Chapter Seventy-Five – Proceedings – Part One

Order is derived from giving meaning to chaos through rules. Above all, rules must be followed, lest we fall into chaos once more.

- Mythren the Enlightened One –

The congregation of gods and system administrators are speaking amongst themselves quietly, we're all waiting on the man sitting near the front of the courtroom to speak. Sage says they're reviewing the files, apparently there's a portion missing… I seem to remember gold text saying something about redacting when I died last time. Did Ulana do something she wasn't supposed to? Wouldn't surprise me. Looking up at her in the mahogany colored rows above on the right side of the courtroom, her face is placid, serene even. What's she thinking about? What's her plan here?

As though she can sense my gaze, her golden eyes travel slowly over to me without turning her head to look at me fully. They shift just after they reach me, moving to the woman with white hair and red eyes across the courtroom on the opposite side. The one that Sage said was with the Red group… still trying to wrap my head around that. Thinking back though, Sage never did say that Red was in fact just Azeroc, if I really think about it, he always spoke about Red in the plural form too. I just thought he was refusing to say their name because of a rule or because he didn't want the taste of it in his proverbial mouth.

Letting out a sigh, I study the courtroom. Tall ceilings that have no end except the swirling mass of starlight above… not exactly like an Earth-themed courtroom, but I don't want to disagree with their interpretation of it. Last time I made a comment questioning it, Sage got flustered, telling me not to question the Grand One.

Who is this Grand One he always talks about though? I don't think it's Big Purple. Seeing the eye color of Sage and his supervisor, both of them were glowing blue. When I got the notification that I gained the skill that lets me talk to Sage, it was in blue text as well.

The theory on Earth is that the system colors are some kind of hierarchy. Seems like the Gods are color coded too. Good guys are Gold, I think. Bad guys are Red. Hopefully it's that simple. Looking at the oversized scroll that a blue-eyed admin just dumped on the Judge's table though, I don't think anything is simple.

"What is that?"

"Exhibit 447."

I look at Sage giving him an eyebrow raise, "I seem to remember that woman that ruffled your feathers saying I could choose any arbiter in the cosmos, what was her name again?"

Sage slants his eyes at me, "Terra."

"Right, so I'll ask again, what is that?"

He sighs, his perfect black and white curls bobbing as he adjusts in his seat. He slides his monocle into his vest pocket and turns to face me, crossing one of his legs before he says, "Meatsack, I don't like threats."

"I don't like being kept in the dark for no reason other than you're too lazy to explain."

"I take offense to that, meatsack."

"Am I wrong?"

He tsks, looking at the scroll across the room, "It's a formal complaint, divine grade."

"About?"

"About Red."

"Would it kill you to elaborate?"

"It's a whole thing, meatsack."

"Sage, for fucks sake, spit it out."

He rolls his eyes, "I'll summarize, Ulana submitted a complaint, but she did it through the old method. A way that takes bureaucratically much, much longer, it's the traditional route, one we haven't used in ages. It only just hit the desk of my superiors, from there it was rerouted through the proper channels. She's a clever one. Red didn't even know it was coming," he straightens his neatly tailored vest, "Neither did I, until just before you were reincorporated."

"Reincorporated?"

"You were quite thoroughly dead, if you weren't under system observation for rule breaking, your soul would have been completely extinguished. The fact that you're here right now is a miracle."

"Does that mean… Azeroc was breaking rules before he died, is he still, are his armies…" worry threads across my mind, "If Azeroc isn't actually dead, then did his quest change? Cortez… Mwangi, Dorliac, are they still stuck in the gate? How long has it been?"

"Meatsack, relax. First of all, time moves differently here. To answer your second question, Azeroc's forces are indeed gone, with no hope of resurrection. The amplified Divine Smite obliterated the entire solar system after all."

I blink, "Okay, what about him, what about Azeroc?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I don't know, meatsack. They haven't informed me. I assume he is alive, as he was under the system protection because he was rule-breaking, as are all of Red."

"Did the quest get revoked?"

"Meatsack, I don't know. I'm not privy to such information, as soon as you died, I was returned to the Grand Nexus."

"You said I actually did it though? You made me think he was dead, dead."

"He was, technically you killed him. Him staying dead though, highly unlikely. Near one hundred percent chance they force his resurrection if they haven't already."

Sage is grinning though as he turns to look me in the eyes, "Did you think they'd let a mortal slaying a god stand? It would undermine everything."

"Then why are you grinning?"

He chuckles, "Because it's ludicrous that you even temporarily killed one. This entire proceeding is ludicrous, which means it's bound to be fun."

A man with black hair and grey streaks steps to the table opposite us, where the prosecution usually sits, he looks relatively normal besides his glowing red eyes.

"Who is that?"

"Ah, the opposition, Red's representative, Kodah."

"Are they a god?"

He smirks, "They wish, they're a demigod."

"How does that work exactly?"

"That's a complicated question, one that doesn't pertain to this proceeding, incidentally, it's also one I'm not supposed to answer," Sage turns and looks at me with an eyebrow raise, "Are you using your one question for that?"

I squint at him.

