Everyone felt a divine blessing activate, and before anyone could act, the golden sphere reconstituted itself around Namkuzu. "Now that that has been put right, it’s time to judge the rest of you rule-breakers." The sudden and instant reconstruction of the prison that she had so toiled to destroy shocked the group so much that they did not even immediately respond to the Divine Adjudicator's threat. Luna started to speak "Sir, I think you made a mi-" Luna's words word cut off as her eyes flickered a moment, and she dropped down to all fours, her fur standing on end. L quickly brandished her weapon and took up a position between the Divine Adjudicator and V. Gazing at Luna calmly, the man activated his blessing again as he spoke. "You are quite the wretched thing aren't you? When I observed the God's non-intervention in your creation, I could not see how horrid of a being you had become, but seeing you face to face, it speaks ill of the Gods that they let you exist..." Nothing immediately happened after the man's blessing activation. "Oh, a counter blessing, quite strong as well. I suppose I can deal with you the pedestrian way; you have already been judged after all" It was fairly obvious that the Divine Adjudicator was going to attack them, but L hesitated to strike first. He had clearly killed at absolute minimum four other champions, on-top of that he also had quite a high level compared to most champions they had met so far.
The man calmly turned his gaze toward L, V, and now Eika, who had also taken up a position near V's side. "What a horrible thing to have to lay my eyes on. A half demon hybrid monster thing: you will probably be an issue for me. A pathetic Rabbitkin: You are trying to fulfill some profane prophecy for your people but you clearly lack both the skill and the knowledge, and your resolve seems to come from others, what will happen to you if they were to die? And finally, whatever the hell you are: Some sort of human hybrid thing that even I cannot determine, a blessing that, apparently, is so far off the scale of "law" looking at you directly makes me feel sick, almost enough to vomit, and finally, you are the center of multiple profane powers. Not the least of which is that thing, he gestured to L. Opening his vest he pulled a cane with a large multicolored stone set upon the top. Tapping the ground with it, he looked around at the group again. "If you just accept your punishment quietly, this will be much much easier." In response, Luna lunched herself forward, toward his chest. At the last minute, she twisted in the air, grabbing the man’s arm instead, sinking her teeth into the crook of his arm. Or rather, she would have, but her teeth simply did not penetrate. The man sighed "You cannot do me any harm. I have declared martial law; your rights and protections have been revok-" The man gasped as L took his momentary distraction to rush forward and smash the pommel of her sword directly into the man’s abdomen. He retreated quickly while gasping for breath. "Although I suppose demons don't care for laws, as I understand..." A metal ball bounced harmlessly off his head as Eika used her slingshot to follow up on L's assault.
"This is going to be difficult..." Eika muttered under her breath. V casually observed the fight, tilting his head slightly. Luna had been shaken off the man's arm by this point, and retreated in order to re-asses her tactics. L continued to engage the Divine Adjudicator, he proved to be considerably skilled as well, able to match her swordsmanship with his cane. Even so, her assault had pushed him back, out onto one of the walkways. V smiled, that was a funny trick, he must have made them all "Equal Under the Law" or some other entertaining interpretation of the law. Although he was impressed with the Divine Adjudicator's abilities, it was nothing to be concerned about. As L battled the man, he spoke up. "I am going to give you one more chance to surrender. I will admit it might be difficult for me to defeat you as you are now. However... I don't have to kill you in order to kill you, do I?" He glanced at V, who was still standing there passively.
"Gah!" The man stumbled backward as Luna jumped onto his head, covering his eyes with her hands. Eika ran forward at her maximum speed, wrapping her arms around the man’s legs at the same time he was temporarily blinded. Seizing the moment, L brought her sword down across the man’s chest, hoping to end the fight in one swift blow. However, it felt like she was trying to cut through a diamond. Her sword hardly penetrated his clothing, much less his actual chest, leaving only a thin red mark. L was unsure if this was because he had other defenses, something like an S in con, or perhaps other blessings stolen from the champions he had killed, or perhaps her sword was unable to cut him because it was a separate consciousness. She had to kill this man, he threatened V, therefore her honor demanded it. She assumed this allowed her demonic side the strength to ignore his laws, but she was not clear on if that transferred to her semi-sapient weapon or not.
