Chapter 39

  The Trial

  Part 2

  "DEFENDANT! That will be enough of that! For the court's decorum, I have banned all profanity, except in the case of witness testimony, and even then, it's only when quoting a statement, to maintain judicial integrity! Do not try our patience further!"-Chronos

  "Your Highness, if you wish to commit suicide by court, I'd appreciate fair warning. Your Honor. The defense is ready."-Jade

  "Then I will prepare the jury. Per the rules of the trial, the jury must be composed of royals, as such, the jury will include the founding royalty of several nations: Tribal leader Optimal Primate of Furcadia. King Henry Sydonia I of Sydonia. Queen Hera of Gynosdistaff. King Phillip of Androsphallusca. Pope Peter of the Holy Kingdom. Red Royal, Orange Oligarch, Yellow Yangban, Emerald Emperor, The Azure Priest, Indigo Innocentus, and the Venerable Violet, who would later become the Rainbow Coalition."- Chronos

  "Won't that possibly cause temporal paradoxes? Because they might get advanced notice of the future?"-Jade.

  "Good question, and it's already been handled. You don't need to worry about that."-Chronos.

  "Very well, then. Shall we get this started, Your Honor?"-Raguel.

  "Proceed."-Chronios.

  "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury. Thank you all for attending. We, on the prosecution, intend to show that the accused, King Artorious Sydonia III has engaged in a crime most foul, betraying the world, and The System, to be consumed by siding with a group that opened a portal to an invading evil god. May Justice be served."-Raguel.

  "Thank you, Lord Raguel. Defense!"-Chronos

  "Thank you, Your Honor, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury. It is our position that King Artorious Sydonia III only joined the criminal group under duress and was deliberately kept unaware of their goals and actions. As such, he should not be judged guilty of the crime as he was denied any agency and can not be held liable."-Jade.

  "Snort. Great. My fate is going to be decided in a grand farce, overseen by beasts and freaks."-Artorious.

  "DEFENDANT!! If you cannot control your tongue, then I will control it for you!!"- Chronos

  Suddenly, the former king finds himself bound in chains, gagged, and rooted to his chair with all kinds of magical bindings.

  "Any objections?"-Chronos

  "None, Your Honor."-Raguel

  "Thank you, Your Honor."-Jade.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "In that case, on with the proceedings..."-Chronos

  Part way through Chronos's sentence, Former King Sydonia's eyes begin to swell as if something is trying to push them out of his head. The veins in his neck and face become visible. He goes purple as if he's in a rage. He begins squirming and struggling against the chains and screams come from his mouth, muffled by the gag.

  "Even restrained you cannot help yourself, you damned buffoon..."Chronos declares as he taps his scythe against the ground, but nothing happens. "My powers are being resisted? How is this possible? He is no deity nor have I given leave for one to enter aside from..." Chronos looks over at Raguel.

  "It was not I, Your Honor."-Raguel.

  The back of King Sydonia's head explodes and a skeletal creature reminiscent of a serpent comes out. It hisses angrily and then coils itself before launching with unbelievable speed at Chronos.

  Jade intercepts the attack, blocking the creature with a nearly invisible wall composed of graphene.

  "What in the great multiverse is that thing?"-Chronos.

  "SkreeehyahhchIEEE!!!" cries the creature as it tries to smash its way through the nearly invisible barrier.

  "Maybe we can try to find out after that thing is dead!"-Jade

  "No argument"-Raguel

  Jade conjures up a composite bow made of the best materials he can draw from with his [Blueprints] and tosses it, as well as a few arrows, at Allura and directs her to fire at the creature from range while instructing Iluna to prepare divine magic against it. Meanwhile Jade draws his sword and prepares to fight at close range.

  The creature stops attacking the barrier and turns to look at the jury.

  "Oh no, you don't!" shouts Allura before firing on the creature. The shot is true, but the arrows fail to penetrate its natural armor plates made of an unknown material.

  "Hisshsasjhara!" cries the creature before turning to spring in Allura's direction.

  "Not this time!" declares Jade as he catches the beast mid-leap, slams it to the ground and tries to impale it with his sword.

  The creature squirms, tries to flip itself around, sends its many, many spine tipped legs up at Jade to try and scratch, pierce, or slash him, Jade's scales automatically blocking the clumsy attacks. It makes the mistake of opening an orifice on the top part of its body to apparently spray some kind of goo that can be seen collecting, but that just gives Jade the golden opportunity to get past its defenses and skewer it like spear-fishing, finally pinning it to the ground.

  Jade then sends puts the runes for electric and fire magic on the sword from his [Blueprints] and fries the creature like french-fries in a deep frier.

  "HissSkreeichliaakkchau!"

  The creature continues to thrash for a few moments before finally going still.

  System Notice: You have killed a uimgahdm. Error. Creature unknown. Unable to properly parse Exp. Attempting to compensate. Error. Unable to compensate. System was not programmed for this contingency. Standby.... Archaic Records find no record of this creature. Attempting to contact Administrator. Please hold.

  Some lovely Musak begins playing and can be heard in the entire courtroom.

  Ring. Ring. Ring. Busy Signal. Disconnect.

  Attempting re-connection.

  Ring. Ring. The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please check your records and try again. If you believe this message is in error, please speak with the operator for further instructions.

  Unable to contact administrator. Initiating backup protocols.... Success. Title acquired: Xenomorph slayer.

  You are the first to slay a creature unable to be recognized by The System. As compensation for being unable to deliver proper EXP and for receiving data on this creature, you have been awarded a boost against any other unrecognizable creatures, and this boost can be temporarily shared with members of your party. When this creature's properly analyzed and integrated into system records, the EXP owed will be properly delivered without further notice nor confirmation.

  End System Notice.

  "A creature that exists outside The System's notice or knowledge? Now that's rare." -Raguel.

  "Indeed. Even I, the God of Time, have never seen this beast. It must have come from some plane of existence far, far removed from my jurisdiction. Perhaps The Defendant can tell us something about it."-Chronos

  With a tap of his staff, Chronos uses his abilities to regress King Sydonia back to before the creature became a parasite in his system. The king appears before everyone as a child of an age that's maybe in the double digits.

  "Mommy? Daddy? Where are you? Where am I? Who are all of you... YOU! Beasts! Monsters!!" The child version of King Sydonia cries out in rage and panic, diving under the desk, trying to hide while glaring at Allura and his elder form's wife.

  "Okay. This is awkward."-Chronos