Chapter 112: Wrapping things up.

Chapter 112: Wrapping things up.

Ozzy felt rushed as they walked into court and the proceedings immediately started. There was only a slight pause as a pirate jogged into the room with a barrel of beer and two drunk parrots, "Oops, pardon me, your honors, lost track of time. Can't miss the end of the show."

The judges’ eyes looked around the room, but all came to rest on the empty table where Leroy had sat. Mithras glared at Hermes and Hades and in a clear voice called out, "I call Lord Hades, God of Death and Taxation, to give this court an account of the events that occurred between sessions of this court."

Hades stood and walked up next to the empty table and bowed politely to the judges. "Certainly. It was fortuitous that Lord Hermes wished to speak with one of his priestesses, as it put the two of us in a position to observe."

"William Horvacs of the ACME corporation had long been interested in claiming the ancient city of Gadobhra and breaking the seal put upon it by the ancient druid council. He ordered the Contract Workers in his employ to do so. Whether this latest attempt would have worked is extremely doubtful. But in any event, they did not have time to take any actions."

"The Fallen Angel Lemechial rendered most of them unconscious, and threatened the lives of the rest. He took control of the ritual and attempted to use it himself. This went poorly and blew up in his face. The barrier temporarily down, William Horvacs entered Gadobhra. Lemechial was weakened by his ordeal and mostly unable to move. He was taken by surprise as one of the workers, Ozzy by name, picked up a large stone and dropped it on his head. Because of the nature of the stone, and its antipathy to Lemechial, a large release of energy occurred which obliterated the worker, injured Lord Hermes, and destroyed Lemechial’s primordial body."

"Undeterred by the destruction of his body and loss of most of his power, his spirit again threatened to kill the mortals."N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

"Totally unrelated to all of this, I had just finished an audit of Lemechial’s accounts. The amount he owes in wealth and time is quite large. As an authorized agent for the Infernal Retribution Service, I took it upon myself to place the Fallen's spirit into custody and let him begin serving his penalty time."

"After that, knowing the court's desire for swift justice, I managed to recover the mortal sitting at the other table and fetched him here. Any questions?"

Mithras sat with folded hands; the other judges deferred to him. "And does Lord Hermes agree with this testimony?"

The last of the courtroom vanished, and Ozzy suddenly put his head down on the table and covered it with his arms, "Oh, bloody hell, someone get me a lot of beer. The strong kind."

Suzette came running up to him, "What's wrong?"

Ozzy groaned, "Death penalty. It got delayed while in court. Now it’s hitting me hard. And I have dozens of flashing blue boxes!"

Rolly was curious about the claim ticket. He took it out of Ozzy’s hand, tried to tear it up, failed, and put it back, "Suck it up. Loot comes first. Use the ticket."

A bleary-eyed Ozzy looked at his friends who were all staring at the ticket, "Sure, can't make my head hurt worse." The ticket took his full strength to tear in half. From nowhere came a large backpack that fell and crushed the table beneath it. Next to Ozzy fell a large flaming sword and a blackened halo wrapped in barbed spikes.

Elgebert Coppertwist stared at each item, his face becoming more and more horrified.

"He was not lying when he said legendary items. The bag isn't so bad - just a Hefty bag of Large Capacity. Those things weigh a ton. But I'm worried about what else is in it.”

“You are also the owner of Lemechial's Blade of the Blackened Star and the Tarnished Halo of 'Begone from our Sight!!'”

The gnomish lawyer cautioned Ozzy, “Please, please think carefully before even touching either of those items.”