Galaxy's First Ruler

Dungeon - El Cid

The Plaza de los Nueve Pilares

Aldrich stared at the Nine red papers over the Nine Pillars.

He hadn't come to know their purpose, but from the Crawler's name and the word Judgement, he made some guesses. How the Crawler would exact this said 'Judgement' was yet to be seen.

He let the Katana vanish and asked, "What are these supposed to be?"

The fairy brought her arms down and swished the stick in her hand towards the pillars.

"Look at these Pillars, Aldrich Guo. Look!"

Aldrich didn't like the Crawler's commanding tone. Nor did he like the way she was hovering above his eyes level and kept looking down at him as if she had some moral high ground. Nevertheless, he followed the gaze and looked at the pillars again. The fairy's beautiful face became grave as she continued.

"These Pillars used to tower in this Plaza, their might was unparalleled. I couldn't even reach the extent they had extended towards Heaven. And now look at them. Look at what is left of them because of the weight of your Sins."

'My Sins…'

Aldrich thought and tried to make sense of the fairy's words. He couldn't help but compare the Sins Anjana talked about to the 9 red papers. He was about to ask the fairy to stop the blabbering and come to the point when Sha's voice rang in his mind.

"Daddy…"

'Yeah?'

"Daddy… I… eat… her?"

Aldrich got taken aback by this sudden request.

'Sha, didn't you say that you don't like to eat Crawlers?'

"I… I… She… different."

Aldrich tried to probe more out of Sha to know what did she mean by 'Different'. But Sha didn't know herself. He gave it a thought and refrained from acting out against the fairy. From the last two Plazas he knew, the means available to these Crawlers were weird and uniquely unpredictable. Ultimately, he decided that feigning ignorance was the best way to tackle this situation.

Aldrich shook his head and let out a meek voice.

"I don't know what Sins you are talking about."

The fairy narrowed her eyes at him, and in return got a shrug from Aldrich.

"You will get to know about them soon. These letters contain 9 of the many sins that you have committed in your life so far. One by one, you will be judged for all of them. You will have time to deny my arguments in favor of your Sins. And if at the end the number of your Sins remained to be in majority, you will be given the penalty of eternal death."

Aldrich took in all the details. He sure was fascinated by the out-of-box way of handling the raid, but the use of the last two words at the end of the fairy's speech troubled him greatly.

"What is eternal death? And who will be the judge of our arguments?"

Hehehe!

A mocking smile came out of the Anjana's mouth, livening up the fresh grass and the birds and butterflies all the same.

"You think I don't know how many times you have died, Blessed One? And who else will be the judge but the impartial 'RECORD'."

Aldrich took in a deep breath as he got to know what the fairy meant by eternal. It seemed like most of the secrets related to his life were available to Anjana following the rules within this Plaza. Aldrich had already come face to face with the RECORD's impartiality, and he wasn't very optimistic about the odds against him.

"Humph! Hiding your face behind the mask won't save you."

The fairy harrumphed and made a passive comment before bringing her hands together to hold the hawthorn stick. Her blue frock got lifted by an unseen wind, and her braids flailed majestically.

Suddenly, the surroundings became overly bright, and the chirps of birds quieted down. The splash of the waterfall in the lake made no more noise, and even the smell of the flowers receded within them. The tiny figure of the fairy felt like a towering giant and, as she opened her mouth, the world seemed to experience illusory quakes. A smile came upon Aldrich's pressed lips as he clenched his teeth to face the wrath of what was going to come out of Anjana's mouth.

" RECORD…

… I, the Lady of Righteousness Anjana, on the authority of my status as a Legend, request to initiate the Trial of Aldrich Guo, the Blessed One."

Aldrich felt an immense weight upon his shoulders, but the weight didn't affect him physically. An undeniable and irrefutable feeling of speaking truth and only truth. This feeling was so immense that Aldrich felt like his brain would burst apart and ultimately would make him enter a comatose state. He knew by letting the Black Veil come out, he could easily fight off this feeling. But then the purpose of experiencing another Law would have gone down the drain.

Aldrich's knees buckled, and saliva came seeping out of his shut mouth. A blurry whiteness overshadowed his vision, and all his strength seemed to be sucked out of his body. But the Will that even the Elite Crawler had praised wasn't weak enough to not hold itself against these changes. By the time the notification materialized, Aldrich had already found a connection between the Crawler's language of LAWS and Justice.

[…

Processing request…

Checking the authenticity of status' authority…

…

…

Authority confirmed

Crawler: Anjana

Legend: A fairy creature tasked to foil the cruel Ojancanu, the trapped heavenly being, the Punisher of the Wicked

Initiating Trial…

Warning: The Dreamer and the Crawler need to place a bet on the outcome of each Sin

…]

Aldrich saw through the notification as the fairy pointed her stick towards the first red paper. A blood-red glow came out of the paper as it rose and hovered between him and the fairy. The paper unfolded itself and golden words materialized on both sides. Aldrich had remained to come out of the aftereffects when Anjana's righteous voice echoed in his ears.

"For the crime of saving a murderer from facing Justice, I proclaim you... Guilty."