Lord of the Truth

Six days later-- Above the steep hill-- Inside the covered training hall

*BAM*

"Haa... Haa..." After finishing the last touch on a saint's shoulder in front of him, the Rune Master fell on his knees, looked up, and began gasping for air with a loud voice as if someone had been keeping his head underwater for the past hour

 Then he started laughing hysterically, "Haa... Hahaha... I finally did it... I have finished my quota... I have--" But suddenly he fell on his face as his eyeball rolled up, and he fainted from extreme exhaustion.

The weird thing is that no one was surprised to see him faint like that, the saint in front of him just sighed, picked up the Rune Master, and placed him near a wall next to a few others like him.

This was not an uncommon sight, but the entire covered training hall was full of bodies lying on the floor or leaning against the walls, they were all rune Masters! 

The Rune Masters who had entered so splendidly, wearing clean, expensive clothes with their noses raised sky high, now all of them looking like beggars lying around with their clothes stained with sweat and ink.

With how weak they looked right now, it seemed that even a random child from any colony could kill them all with a stick!

"..." Not far away, Robin was sitting in the same spot as before, his eyes fully focused as he drew something on the shoulder of a man in front of him. 

This peculiar Divine Tattoo seemed noticeably larger than the rest, and the person himself did not look ordinary either.

The sage sitting in front of Robin was middle-aged, with sharp features and long hair, a thick beard, and a visible scar dividing his beard on his right cheek. His strong aura suggested that he was at the very least at the top of the sage realm! 

This man was undoubtedly one of those who bought a copy of one of the Fourth stages of the laws!

"...I have finished too." Robin showed his white teeth with a smile, "Your name is Julian Barnett, right? Come on, put on your armor and take a quick rest, You will be a vital part of the experiments we are about to begin."

"It seems that drawing the divine tattoos on the saints has also finished, excellent! It seems that I was the last to finish, not bad at all, I will admit defeat this time!" Then Robin stood up and looked around with satisfaction, then nodded with a smile and spoke in a loud voice, "All of you listen up, whoever is not wearing his armor should wear it, then stand in a square shaped battalion and arrange yourselves so that all those who have the same tattoo stand next to each other... As for the Rune Master, please evacuate the hall or watch from the side so you don't get hurt."

"Yes!" A loud shout shook the hall and everyone started moving immediately

Sage Julian also stood up and bowed towards his Emperor, "Yes, Your Excellency." Then he took a few steps backward before he began to put on his armor. Although he did not know which experiments he would begin, he had to do as he was told.

"Hmm?" But the strange sight around the sage caught his attention... 

The Sages were in their own section on the side, completely focused on His Excellency and the divine tattoos that awaited them. Julian in particular did not take his eyes off His Excellency for a moment or care about anything else, so he did not know what was happening around him.

But looking around now, even with the commotion going on in the hall right now he couldn't help but notice that the roughly 30 Runes Masters were all looking completely exhausted, one could even say clinging to life, and even the Emperor's only disciple, Jabba, was standing on the side with his shoulder leaning against the wall, breathing with some difficulty!

Of course, this is not very strange since it is a known fact that drawing Runes drains the soul force, and these rune masters have been working extra hard over the past few days to please His Excellency, if not, the runes on the 5000 sages would have taken much longer.

The rune masters are not random people fished from the street, but rather, they are all soul geniuses searched for and cared after, especially those who Jabba brought with him they are all sages or at the top of the Saint Realm, all of them are elites and recognized geniuses among geniuses when it comes to soul power they are much stronger than their peers, and yet this happened to them!

And here comes the really strange thing about the matter... Which is that His Excellency had to draw five hundred divine tattoos on five hundred sages, and these divine tattoos were much bigger and more detailed than the ones on the saints! 

While each of these rune masters had to handle only 150 saints each and reached this bad shape, His Excellency did not even sweat from start to finish, his hand did not stop for a single moment during the past days or take a break!

Then he casually says that he admits defeat because he is the last to finish... After those words, Julian saw the Rune masters shaking their heads weakly with self redicle smiles as if they wanted the earth to open up and swallow them. The difference was simply too great!!

Julian couldn't help but glance at His Excellency one more time, before quickly putting on his armor again... This time he was the one sweating.

*clutter* *clutter*

The covered training hall was so wide and so solid that it could withstand a real fight between several sages with enough space to move and fly freely, but it was still not wide enough to easily accommodate more than five thousand people, especially since they were moving like headless chickens as each one tried to find his team who have the same tattoos as him!

However, as trained and highly experienced soldiers as they were, it only took them a few minutes to carry out orders, as the 5,500 saints and sages stood in a standard square formation.

"Your Excellency, where do I stand exactly?" Sage Julian came forward and bowed before Robin in awe, Even after a few minutes had passed, he did not find another person with the same tattoo as him!

"You will stand in front of them, of course. Every battalion needs a leader, right?" Robin patted Sage Julian on the shoulder and laughed, then pointed to him exactly where he was supposed to stand

"Me? I will fight for Your Excellency until my very end!!" Sage Julian could not contain his happiness that had been appointed as a commander by the Emperor himself, so he bowed again and then moved forward with quick steps to take his position, literally ready to lead this battalion to death if necessary.

*Deep inhale* "Whooo~" Jabba managed to regulate his breathing again and stepped forward to stand next to his master, "So, what are you going to do with all of these?" 

The stress is still evident in him since he finished drawing his share of the divine tattoos on 150 saints and then helped the rest of the rune masters draw several people in their teams as well so that they could finish quickly. Even though he did not know how many tattoos he had drawn, the number was definitely not less than 300!

"You'll see, just prepare yourself because you will test it yourself." Robin gave a chuckle

"Huh? Test what?!"

Robin smiled and did not answer again, then he turned his attention forward again and shouted, "Let's begin... My words now are directed to all of you except Sage Julian: Close your eyes now and enter a state of meditation, Do not worry about anything or think about anything, then start circulating your energy through your body at full speed and passing it through your tattoos once every second, do this in sync 10 seconds starting from now... Ready? Begin!"

Without having to respond, the 5,000 Saints and 500 Sages immediately closed their eyes and began counting down in their heads.

*silence....*

*OOOMMMMNNN*

"This…" After the ten seconds were up, Jabba noticed something strange happening

The covered training hall, where only a little light entered, began to gradually light up until he was forced to put his hand over his eyes, "Arrrgh!!"

The battalion of soldiers in front of him was covered with a silky layer of golden color that was very bright and very hot. This layer began to increase little by little until it seemed as if the soldiers were drowning under a sea of gold water

No... This golden sea was extremely wild and sizzling hot as if a sun had melted!