The Return Undeserved

The Tribunal Hall stood like an ancient deity's ribcage—stone arches ribbed with runes older than most names still spoken.

It was silent as the grave, save for the soft murmur of the elite and the shuffle of enforcers in polished armor. Twelve banners of the Concord fluttered at each cardinal wall, each one stitched with the colors of control: black and silver.

Jin Mu stood beneath them, shadowed by the enormous circular lens above the chamber—the Eye of Adjudication.

It followed movement.

It recorded truth.

It judged, without empathy.

"Defendant Jin Mu," a voice rang out, cold and flawless. It belonged to one of the Tribunal's adjudicators, a woman cloaked in entropic silk, her face covered by a mirrored mask.

"You are accused of treason, trespass, conspiracy, and unlawful tampering of Sealed Records. Speak only the truth."

Jin Mu raised his head.

"You don't want the truth. Just silence dressed as decorum."

A gasp rippled through the room.

Behind him, Su stood quietly, chin lowered.

Shen Yan gritted his teeth but said nothing.

To their left, a dozen aristocrats sat unmoved, eyes glittering with cold amusement.

Camellya stood apart, hands behind her back.

She wasn't here to protect.

She was here to observe.

"What I did," Jin Mu said, his voice louder now, "I did because this institution thrives on blood. Children are trafficked under your seals. Records are altered in your halls. Entire clans vanish in the night because the Concord eats truth."

Silence.

The Eye of Adjudication pulsed once. Cold blue.

"Proof."

Jin reached into his sleeve and cast a black sigil onto the floor—a burned seal from the vaults. Stamped with the real symbol of Project Bellwake.

The hall shifted.

Some voices rose in disbelief.

One of the masked adjudicators stepped forward.

"This… is fabricated. The Council has no record of—"

"Because the Council burned the records."

A stillness more terrifying than fury followed.

Then, slowly, the lead judge's mask turned.

"Then you leave us no choice."

Runes activated.

Chains of light erupted from the floor.

Su screamed. Shen tried to intercept, but the enchantments pinned his limbs to the marble.

Camellya's hand twitched—but she didn't act. Not yet.

Jin was thrown to his knees.

The floor began to lower.

The Judgmental Furnace—the Concord's execution platform.

"Stop—!" Su shouted. "You can't—he didn't do anything wrong—he saved us—!"

"Silence the slave."

The words came like a dagger.

That was when everything shifted.

Jin felt it then.

That sting inside his chest.

The mark he had buried when he sacrificed part of his humanity—the Order Sigil—burned against his ribcage.

"You're making a mistake," he said, quietly now. Almost… broken. "I didn't come back to die here."

"I came to change something."

But then—

Bang.

The chamber door slammed open.

And a man with a dozen heralds stepped in. The Minister of Sequence Integrity. The very man who had once overseen Jin's forced orphaning.

"This trial ends now," he said, voice like smooth oil. "The boy has a truth worth hearing."

The Tribunal froze.

The Eye of Adjudication dimmed.

"I propose a wager."

Jin blinked.

The crowd hushed.

The Minister smiled, sickly sweet.

"One truth against one life. We pull his memories into projection—if what he says is true, the Concord will reform Bellwake's files. If false…"

He didn't need to finish.

Jin's heart froze.

"They'll see… everything. My death. My return."

He looked at Su. At Shen. At Camellya.

"I never wanted them to know…"

But what choice did he have?

He nodded.

"Fine."

"I'll show you hell."

The Minister grinned.

The memory projector circled his head. Runes spun.

Jin Mu's body jerked.

And before the whole Concord—every noble, priest, executioner, and scholar—his regression began to play.

The laughter stopped.

Camellya's eyes widened.

Su whispered, "No…"

Shen stared in horror.

Xue Yiran, watching from a secret chamber, dropped her tea. The cup shattered.

They saw his final death.

The way he'd clawed the floor with bleeding nails.

The family he couldn't save.

The bodies he buried with his own hands.

The betrayal.

The hatred.

The pact.

And at the end, the last memory: Jin Mu, staring at the night sky, whispering into the void:

"I'll give up anything. Just let me come back. Just let me try again."

The memory cut.

And the silence that followed?

It was not peace.

It was judgment.

Absolutely. Here's Chapter 31 – Part II of The Return Undeserved, continuing directly from where Part I left off. The tribunal now descends into chaos—betrayal, pain, and a brutal war that leaves permanent scars. This is one of the darkest and most explosive fights of the series so far.

For one long second after the memory ended, the Tribunal Hall was frozen.

Then the screams began.

Nobles stumbled backward. Some howled that they had been deceived. Others roared that Jin Mu had tampered with fate itself. One adjudicator's mirror mask cracked from sheer spiritual pressure, and the Eye of Adjudication blinked crimson.

