The voice remained silent, simmering in disapproval. But beneath that, Aelric sensed something else. Concern, since when does voice start to become concerned about him?
The pact was sealed. The knowledge was his. But something else had changed in that chamber. The prison had not shattered, but it had been loosened quite a bit.
As they left the chamber, a faint, quiet laugh echoed behind them. And in the distance, the sound of contracts being rewritten.
The air grew closer as Aelric stepped through the crumbling archway, the once majestic obsidian gate now fractured like brittle bone.
The silence that met him was not peaceful. It is like a pressure, which is oppressive and absolute, even the ambient murmurs of the Abyss seemed to halt here, as though in reverence or fear.
Towering spires flanked the path ahead, each marked with weathered sigils, their meanings lost to time.
Yet there was something unmistakably judgmental in their design, faces carved into the stone, their mouths stretched wide in eternal proclamation of guilt.
As Aelric crossed a shadowed, drenched plaza, the earth trembled softly beneath his boots, and a whisper, dry as an ancient parchment, slithered into his mind.
"Trespasser. Usurper witness."
He halted. The Voice of the Abyss spoke in the Hollow of his thoughts.
[You have triggered a tethered domain. The Tribunal stirs. Prepare yourself.]
As soon as it spoke, the light vanished all at once.
In its place came the echo of a gavel's strike, three sharp cracks against invisible stone. Then the world was rewritten.
The plaza was gone. Aelric now stood in a vast courtroom carved from darkness itself.
Rows of empty pews lined the aisle, stretching into a suffocating void. High above, three spectral figures looked, their forms draped in mist, faces obscured by golden masks with broken mouths.
The one at the center spoke, its voice was like a rusted chain dragged across marble. "Aelric, bearer of the Devourer's Bloom. Wielder of Gluttony. Breaker of seals. You stand before us as an accused."
Aelric looked at them. "Of what?"
"Of unbinding the pact. Of consorting with the lost Veyra. Of the disturbing, the sacred rot of memory."
[This is a trap] The Voice said. [They feed on guilt. If you show guilt, they can erase your existence. Defend not just your actions, but your right to exist here.]
The Tribunal's flanking judges raised their hands. From the shadowed pews, twisted wraiths emerged, some bore familiar faces from the past battles, others were faceless amalgamations of those consumed by the Abyss. They were silent witnesses to his deeds.
"Your corruption spreads," intoned the left judge. "Each soul you devour, each chain you break, each pact you twist. Do you deny this?"
"I accept what I have done," Aelric said, voice firm. "But I don't regret it."
The courtroom became silent for a second.
The right judge leaned forward. "Regret is not the same as guilt. You broke the law of death. You wield power never meant for mortal skin."
The voice replied with precision. [Ask them, who made those laws? Who enshrined it? Who were the rulers that fell, what hypocrisy still clings to their bones?]
Aelric raised his Voice. "Who are you to judge me? Who wrote your laws? The rulers of this city? The same ones who tried to bend the Abyss to their will? Who cursed their people into weeping statues and chained demons to silence?"
The Tribunal hesitated. A flicker of uncertainty crackled through the dark.
[Push now.] Urged the voice. [Expose the fracture.]
"Tell me,* Aelric demanded. "If you claim to uphold justice, then where were you when the city burned? When it's people were consumed from within by the same madness you now blame me for."
A tremor shook the courtroom. The left judge faltered, one of its golden chains unraveling.
"Enough," growled the central judge. "Your arrogance festers. The sentence must be passed."
Aelric readied himself. The ethereal judges extended long, skeletal fingers, inscribing burning runes into the air. Chains of ghost light coiled towards him. But he was faster than them.
Iron Bind flared from his hand, ethereal chains born of stolen strength burst outward, intercepting the Tribunal's judgement. At the same time. Devourer's Bloom pulsed beneath his skin, drawing on the lingering sorrow in the room like nectar. He felt their pain, their duty, their shame. And understand the loopholes.
"You are bound to judgment, aren't you?" He said. "But your rules are not real. You only exist because you are guilty of something. But I don't feel guilty, I only have purpose."
He stepped forward, chains wrapping around the nearest judge. "I won't be condemned for surviving."
The spectral judge shrieked as the chains tightened. Shadows unraveled from its form like ash in the wind. The courtroom warped, losing cohesion.
Cracks opened in the ceiling, bleeding stats that didn't belong to any sky.
The second judge lunged, its body becoming a storm of gavel-shaped blades. Aelric ducked, rolled and lashed upward, shackles pierced the ghostly flesh, draining its essence. The judge screamed, its voice splintering into hundreds.
Only the central judge remained. It watched him, not with fury, but sorrow. "You would have made a fine ruler…had the world not broken you first."
It raised a trembling hand. And Aelric raised his hand. The Voice of the Abyss surged within him. The air vibrated, and after listening to what it said, Aelric spoke the same words out.
"I am not a king. I am what survives kings."
Chains shot forth, catching the judge, and he pulled him hard. The judge's essence folded into Aelric's hands, evaporating into tendrils of silvery memory.
The courtroom fell apart in silence, the judge's gone, the trial ended, not by verdict, but by deconstruction.
Aelric dropped to one knee as the world righted itself. The ruins returned. They stood alone once more in the plaza, no Tribunal, no echoes.
Only Veyra's slow clapping from the shadows. "You really do make chaos look like art," she said, smirking.