I have no eyes. I have no emotion. When I speak, my voice is truth and power. My hearing is only for the innocents. My brothers are my executioner and jury and I AM THE JUDGE.
The 7 foot man with a body of a God holds Rowan by his head above the ground, "Killian said you have people living in your head."
"Who the fuck is Killian..?" Rowan's voice muffled through the man's hand.
He then threw Rowan up into the air, grabbed his legs, and slammed him back into the ground. The ground below cracked and a small wave of heat begins to emit from Soloro's bright golden body.
"Killian told me you would be strong, but I guess not," Soloro then struck a pose.
I think this guy might be more crazy than us… Rowan and August thought.
Rowan exchanged with August and he began to heal his injuries.
"Rowan, can you do something?" August snapped.
Exchanging with August, Rowan clicks his tongue, "You're depending on me!? I can't even get near the dude. He's dropping us every time."
Rowan swiftly gets back up on his feet and his executioner axe appears in his hands, "August, just heal my injuries and give me protection."
Rowan darted forward, attempting to close the distance between him and Soloro, but Soloro already anticipated this move. With a swift side step, Soloro grabbed onto Rowan mid-sprint and lifted him into the air.
"BAM!!"
Soloro's thunderous voice echoed as Rowan got slammed into the ground with a powerful thunderbomb that shook the ground underneath. The impact caused a ripple of heat and the ground cracking to the point that it got leveled.
Back flipping away, Soloro lands on his feet and laughs with so much pride, "Go on! Heal yourself again!"
Rowan, sensing an opportunity, swings his axe at the direction of Soloro and a crescent of pure Essence strikes Soloro in the chest. Knocking the air out of him, Soloro coughed and stumbled back before regaining his composure again.
"Th-That's more like it!!!" Soloro hollers as he flexed again. More heat waves emit from his golden body.
"August, you're the smart one! Come on! What's his ability!?" Rowan stood his ground as Soloro dashed towards him.
Rowan spun his axe around and began to strike first. His first few swings were easily dodged by Soloro and his next swings also missed.
Despite his enormous body and size, he was dodging as if he was smaller and more skinny. Rowan thought his agility and athleticism was cheating at this point. A few more seconds go by and he still hasn't even hit him once for the next fifteen swings of the axe.
Sweat drips from Rowan's chin and he realizes that he's sweating profusely. The reason being that the tempature around him is currently at 120F (~50C).
"He's rising in tempature with every second that passes, Rowan. In addition to that, every attack he gets hit that helps rise the tempature. I want to be wrong but I have two theories of what might happen if he reaches his limit… He'll burn this entire place to ashes or he'll unleash his full power on us. Rowan, attack him!"
"Attack!? You just said he'll get more hot if we attack him!" Rowan shouts, bewildered by August's advice.
"Just trust me, Rowan. Come on."
"Fine. You better protect me," Rowan then taunts Soloro by telling him to come here with his index finger.
"Judging by your words, the voices in your head must've told you how my ability works. Very smart of you, circus!"
"That's a new one. At least you have originality." Rowan then switches his axe to his sword that looks similar to a broadsword.
CURRENT TEMPATURE: 137F (~60C)
Rowan charges at Soloro at a much faster speed than usual that it surprises Soloro to the point he could only predict where he was going to attack. Rowan shifted around Soloro and swung his sword at Soloro's impenetrable calf that stopped his sword with an audible thud.
Rowan half knew that it would do no damage, but not to this extent. He leaped back before Soloro had a chance to grab him and had to come up with a new game plan. Soloro quickly did a 360 and opened his mouth to reveal a blinding light that has a whining noise.
Sensing what is coming next, August swapped places with Rowan and places a barrier in front of him. A beam, akin to a solar flare, burned mostly everything in its path and left the air dry as it made contact with August's barrier that protected him.
The barrier seemingly melts in front of August's eyes so he constantly burns Essence to keep the barrier up for the ten seconds that the beam kept melting the barrier.
Closing his mouth and seeing his opportunity to strike, Soloro sprints to August before he could swap with Rowan and grabs him by his shoulders to hold him in place, headbutts him, tosses him up into the air, and kicks him into a nearby boulder that got destroyed upon contact.
"We both understand each other's abilities. The only difference is that you can only choose one or the other. I thought it was going to be much more difficult and complicated than this, but I guess not," Soloro cracks his neck as he approaches the recovering August who just spent so much Essence on the barrier and regenerating his body.
A flood of participants all rushed through the scorching desert environment to get to the exit. Some skirmishes took place throughout the desert, but most raced through the desert to go to the next floor. But some stopped fighting due to the scorching heat, thanks to Soloro.
"Help us… We need your help…" August weakly speaks as his body slowly regenerates.
"No one will help you. They're too busy trying to go to the next floor and win," Soloro says as towers over the badly burned August.
"Please… Brother…" August whimpers.
"Hm?" Soloro tilts his head.
CURRENT TEMPATURE 200F (~95C)
Walls forms around Soloro and a lectern forms before him. He watches the world before him change into a mini building that he's seen before.
Turning around, Soloro sees rows of benches and double doors with a sign that says "QUIET!!!"
