I had seen better millennia.

As a level forty-nine in the Empire of the Eternal Stars, part of the Universe of Infinite Possibilities, I was strong and old. I had seen many youngsters come and go. Despite that, I'd thought it was different this time. It was all because of Ryo.

Ryo drew me in. Fiery and beautiful, with the light of destiny in his eyes. Blue eyes full of blue fire, and he wore nothing but various shades of blue, from aquamarine to royal blue. So young and so bright. He caught my attention and I began to covertly shield him. It had been so long since I had taken up the duty of preventing assassinations, but I knew no one else would do it for him. He was a threat to the current order.

He had no idea he caught my eye so early, or that I was saving him when he was only a level fifteen. I stayed unapproachable, a near-godlike figure, and he came to me because of course he would. With his needs and desires, of course he would come to the man known as Justice.

Ryo wanted to change things. He came from a poor family and saw his sister taken away for their debts, to be a pleasure slave to a level thirty. She had lived and died in his service, while her brother grew and gained immortality, yet could do nothing for her. Justice knew she had not actually suffered… she had just been bound to that man's will, first as a pleasure slave, then a house slave as her looks vanished with age. Ryo's sister had actually given that man a daughter, that he'd taken pleasure in and schooled. It had been the best outcome his sister could expect.

Paradoxically, that had made Ryo more driven and focused on the larger system rather than personal revenge. He couldn't hate the man who had just taken what he was entitled to, and treated his possessions well. But he couldn't accept that this was what his sister had been relegated to, a possession, and if his niece failed to grow and her father fell, she could easily suffer the same fate. He could not accept that what determined your safety and prosperity in life were, in the end, your levels. That if you could not reach certain milestones, you were nothing but chaff in the wind, foam upon the sea. Meaningless bubbles that would soon cease to exist.

I protected Ryo because he was beautiful. Not just his physical appearance, but his spirit. So pure and driven, a force that could make genuine change. Not on the scale he hoped - I knew better - but on a smaller stage. The Empire of the Eternal Stars held many Kingdoms. Ryo could found a new kingdom or take over an existing one and impose his rule of law. There were other such havens within our Empire and those born there were fortunate indeed. I loved to promote them, for I was Justice.

I stood upon the cusp of true Godhood, level fifty. Yet I could not take that final step, and I knew why. My basic nature was Order, my Concept was Justice and my final Principle was Law. Yet, my heart and mind rebelled against truly embodying the concept of Law, because it was so cold and brutal. To achieve true Godhood, I needed to fuse my Concept and Principle and I just could not bring myself to do it. It would sacrifice too much.

Of course Ryo came to me. He knew of my success in backing others like him, in the past. He knew of my nature yet did not fully understand it. How could he know that Justice was the finest of assassins to ever live? My myth did not include that I was the pruner, shaping societies by removing the diseased portions. Kings knew, and they shuddered at the thought of calling upon me, their petty sins weighing on their minds. Ryo had no such qualms in his innocent fire. I loved him for it.

That was why I was so disappointed.

I stood upon a dais, my arms fixed behind me and around me, three circles of rotating gold. A cage of the soul, meant to hold very high level entities. My white hair blew in the wind, my expressionless face turned towards the recording devices that were broadcasting this for the masses. They would all see my true face, but I no longer cared. Also, I knew how public relations worked. Because this was being broadcast live, unedited, my striking face would add to the final effect. I almost hated that I was thinking that.

Ryo was giving a speech and reciting my 'crimes'. I wanted to remind him that under the law, those over level forty-five were allowed the luxury of acting outside the law to administer justice, as per the Emperor. We were granted that privilege because at that level, containing us was virtually impossible. Of course, there were limits… if one of us went too far, I myself would likely be gently approached by the Emperor for a bit of pruning. And if that was impossible, we would all be called up to put down our errant brother or sister. That had only happened once in my life, and I still flinched a little as I remembered… at level 50, his wife had ascended to Godhood and left him behind. He'd been so desperate to follow her, aware she was moving on, and repeated failures had finally broken his mind. We'd had to put him down like a rabid dog, but I could not help but sympathize with his pain.

Pulling my mind back to the foolishness happening around me, I patiently listened to Ryo recite a list of deaths he attributed to me. I was unable to respond, caught in the soul trap as I was. Still, I could move and I laughed silently, tossing my head back and letting my hair flow. Was he serious? My mind went back to our first true meeting.

You are requesting my help? I sat upon my throne, a fine mask on my face. Featureless white, without a mouth or nose, it was decorated with an ancient rune on my right cheek drawn in simple, black lines. The symbol for justice. Do you understand what that means?

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Yes. Those brilliant blue eyes held my own and I thought he truly did.

Very well. You shall have it. I was not going to abandon him now, even if he was taking steps on a darker path.

Now I wondered if he had truly known? Or had he deluded himself into thinking he knew? Or was he being a supreme hypocrite now, and trying to pass the blame of his own actions to me? None of the options were good, but they did not anger me, they just saddened me. You were supposed to be better than this, Ryo. I had even imagined he might be my protege, in a sense. Someone willing to take the guilt, the karmic debt, the heavy weight of Justice. All to make things better for society as a whole, and those who struggled to live within it.

