Chapter 2355: Judgement and Justice

Chapter 2355: Chapter 2355: Judgement and Justice

The firelight flickered, and Shard, holding the "Angel’s Right Arm," stopped in the barn, turned around, and surveyed his surroundings.

A loud bang made him quickly turn around to see the lampshade of the kerosene lamp on the stone table shattering. In the instant the firelight disappeared and moonlight shone into the barn through the high window, an invisible Vampire Kind launched an attack from behind Shard.

The figure was completely invisible in the night, an open mouth aimed at Shard’s neck. But as a golden shield appeared around Shard, the "Heaton Seal" bounced Mrs. Jude away, and Shard struck a sword in her direction.

The sword scar, in the color of the Blood Moon, was dodged by the agile Vampire Kind, who still maintained her invisibility. Each leap almost touched the barn’s high ceiling.

Using her high mobility, she attempted to evade Shard’s pursuit again, only to find that no matter where she moved, Shard’s gaze followed instantly:

"You can actually see me?"

Abandoning invisibility, the noble lady in the air transformed into hundreds of bats in the dim barn. The dense swarm of bats flew overhead as they swooped down together, and with his mouth closed, Shard let out a dull groan:

"Hmph!"

A dragon roar seemed to explode near the ears, and a painful scream came from Mrs. Jude among the blood-red bats. The woman, forcibly interrupted by the dragon roar, reappeared from the air, and then flipped again, disappearing into the dark barn.

The wind blew the treetops outside the barn, and the moonlight only faintly illuminated a small area inside the barn door. Standing in the darkness, Shard looked up sharply, seeing in the moonlight by the small window the noblewoman in a formal gown emitting a blood-colored mist.

The Red Moon outside the window precisely aligned behind her back, and then she transformed into a beam of blood light and charged at the man below.

Shard gripped his sword with both hands, fiercely swinging the blood-colored Moonlight Sword scar to collide head-on with the blood light in mid-air.

With a loud boom, Mrs. Jude, moaning in pain, rolled to the straw-covered ground of the barn after the explosion. She reached out to support her body to get up, but immediately grabbed the dark chains strangling her neck painfully.

The clinking Great Sin Chain flashed with a deep radiance, gradually tightening, causing the noblewoman’s face to first turn red and then pale. She desperately tried to pry a gap in the chain with her nails to breathe more easily.

But as Shard yanked hard, the woman, who had been sitting on the ground, fell backward and was pulled completely to the ground by the chain.

Shard turned his back to her, letting the Great Sin Chains pass over his right shoulder, and grasped the chains with both hands, walking toward the barn entrance. The struggling woman, making gurgling sounds, rubbed her back against the ground as she was dragged out of the barn.

Once outside, the moon seemed even rounder. Still silent, Shard headed toward the large tree in the yard, as Mrs. Jude struggled more fiercely.

Her back scratched against the rough ground of the yard, her neck tightly choked by the chains as she was dragged forward, unable to muster the strength to sway the chains. She tried to at least crawl, but by then Shard had reached the large tree.

With a gentle flick, the lengthened chain looped over the thickest branch, and under the tree, Shard gave a forceful tug, lifting Mrs. Jude into the air.

Her legs struggled and kicked, her hands still trying to find a gap in the chains, but her eyes remained fixed on the man below.

Expressionless, Shard beckoned, and the firewood piled in the corner of the yard flew under Mrs. Jude.

He held the chain in one hand, rubbed his thumb and forefinger of the left hand, and blew gently, igniting a small flame.

What Shard intended to do next was evident, but he did not act immediately and finally spoke:

"Do you repent?"

With nearly all her spellcasting ability sealed by the "Great Sin Chain," the noble lady seemed to want to spit at Shard, but unfortunately, she couldn’t. Perhaps a survival instinct kept her body shaking despite the situation, but hanging from the chain below the tree could not help her break free from Shard’s Arcane Technique.

Clouds appeared from nowhere, gradually covering the three moons in the night sky. In the countryside night without street lights, relying solely on moonlight for illumination, the clouds gradually enveloped the earth in darkness.

"I am human; why would you think I’d tolerate you treating those children as your food all the time?"

He said coldly, waiting a while longer when Mrs. Jude still remained silent before continuing:

"I hereby judge your crimes, and your sinful soul needs the purification of fire."

