Justitia marched further eastward, after the goblins, she didn't encounter many sinners. The forest slowly thinned as she kept moving, until it gave way to large grasslands, and civilization in the distance. As Justitia approaches, she sees a diverse group of oddly armed people moving by, and Justitia decides to stalk them for information.
"This is terrible! The locals are downright hostile to us here! The guild told me that this was an [Uncommon] planet, and there would be many unexplored places! Yet all we find here is a wasteland filled with angry locals!" A tall man in plate armor complains to no one in particular.
"Well, we did get into a fight with their guard, and they didn't seem to recognize us as adventurers." A young female mage replies to the tall armored man, all the while warily glancing at some of said locals going about their day.
"That's bullshit! Every world has adventurers! Gathering materials from the environment is what we do! We even help keep things safe! Like that necromancer tower somewhat north-east of here." The plate armored man keeps complaining.
"Jeremy, please stop. You know that the locals get furious when you refer to your participation in raiding that Nero-tower. You already started one barfight." A male elf replies to the armored man, but despite his best attempt, nearby locals already seem to be plotting their demise.
"Grasses, they deserved that! They even called you a mutant like its no big deal! I heard an elf call a dwarf a mutant, and I tried to stand up for the dwarf, but both instead started insulting me! There's something wrong with these people!" Jeremy isn't catching a hint, and Touches-The-Grasses is trying to make himself as small as possible.
Their whole attitude changes however, when they pass a corner, and see a beautiful woman staring at them, despite wearing a blindfold. They see that the woman recently lost an arm, and has wings.
"Have any of you sinned?" Justitia queries with them, but doesn't get a response. She does so hate it when people aren't being clear about this. For a moment, the group merely stares at her for a bit, before muttering some words to each other. They quickly keep moving.
"Lass! Get away from them!" Just as the group moves away, a short man grapples Justitia, she almost strikes down the offender, but is stopped on the realization that the short man tries to help her from danger.
"Don't walk near those weird fellows' lass! Especially with a cure like yours! They already killed the local necromancer, and then had the audacity ta complain bout high food prices!" Justitia looks at the short man, who holds out a hand. Justitia doesn't know why, but she shakes his hand, she doesn't remember doing this before.
"Do they sin?" The short man looks at her a bit puzzled, before responding.
"Lass, they slaughtered the guard after a scuffle, and proceeded to occupy this town, now we are in a prime position to starve. Count those crimes." Justitia begins counting, but the short man keeps going with explaining the town.
"You lass, need to head to the church, there be a mutant choirboy who staffs tha' place, ya should be safe there. They seem to avoid tha church, but they did raze tha steel mill." Justitia snaps out of her counting, that word seems...important?
"Steel mill?" Justitia looks at the short man questioningly.
"Aye, I was workin' there when they broke down the doors. Said some'in bout fortress supplying bandits. Managed ta escape with some equipment ta stay afloat. Ripe bastards is what they are, and if ya don't hurry to the church they'll dismantle ye." Dismantling a U.N.E. officer? Justitia is pretty sure that goes against the law.
"I appreciate the advice little one, please accept this as a token of my gratitude." Justitia gives a chocolate bar to the little man, she was saving it for a rainy day, but he went out of his way to help her. It would be a shame if he turned out to have sinned.
"I'm a mutant, not a child! Appreciate the chocolate regardless, lady. Good luck with the arm." The little man waves goodbye, and Justitia heads towards where he said the church was.
As she goes towards the church, she encounters more of the 'adventurers'. Every adventurer that makes sees her freezes up, and proceeds to move southward. Justitia doesn't know many things about social interactions, but even she can tell that the situation is tense. The adventurers attempt to purchase supplies, but they are either not compatible with the locals, the locals are too hostile, or the prices are too inflated.
"What do you mean you have no spare arrows, where is the Fletcher in town?"
"Get out of here! You people killed my neighbor's husband!"
"Why are food prices higher than steel bars? And why won't you take central standard?"
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
If only Justitia had her scales, she would have been able to find the sinners hiding here, and this town would be quiet and peaceful once more. So this is what unregulated life looks like? Completely devoid of justice? Justitia wants to destroy all sinners here, but without knowing who the sinners are, she might kill innocents in the crossfire.
Instead, she resolves to speed her pace to the church, plenty of the adventurers had seen her go there, but the little man said she'd be safe here. He also said that the church was here, and that turned out to be correct. He must be very smart to work in the steel mill to know these things, she wonders if he's smart enough to follow the law. Knocking on the large doors on the church, a boy with horns and bat-like wings opens the door.
"H-hello?" The boy nervously peeks through the door, only to find a crippled woman on the other side. He quickly opens the door, and looks over the woman.