Adjacent to Soloro is a desk that has papers, binders, pencils, and pens. Near that desk is a jury box and near the jury box is the bench.
That's when Soloro realizes where he is. He's in court.
CURRENT TEMPATURE: ROOM TEMPERATURE.
Soloro's body stops emitting heat and his golden body is less shiny than usual.
"Soloro, you know where you are?" A fully recovered August appeared at the desk adjacent from Soloro.
Soloro tries to move to attack August, but he's constrained by chains.
"Violence is not welcomed here, Soloro." August smirks, taunting him with a wink.
A hooded man appears beside Soloro with an axe. Soloro instantly knew that the hooded man beside him is Rowan.
"Don't worry, Soloro. I won't harm you… Maybe." Rowan chuckles.
"Soloro. No last name. I reviewed your record before coming out and I must say that I'm not that surprised." Rowan spoke from the raised platform at the bench. Or was it August? Actually, on second thought, was it even them?
"You may have seen other court proceedings on television or real life, but this is different. You see, you're in my court. Things work differently here and I don't care if it seems unfair or wrong. Do you understand?" The judge glares at the chained Soloro who has a covering wrapped around his mouth.
Soloro fights to get out of the chains, but it's all useless. It feels like the more he fights, the more weak he becomes.
"Justice, I would like to begin the trial and present my first piece of evidence." August stood tall and proud.
Justice nods.
"We, Rowan, August, and Justice, believe that Soloro deserves the death penalty based on tbe evidence I will present. When Soloro was a young adult, roughly about fourteen, he murdered his father is cold blood because he simply wanted to "try out" his powers on someone he knew that couldn't fight back." August showed a picture of Soloro's father laying on the ground in a puddle of blood to the jury.
Soloro then snapped and shook his head to deny the evidence that August presented. But there was nothing he could do. That's when he noticed something off about the jury that made him lose any sense of hope.
The jury is also August. It's at this moment he realizes what exactly he's up against… An unfair trial. Everything was against him. He had no lawyer. The jury and prosecutor is August. It's like Justice said earlier, "things work differently here and I don't care if it seems unfair or wrong."
"That's some compelling evidence there, August. Is there anything to object to, Soloro?"
Soloro nods his head.
"I didn't hear an objection. Did you, reporter?" Justice looks down to the court reporter.
"Nope. It's not on record." August, the court reporter, said as he continued to type.
Soloro continued to struggle against the chains that bind him to the point that he tires himself out.
"If you can't tell, Soloro, you're losing. Better object to something." Rowan snickers as the tired Soloro pants heavily.
"Another piece of evidence we have is that Soloro has committed a hate crime and falsified documents to the Guild." August presents the false documents to the jury and Justice.
"For the record, could you read out the report, August?" Justice asks August.
"In the report, the defendant writes as follows, "No Slayer or Juniors have been harmed during the fight. Humans survived."" August read.
"Hm? What seems to be the problem?" Justice tilts his head.
"If only that was true. You see, an investigator by the name of Michael Love was hired to do a deep dive into the situation. His findings found out that during the fight in Europe, over 150 Humans were killed, some of which that could've survived their injuries if given proper treatment, but there wasn't an attempt. A whistleblower from the Guild backed these claims and told a Grandmaster everything. He lost his status as Slayer and is using the Exam to become a Junior and eventually become a Slayer again. He willingly turned a blind eye to injured Humans and let them die because they were not "like him.""
"Any objections, Soloro?"
Soloro seems a bit shaken up at the fact that they knew about his past and what he's done. Even if he tries to deny it, they were all working together to make sure he couldn't object to anything. It was a lost cause and he knew it.
"No objections. Is there more evidence, August?" Justice turns his head to August.
"That is all."
"Right. The jury will leave for a moment and come back with their verdict." Justice dismissed the jury.
"Let's hope they have some sort of sympathy for you, golden man." Rowan whispers to Soloro.
The jury comes back to the jury box after a few minutes and it seems they have their verdict. The jury foreman, August, speaks "We find Soloro… Guilty on all counts."
Justice slams his gavel and confirms the decision by the jury, "Death penalty it is. Bye, Soloro."
Soloro's eyes widen by Justice's calm demeanor by handing out the punishment. Before he could make any movements, Rowan's sword impales his chest.
Then another sword. And another, another, another, another, and many more impale Soloro until his body is covered in swords to the point that his actual body cannot be seen anymore. In total there were 176 swords that covered his body.
The walls began to come down and everyone disappears into thin air. All that is left is a standing Rowan and a standing Soloro covered in swords.
"You should've seen your face, bastard. It was priceless." Rowan smirks as he pokes the handle of one of the swords and Soloro falls.
"Rowan? August? I can't tell…" A bloody and badly bruised Katsuki limped out of the forest that was a couple meters away.
August swapped out with Rowan and rushed to Katsuki's aid, "Did you kill the naked guy?"
"Erm… Yeah, yeah. He's gone." Katsuki stammered a bit before answering.
August didn't notice his stammering as he was too focused on healing Katsuki's wounds.
"Good. Let's go before we meet someone even worse than them." August's voice having a sense of urgency.
Katsuki nods as he waits to be fully recovered, "Please, don't follow us…" Katsuki thought to himself.