"KILL HIM!"

A dozen enforcers surged forward.

Shen Yan reacted first, unsheathing his blade—"Piercing Dusk!"—sending a wave of slicing energy that split the advancing wall of guards apart. Blood mist sprayed.

"SU, TO ME!" he shouted.

Jin Mu didn't move.

He stared blankly, still kneeling, his body trembling.

His truth had been shown.

And still…

Still they wanted him dead.

A cascade of Black Chains erupted from the far side of the Tribunal, binding Su's feet and dragging her backward.

"No—!" she screamed. "Let go of me—!"

Shen whirled, slashing at the chains, but a white-robed Executioner blocked his path with a crushing blow—

"Tyrant Form: Gravity Cage!"

A dome of compressed force slammed into Shen's chest, cracking three ribs.

"YOU WANT A WAR?!" Shen roared.

His blade burned brighter. Sword Intent—Fourth Fold.

Then it began.

A storm of blades, runes, explosions, and screams.

Camellya vanished in a flicker, intercepting a Judge's sealing spell from hitting Jin with a Sliver of Order Dispel. The two clashed, Camellya's hair flaming gold, her fists etched in entropy marks.

"I AM A NEUTRAL PARTY, BUT IF YOU PUSH—"

The ground beneath them broke into floating shards.

Jin Mu rose.

Slowly.

Quietly.

Like a corpse pulled up by puppet strings.

Blood trickled from his eye. A side effect of mental overexertion.

But something deeper was cracking inside him.

"Shen…"

Shen turned, panting, face bloodied.

"What?"

"...Don't let them take Su."

"I know."

A pause.

Then:

"Don't make me bury you."

"Try to keep up," Shen smirked.

Then the world exploded again.

Blades of Radiant Trial spun through the air. A paladin of the Inner Concord jumped from the stands and cleaved the floor in half with a divine sword, aiming for Shen.

Shen met him mid-air.

"Eight-Step Breaker Style!"

The two collided with a flash of light. Their weapons shattered on contact, and Shen was slammed into a pillar, coughing blood.

Jin's pupils narrowed.

He took one step forward.

And a Judge appeared behind him with a Soul Execution Brand already prepared.

"Die for your sin."

Too late.

"Distortion—Reverse Pulse."

The Judge's heart detonated.

He dropped in silence.

Jin kept walking.

More soldiers came.

Jin didn't stop.

His voice was calm. Too calm.

"Magnify: Touch."

He flicked one soldier on the forehead.

The man's skull caved in like porcelain.

"Distortion—Gravity Reversal."

A mage above was pulled downward mid-cast, splattering across the floor like a dropped fruit.

But then—

A scream.

Jin turned.

Shen had just parried a pincer strike from two guards. He disarmed one—

Then the third came from behind with a Blade of Judgment—

And sliced clean through Shen Yan's right arm.

Blood geysered.

Su shrieked.

Jin froze.

Shen collapsed, clutching the stump.

"K-keep… fighting," he hissed. "Don't stop…"

The blood soaked through his shirt instantly.

Jin's breath caught in his throat.

"No…"

His mind blanked.

It shattered something in him.

That image—Shen's arm hitting the ground like discarded meat. The smell of blood. Su's screaming.

It all came flooding back.

The boy from the slaver camp.

The siblings he couldn't save.

The first life he lost.

The rage he never processed.

"You want a demon?" he whispered. "You'll get one."

Jin Mu raised his palm.

A spiral of distorted laws gathered into his fingers.

"I told you…"

His voice was wrong now—warped.

"I came back to fix this world."

"AND I WILL BURN IT FIRST IF I HAVE TO."

Black Emperor's Edict: Vein of Reversal.

The ground inverted. The ceiling cracked. Reality twisted. Space folded in, slicing three Judges in half. A Sealed Artifact exploded in someone's hand.

Runes began to cry.

Literal sobbing sounds echoed from spell diagrams etched into the floor.

The Eye of Adjudication tried to activate counter-seals—

Jin pointed.

"Distortion: Sight Denial."

The Eye went blind.

Jin flew forward.

Baron's Step.

One, two, three deaths. No wasted motion. No mercy.

He landed beside Shen and knelt.

"Hold on."

Shen looked up, pale.

"Still better than that last soup you made…"

Jin grinned. Bitterly.

"Shut up. I'm buying next time."

Su ran up, weeping, and hugged Shen close. Camellya landed beside them, panting, two bleeding Judges at her feet.

"We're losing this one," she said.

"Then we don't win by force," Jin whispered. "We win by what comes next."

But what comes next?

Even Jin didn't know.

Not anymore.