts away from the gate, trying desperately to keep the battlefield from collapsing into

total chaos.

"...At that time, when that incident occurred-tens of millions of years ago-I was still just a young man, barely exploring the second stage of Balance, and the wretch Sevar had not even been formed in his father's testicle yet. But there was already a woman who had reached the sixth stage of a Master Law." "Athena?" Robin leapt to the conclusion, his voice sharp with realization.

"Yes. She was the first being to ever reach that level in a Master Law- specifically, the Master Law of Primordial Chaos." The Cosmic Elder nodded firmly and slowly. "Her history before that black point was terrifyingly powerful. She ruled over the few Behemoths of that era, dominating them completely. She was known for her brutality, for her absolute authority, and for living by the principle of 'Be, and it is. Whoever defied her command was erased from existence-along with their homeland, their people, and their legacy. But that history has vanished now. It no longer exists in records. No one knows her name except a few, and even they do not know what she was truly like in those days."

"..." Robin was deeply astonished. Truly, he had never heard anything-no legends, no myths, no forbidden records-about that era.

"One day after profound boredom consumed her from ruling the universe- after millions upon millions of years spent at the very center of the cosmos, in the region of Primordial Chaos that continuously produces planets and worlds -and after realizing there was nothing left she did not know, nothing left to conquer, nothing left to explore... she set her eyes on the End-of-the-World

Barrier"

"...Athena headed there with her usual ferocity and overwhelming momentum. She wanted to see what lay beyond the barrier-and she would see what lay beyond it. That was how her mind worked. There was no such thing as logic, caution, or causality for her." The Cosmic Elder looked as if he could see her standing before his eyes. "So she began striking the barrier with a colossal blow empowered by Primordial Chaos itself, hammering it again and again, until she shattered a part of it."

"Shattered?!" Robin's eyes widened to their absolute limits. He had barely opened a small breach-without any massive explosion-yet the consequences had been terrifying beyond imagination.

"Yes. She shattered a fragment of the barrier the size of a galaxy, a colossal rupture, that sent tides across the universe. Then continued forward beyond it, head held high, filled with pride and dominance, ready to explore and subjugate whatever existence lay on the other side." He then slowly shook his head. "But what she encountered was a space beast ancestor and his own nest-no fewer than 100 adult space beasts, 2,000 young space beasts, and nearly one million nascent space beasts."

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