Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 184: Trial

A pang of hunger woke MacKenzie up, though she would prefer to stay asleep. She hurt all over from the beating yesterday. These government workers were lunatics. One of them simply walked into her cell and started swinging at her until he had been forcefully dragged away. If she hadnʼt been taught to minimize the damage taken she might have actually died then and there.

She really started to believe the rumors that her brother was on the outs with them. She slowly sat up with a groan and closed her eyes to meditate, as it helped block out the pain and the depressing surroundings a bit.

“What did they do to you?” an angered voice suddenly said outside the cells, and Kenzie’s heartbeat sped up when she recognized the voice.

“They finally caught you as well? Good riddance,” she said with disgust, as she balefully glared at the obese old man outside the bars.

“I told them you belong to me, yet they damaged you like this?” the old continued, ignoring Kenzie’s remark. “Someone will pay for damaging my property.”

“What do you even want with me? Everyone already knows that little thing of yours doesn’t work,” she said with ridicule.

“You little slut,” Harold growled, anger smoldering in his eyes. “Just wait until this farce is over. The government judicators won’t stay here for long. Then you’ll know punishment.”

She threw the disgusting old man a disdainful glance before she once again looked away.

“I’m stuck here now, but sooner or later you will be the one judged,” she retorted.

The old man guffawed, making his chins jiggle. Kenzie couldn’t believe that there actually were a few women in her age that went to him willingly just for protection. She’d rather eat zombie meat than go that far.

“This new world loves the strong. The government doesn’t care about Kingsbury. They care about the power of the council, and mainly me. They’ll look the other way if I take home a girl or two because they need our strength for the fight against the invasions. You’re just a dime a dozen, no value. I’ll be just fine.”

Kenzie wanted to retort something but knew there was no point. What Harold said was true. She knew that some of these trials were just for show. If the government really cared about justice they would have locked up Harold long ago. Yet he was fine, even able to come and go at this prison just to taunt her and Lyla.

Still, she knew judgment was coming for Harold. Zac was still out there, hopefully looking for her. She just hoped he would arrive sooner than later.

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Finally, after having calmed down after a while Zac started to plan his next move. There was no point in letting anger take over, at least not yet. He also wasn’t ready to just sit around for two days doing nothing.

The first thing he did was to take out the corpse of the Undead Lord along with his cosmos sack. There honestly wasn’t much remaining of the man, as the huge wooden hand had completely destroyed his body. Zac took the corpse in case there was some good gear to salvage, but there simply was nothing that was still intact.

With some disappointment he threw back the corpse into a sack, instead focusing on the pouch of the undead. Zac knew the man should be rich, but the wealth inside made even Zac’s eyes widen. The undead empire really was on another level.

The most promising sight was a mountain of Nexus Crystals, even eclipsing the ones he found in Rydel’s pouch. However, Zac quickly realized something was off with the crystals. They held a tinge of turquoise rather than the normal white sheen.

He quickly took one out and was surprised that it actually contained pure miasma rather than Cosmic Energy. Zac then figured out it was nothing odd about it, as the undead couldnʼt cultivate using normal crystals.

If Zac had to guess there had to be at least 100 000 crystals in the pouch neatly stacked. Even better, there were actually over 100 crystals that held a far stronger sheen. Since he’d used E-Grade crystals before it didn’t take long for him to realize that these were E-Grade Miasma Crystals.

At first Zac felt he had been handed a mountain of garbage, but soon realized that these crystals might be just what he needed if he wanted to keep growing his Core. Just because he had reached equilibrium didn’t mean the Core was completely formed.

However, he still didn’t have any source that could complement these death-attuned Crystals. The energy left in the seed was limited, and he didn’t want to completely exhaust it.

Since there were crystals that contained miasmic energies, perhaps there were ones containing life-attuned energy as well. Zac would have to check with Calrin when he went back to the island later.

There were all kinds of things apart from the crystals. Zac found a whole arsenal of what could only be torture devices, and there were also quite a few books and crystals containing information. There were also various gadgets and tools, though most didn’t seem very useful to Zac.

Zac actually had problems to get many of the tools working as he tested them one by one, and he could only guess that it was because they required death-attuned energy to use. While Zac had a lot of it in his core he still wasn’t able to harness that power, so he could only helplessly put the tools back one by one.

However, a few of the items ran on normal energy rather than miasma. Perhaps they were trinkets the undead gave to living servants, or just spoils of war. One bracelet, in particular, seemed quite useful as it could create a sturdy shield around the wearer.

It needed to get socketed with a crystal, but its effect was quite strong when augmented with one’s personal Cosmic Energy. It wouldn’t stop people like Zac, but it should be strong enough to ward off bullets until it ran out of energy.

It wasn’t really useful to him with his endurance and defensive skill, but for people without any good skills to protect themselves, it would come quite handy.

There were also quite a few weapons, though almost all of them held uncomfortable sinister energy, especially the bone scythe that likely was the Corpse Lord’s main weapon. It was extremely durable, but Zac was loath to give it to someone, afraid it would corrupt them.

As for the various notepads, books, and information crystals, there was nothing much of use to Zac at the moment. There likely were valuable knowledge inside, but it was all in a script that Zac didn’t recognize.

