The world flipped upside down.
Gravity vanished, colors distorted, and sound was crushed.
Song Ji-hu’s consciousness sank as if falling endlessly into darkness as cold as ice.
And then-
THUD.
When his feet touched solid ground, the first thing he felt was cold like a blade stabbing into his lungs.
“Kh….”
The breath he exhaled rose as white mist, and Song Ji-hu slowly looked around.
A courtroom.
This was not a place that discussed human law. The walls, ceiling, floor, and even the judge’s bench, defendant’s seat, and jury box in that high place. Everything had been carved from ice tinted blue enough to make his eyes ache.
HISS- HISS-
Hexagonal ice crystals scattered through the air like snow, only to vanish again and again.
Song Ji-hu felt despair more keenly than cold from the ice crystals floating in the air.
“A Courtroom of Ice… You’re doing all kinds of ridiculous things.”
Song Ji-hu muttered quietly and checked his position.
The defense counsel’s table.
When Song Ji-hu swept his fingers across the ice desk, cold dug into his skin.
At the defense counsel’s table, there was nothing but a cold ice chair, as if to say defense would never be permitted. There was no evidence, and no documents existed.
When he turned his gaze to the side, Eun Seo-jin was sitting at the defendant’s seat. No, rather than sitting, he was ‘restrained.’
Ice chains forged from guilt bound his limbs and anchored them deep into the floor of the defendant’s seat.
His silver hair hung limply, covering his face, and Song Ji-hu could not feel any vitality from him.
“……Eun Seo-jin.”
Song Ji-hu called him quietly, but he did not move even slightly.
In that instant, a tremendous reverberation shook the entire courtroom, enough to make his body tilt.
The highest ice throne. A judge made of black shadow had just struck down with a gigantic ice hammer.
His body was made of black shadow, but his face alone was clear. He was a man who looked to be in his eighties, with a strict and sharp impression.
‘Baek Mu-jin….’
Hair close to white, deeply carved wrinkles, and eyes sunken coldly. Eun Seo-jin’s master, the Sword Saint Baek Mu-jin, who had reached the pinnacle of the sword.
Though he had passed away from shock after Eun Seo-jin imprisoned himself.
‘It’s no wonder he couldn’t endure it when they’re breaking a person like this.’
“The trial will begin.”
At the same time as the emotionless voice, the gavel struck down, and as if responding to those words, five shadows rose from the jury box.
BANG-!
The judge struck the hammer down once again.
“Defendant Eun Seo-jin. You betrayed your comrades and drove them to their deaths. Will you make an excuse?”
Eun Seo-jin did not answer. No, he could not answer.
His lips trembled faintly, but his voice would not come out. As if his vocal cords themselves had frozen.
“The defendant exercises his right to remain silent. Very well. Witnesses, testify.”
Eun Seo-jin’s former party members. They all pointed at Eun Seo-jin at once.
“Traitor!”
“You abandoned us!”
“We died because of your contamination!”
“You’re a murderer!”
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Each time they testified, the judge’s gavel struck the desk. The sound was like Eun Seo-jin’s heart being crushed.
“…No… that’s…….”
As if even his vocal cords had frozen, only a sound like leaking air barely flowed out.
Song Ji-hu slowly stood and raised a hand.
“Objection.”
One short, clear word. In that instant, every sound in the courtroom stopped.
The judge slowly turned his head. His gaze was cold and sharp.
“……Defense counsel? Defense counsel, you say. There is no need for such a thing as defense counsel in this courtroom. His guilt has already been confirmed.”
Mockery and contempt appeared at the corners of the judge’s mouth.
“Eun Seo-jin did not betray his party members. What has been confirmed is not his guilt, but your distortion.”
With his ash-gray eyes, Song Ji-hu stared straight through the judge. This trial was, quite literally, no different from a farce.
‘For one thing, the so-called victims are sitting in the jury box that decides guilt.’
The judge looked down at Song Ji-hu and shouted.
