The arrival of the Judicator was not an event. It was a cessation.
Sound died. The frantic shouts of the guards, the whispers of the guests, the very rustle of leaves in the wind—all were snuffed out, consumed by an oppressive, absolute silence. The air, which had been merely cold, now felt thin and sharp, like the atmosphere on a desolate, forgotten moon.
Every single person in the pavilion was frozen, locked in place not by a physical force, but by a primal, soul-deep terror. Valerius, the proud Crown Prince, stood with his sword half-drawn, his face a mask of slack-jawed disbelief. The prodigies and heirs, who had been posturing and scheming moments before, now looked like frightened children.
Even Lin Feng, the World-Breaker himself, was affected. His arrogant smirk had vanished, replaced by a look of wary confusion. His protagonist's halo, which had warped reality to his will, seemed to flicker and dim in the face of this new, incomprehensible authority. He was a big fish who had just been dropped into an ocean, suddenly aware of the leviathans that swam in its depths.
Only two people in the pavilion seemed capable of processing what was happening: me and Lyra.
I saw the flicker of absolute, bone-deep panic in my sister's eyes. She knew what this was. Or rather, she knew what it represented. The Netherworld wasn't just a convenient source of power for her chosen hero. It was an ancient, bureaucratic, and terrifyingly powerful empire with its own laws and its own enforcers. She had made a deal with one of its lords, and now, an uninvited magistrate had shown up at her party. This was the equivalent of a street-level gangster making a deal and having the supreme court justice of the universe show up to review the paperwork.
I, on the other hand, felt a surge of adrenaline that was almost intoxicating. The system's warning was dire, but my assimilation of the Imp's core gave me a sliver of understanding. This wasn't a random demon. This was a cop.
The Judicator's amethyst eyes swept over the frozen assembly, her gaze dismissive, as if she were looking at insects. Her eyes passed over Valerius, Seraphina, the other nobles. They lingered for a fraction of a second on Lin Feng, a flicker of something—recognition? evaluation?—in their depths.
Then, her gaze landed on me.
And it stopped.
The silence in my own mind, which had been a maelstrom of calculation, was absolute. The Judicator's focus was a physical weight, a pressure that threatened to crack my very soul. She wasn't just looking at me; she was reading me. Reading the echoes of the Imp, the scent of the Netherworld, the anathema of the Nexus Codex, and the ancient blood of Malakor the Mad.
The corner of her impossibly beautiful mouth twitched, a microscopic movement that could have been a sneer or a smile.
She turned her attention to Lyra, whose face had gone deathly pale.
"Lyra Ravencrest," the Judicator's voice was not loud, but it resonated directly in everyone's mind. It was a sound like shattering ice and ancient law. "You are the signatory of Contract-734, brokered by the entity known as the Shadow Lord. Is this correct?"
Lyra couldn't speak, but she managed a jerky, terrified nod.
The Judicator unrolled the black iron scroll in her hand. Glowing, incomprehensible runes swirled on its surface. "The contract stipulates the support of a designated 'vessel' in exchange for a tithe of the 'destiny' harvested from this world upon its successful destabilization. The contract is… unorthodox, but valid."
Her gaze flickered back to me. "However, an addendum has been filed. The contract's primary binding agent, the Soul-Devouring Imp bound to the signatory's bloodline, has been… annihilated."
Every word was a hammer blow against Lyra's composure. Her eyes darted to me, filled with a mixture of disbelief and dawning, horrified understanding.
The Judicator continued, her voice devoid of emotion. "The annihilation of a contracted demonic entity constitutes a severe breach. According to the statutes of the Court of Inevitability, when a contract's binding agent is destroyed, the debt is transferred. The price must still be paid."
She looked directly at me. "The entity was destroyed by you, Kaelen Ravencrest. Its authority, its energy, and its contractual obligations have been assimilated into your being."
She rolled up the scroll. "Therefore, the debt is now yours to bear."
