Chapter 289: JUDGEMENT

*STOMP*

"...!"

Cranberry gritted her teeth and stopped Zombie from supporting her, taking an earthquake-inducing step forward and raised her head - showing a face twisted in disgust and hate - which caused Caramel to flinch and take a step back.

"Who the fuck do you think I am...!? HAA?!"

She growled and grabbed onto the two daggers merged with her body...

*RIIIIP*

*SPLASH*

And tore them out of her chest with the disgusting sound and a fountain of blood.

"...haa... what about... this...? Haa...?"

*clang*

The red-haired villainess smirked mockingly, crushing the daggers and throwing them onto the ground before swaying on her feet.

"Cranberry! You idiot!"

Zombie gasped in a panicked voice and grabbed onto the unsteady girl.

"Ha...? Oh, Zombie... a... a little smooch, maybe...?"

With blood constantly pouring out of the gaping wound she caused herself by removing the glitched weapons, Cranberry was drifting into unconsciousness with each passing second.

"Idiot...!"

Zombie sighed with a horribly worried expression and touched the face of the red-haired girl locked in his protective embrace.

And then their lips locked together.

Zombie could barely hold back his anger when he noticed that Cranberry's body was nearly as cold as his own.

How much blood has she lost, will the damage absorption skill really be enough to heal that?

The hurricane of worries raged inside the blue undead's head as he concentrated on the skill and guided the dark red smoke into the terribly wounded body of the red-haired villainess.

"...the Nomannic glitch might not be enough. Mason, continued with the persecution, but make it quick."

...but it wasn't like the master and servant actually had any time to spare while in the middle of the horrible event and surrounded by enemies.

"Ah. So it seems that we won't need this? Good. I had other plans for this amazing concoction anyway."

"!!!!!"

To the surprise of everyone, with the exception of every single guest with the exception of Caramel's persecution group, those words were spoken by none other than the queen herself, as she entered the ballroom in a splendid golden dress encrusted with precious stones.

"Take it away."

The queen nodded and snapped close the golden fan with the engraving of golden coins.

*rustle*

As if this was a signal, an odd sound of something being dragged away came from the ceiling, picking the attention of a few guests.

"My queen, it might be too soon for celebration, let's not get rid of the backup plan so easily."

Mary curtsied awkwardly and smiled at the blond monarch.

"..."

Zombie tensed up and the light of skill shone so brightly that it dyed half of the ballroom in violet light.

Still, he didn't do anything else since his damage absorption was having trouble with healing Cranberry's wound completely - it almost looked like the wound itself is cursed and would reopen the moment that Zombie's skill closed it up.

The only thing he cared about was to heal the red-haired villainess whose life signature was weakening and flickering like a candlelight in the wind, so he only left off the treacherous Greed woman with just a vicious glare.

"You, corpse puppet. Don't you give me that look. The two of you might be somewhat strong, but how could you measure to someone who knows the future and commands someone who can influence the system itself? Choosing the side was incredibly easy."

The queen looked back at him with pity and shrugged her arms.

"And you chose well, my queen."

Caramel bowed her head with a smile before turning to the gray-skinned half-elf.

"Mason, my love, continue."

She said with a benevolent nod.

"...talk to me like that again and I will turn against you, you freak."

Mason shivered and faced back to the confused crowd.

"Her sins are as follows...!"

Then he proceeded to list a whole bunch of accusations, of which basically all were true...

---

"...haa..."

Yet none of that bothered the blue undead since his villainess had finally breathed without choking on her own blood as the multiple damage absorption in a row finally yielded the result.

"...this looks bad..."

Cranberry smirked softly, even though the wound in her chest looked as if it closed up, it didn't mean that it was healed.

"Hey, it's alright, we can do it. The two of us will conquer the world, remember?"

Zombie smiled back, without letting go of her.

"...haa... I should have known that the queen will betray us... sorry for being a failure..."

"...!"

Cranberry sighed, looking at the queen listening in to the talking Mason, and caused Zombie to flinch.

"Hey, hey. You might be a stupid idiot but you are not a failure, you never were!"

The blue undead delicately shook her shoulders and refuted her words.