Luna was torn off the man’s head with ease. Firmly holding her by the throat, the Divine Adjudicator calmly spoke "Accept your punishment." And he slammed Luna down onto the walkway they were all standing on. Luna grunted; the man's strength seemed overwhelming. She felt two or three of her ribs break as she collided with the walkway. She rolled away as she fought down the blinding pain. He also kicked Eika off of him as he was slamming Luna into the ground, he spoke again as she flew "You have already been sentenced." She slammed into the outer wall of the room that held the restored prison. Grunting, she quickly grabbed the side of the walkway as she fell, securing herself from the void below them.
L slashed the man again while he was handling Luna and Eika, this time across his bare skin. She wanted to confirm that his resistance was in-fact not due to his clothing. As she suspected, her sword did little to hurt his exposed skin. She sheathed her sword as the man brought his cane down upon her, cracking her squarely on the left side of her chest. V could hear the sound from where he was standing, either something broke inside L, or that cane was about to be in two pieces. L grabbed the cane with one hand, and yanked the Divine Adjudicator closer, grabbing his face with her other hand. The man tried to pull away, but their strength seemed fairly even, making it difficult to escape from her grip, and he seemed unwilling to release his grasp upon his cane. A clicking noise could be heard as L's purple and blue fire erupted from her hands, covering her arms, the cane, and the man's face. The man succeeded in yanking himself free as his face burned, the cane seemed largely unaffected by L's flames, for one reason or another. L punched the Divine Adjudicator as fire wreathed her arms. Still retreating, the man's frost burnt face contorted in the first display of anger they had seen. Everyone could feel the activation of a blessing coming from him. L pulled back slightly; she did not have confidence that she could kill the man before... whatever was about to happen.
As far as L was concerned however, nothing at all seemed to happen. So, she resumed the assault, suddenly Eika cried out. "L, V!" Jumping backwards, L twisted around. A second Divine Adjudicator was standing in front of V. He appeared exactly the same as the one L was fighting, even down to the same frostbite damage. She began to retreat toward V, but was stopped when the Divine Adjudicator behind her attempted to trip her with his cane. "I don't like using the blessings I’ve taken from criminals upon their death. But this one is quite handy. I thought I might have to use it when I finally hunt down that mousegirl. She has a similar, if more bothersome blessing. But this one has certain advantages over hers..." As V defended himself from the other Divine Adjudicator's assault, everyone felt another blessing activate, the feeling came from the 'clone' that was fighting V. A third Divine Adjudicator appeared before Eika, halting her attempt to aid V. L continued to fight the original man as he returned to a calm demeanor. He then spoke. "It’s a dirty blessing, each duplicate of myself is perfect, with the same skills, powers, and blessings. I can only use the blessing to create a single duplicate, however..." the man smiled bitterly as he spoke. "Since each duplicate is perfect, they also can use the blessing once..." They all felt the third Divine Adjudicator activate a divine blessing, and a fourth appeared before Luna. "It’s quite a dirty way of fighting. And it’s very nearly against the rules, it uses a loophole. I of course would not use it, save for extreme circumstances, like fighting a demon.
L was not actually sure how to deal with this situation. She, perhaps, could explode in a ball of fire, searing the entire area, and therefore all of the Adjudicators at once, but she was unsure if that would actually kill them all, and even though she no longer burned herself, she would likely be too exhausted to do much afterward. She had realized while her hands were on fire, that using her flames now drained her stamina. She assumed this was somehow related to being a hybrid, rather than a pure demon. As she continued to try and disengage, to retreat to V, she felt the fourth clone activate his blessing. She then heard Luna mutter "Well. That's that I guess." Luna had been watching V's situation, the duplicate attacking her could not really catch her as long as she did not willingly get near him. A fifth Divine Adjudicator appeared behind V, and impaled him through the heart with his cane. The one in front of him seized that moment to impale him through the throat. Eika was screaming, Luna muttered "Well, I hope she can escape from this..." and her eyes flickered a moment, and she looked around confused. "Food man! Or..uh.." L shrugged, they had always been prepared for someone who was overwhelmingly powerful compared to them to come along and just delete them, she hated that it happened so soon after she regained her purpose. As V hung limply off the two canes, Eika was still screaming, Luna had crawled away from her clones, and L started to wonder why she was still alive. V was very clearly dead. Although, she wondered if technically his brain had not fully died yet, and that she was going to linger around for a minute or so.
