The floating cage didn't take me to a dungeon. Instead, it descended toward a building so massive it made the skyscrapers in Tokyo look like toy blocks. This was the Ordeal of Justice, a cathedral of white stone and gold that seemed to stretch into the clouds.
As we reached the entrance, I saw hundreds of blue-skinned officers standing in long, perfectly straight queues. They didn't move. They didn't blink. The discipline was so thick it felt like the air itself was under arrest.
A guard, identical to the ones holding me, stepped forward to block our path.
"Purpose?" he barked.
"Illegal jump from the Gray Realm," my guard replied. "The hearing starts now."
The guard gave me a full-body review, his glowing eyes scanning my messy hair, my muddy shoes, and my cheap school uniform. He didn't say a word, but his lip curled in a sneer before he signaled for us to pass.
Inside, it was a big hall. A big, freaking hall.
It was a sea of marble. Rows of guards stood like statues, eyes fixed straight ahead. It was so quiet I could hear the blood pumping in my ears. Do these guys even breathe? I wondered.
As we walked, I saw the spectators. Some looked like professional lawyers, dressed in sharp, glowing suits that reminded me of Earth, but their skin was silver or translucent. Others looked like they had jumped straight out of a high-end fantasy video game—cloaked figures with floating staffs and beings with wings made of light.
It was cool, but it was weird. Every single one of them turned their heads as I passed. They looked at me like I was a rare, disgusting insect.
"Keep moving, Null," the guard hissed.
I was led to the center of the hall and forced to stand inside a small square surrounded by a shimmering metal railing.
"Try not touching those if you don't want to get roasted alive," the guard warned.
"Thank you for the great information," I muttered, pulling my arms in tight. "I'll try to keep my 'getting roasted' to a minimum today."
Above me, the "Big Guys" sat. These judges were of different species, sitting behind floating bar-desks that were bigger than any animal on Earth. They looked down at me from such a height that I felt like a speck of dust. It was terrifying. I tried to stand still, but my knees were shaking so hard I thought I'd trigger the floor sensors.
Finally, a heavy voice filled the hall, vibrating in my chest.
"Who is this being?"
The guard who brought me here stepped into a nearby square and bowed. "My Lord, Presence of Justice, I present this human. We found him at the Marble Hall, holding the Mirror of Jump. He has connected to the Gray Realm."
The guard paused, looking up at the high judges. "But as you can see by his Status Bar, he does not hold the capacity to own this mirror. We sense an illegal jump. We suspect an evil intent behind his arrival."
The head judge—a giant with skin like cracked sapphire—leaned over his desk. His gaze was like a physical weight.
"His status shows his level is nothing but [TRASH]," the Judge boomed. "How can a being with no powers, no pulse, and no value perform a jump? It is a violation of the Natural Law."
I looked up at him. I was so small, and they were so big. They were talking about "recycling" me like I was a broken toaster.
"I didn't do anything evil!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the silence. "I just found a mirror in a pond! If your laws are so great, why is your 'justice' trying to kill a kid for being in the wrong place?"
The hall went cold.
The "Big Guy" narrowed his eyes, his gaze heavy enough to crush the spirit of anyone standing in that square.
"You have no power, human," the Judge boomed, his voice final. "In Aethryx, those without power have no voice. You are a glitch in our reality, a fragment that does not belong. The Law of the Winners is absolute."
He raised a gavel that glowed with a terrifying, cold blue light. Every guard in the room stood at attention. The "lawyers" in the stands leaned forward, waiting for the inevitable. The sentence for a [TRASH] rank with no Pulse was always the same:
Erasure.
I looked up at that glowing gavel, my heart hammering against my ribs. I had just found a world I finally wanted to live in, and now it was about to be taken away. I gripped the broken mirror in my pocket so hard the glass bit into my palm.
"I'm not a fragment," I whispered, though no one could hear me over the hum of the gavel's power.
The Judge drew a deep breath to announce the final verdict. The blue light of the gavel intensified, blinding and cold.
"Entity Fuen," the Judge began, his arm tensing to strike the desk. "For the crime of Unsanctioned Entry and possessing a Null-Value status, you are hereby sentenced to—"