He knew that the undead possessed their private language, and all the text was in that script. Even the crystals didnʼt contain a translation function. While the [Book of Babel] skill could translate speech quite well there were severe limitations to written text, so Zac would have to get it all translated somehow before researching the contents.

Over the next two days, Zac went around Kingsbury to piece together the situation bit by bit. The government had arrived at the town roughly two weeks ago, and after just a short meeting with the ruling council, it was announced that the town of Kingsbury would integrate into the New World Government.

This was good news to Zac, as the town got integrated almost at the same time as the Auction was held, which meant that the government’s presence likely wasn’t a direct result of his actions over in New Washington.

The proclamation had generally been met with a positive attitude, as life was tough this close to the Incursion. The hope was that the government would provide food and security, both of which were currently lacking in the area. There were a few grumbles amongst the Zombie Hunters though, as they had grown accustomed to the wild west-like lifestyle close to the Dead Zone.

However, there were rumors of large-scale movements in the Dead Zone, and many felt a storm was brewing on the horizon. Zac could only silently agree after having witnessed the events in the incursion as well.

The undead were starting to organize. Zac didn’t know when they would explode into action, but it didn’t feel like they would wait until the leaders got their limiters removed and advanced to E-Grade. The presence of a teleporter with access to multiple government towns was a lifeline for the citizens in case something happened.

The subsequent events were met with a far more tepid response though. Great chaos erupted during a night, with two of the four councilors mysteriously dying. It was generally believed that they were against the integration with the government, though people talked in hushed tones about the matter.

As soon as the two leaders died multiple places were raided, one person after another being captured. There had been quite a few deaths and destruction as some wouldn’t let themselves get captured without a fight. The government said they were capturing all criminals in the town to improve safety.

For the most part, they were right. Quite a few bad apples were rounded up, both cultivators and mortals. There were gangsters, murderers and rapists that got captured or killed one after another. Streets that were extremely dangerous to walk before became safe overnight.

However, many got arrested for no apparent reason, and the only charge given was “threatening security”. A theory that Zac only learned of by listening in on a conversation between two drunk patrons was that many of those who got captured arbitrarily either were cultivators from Greenworth or leaders of hunting parties.

The men who spoke about the matter concluded that the government was trying to pilfer the riches of successful cultivators and zombie hunters to pay for the expansion, but Zac had another guess. People from Greenworth might have been caught in order to find out more about him and his sister.

As for Kenzie, Zac learned the charge of attempted murder was likely real. Zac almost went on a rampage when he learned about one of the councilors called Harold. It looked like that the one Kenzie had attacked was this very man, but her power wasn’t enough so she failed.

It wasn’t very hard to find out that information, as Haroldʼs actions were well known in the city. The night the councilors died, two women who worked under one of the killed councilors were seen fighting against Harold in the middle of the streets.

Some said they fought because the two wanted revenge for their killed leader, others said that they tried to escape capture.

The more Zac learned about the man the angrier he got. The old pig was the same as the leaders of Greenworth. The only reason that old man wasn’t turned into mangled clumps of flesh yet was simply that Zac couldn’t find him, even after breaking into his mansion with the help of [Thousand Faces].

Zac still hadn’t figured out whether this all was an elaborate trap for himself, or whether it was just an odd coincidence, even after two days of sleuthing. He had tried searching for any hidden forces or weaponry while he waited, but couldn’t find anything. If the government was planning something they were keeping it close to their vest.

Of course, that wasn’t to say that he didn’t have a few aces up his sleeve. While he didn’t find Harold in his mansion, he did find the Nexus Node for Kingsbury. That gave him a few options that might come in handy depending on how things played out.

But the only real solution for the situation he could find was to stay put in his disguise as long as possible, trying to find out any clues by observing the trial. He’d only move when he knew what was going on. He still had a small hope that the government would do the right thing and mete out proper justice. If the whole town knew Harold was guilty, then so should they.

Zac sat on the bleachers of a stadium, looking down at the spectacle on the field. The government had refitted a small arena into a courtroom and even allowed the public to spectate.

It appeared that the government wanted to show both their prowess and that the rule of law existed even in their frontier towns. Of course, Zac was also very aware that this might all be an elaborate trap for himself.

Zac suddenly sensed a weak disturbance in the energy beneath the stadium and looked down with a small smile. The teleportation array was actually placed right beneath the arena somewhere. It made things quite simple.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity a group of government officials entered the field from a side-door and took a seat at the judge’s table prepared. Zac scrutinized each and every one of them, but he couldn’t recognize any of them from his visits to New Washington.

At the same time, a few other people entered the stadium, and Zac’s pupils narrowed when he saw a fat man in his 60’s in the front of the group. Zac was sure it was Harold, the most likely suspect for the untimely deaths of the other two councilors. And more importantly, the likely culprit behind Kenzie’s apprehension.

It took all of Zac’s self-control to not go over right then and there as it would mess up his rescue. However, all self-control was quickly crumbling when he saw the state of the prisoners as they were led out in a long line. He completely exploded in rage when he saw his sister walk with a limp dressed in rags, with a black eye and her hair in grimy stripes.

Today heads would roll.