Markus swung his sword, and an invisible force have struck the monster. He was keeping his distance, to stay out of its reach, but there was only that much he could do without getting closer. The thing was barely scratched, but constant attacks were a good distraction for now.

“Havens touch.” He whispered, and sent a bit of mana into the ground.

He could probably finish it quicker, but his position made it more dangerous to him than to other people. The Spirit of Judgement and Execution was actually the only creature of twilight he knew some things about, even before the incident. It was made of corrupted souls driven by their overwhelming desire to serve justice, which they failed while being still alive. Its view on justice was so twisted that Markus had no idea, if he should be scared of its judgement. Even the smallest risk of becoming a part of it, was just too much for him to take.

“Sir!” One of the soldiers shouted from a building next to the one ruined by the spirit. “We have finished evacuating civilians!”

“Good!” Markus was just about to make a stabbing motion to blind the creature with a blast of fire, when suddenly it shifted its position.

“Murderer!” Some voices shouted in union.

Markus has created a barrier over the window, with a single thought, and was ready to counter the monster’s attack, but he took a moment to memorize the face of the soldier, just in case the outrage was justified. That thing had a very twisted definition of justice and crime. It could probably call someone a murderer, even if they haven’t shed a single drop of blood in their life. A quick glance was all Markus needed, but just when he was turning his eyesight, he started to realize that something was wrong, and just then a disgusting mass of molten flesh closed around his neck. He was caught like a fool.

“Looking after your underlings, are we? Truly admirable, but will that loyalty matter in the end? Tell me Markus, are you a good man?”

Something unlike any magic he knew has been looking at him. Not physically. And not in his soul. Not only, but somehow it was looking even deeper. He could feel every street he has ever walked on. He could hear every word he ever said. Everything that was making Markus be Markus have been touched by this cosmic force, and somehow it was trying to look even further beyond it.

Books. Flowers. Music. His brother’s scream. Magic. More books. More magic.

“Living your youth without committing any crime isn’t that much impressive since you were born in the right family. No hard choices to make. Not yet.”

People. Names. Books. Noting. Training. Magic. Looking. Hearing. Thinking.

The cascade of events has finally slowed down. He knew what would be next. He was expecting to see his adolescent self in the courtroom, but the events of his first trial was somehow skipped. The vision was showing the place right after the executions, the blood looked fresh, and there was even more of it than he remembered. The scene was making him sick, but if the spirit was hoping to see him look away from those memories, it would be disappointed.

He Focused on the presence in his mind, again finding not exactly what he was expecting, but a close second guess on his list.

“Justicius Maik, I hope you didn’t stop on this particular memory to demand a new trial?”

“No.” Said a singular voice in his head. “And I’m no longer a Justicius. You revoked that title from me, remember? I no longer have any grudge towards you. You made a very hard choice, and done the right thing. There is no single soul in the spirit of Judgement who would claim you did something wrong there, and we were made to be very demanding. No, my issue is not with the trial itself, but with what you did afterwards.”

The events started to move again, but this time the details were less fuzzy, and the time was moving much slower. Gray has showed up with one of the Elders. They had a long talk with Markus, and explained some things to him. At that time he didn’t care even about the most shocking of their revelations, but now he was surprised, to notice that the force judging him was equally disinterested about his event, and just skimmed through those informations straight to his first High Council meeting.

Golden decorated furniture were as real and detailed as if he was seeing them in person. All the books, decorations, and paintings on the walls were also looking fine. The only exception were the blurry shadows in place of people. As brief as they were, all the glimpses of people he had seen in the first part of this vision were looking normal, from what he managed to see. He could deduce who was who, based on where they were sitting, but he was still taken a bit aback, by this deviation from how it was working previously.

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“What are you trying to show me?”

“The thing you have chosen. After what you’ve done and all the choices you have made, not a single soul of Judgement wouldn’t question anything you did. But the very day you became a hero, you decided to side with those monsters, just after learning about who they are. I should probably be glad that you didn’t make some suicidal rebellion against them, but tell me at least, why did you have to go this far?”

“I have no intention of explaining myself.”

“Did you think you could do more for the kingdom this way? You surely have done more than any of the souls judging you right now, but I need to hear it from you.”