"You probably are still a bit dizzy because my skill hasn't recovered all of the blood that you've lost. Here, I'll use it again."

Zombie held her close and lowered his head, leaning in as his eyes glowed red.

"...mph...?"

But to his great surprise, Cranberry stopped him by weakly pressing the fingers of her right hand to his mouth.

"...Zombie... could we just... kiss...?"

She asked in a weak voice and rested her head against his shoulder.

"...haa... you know... without the healing skill... Like, if you really loved me..."

She breathed out and murmured.

---

"With all of that, there should be no doubt that Cranberry Pride's, the villainess's existence is a sin and needs to be judged by the will of the system!"

Mason ended his fiery speech and met with the approving murmur.

No one knew what exactly was he going for with it - if they had the queen on their side, why not making this an official trial in the royal court.

But they had no idea, that as long as two characters were present, every room was a courtroom according to the system.

"That should be enough, all of us are requesting Justice's Wrath and the Will of the World to pass the judgment onto that foul being!"

And without anyone asking for more explanation, the fallen half-elf called out to both of those characters.

---

"Cranberry, it's not time for that. I will kiss you as many times as you want once we'll deal with all that trash!"

Zombie grabbed her hand and gently removed it from his mouth.

"...haa... so now you want to kiss me too...?...rotten brain... you make it sound like you actually love me... that's unfair... you're an undead... your kind cannot feel love... it's all my wishful thinking again..."

Even though Cranberry kept on smiling, she was getting weaker and weaker with each word...

"What are you talking about?! You are the rotten brain here! Of course I love you!"

Zombie scoffed at her in disbelief.

"...you're lying... since you regained your free will you never said that you love me... that's how I knew it was all made up... but I couldn't stop my own feelings..."

Cranberry slowly shook her head from left to right in denial.

"Wha...?! Made up?! Where did you get that idea?! And, after what we've been through, I didn't think that repeating it was necessary anymore..! No, wait! Stop! You're doing the same thing as during the night of the hungry wolves again! We can talk about it after I'll heal you!"

Zombie gasped in disbelief, but then he immediately shook his head and declared, kissing the red-haired villainess and activating the damage absorption skill while embracing her like the most precious thing in the world...

---

"As a Justice's Wrath I request the Will of the World to pass the fair judgment onto the villain that threatens the peace of this land!"

Although the normally the skills didn't require any incantations that did not mean that there weren't any that did - and the ashen-haired Mika was showing off the proof of that.

The light of the skill she activated was strong enough to bathe the whole ballroom in a blinding pure white light.

"Request received."

The white-haired child in front of her straightened her back and spoke up in an almost mechanical voice.

"Calculating the evidence..."

The child spoke up.

"The villainess Cranberry Pride has been deemed guilty of all of the crimes she was accused of... the penalty for which will be..."

""Death.""

Radiance declared alone in the robotic voice but the last word she spoke together with Justice's Wrath.

Once they did, the already bright ballroom became the center of the creation of the new sun.

The cube in which Cranberry and Zombie were locked in by the system's invisible walls erupted with the glow so bright it could burn the eyes of whoever was foolish enough to look straight at it.

*•>«.^¿¤|•±)(&^%$#@#$%^&*

The whole castle shook and the brightness caused the bottom of the cube to explode with an ungodly sound and create a crater in the middle of the ballroom's floor.

"I think we got your younger brother together with that wretched woman..."

Mason didn't have a good look into the bottom of the crater so he shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the edge.

"It's disappointing, but as long as you will help me fill the void in my heart that his loss has created, everything will be alright."

Caramel tilted her head as if she was considering her answer before saying it with a bright smile.

A bit too bright of a smile.

"...disgusting..."

Mason shuddered and turned away from her, just so he could see the aftermath of the most powerful skill in the game that completely ignored any and all defenses, no matter how strong, and caused unimaginable true damage.

"WHAT, IN THE SYSTEM'S NAME...?!"

He gasped and stumbled back the moment he laid his eyes upon the bottom of the crater.

/Warning

Servant became damaged

Servant has insufficient mana to heal

Permission to use Master's mana required

/Error

/Master had died

/Calculating...

/The seal of the eternal has been broken prematurely

/Initiating the anti-cheat protocol