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Elias stood alone in the warehouse's rotting heart—his black coat soaked in blood and chemical fluid, the Scalesword gleaming in his hand. Dozens of half-born, half-dead horrors circled him. Their twisted limbs dragged over rusted metal. Their mouths opened but made no sound—only breathless echoes of pain.
Above, behind reinforced glass, Adrian Kells smiled and watched.
> "I always wondered what would happen if a Judge woke up again," he said, voice filtered through intercom static. "You're beautiful. A dying god pretending to be a man."
Elias didn't answer.
He lifted his hand.
The brand on his palm flared open, brighter than it had ever been. Heat flooded the room like a second sunrise.
> "Judgment is active."
His voice wasn't entirely his own.
---
Oathbound Territory: Activated
A ring of golden light exploded outward from Elias, burning into the concrete floor. The moment it touched the walls, the warehouse shuddered. Time slowed inside the barrier. The air thickened. The walls bled steam.
> "Within this territory, all truth is revealed," the voice echoed from him. "All sin stands exposed. All masks burn."
The creatures screamed. One burst into flames. Another dropped to its knees, clutching its head, sobbing in an inhuman rasp.
Elias stepped forward.
The Scalesword reformed—its hilt splitting into the ancient scales. They hovered in the air above the sword, pulsing with light.
One creature—twice the size of a man, with surgical tubing pumping blue fluid into its chest—rushed Elias in a blind frenzy.
The sword moved on its own.
> SLASH.
Clean through the chest.
But this time, Elias didn't kill blindly.
He turned to another abomination—a woman, or what was left of one—who crawled forward, her face half-reconstructed from wire.
> "Name," Elias demanded.
She opened her mouth—and out came a child's voice.
> "Sofia."
The scales shifted slightly. One side tipped.
> "Victim. Experimented on. Mutated. Guilty of nothing."
Elias closed his eyes.
> "Sentence: Peace."
The light from his hand flowed into her. Her body glowed, and for a moment, the wire melted. Her true face returned, if only briefly.
She smiled.
Then she vanished—like ash on the wind.
---
Adrian Kells Makes His Move
Above, alarms blared. Kells tapped a final command into the console. Explosives detonated in the far wall, blasting open a sealed tunnel.
Elias spun, the Mandate flaring—
But too late.
Kells stared down one last time.
> "We'll meet again, Judge. Next time, let's see how you handle free will."
He dropped into the darkness and disappeared.
---
The Last Stand
The Mandate screamed inside Elias.
He turned toward the remaining horrors.
They charged all at once.
Ten. Fifteen. Maybe more.
The sword flared white, and Elias let go.
---
🩸 The Fight
It wasn't clean. It wasn't pretty. It was divine carnage.
One slash sent a wave of searing light that vaporized three beasts. Another triggered a feedback surge—burning part of Elias's own chest but detonating a nearby tank in a flash of fire.
They surrounded him.
He bled.
He screamed.
And the Mandate poured through him like a flood, forcing their crimes to manifest around them.
> One monster saw its human self again—killing innocents, laughing—and burst into flame.
Another was shown its final victim's face—and tore its own head off.
A third tried to crawl away but was chained to the ground by light, screaming until it melted into salt.
Elias's hand cracked from the power.
Blood dripped down his fingers. His nose bled. His mouth was full of metal.
But he didn't stop.
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🧎 Collapse
When it was done, the warehouse was smoke and ruin.
Elias stood in the center, trembling.
The Scalesword lowered itself to the ground, its light fading. His eyes dimmed. The Mandate receded.
He dropped to his knees.
Beneath his hand, the floor cracked from heat.
His breath came in gasps.
Kells was gone.
And the Mandate whispered softly, with cruel approval:
> "You judged well. But not fast enough."
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