“Just look for yourself and end this farce!”

“The thing is… We can’t. And we hate it. There are events from your life hidden from the eyes of Justice, and we cannot stand it. Give us your testimony, or the others will find an instance of you slacking of on paperwork, and cut of your fingers for that. They will find some justification to spill your blood.”

“That would be an assault on the royal official during performing his line of duty.”

Markus knew all those souls knew only how to judge others, and didn’t care for his answer. He was expecting his judgement to proceed more drastically, when he’d finally snapped back to reality.

He was lying on his back. Everything hurt him, only his right hand was partially protected from the explosion. The safety system build into the sword wasn’t meant to be a form of attack, but to vent out the excess energy. He wouldn’t normally be this bad, if it wasn’t for the amounts of mana he intentionally forced into it. He promised himself to never do something like this ever again. The summoned monster was barely knocked away, and its body still looked almost unscratched, while Markus had problems with standing up. He used that small distance, between him and the spirit, and powered the structure he was creating in the ground. The framework was unstable, since it was missing two points of focus, but should still serve its purpose.

Haven’s Fall - Markus couldn’t even say the name of the spell, as the explosion has hurt his trachea, but he fired the trap anyway. The lighting-like force looked like a phoenix diving from the sky, it was one of his strongest spells, when used properly. Even now it didn’t look bad.

The shock wave went through the district. He could feel the vibration moving in his lungs when he saw the monster bashed into the ground. It made him feel physical pain, but a real smile has crawled its way on his face.

“You got what you deserved.” He tried to say with his throat still healing.

“Everyone!” He said as loud as he could. “Fire everything you’ve got! Don’t let it stand up! Keep it as long as you can, without endangering yourselves!”

Those few bolts of mana and gunshots seemed almost pathetic compared to the sear size of that monstrosity, but while it was wounded, and those attacks were buying Markus the precious seconds to heal himself a bit. It didn’t take long. Just as he was closing his internal bleeding, the mass of bloodied flesh jumped on some poor guard, who got too confident, and got closer with a spellrod. Markus didn’t have any free mana he could use at that moment to do anything. The man would surly die, if the spirit of Judgement and Execution wasn’t required to take this small moment to look in his soul. The others managed to pull him away just in time. It looked like the same wind spell the Royal Justicius used earlier, but it has been cast by three people together. If only the monster had a few seconds to get its strength back, they would be overpowered in no time.

And like it knew what he was thinking, it looked back at him.

“You think, you can destroy this body? It was forged from the blood of the innocents, I was summoned to avenge! I will not rest until I fulfill my duty to them!”

“And mutilate any people on your way, who committed even the smallest crime.” The Justicius started to hobble towards the monster. “You are just a sick parody of justice. Go back to where you came from, and watch from there, how real professionals work.”

“You…” It started before Markus struck it with a small lighting.

“Enough talking. My throat still hurts.”

It honored his request, as it punched at him making an incoherent scream. The force was more than enough to shatter the barrier he has conjured, but the blow was slowed enough for Markus to dodge it, and make a swing. The enchanted blade has easily cut of the pile of meat, that was supposed to be an arm. With its other arm still jagged from the explosion, this fight was finally going in their favor. Then something blinked at the periphery of his vision. Just two meters from him a conjured spear was sticking out of the street cobblestone, and in the middle of it was something resembling an ugly dog bread straight out of hell. It was still trying to struggle its way out, but the Shaping of the spear was solid, and didn’t let go.

“You summoned some help? Too bad for you, I have some reliable people watching my back.” He genuinely smiled at that thought. “Let’s see how your body will fulfill that vengeance now that you have divided your ether between you and that hellhound.”

He didn’t even finish the sentence, when the rain of projectiles struck its body. At that moment he could sense all of his people around him. Not all of them were his subordinates. Most of them were strangers to each other, but they were sharing one goal.

He really felt like saying something about them delivering justice. Something was telling him, he could even try to call the same judgement on this spirit and all of its souls. He was sure that they were not much better that when they were alive.

But he wasn’t working with any of this metaphysical stuff. He was working with actual lows and rules, written on ink on paper, and not shadows on the sky.

He looked at the monster that has finally fallen on the ground, and without any further delays, he separated its head from the body.