“Present your grounds!”
“Three years ago, April 17, 2030. The raid on the A-rank dungeon ‘Frozen Ruins’ in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do.”
Information he had heard across six lives flowed without hesitation from Song Ji-hu’s mouth.
“It is true that during the boss fight, Eun Seo-jin showed stage 2 symptoms of mental contamination. But he did not run away. On the contrary, he pushed aside the secondary damage dealer Choi Yu-jin, who was exposed to the boss’s area-of-effect attack, and took that attack in his place.”
“Liar!”
Choi Yu-jin sprang up from the jury box and shouted.
“The one who ran away was not Eun Seo-jin, but the secondary damage dealer Choi Yu-jin. The collapse began there.”
“I didn’t run away! Eun Seo-jin pushed me!”
Choi Yu-jin in the jury box screamed.
“Correct. He pushed you away ‘to save you.’ The boss’s attack was aimed at you, and Eun Seo-jin threw himself forward to push you into the safe zone. In the process, Eun Seo-jin himself was gravely wounded.”
Song Ji-hu refuted him coldly.
“And the healer Han So-mi. You said Eun Seo-jin failed to heal you in time, but the truth is that you were in a state of mana depletion. It was not Eun Seo-jin, but you, who failed to heal the party members. Was Eun Seo-jin not in the damage dealer position?”
“Th-that’s…!”
“Everything is nothing but distorted testimony.”
Song Ji-hu refuted them one by one. Kim Do-hun’s testimony, Park Jun-seo’s testimony, Lee Hyeon-u’s testimony.
Everything had been distorted. The truth was simple. Eun Seo-jin had collapsed alone while trying to save everyone, and those who survived had shifted all responsibility onto him.
“……Therefore, Eun Seo-jin is innocent.”
Song Ji-hu finished speaking, and silence flowed.
And then-
BANG-!
The judge’s hammer came down once more.
“Dismissed.”
“…What?”
“All testimony is dismissed. This is not a courtroom that determines the truth. It is a courtroom that ‘confirms’ guilt. Your defense has no meaning whatsoever.”
Song Ji-hu’s eyes sank coldly.
‘As expected… I can’t win through logic.’
This place was only a stage made by Eun Seo-jin’s guilt to destroy himself. The judge raised the gigantic ice hammer.
“Defendant Eun Seo-jin. Your crime is the murder of your comrades. Your sentence is… eternal pain.”
Just as the gavel was about to strike down, Song Ji-hu moved. He drew the black dagger at his waist and swung it down toward the judge!
SCREEECH-!
But the blade stopped in midair. An invisible wall. The judge spoke as if sneering.
“Barbaric conduct is not permitted in this courtroom.”
Song Ji-hu clenched his teeth and drew back his blade. His wrist throbbed from the repulsive force.
“Defense counsel, defendant, jury. None may attack one another. That is the rule of this courtroom.”
“What a joke. Physical attacks aren’t the only attacks.”
Song Ji-hu repeatedly clenched and opened his fist as he assessed the situation.
‘Physical force is invalid. In that case….’
Song Ji-hu closed his eyes and began reading the emotions dwelling throughout the courtroom through [Residual Thought].
Guilt. Self-reproach. Despair. Helplessness. Isolation.
They all belonged to Eun Seo-jin. For three years, he had abused himself endlessly in this courtroom.
But that was not all. In places throughout the ice walls, other emotions remained, incredibly faint yet still present.
Sense of mission. Responsibility. Camaraderie. Sacrifice.
Eun Seo-jin’s true heart. The emotions from the moment when he had truly tried to protect his comrades. The essence of Eun Seo-jin himself.
‘The space is distorted, but it isn’t completely false. Then… the target I need to clear is this space itself.’
Song Ji-hu opened his eyes. Then he activated [Thought Projection]. This time, his target was not the judge or Eun Seo-jin, but this ‘entire’ courtroom.
HUMMM-!
