Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The venue of the public hearing was built in the space near the Main Plane. From a distance, it looked like a hemisphere. It was surrounded by at least a hundred brilliant divine lights, which were the good gods, under the leadership of the God of Justice, guarding the surroundings to avoid others' disturbances.

The shell of that hemisphere was a boundary that no masters beyond the Legendary Realm could pass. If one wanted to break in it by force, one would arouse the defense of the boundary, and it would send an alarm so that the nearby gods would come immediately.

"You want to break in by force? Come on! As long as you could win the joint defense of over a hundred good gods, just come! It is not difficult at all, is it?" When the God of Justice made such a declaration, he laughed very arrogantly.

Many evil gods went to the venue for a look in advance, and then secretly gave up the idea of making trouble during the public hearing. Just like others, they sent their Message-Sending Clones here.

After entering the hemispherical boundary, the scene inside was quite different.

On the ground was a flat, white stripe of stone and overhead was a clear blue sky. It was cloudless; a red sun was hanging high in the sky, and it didn't mean to move at all.

The venue was located in the center of this boundary, and its main style was something squarish.

The trial stand, the plaintiff stand, the accused stand, the witness stand and the judge's bench that were facing the trial stand were all square. There were rows of square seats, too. Looking at this formal venue of the public hearing, almost everything was square, and the color was solemn and grand. There was nothing mild or casual in it, and that created an unusually dignified and serious atmosphere.

On the judge's bench was the God of Law, on the plaintiff's seat was the Void Mask, and on the defendant's seat was the God of Fear who had been tied there by a complicated chain made of at least fifty to sixty Divine Powers. Only the witness's seat was empty. The witnesses wouldn't show up until the formal trial started.

Because the venue was not far from the Main Plane, most of the masters of the Legendary Realm could come. Therefore, besides the gods sitting in the front row, the audience also included a large number of masters from the human world or other worlds. Half of them were curious, and the other half were planning to take this opportunity to see if they could meet or make friends with one or two gods so as to find support for themselves.

Few masters that could enter the Legendary Realm were stubborn, so they seldom insisted on developing their power all by themselves. Of course, self-independency and self-improvement were necessary, but what was wrong with finding a stronger backer?

The seniors helping the juniors was always the right way to pass on the civilization from generation to generation.

As the appointed time got closer and closer, more and more audiences appeared in the venue. Later, when it was the appointed time, the huge venue was fully occupied, and those late-comers had even sat at least two or three miles away.

It was impossible for ordinary people to see anything clearly at this distance, but things were different for legendary masters. As long as there was no obstruction in front of them, they could see the venue clearly as if it was just in front of them.

Sitting on the plaintiff's seat, Sui Xiong looked at the audience that had stretched out for thousands of meters and could not help frown.

He hadn't expected there to be so many people.

But after a rough thought, he had an idea. With a tap of his tentacles, the white stone floor began to sink slowly, one layer after another. Thus, the back row was slightly higher than the front one, just like a staircase.

This kind of seat was very common to see here, but Sui Xiong really did not expect that even the court could need it.

After this slight modification of the venue, Sui Xiong was relieved because even the last row of the audience could see the central trial stand clearly.

A moment later, the God of Justice, acting as the host, announced the start of the trial.

To be honest, there was not much suspense about this trial. Everyone knew that the God of Fear was dead for sure. It was nothing more than choosing a way of death for him.

But soon after the trial began, many gods were surprised.

"I'm Auscar, the Void Mask. I believe many of you here have known me, or not, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm the plaintiff today." Sui Xiong took the lead in the speech. "To be honest, I don't think I am the victim of the evil acts of the God of Fear. He was too weak to bully me. But the God of Law thinks that I'm the most suitable one to be the plaintiff for I was a direct target of his latest evil act, so I'm here.

"I know I'm a bit annoying, so I'll skip all the nonsense. There is no need to introduce anyone because I believe that everyone knows the God of Law who is sitting on the judge's bench and the God of Fear that is sitting, let's assume he is sitting, on the defendant's seat. So let me get back to the business…"

Sui Xiong paused for a moment and said loudly, "As the plaintiff in this case, I have brought a complaint on behalf of the victims of the evil acts of the God of Fear over the past tens of thousands of years. After a period of investigation, I compiled a list of horrible crimes committed by the God of Fear. Here I prosecute him for 1,276,449 crimes in total!"

1,276,449 crimes?!

The audience was in an uproar. Even the gods were stunned, not to mention those legendary masters.

Wasn't that too many?

It was true that the clergy of fear had been in existence since the ancient time, and it had a long history that was hard to verify. But the contemporary God of Fear had only become a god for about 123,000 years. In these years, this guy had committed more than 1.27 million crimes? Didn't that mean there were more than ten of them every year?

Wait… Ten crimes a year… It seemed like… Maybe that was not a large number.

Thinking of this, the gods restored calm.

The God of Fear had lived a long life, so it was natural for him to commit a lot of crimes. Even though the figure of more than one million was astonishing, that would be nothing serious if it had gradually happened during more than 100,000 years.

There was a god under the stage who couldn't help but open his mouth and ask, "Were there so few of them? Did he just do evil things ten times a year?"

Many gods nodded secretly. In their impression, the God of Fear and his subordinates had done all kinds of evil things. It would more than appropriate to describe them as having committed every crime imaginable.

For such a gang of evil guys, one said that they had just committed ten crimes a year? This one must be kidding!

Sui Xiong did not stop the audience from asking questions, and later he answered, "In fact, we initially collected an astonishing number of crimes, but after some screening, we found that most of them were committed by his subordinates, not directly related to him. These crimes have been summarized by us in one as supporting the weaker evil gods and people and acting as an umbrella for their crimes (to protect them)."

"Then that must be heavily judged!" that god said again indignantly. "If it hadn't been for his support, many heinous crimes would not have happened!"

"Please rest assured. We will judge him strictly in accordance with the law." Sui Xiong smiled and said. "Even if I'm not reliable, can't you believe the one on the judge's bench?"

The gods smiled and nodded, and the court was quiet again.

According to the traditional legal procedure, Sui Xiong should read out a document at this moment, listing the crimes of the God of Fear one by one. However, it was really impossible for him to read over 1.2 million crimes one by one, so Sui Xiong just talked about them in brief, and then transferred the right to speak to the judge.

The face of the God of Law looked still old, but there was something more vigorous on his face and body today than before. After listening to Sui Xiong's part, he didn't make any comment and turned his head to the God of Fear.

"As a totally neutral god, I am neither inclined to good nor evil," the God of Law said. "So here, both sides have equal right of statement and debate. The God of Fear, as the defendant in this case, is there something you want to defend yourself?"

Apparently, the God of Fear had thought about it before, and even though he looked worried, he did not hesitate to answer immediately, "Of course. As you all know, I am one of the evil gods. The evil that I pursued is one of the most basic principles in the world, just the same as the other good gods valued. In my opinion, the balance between good and evil is an indispensable standard for maintaining the normal operation of the world. Judging evil with good is like distorting the original law of the world. It doesn't make sense at all!"

When he finished that, there was an uproar again.

The audience had never expected the God of Fear to make such a counter-attack when he was almost the meat on the chopping board. All of a sudden, he raised the topic to the height of the world's law.

If his justification worked, they were afraid that it would be impossible to convict him of his crimes this time.