Published at 8th of March 2026 8:04 am

Chapter 2043 Athena

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Robin's eyes flew wide open. "....!!!"

An ancestor... one hundred adult space beasts... two thousand young space beasts... and one million nascent space beasts?

Each one of them alone was enough to seriously trouble even the Cosmic Elder and bring about slow, catastrophic destruction over time.

One hundred adult space beasts? Only one had appeared in Sector 911, and it set the entire universe ablaze, forcing everyone to watch in terror. No one dared go near it. They left it to devour hundreds of planets freely, until the Cosmic Elder himself finally appeared and killed it.

But what if ninety-nine more had appeared alongside it at the same time?! "I don't know whether it was her bad luck or the universe's miserable fate that caused this or perhaps there are many such massive nests in existence, and it was only natural that she would stumble upon one of them after destroying such a large fragment of the barrier. What matters is that Athena finally met her true equal in those beasts."

"...Even though it was the very first time she had ever seen such creatures, she did not retreat or hesitate. She immediately understood how dangerous they were and refused to withdraw to make calculations or reassess the situation. She stood her ground, unmoving, and a colossal, world-shaking battle erupted. In that battle, Athena managed to kill nearly a quarter of the nest's members, but they swarmed her relentlessly, and with the direct support of the ancestor of these space beasts, they inflicted extremely severe and devastating injuries on her, forcing her to retreat back within the heart of the universe once again." "The space beasts, of course, seized the opportunity without hesitation and entered without permission. Then they exploited the fact that the Mid Belt's space was extremely light and unstable, allowing them to move with terrifying freedom and cross vast distances in the blink of an eye by tearing through the fabric of space itself with almost no effort at all. That is why they were later named space beasts. But in truth, they are merely beasts whose origin we know nothing about-they have no real or intrinsic connection to the Law of Space itself."

"When Athena saw what was happening-when she saw that three quarters of that massive nest had already entered and that a brutal massacre of the universe's inhabitants had begun-when she realized that the breach was still there, sealing again but very slowly, and that more nests had begun to notice it and move closer, preparing to enter as well... she decided to intervene once more. This time, her goal was to close the rift again. But unfortunately, destroying something is always easy-repairing it is infinitely harder."

"Athena drew power directly from the Primordial Chaos at the center of the universe to close the barrier-the immensely powerful barrier that was never meant to be broken, the barrier that required an enormous, almost unimaginable quantity of Primordial Chaos to scal and restore it to its original state. The energy demanded was so vast that the number of planets produced annually from Primordial Chaos decreased dramatically, and the density of Primordial Chaos in the Young Belt's space remains weak and thin to this very day."

"...So vast, in fact, that a sixth-stage wielder of the Law of Primordial Chaos was gravely injured in the process, to the point that her ancient body exploded because it acted as a direct conduit for that overwhelming energy. Of course, she was already severely wounded from her previous battle-but this alone allows you to imagine the sheer, terrifying magnitude of what it took to repair the barrier after it had been broken."

Then he slowly shook his head. "The barrier should never have been destroyed. It was never meant to be broken-at least not while the universe was still in such a fragile, primitive state. Perhaps the appearance of someone like Athena at such an early point in cosmic history was the true problem. But even so... at the very least, she sacrificed her body-and almost the entire future of the universe itself, whose development slowed to an unimaginable degree because of the drastic decline in the density of Primordial Chaos energy-just to restore the barrier to what it once was, to return it to its original, sealed state."

"That woman..." Robin murmured under his breath.

"What? You can't decide whether Athena was good or evil?" the Cosmic Elder chuckled softly. "Let me tell you something-I am absolutely certain that if the barrier had opened on its own, or someone else shattered it, Athena would never have risked her life to close it. She sealed it for one simple reason: she was the one who opened it. That's all there is to it. Because she cannot accept living with the truth that she failed at something. She cannot coexist with her own mistakes. She's a stubborn, iron-headed woman-take it from me!"

Then he tilted his head slightly, his expression shifting. "Alright, I admit it-her actions after she regained her power show that she felt a measure of remorse. But even then, she only tried to fix what she had personally broken. She never attempted to intervene in anything else that didn't concern her directly, no matter how vast or catastrophic it was. In my eyes... she's still a stubborn woman!!"

"...What happened after that?" Robin asked quietly, swallowing hard.

"Hm. After repairing the wall and losing her physical body, Athena's soul returned to its dwelling in the very heart of Primordial Chaos to rebuild herself a new form. She sealed herself off there along with those who were with her, isolating herself completely. She no longer concerned herself with what was happening to the universe, nor with the space beasts that had already entered it-perhaps she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it anyway," the Cosmic Elder continued calmly.

"Then events began to unfold one after another, exactly as you already know. The space beasts spread across the cosmos, the Plague flourished and expanded, then began to compete with them for dominance. After that, the ancestor of the space beasts compressed ninety percent of the universe for himself, forming it into isolated zones... all of it happened like chess pieces falling one after another on a board. Every single sign pointed toward the extinction of life within just a few millennia."

"...Until you appeared on the stage?" Robin sighed softly.

"Well, I don't want to brag-" the Cosmic Elder said, adjusting his posture and lightly moving his slipper with a pleased, almost playful motion. "Speak directly, old man," Robin said, narrowing his eyes with impatience.

"What happened after I attained the sixth stage of the master Law of Balance wasn't very different from what you've already heard. At the peak of my power, I first attacked the central gathering of the Abyss of Doom, slaughtered half of them, and scattered the rest to the far reaches of the universe. I killed several space beasts as well, but I couldn't locate them easily or hunt them efficiently, so I began constructing a colossal array-one formed using entire solar systems as its foundation-to expel their entire race back to the place they came from... beyond the barrier."

"Just before activating the array, the space beast ancestor appeared. He had been fully immersed in devouring his prey within the isolated zones between the sectors all along and gained more power in the process. He was roughly my size, and he even possessed the ability to take on a human form.That day, I sacrificed half of my remaining life force and half of my internal organs just to kill him. And that wasn't enough-I then sacrificed several more parts of my body, along with multiple solar systems and entire galaxies, in order to complete the array and permanently expel the entire race of the space beasts

from this universe."

".....

The Cosmic Elder fell silent for a long moment, then a nostalgic, distant smile appeared on his face.

"Before that day, I was still young... still in my prime, standing at the absolute

peak of my strength. But after that..." he exhaled softly, "...well, you can see

what's left of me now."

Then he extended his hand and gently patted Robin's head.

"And then you healed me, restoring ten percent of the man I once was... truly," he said quietly, "thank you again, little one."

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