A faint silver energy rose from Song Ji-hu’s body. The silver energy grew denser and began spreading in all directions like mist.
“How dare you…!”
The judge realized something had gone wrong and shouted, but it was already too late.
The hell condensed across seven lives shattered the vessel called C-rank and exploded.
The pure hope of the first life.
The desperate despair of the second life.
The burning rage of the third life.
The humiliating submission of the fourth life.
The hatred of the fifth life, cold down to the bone.
The vengeance of the sixth life, wagered on everything.
And… even the obsession of the seventh life.
Song Ji-hu began scattering all those emotions throughout the entire courtroom, raw and unfiltered.
“Hah… You really should’ve known who you were messing with.”
RUMBLE-!
More than a hundred years of emotions, which this space could not withstand, began filling it.
The ice walls were dyed red, and flames poured from the ceiling instead of ice crystals.
The shadows in the jury box screamed as they melted down.
“Graaagh! Wh-what is this…! How dare a mere C-rank…!”
The judge staggered and screamed himself hoarse at Song Ji-hu.
“A thing like you thinks it can save an S-rank? Know your place, you piece of trash!”
A roar gouged into his mind. But Song Ji-hu-
Laughed.
“Pfft… hahaha…!”
“Wh-what is so funny?!”
“C-rank? Powerless?”
Song Ji-hu raised his head. His ash-gray eyes, holding six hells within them, pierced through the judge.
“You think a shallow trick created by a bastard like you….”
A cold and cruel smile settled on his lips.
“Is going to work on me?”
In that instant, the judge’s form distorted as if terrified.
Six lives, no less. In terms of years, the long time had already surpassed 100. To Song Ji-hu, who had been toyed with by the Abyssal Monarch down to his very soul, this paltry mental attack did not even reach the level of a child’s prank.
“Try harder.”
Song Ji-hu took one step toward the judge’s bench. The ice beneath his feet burned black.
RUMBLE-!
As Song Ji-hu’s thoughts encroached on the entire space, the whole courtroom shook even more violently.
The walls began to crumble, the ceiling split apart, and the courtroom began collapsing.
“No! Forced execution! Execute the sentence immediately!”
The judge struck his hammer down with all his might, and the entire courtroom glowed white.
***
When the light vanished, Song Ji-hu was standing in the middle of a wasteland filled with ice. The sky was dark red, and inhuman screams rang out from every direction.
It was the same situation as what he had experienced before.
“So this is eternal pain?”
Song Ji-hu drew the black dagger. Now the rules of the courtroom were gone.
“Fine. This is more straightforward.”
GURGLE-
The dregs of thought gathered together in one place, took shape, and charged at Song Ji-hu.
SPLAT-!
The first mass was split in half and vanished with a bizarre scream.
“As expected… It really does resonate well with my ability.”
It was a piece Ryu Jin had called a failure, but in the end, what mattered was who used it. When the blade glowing silver cut down the second mass, the bastard screamed and turned to ash.
“There’s no end to them.”
Then, Song Ji-hu spotted the defendant’s seat sitting all alone in the middle of the wasteland. Eun Seo-jin remained bound in chains, his head hanging low.
‘…His mind’s completely gone.’
His soul had been worn down by the hell repeated over three years.
‘In the end, the key to clearing this dungeon is Eun Seo-jin.’
Song Ji-hu charged toward Eun Seo-jin. Burning away the masses of thought with his barrier, he reached the defendant’s seat.
“Eun Seo-jin! Come to your senses!”
He grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, but Eun Seo-jin only stared into empty air with vacant eyes.
“…Damn it.”
Seeing those empty eyes made memories from his previous lives rise unbidden. Song Ji-hu shook his head and raised Mental Barrier to the maximum.
Song Ji-hu placed a hand on Eun Seo-jin’s forehead and activated [Thought Projection] to the limit.
His six lives. All that pain and despair, and all that vengeance… He poured them into Eun Seo-jin raw and unfiltered.