His recitation was ending and it was time to end this farce. The soul cage they had imprisoned me in was actually only guaranteed to be effective to level forty-five. They'd enhanced it, of course, and added some truly insane things. I marveled at the beauty of it, smiling to myself. Until this point, I had only pretended to test the cage, taking care to flex my soul in only the most minor of ways yet project determination, like it was a serious attempt to escape. I had deceived them completely.

Just before Ryo would have pronounced my sentence, I truly flexed my soul for the first time. The golden rings immediately deformed and Ryo whirled towards me, shock on his face as my power flared. Then I flexed a second time and the rings shattered, unable to contain me in any way. I stared at Ryo, my expression serene, even as I froze him in place with my level compression. Ryo was only level thirty-two, he could not resist me. His new backer was not present, because while that man was a fool, he still had the sense to be afraid. It was just the two of us, alone on this floating dais. And the audience of billions he had furnished for me. Soon, it would be trillions as my announcement scorched through the Empire.

"Ryo, did you forget my words to you?" I asked softly as he stared at me, his lips pulling back from his lips as he struggled to break free. He was only standing because I willed it, my pressure was crushing his soul. "When I asked you if you understood what my help meant, it was not a rhetorical question." I gently placed a palm on his chest, regarding him for one last time. Ah, he was still so beautiful, it almost broke my heart. "Karmic Retribution." The words reverberated far beyond reality, and would impact the soul of everyone who heard them.

Ryo screamed in abject agony as his broken deal with me recoiled on him and sundered his soul. The look on his face was as indescribable as the pain I had just inflicted on him. He fell to his knees then and I let him, as he pressed a hand to his chest and gagged. The pain was purely of the soul, but would cause the body to react. Nothing could cure the soul wound I had given him but by the nature of the wound, there was a possibility of growth and renewal. If Ryo could piece himself together, he could come out the other side stronger than ever before. Karma based soul wounds always allowed for that possibility.

It was a faint one, however, and I dismissed him from my mind as I turned to the broadcasting devices for my final announcement.

"To all who are watching this: Greetings. I am Justice," I said, knowing my voice would carry a terrifying resonance, even through a recording. The lower levels listening might pass out just from the sound. "In regards to the crimes I am accused of, I will only say this; as a level forty-nine, laws do not apply to me as long as I act for the good of the Empire."

"As is the nature of things, all of us high levels see the good of the Empire slightly differently. When Ryo came to me and requested my aide to bring about a new rule of Law that aligned with my ideals, I gave him my help," I explained to the viewing public. Then I glanced at Ryo, who was still shuddering in agony. It would take him a while to adapt to his new state. "When pacts are made with those of my level, breaking them comes with a heavy price." I hadn't spelled that out to Ryo, but then, no one of my level would. If someone was foolish enough to not understand that, they deserved to suffer. "To all of you, I will say this… continue to strive. Continue to try to make things better, to make things better for those who will come after you, no matter how small the change might be." Ryo had felt that a single Kingdom was not enough, but I knew better. Even I could not change the Empire. Even the Gods above us could not change the Empire.

"However, you will have to do this without me because now, Justice retires from this realm," I said, knowing those were the words that would send this across the entire Empire. When a level forty-nine either ascended or descended, it was big news. "I have chosen to descend." I looked at my own hand, making a fist. Then I looked at the recording devices again, staring at the audience. "I could ascend. Nothing bars me. But to do so would mean I would embody the most pitiless of Law, without mercy or conscience. I admit that not much humanity is left within me, but I cannot give up what shreds remain. So I shall descend, immediately," I said before smiling sadly at the viewers. "If you do not wish to watch, look aside." Watching an ascension gave a boost to the soul, but watching a descension strengthened the body. Physical cultivators who happened to be watching this live would be lucky indeed.

I grasped the power of my soul, preparing to convert most of it to a state of [Matter]. Then I would descend to a different realm, where the power of soul and strengthening and leveling simply did not exist. My infinitely powerful soul would be converted to a beautifully strong body, but it would be within the norms of a [Matter] based universe. Doing this would sacrifice all of my longevity. I would live and die exactly as a normal human, before entering the cycle of reincarnation and likely returning to the Empire. Ascension was the choice of eternal life as a God. Descension was the opposite, the choice of mortality and death.

The conversion seemed to be going smoothly until the exact moment it wasn't. I was caught entirely off guard, because descension was supposed to be an easy process even for the least cerebral of high levels. For someone like me, who used soul magic, it should have been as simple as breathing. Yet my eyes went wide in terror as I felt the fabric of my soul shift, completely outside of my control.

"No, please don't - " the recording devices caught my desperate plea to someone far beyond me, not a level fifty God, no this was someone much higher than that and they grasped me, distorting my soul properties for their own ends. Much of it was converted to [Matter] but not nearly enough and I fell sideways, to an unknown destination. And all I could feel was fear.

I had no idea where I was going or what I would be when I got there.