"Did you think I forgot our wager? It is seldom I lose a bet, meatsack, but I always keep my word, it is a personal rule of mine."

"I died though, I thought the bet was voided?"

"I bet that you would die in a humiliating way after watching all those you care for die," the grin deepens, he looks up at the group known as Red, "Nothing about your death was humiliating, if anything, it was glorious."

There was a question that enhanced me kept wondering, it's related, but I decide to save it, I want to ask him in the confines of the Nexus, I don't want any gods knowing that I know.

"I have a better question, I'll ask you later, when we can't be overheard."

"Clever meatsack."

The demigod Kodah glances over at me, his red eyes study me like I'm a worm before they dismiss me. He looks toward the man sitting where a judge would. The man with bright blue eyes that have a ring of purple on the edge of the iris. I'm guessing he's above a blue, but not quite a purple.

"Haethur, I have a petition before the proceedings officially begin," Kodah says.

The judge looks up from the large scroll he's been looking at, "Speak it."

"We are petitioning to have Azeroc reincorporated so he may appear as a witness."

"Denied," Haethur says, looking back down at the scroll.

The massive courtroom goes silent, eerily so. Sage stops tapping his foot as well, looking intently at the exchange.

"Excuse me?"

Without looking up, Haethur says again, "Denied."

Kodah looks up toward the group Sage said was Red, the beautiful woman with them doesn't even bat an eyelash, she's still staring at Ulana, I turn, Ulana is looking at her too. The others that stand next to the woman though, they look pissed. Glowing red eyes glare at Haethur.

"On what grounds are you denying it?" Kodah asks, his tone is aggressive.

Haethur looks up at him, "There is nothing to resurrect, the entity formerly known as Azeroc is no more. They were entirely removed from existence, soul and all." He turns back to the scroll, pointing at a section of it, one of his blue-eyed aides nods and departs.

"Impossible, system administrators don't have the power to disincorporate a god permanently, not even the Grand One has such power. Only the gods have the power to truly slay a god."

Sage's eyes burn bright blue, his hand gripping the desk, the wood cracking under the pressure. I don't think he liked them saying the Grand One is less than a god.

Haethur looks up again, "There was more than enough justification to allow the use of such power, due to the 7,777,777% amplification of the Divine Smite which originated from Azeroc himself."

"Yes, I get that the attack amplified could slay a god, however, my point still stands, the system nor its administrators have access to that amount of power to make up the difference and kill a god. Something else is at play here, a rogue pantheon perhaps? Ulana working in concert with other factions?"

"I will say this one more time, it was an administrator of the system that allowed it to work, because it was within the confines of acceptable actions for the games. Whether it should have been allowed in the first place is a moot point, it has happened, if you feel it should not happen again, submit a complaint through the proper channels."

There's a grumbling from the opposition, tension breaks silencing the whispers.

"There are no administrators who have that power!" Kodah roars, his hair going askew, "Parse it through your encoded stupidity, you and your ilk will never have the power to slay us. It is impossible. Meaning, one of my kind is cheating and giving you the power to indirectly destroy us."

"Your kind?" Sage says loudly, entering the fray, "You're a demigod, not a god."

Kodah turns slowly, eyes ablaze with all the anger they can muster.

"Talks about other entities cheating," Sage scoffs, "That's rich."

"This is unacceptable," Kodah says, turning back to Haethur.

Haethur looks up slowly at Kodah, "Yet it happened. I invite you to submit a formal complaint, as is your right."

"No, I petition that time be reversed in order to ascertain what actually happened."

Silence falls over the court. Why can't they just let that fucker stay dead?

"We know what happened," Haethur says, "An administrator…"

"Which one?" Kodah interrupts.

"Mythren."

Sage perks up, seemingly excited.

"Mythren, the Enlightened One," Sage whispers to himself, there's a strange reverence in his tone.

"Who are they?" I ask quietly as the debate continues.

"They work directly for the Grand One," Sage whispers, envy ripples in his voice.

Kodah is yelling again, and people from the balcony above are shouting as well. Haethur bangs the gavel, and silence follows.

"We will conduct ourselves with order, that is the rules that the Grand One has laid out for these types of proceedings."

"I petition to call Mythren as a witness."

Haethur blinks at him, a slow and deliberate blink.

"One does not simply call Mythren to be a mere witness," he explains, there is deference in his tone, so much that it infuriates the demigod Kodah.

"This proceeding calls gods as witnesses, it is blasphemy that you brazenly compare simple lines of code to the divine, and unacceptable that you infer it is somehow beneath a system administrator to serve the gods."

Haethur stares at him, unchanging in his demeanor.

"You will call him to stand before us and give witness, or I will petition to have you dismantled."

"Be that as it may, I do not have the authority to call Mythren to give testimony. The gods that give testimony do so willingly, I have not forced them to be here, nor can I."

"Yes, but if they don't, magically their other requests will stay pending until they do," Kodah seethes, "Don't pretend like the system doesn't annoy gods if they don't cooperate."

"That's not my department, so I will make no comment regarding it."

Kodah's eyebrow is twitching worse than Cortez's when she first met Dorliac.

Sage leans in speaking in a hushed whisper, "I told you this would be fun."

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