Lord of the Truth Chapter 2007 Anti life

After ten long minutes-

Bfff-

Richard violently spat out a massive mouthful of blood, mixed with what unmistakably looked like fragnts of torn flesh.

The second phase of the Wall's Trial had finally co to an end.

And sohow-against all logic-he was still alive.

But alive did not an fine. Not even close.

Even after being repelled, each explosion had transmitted terrifying force into his body. His internal organs had been shaken, torn, and crushed repeatedly, as if his insides had been ripped apart layer by layer.

His right hand remained firmly planted beneath the dark coin, unmoving, almost stubbornly so. anwhile, his left hand trembled as it slid across his body, desperately forcing shattered bones back into place while he circulated his own life force, prioritizing the most vital parts-his heart and his life artery -barely keeping himself from collapsing entirely.

...Even throughout Richard's long and brutal history, one filled with near-fatal injuries, it was difficult for him to rember a ti he had suffered internal damage this severe since the day he left the Aziel Tribe.

This... was agony in its purest form.

(You you you you!!) Juri scread in sheer panic.

(You've already exhausted all of your stolen life force reserves?! What are you planning to do during the third trial?!)

"Ghh..."

Richard gritted his teeth and forcibly snapped his dislocated shoulder back into place with a sickening sound.

"Did you see any other options in front of ?!" he snarled, lifting his bloodshot. eyes toward the sky.

"What kind of monster power is this?! How can sothing like this be called a re Trial of Competency?!"

That colossal head still lood above the heavens. It had not faded-if anything, it seed more solid than before. Slowly, the creature's three eyes locked onto Richard, burning with uncontrollable rage.

(Everything about your existence violates the core rules governing the universe. Naturally, you will be treated with extre hostility.)

Juri replied, her voice calr, but heavier.

(Even the law you intend to break through with is a rged law, and one half of it is the Fundantal Law of Life itself!)

"Heh~"

Richard let out a crooked half-laugh, wiping the blood from the corner of his lips.

"Then I hope the Life aspect attacks again. At least then, I might gain sothing from it."

The Law of Life was not inherently a rged law. By nature, it existed to give life-to animate, to empower others to fight. If the trial relied solely on the Law of Life, Richard could steal it effortlessly using his green fla.

(The trial won't allow you that luxury.)

Juri shook her head slowly.

(The heavenly laws and the rule-observing spirits can read you like an open book. Your past, your limits, your potential-everything is exposed to them.) (...In any case, from what I can tell, the Trial of Laws has already concluded.) Her voice grew noticeably heavier.

(Now begins the Trial of the Stabilizer. Your stabilizer will be evaluated, and based on the power it grants you, your next trial will be shaped accordingly.) "The... Stabilizer Trial?"

Richard's brows knitted together sharply.

Hoooo-

Almost instantly, he looked downward. A small vortex appeared above the dark coin, spinning silently before vanishing as if it had never existed.

".....?!"

A suffocating sense of danger poured directly into Richard's chest.

Rumble-

"..!!!"

He snapped his gaze upward so violently it nearly wrenched his neck apart.

Sothing had changed.

The creature itself had not moved. No new trial had been declared.

And yet the sky began to unfold once more.

First, a massive shoulder erged, muscles packed so densely they seed carved from divine stone. Then followed an enormous palm-so vast it could completely cover the entire scorched adow below.

"

Richard's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

The aura radiating from that hand was no longer anywhere near the Martial Emperor realm.

In fact, none of the World Cataclysms he had ever faced inspired fear like this.

It reminded him-vividly-of the Nature-Erasing Strike Helen had once

unleashed upon Planet Jura.

That attack had possessed at least low-level Nexus State power.

Then-

WHOOSH-

The colossal palm descended, tearing through space itself, intent on crushing

Richard into nothingness.

"Damn it!!"

Life surged back into Richard's eyes as the certainty of death lood.

Without hesitation, he slamd his left palm into the ground.

(Are you really going to use that thod now? At the very least, use the Destiny Severing Device to seal the horrifying amount of negative karma you're about

to accumulate!)

