Once again, I teleported to the same eerie place.
The ground beneath my feet pulsed with energy, slow and sick, like a living heart buried under stone.
I looked in front of me.
"A gray… dead tree…?"
Its branches were twisted, brittle, frozen mid-death.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the fragment.
My left hand was still paralyzed.
Even here, even like this — I had to finish the judgment.
I struck the tree.
Nothing happened.
I struck it again.
Still nothing.
Again.
Again.
My breathing grew heavier. My teeth clenched.
And then—
The tree shattered.
Not split.
Not cracked.
It disintegrated into dust.
Where it had stood, an old man's body lay on the ground.
Unmoving.
Waiting.
I took a slow, shaking breath.
And then—
I touched his forehead.
The moment my fingers made contact, something was wrong.
Deeply wrong.
My stomach lurched.
My vision warped.
I fell to my knees and started to vomit.
It felt like my mind was tearing something out of itself.
Like information was being ripped away — something it had hidden, something it should never have seen.
My throat burned.
My head rang.
Then the memories came.
Voices I didn't recognize but somehow knew.
I hit my head against the pulsing floor.
Just to make it stop.
"You— you sick bastard…!" I gasped, my voice breaking.
My hands were shaking. My chest felt too tight to breathe.
"HELL… HELL… HELL!"
I screamed it into the empty space.
I repeated my answer before the system even gave me a choice.
The system listened.
And acted.
The old man's body ignited.
Not dissolving into an orb.
Not fading.
Burning.
I could still hear the screams.
Then—
I woke up.
I tried to stand, but my legs gave out.
The window frame slammed into the back of my head.
A small box fell to the floor.
"AGH!"
I gasped, breathing hard.
"H-holy… shit…"
"What is wrong with me…" My voice cracked.
"Hey!"
Astrid's voice came from the hall. She rushed in and dropped to her knees beside me, holding my head firmly.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"What the hell happened here?"
"I… I don't know," I lied. "I feel dizzy…"
"Well, you did take some slashing."
"Mhm."
She finished the last of the treatment, careful, practiced.
"Okay. You're all healed up. Does it hurt?"
"No. Not really."
"Alright," she said softly. "I'll walk you to your bed."
Second Judgement Completed
Rewards:
Second fragment of the Sword.
Left hand, now mobilised.
New mission:
Judge five candidates.