"Just kidding though." V's head snapped upward, and he grabbed the clone in front of him. Headbutting him, this caused the clone's head to totally collapse, his brains spraying out of either side of his head. The cane was also driven further into V's neck but that did not really seem to be affecting him. Everyone, including the Divine Adjudicator watched in a strange surreal confusion as V pulled the cane out of the hands of the clone behind him, through his own chest, and easily impaled the clone with its own cane, through the neck, and used it to twist off the clone’s head. Eika was frozen in utter confusion, as well as a certain amount of horror as none of the holes in V's neck or chest were bleeding. "Sorry for deceiving even you and your blessing Honor. I figured it would be necessary for you to not show any confusion or hesitation." With no transition or any real... warning. V's impaled body had become the childlike body of Namkuzu. "The moment the prison was broken, before the light even faded, I switched places with V. No one knew it, not even V. He only became aware we switched places once he was suddenly inside the prison, cut off from my power. I suspected there was someone else in this jail. There was a part of the place that seemed different to me, but I could not read any thoughts there. So, I took this as a precaution. I think I was able even to fool the status system temporarily. Although, concerning, that little furry creature was not fooled, but you guys sort of tend to ignore her when looks confused or says things that don't really make sense..." Somehow the Archdemon of the Mind was now suddenly next to Luna, patting her on the head.
Namkuzu smiled as everyone readjusted their position to suddenly look at his new location. "You all need to keep a better eye on your surroundings. Don't get distracted by my words, watch my body." As he finished speaking, he once again seemingly was instantly next to the clone in front of Eika. He whispered something into the clone’s ear.
┌——————┐
Rule Violation in Progress in Local Area!
└——————┘
Everyone received a status message as the clone turned away from Eika, and charged toward the original Divine Adjudicator. "You might want to dismiss your friends; they are quite easy for me to control." Without warning he was suddenly setting on the shoulders of the clone near Luna. Bending down, he whispered into its ear.
┌——————┐
Rule Violation in Progress in Local Area!
└——————┘
As the clone turned on the original Divine Adjudicator, Namkuzu laughed. "Seriously though, if you guys cannot keep track of my movements, you are going to be in real trouble when you encounter a real divine champion. I would rank all of you on the "initiate" level currently." L and Eika did not really know how to respond to the situation as the Archdemon of the Mind ran roughshod over the entire situation. L was the first to re-prioritize her actions and began cautiously retreating to the prison. "Oh. Ya, that will not be necessary. From the outside, that thing is so degraded that its basically meaningless to me. Namkuzu walked over to the sphere and tapped on it, like he was knocking on a door. The sphere just evaporated quietly as a somewhat disoriented V fell to the ground. "Where am I? What just happened? We were talking to Namkuzu and then I was looking at-myself and then I was sealed away..." L helped V off the ground as she shrugged. "The Archdemon of the Mind seemed to have messed with everyone's mind." V nodded as he shook off his daze. "Ya that explanation makes enough sense, considering."
The Divine Adjudicator activated a blessing, and the clones assaulting him disappeared. "I was hoping to surprise the Mad Champion with this, but I see that the situation has grown out of my current control. Namkuzu looked confused for a moment. "I will give the man credit, its exceedingly difficult to read his thoughts even when he is in-front of me." The Divine Adjudicator made a pained grunting noise and fell to his knees. Namkuzu's confused look continued, but V shook his head. "Oh. That's probably not good." The pained look on the man’s face matched the pained look he saw on L's face when she added letters to her name, and he assumed, matched his face as well when he did much the same.