"O-oh god! You're hurt!" He quickly starts checking Justitia's injuries, but is decisively stopped when he tries to get a closer look at the edges of the blindfold.
"I'm fine, I was told by someone in town that this is a safe place from adventurers." Justitia looks around as she's quickly let in by the boy.
"Y-yes, if you are looking for anyone of higher standing, there is no one. They are all busy on pilgrimages." The boy scratches his face, and is clearly nervous being in the presence of justice personified.
"What is the purpose of this place?" The boy scrambles to formulate a response.
"The purpose of this church is to bring The Word to everyone, The Word mainly revolves around being kind for others, and striving to be a better person with each passing day." Justitia didn't know the boy could speak without stuttering, and only for this moment does he stand with a small degree of confidence.
Justitia looks around for a bit, before loud knocking is heard from the door. She goes to imitate the boy by opening it, but the door is bust open instead, and adventurers begin to enter the church. Some gawk as they look at Justitia and the boy, clearly not knowing what to do right now.
"What the blazes is going on here? Why is there a [Demon] in this church? This is meant to be hallowed ground!" The boy gets frightened when their leader points at him, and he hides behind Justitia's wings.
"I-I'm no d-demon s-sir! I-I'm just a m-mutant!" He tries his best to sound brave, and fails utterly as he clenches onto Justitia's soft wings. Some adventurers look on in disgust, others look at the angel in awe.
"Forget about the demon Farquan! Do you not see the real life [Angel]? Listen, ma'am, our boss wants to see you. We can help keep you safe from dangers. Can you come with us?" Justitia evaluates the man, and decides that he is no match for dangers she has encountered so far.
"No, I don't think I will." The adventurers look at each other in confusion, they weren't expecting a no.
"But the people here must be treating you horribly! They have been calling anyone who isn't human a mutant! Not to mention that demon standing right there! Clearly this town is evil!" That word rings a bell to Justitia, but she hasn't been treated badly, not that she would know, and as far as she knows being called a mutant isn't an act of evil, nor is being a demon. She doesn't recall ever seeing those sins appear, and the town she burned down wasn't clearly evil.
"I see no evil here. I will not be coming with you, I must find evil." The blindfolded woman stands her ground, and the adventurers begin to form a half-circle. Justitia remembers this formation, she fought it before.
"You heard the lady! Get the fuck out of our church!" A voice sounds from behind the adventurers, who quickly swivel to face the new church attendee's. A large group of angry locals armed with guns form up behind the adventurers.
"There's a demon in there! We have to exterminate it! It might summon more of its kind!" Some of the locals look past the adventurers blocking their way, and see only the boy and Justitia standing in front of him.
"Where?" One of the locals asks, still expecting these men to abide by their own logic.
"Right there!" One of the adventurers points at the boy, who quickly tries to make himself look even smaller. At this point his nearly buried himself in Justitia's robe.
"Little Aleksy? Are you tellin me he's a demon?" A dwarf with half a chocolate bar in his pocket asks the expedition leader.
No one answers the dwarf, suddenly the temperature in the room noticeably cools. The adventurers no longer feel confident that their words could convince the locals, and the locals are scared that the adventurers really meant to exterminate the timid choir boy that takes care of their church.
Until a burly elf with a shotgun raises his weapon towards the leader of the adventurers, and fires. The blast disorients everyone except Justitia, but the man is still standing after the shotgun blast. His armor shimmers and glow, and the leader recovers quickly. The other locals seeing him recover get scared, and start firing at the adventurers. The adventurers in turn begin cutting down the locals, who lack any protection against their magical weaponry. Justitia looks on as the slaughter happens, while Aleksy is hiding underneath one of the pews.
The slaughter escalates as more adventurers and locals join the fight, being attracted from the region. Justitia suddenly puts 2 and 2 together. They kicked open the door to the church, and the boy takes care of this place. They broke private property, and trespassed on a place where the boy clearly doesn't want them. These are sinners. Justitia lights her plasma cutter, and begins cutting apart the adventurers. Their armor was impressive against the lead weapons, but are futile against 150 million degrees Celsius of nuclear power. Justitia might as well be waving around a contained Neutron Star. There are no screams as the adventurers get picked off, they were already embroiled in a fight against the locals, and Justitia moves unchecked. Some of the adventurers leave corpses behind, some of those corpses have more bits left than others.
As the fight finishes, Justitia sighs. Justice has been served here, the sinners were exposed. She lands between some locals.
"Shit, we will have to run, the reprisals these guys give are no joke."
"We should head west, there is still a major Lost presence there, they are certain to fight against these guys." The others nod in assent, and quickly start scattering to get their things. Many had already been planning to run out of town.
Justitia looks at the ones who fought sinners as they scatter, she's tired now, and tomorrow she will have to head to the next place to administer justice.