Saying that, he made a move to ignite the flame at his fingertips, and at that moment, the three moons were entirely obscured by clouds. At the instant of total darkness, only the flame on Shard’s fingertips illuminated his face and the suspended woman’s body.

Yet, in the next instant, the flame abruptly extinguished in the darkness. The "Great Sin Chain" even suppressed her Racial Talent, and the chained Mrs. Jude couldn’t see what happened below in the dark.

But she heard the fierce sound of wind, the clash of a long sword with something hard. Then, she felt the chain at her neck loosen, and she fell from the tree:

"Cough, cough."

The strange chains left the body, the Spirit flowing once more made her feel as if she had been reborn.

Her right hand, adorned with a ruby and pure silver bat ring, propped on the ground, ignoring the noble dress being dirtied by it, as she kept pounding her chest with her left hand and gasping for air.

Only then did she have time to look up ahead, as the clouds gradually passed in the night sky, the moonlight illuminating the Earth again. Her body’s functions recovered from the control of that strange chain, and the strong constitution of the Vampire Kind quickly dispelled the dizziness.

With the blurry moonlight, she saw clearly what happened before her. That handsome young man held the Silver Cross Sword horizontally with his left hand, his right hand tightly gripping a nimble black chain, facing a mysterious middle-aged man she’d never seen before.

To say she’d never seen him isn’t quite accurate, in blurred memories, Mrs. Jude recalled this short-statured man seemed to be a servant of a local noble.

"You’ve finally arrived."

Shard said to the stranger with a notebook clutched under his left arm, the powerful Whisper Element on his person unmistakable:

"If you hadn’t appeared, I wouldn’t know what to say."

"You wish to draw me out?"

The man spoke calmly, dressed in a somewhat dirty brown coat, eyes vacant. More than his presence, the black leather-bound notebook he carried stood out to Shard.

"Indeed, you’ve killed so many here, naturally we wish to meet."

Mr. Benhart spoke as he emerged with Mr. Albert from behind the stranger. Mrs. Jude immediately guessed what transpired tonight, yet the stranger didn’t even turn to look at the two Vampires, he kept staring at Shard:

"I’m willing to come forth, not merely because you wish to judge this monster who feeds on human blood, but because I catch a familiar scent from you. It’s a scent from a long time ago, can you tell me what it is?"

Shard frowned slightly:

"Before I answer your question, you must answer mine first."

Without turning around, he pointed directly behind him:

"The power of Richard’s Notes caused the death of so many, do you truly believe you’re executing justice? No need to answer, I know your reply. I merely ask using the lady behind me’s past question: If you killed her for consuming human blood, then a year later, what of the orphanage she founded? What of those children?"

No one in the barnyard spoke, the moonlit night was so quiet, the orphanage on the distant hill as devoid of any lighting as here.

"Executing justice always demands a price, but one shouldn’t be morally blackmailed into shirking justice, it’s a matter of principle."

The stranger clutching the notebook said:

"Tell me, would you consider a murderer who donates to the orphanage a good person?"

"Mrs. Jude’s evil deeds haven’t surpassed the good she’s done."

"Can good and evil truly be used to measure and offset each other?"

The stranger asked again, this time Shard didn’t answer, it was Mr. Albert, clad in a cloak, who spoke:

"Justice and evil can’t be measured and offset, but sins shouldn’t always be repaid with life, this shouldn’t be for you to decide either. If she’s sinful, she must find a way to atone, not be killed outright. I always believe, killing is the basest form of executing justice, it’s evasion."

Mr. Benhart nodded slightly at these words, but surrounded in their midst, the stranger shook his head:

"I made grave mistakes long ago, it’s a story from ages past. Since then, I learned justice mustn’t be soft-handed. Taking the sinner’s life is the conclusion they most deserve... I lost my lover once, thus I chose to don a mask, and this too is my atonement."

With such words, Shard virtually confirmed, the entity before him was the target he sought. The stranger also paused his monologue, turning instead to inspect the black chains under the moonlight:

"Willing to speak with you is solely because you’re a band of special individuals, but this judgment must reach its end.

Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Rage, Coldly, Pride, Prejudice. Able to materialize sins into power, turns out you are the one in this city most deserving of judgment. The weight of sin is too heavy, sooner or later you’ll be devoured by it, even if there’s a one in ten thousand chance you won’t be controlled by this power, I cannot gamble on those odds.

Killing you shall be my foremost goal upon arriving in this city."