"Shut up!"

Richard roared as energy gathered violently around him.

He pressed downward with everything he had left, his voice dropping into a harsh, guttural whisper:

"ANTI-LIFE!!"

Disturbance

The region beneath Richard's hand had already been scorched black by the

residue of the first wave of the test, layered thick with ash and ruin. Yet the instant he muttered those words, sothing far more unsettling began to

unfold.

The ground trembled, then sagged inward, decomposing and collapsing in on itself. It didn't rely turn to ash-no, it beca sothing darker, finer, more absolute than ash itself. A substance so pitch-black and minuscule that it made ordinary ash appear as though it were still burning with heat and light. That tainted patch beneath Richard's hand spread at a horrifying pace, racing across the land and burrowing beneath it simultaneously. In the span of a single breath, it swallowed millions of acres of the planet's surface and sank tens of kiloters below ground. Everything within that vast domain-stone, soil, minerals, life-was reduced and transmuted into that sa fine, dark matter,

stripped of all forr identity.

"Arghhhh!!!"

Richard's appearance at that mont was nothing short of monstrous.

Veins bulged violently across his entire body-so jet black, others glowing green-both sets pulsing fiercely like overloaded conduits forced far beyond

their limits.

Even his blood-filled eyes could not endure unchanged: one transford into a luminous green, the other sank into absolute blackness.

Then, as if guided by an unseen will, every vein carrying that terrifying, radiant energy surged toward his heart-poof. The upper half of Richard's clothing didn't simply tear; it was obliterated, exploding into thousands upon thousands of fragnts the very instant that colossal energy concentration slamd into

his heart.

Then ca a single beat.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-DOOM

The sound of Richard's heartbeat detonated into a storm of darkness. That

ultra-fine, pitch-black substance could not endure the shockwave; it was hurled violently in every direction. Beneath it was revealed sothing resembling a colossal ant nest-hollowed, brittle black earth extending tens of kiloters underground, so fragile it seed it could collapse from nothing more than a passing breath.

Richard himself slowly lifted his gaze toward the sky, his movents heavy yet deliberate. One eye black, one eye green. Veins crawled across his face and body like living scars, while bloody tears stread relentlessly from every

opening in his face.

It was impossible to tell whether his unnatural calm ca from absolute confidence in his power... or whether his features had simply locked in place, his body no longer capable of expressing pain or fear.

Then, directly facing that imnse palm that appeared ready to erase the

world itself... Richard raised his own hand.

BOOOOOO00000000M

The palm of the colossal creature collided with Richard's-an arm that, in

comparison, looked no larger than an ant's limb. In that instant, an apocalyptic shockwave erupted outward.

The corroded region surrounding Richard-nearly a quarter of the planet- collapsed like a house of cards, disintegrating layer by layer. The shockwave continued its rampage, sweeping across the world until every living being in the planet's northern hemisphere felt its impact.

Space itself shuddered above the planet without question, and the atmosphere

warped and buckled, stretching so violently it ca within a hair's breadth of

tearing apart completely.

Yet, against all expectation-

Crack Crack

Fractures began to spiderweb across the gigantic creature's terrifying hand.

Then-BAAM-it detonated up to the elbow, dissolving into green flas and

overwhelming primordial energy before being violently dragged back into the vortex from which it ca.

Richard remained staring upward, his gaze hollow, his expression utterly

frozen.

Even so... he had not yet fully lost consciousness.

With agonizing slowness, Richard lowered his left arm and looked at it in

silence, sorrow weighing heavily in his eyes. The sa fate that had claid the

giant's limb had claid his as well-his arm was gone, severed up to the elbow. Amid this catastrophic scene-tragic, yet undeniably epic-Richard's lips curved into the faintest smile, so slight it was almost imperceptible.

"I... did it..."

(Did what? You endured the tests of the laws and the Stabilizer. What remains

now is the test of breaking the constraints of the Young Belt.)

"...Huh?"

Rumble