A collective, silent gasp seemed to pass through the frozen crowd. They didn't understand the words, but they understood the implication. I, the useless Fourth Prince, was somehow entangled with this terrifying, otherworldly being.
"What… what is the price?" I projected the thought, my voice steady despite the roaring in my ears.
The Judicator gave me that same, chilling, unreadable smile. "The Shadow Lord's investment in this world is significant. The price for breaking his tools is steep. You are now responsible for ensuring the successful maturation of the World-Breaker anomaly, Lin Feng."
The sheer, unadulterated irony was so thick I could have choked on it. My life's purpose, the entire goal of my regression and the Nexus Codex, was to destroy Lin Feng. And now, a demonic court had just declared that it was my legal, cosmic duty to help him succeed.
"You will act as his 'Final Trial'," the Judicator elaborated, as if explaining a simple traffic law. "You will become his shadow, his rival, the whetstone upon which he is sharpened. You will gather power, you will oppose him, you will seize his opportunities, and you will become the greatest villain of this era. You will do all of this to force him to grow stronger, faster, and more ruthless. And on the day he finally kills you, your soul, and all the power you have accumulated, will be rendered unto the Netherworld as payment for the debt."
It was a slave contract. A death sentence with a life of forced villainy as the prelude. They weren't just ordering me to be the villain. They were ordering me to be the ultimate stepping stone.
My hatred, my revenge, my entire existence, was being co-opted and turned into a demonic fattening-up program for my most hated enemy.
This was a twist I could never have foreseen. A checkmate delivered by a power beyond the scope of any mortal game.
But as the Judicator prepared to deliver her final verdict, the Nexus Codex, which had been silent and overwhelmed, suddenly flared to life in my mind. The text wasn't gold or purple. It was a stark, defiant, sovereign white.
[!!! SOVEREIGNTY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED !!!]
[A FOREIGN ENTITY IS ATTEMPTING TO IMPOSE A HOSTILE FATE-SCRIPT UPON THE HOST.]
[THE NEXUS CODEX'S PRIMARY DIRECTIVE IS TO CORRECT ANOMALIES AND REWRITE FATE, NOT SUBMIT TO IT.]
[COUNTER-PROPOSAL INITIATED. A 'WAGER OF REALMS' IS BEING OFFERED TO THE JUDICATOR.]
A new screen appeared in my vision, but this time, I knew it wasn't just for me. The Judicator's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, the first sign of genuine surprise she had shown. She was seeing it too.
[THE WAGER]
[HOST: Kaelen Ravencrest, Scribe of Correction]
[TARGET: Lin Feng, World-Breaker Anomaly]
[TERMS: The Scribe and the Anomaly will compete. No holds barred. No cosmic interference. The destiny they seize, the power they accumulate, will be their own.]
[THE STAKES:]
[IF KAELEN RAVENCREST KILLS LIN FENG: The debt to the Netherworld is nullified. The contract is void. The Nexus Codex claims the harvested destiny of the failed World-Breaker as salvage. Aethelgard is saved from its seeded destruction.]
[IF LIN FENG KILLS KAELEN RAVENCREST: The Netherworld's original plan succeeds. The debt is paid. The Nexus Codex, its core authority, and all its accumulated power and data are forfeited to the Netherworld as a spoil of victory.]
It was an all-or-nothing gamble. My life, my system, and the fate of the entire world on one side of the table. Lin Feng's destiny and the Netherworld's grand investment on the other.
The Judicator stared at the proposal that only she and I could see, her face a perfect, unreadable mask. The silence stretched, thin and brittle. She was a being of law and contracts. A wager, a new contract, was something her very nature had to consider.
Finally, she spoke, her voice echoing in the silent pavilion.
"A wager of realms," she murmured, a flicker of something ancient and dangerous in her eyes. "It has been millennia since such a stake was put on the table."
She looked from me to the still-confused Lin Feng, and then back again.
"The Court of Inevitability," she declared, her voice ringing with the finality of a slamming tomb door, "accepts your terms."