The guard dragged Minseok through the portal and into a blinding white room, throwing him onto the ground. The ropes of light bound him even tighter, pressure crushing further for every give that his exhales gave. He struggled for his hands to break the binds, to allow him air. His vision warbled in shades of white and brown and black as the world spun, and voices muffled around him, quieter and quieter at the ends of his fraying consciousness.

Suddenly, the pressure broke, and air flooded his lungs again. Gasping and coughing, Minseok blinked away the spots in his vision, but the voices and words he heard clearly.

“Master of Hell, what are you doing?”

“Humans need oxygen to live, or did your holy asshats forget that? Lightbinds will only strangle him to death, and don’t you need him alive for the trial?”

There was a pause, some grumbling from the guard, and the spinning world just managed to still for a bit to let Minseok see the owner of his advocate. They stood out against the angel guards and the room because they wore black, and when they turned their head, Minseok saw a young face with defined cheeks and sharp features. But their aura flared, and a power so dense that Minseok couldn’t distinguish element or nature or whim of that power within made him shudder. Even with his rudimentary skill, he knew that this person had absolute control over their aura, and what was emitted had just been a tiny piece of their power.

Just when his senses realigned, regular braided ropes tied around him, and he was heaved into a chair. The cords started around his wrists, and he jerked away, but he couldn’t even budge against the person’s strength.

“Cooperate because I won’t be able to save you a second time,” they murmured.

Minseok froze, then looked up. The person wasn’t anyone he recognized, but if the other angels called him the ‘Master of Hell’ and let him do what he wanted—

“Are you Mr. Satan?”

A smirk curved up his mouth before it disappeared.

“Try not to interfere with the others’ trials. Right now, you’re just collateral they need to deal with afterwards, and I don’t know how well Suho will be able to hold his soldier back.”

Chen. Was he arrested too? Did they bind him in the same ropes of light that they did him and Yixing? Minseok stayed still just long enough for Mr. Satan to tie a loose cloth gag over his mouth before leaning around the demon lord to see. He scanned through all objects and people until he found the amber eyes he was looking for, breathing a sigh of relief. His heart staggered a little to see Chen’s expression overtaken by rage and fear, but he seemed to be innocent in the view of the law. He was safe.

Calming enough at that knowledge, Minseok broadened his vision to their surroundings. Chen, their teammates, Suho, and other angelics—he recognized Bibi from the library, Lord Araneae from Purgatory, Zhoumi and Commander Mishurim—stood above him on the sides of the room, like the stands for an arena. The stands looked to be made up of the same material that had built Minwoo’s apartment in Heaven, and a whole crowd filled the seats. The same kind of guards who had showed up at Yixing’s apartment—the Glory Erelim if he remembered correctly—lined the walls, weapons and wings out.

On the ground with him, he faced Yixing and another angel with autumn auburn hair, both bound in ropes of light, and standing on their other side was another angel. This person was tall and had a sharp nose, but something other than their appearance marked this person to Minseok. He felt their aura rumble around them, an earth element, and when they met gazes, the angel sneered.

Fear slinked down his back, but he shook his head to focus. An angel commander had them arrested, and if someone as important as Mr. Satan was here, they were probably being tried right now, meaning there had to be judges. He looked over his right shoulder and up. And up and up. Under an indeterminable source of light stood three high seats. Satan sat on the right, the angelic in the middle had a bigger and fancier crown of symbols than the guards, and the left seat was empty.

“Where’s Hayyoth? How can a being of supreme power be late?”

“There is no need to involve the Judge of Human Souls in a matter of angelic transgression, Sir Satan,” the angel in the middle said.

“It’s law that three high angelics preside over a trial.”

“This was deemed a transpheric emergency, which allows the Presiding Judge of the Court of Place the decision to bypass the Three Angelic Law.”

“You didn’t mention your decision when you summoned me.”

The slam of a gavel thundered down, and Minseok flinched as the sound and the middle angel’s voice reverberated through his body.

“Trial for the accused angels, Lord Leenzy of the Glory Malakim and Coordinator Yixing of the Glory Malakim will commence. Commander Tongza, you claimed that your own angels committed acts of treason by helping the criminal at large, Hayong. Because of the urgency of Mission Rho 786, I, Commander Fauin of the Glory Erelim, bypass the Three Angelic Law as the Presiding Judge. Commander Tongza, present your claim.”

The earth angel made a small bow, and a fact snapped into place for Minseok—Yixing’s own commander had them arrested.

“Commander Fauin, Lord Satan, we have all wondered how Hayong clandestinely kidnapped the souls from Purgatory and escaped to Earth. I first present to you the chain of events that made it possible. The portal irregularity discovered in Purgatory led to the Vault of the Havadia Library, one of heaven’s landmarks. Hayong was never reported to have entered the Library, let alone the Vault; however, there shows a record of a certain angel who had.”

He pointed at the angel with auburn hair, his voice growing.

“Lord Leenzy was recorded to have entered the Vault, thus giving her the chance to change the enchantment.”

The Presiding Judge snapped his fingers, and the ropes slackened around Lord Leenzy’s mouth.

“Your defence, Lord Leenzy?”

“It was my turn to renew the enchantment. Every one-hundred years as all Vault enchantments are. I did not ever change the enchantment.”

“Commander Tongza.”

“That would not explain how the Artefact of the Eagle Eye had been tampered with.”

Lord Leenzy jerked still, alarm widening her eyes. Minseok thought back to when he and Kai had popped into the Vault room. He remembered some bookcases, pedestals with glowing objects, and what Kai said.

Every library has a restricted access room holding stuff so powerful that you need a certain level of authorization to use it.

“You can confirm this?”

“I can. Lord Bibith.”

Minseok watched as the librarian fluttered down from the stands, escorted by an Erelim guard. She gave each of them a glance, emotionless, but Minseok thought he saw reluctance in the slow way she moved her hands to summon a glowing scroll. He also noticed that Yixing had turned his face away as the librarian tried to glance at him. But Minseok's attention returned to the angel motioning her hands forward. A parchment flew up into view of the judges.

“In this, the history of the Eagle Eye’s use as recorded by the artefact itself, we see the signature of a water angel looking for a demon of undeterminable elements. Frost is undistinguished from unique powers due to the Eye’s creation before the Great Angelic War.”

“I verify what I witness,” the Presiding Judge said. “Lord Bibith does not lie.”

“As do I,” Satan said. “I find no equivocacy in her words.”

“Lord Bibith, you may return to your seat. Lord Leenzy, your defence.”

The auburn-haired angel’s lips trembled. Minseok held his breath, waiting for her to deny it, to call the earth commander’s words false, but she didn’t. She shook her head. He saw Yixing’s eyes widen in surprise. He heard the Presiding Judge’s hum lace with scorn.

“Commander Tongza, continue.”

“In Purgatory, Lord Araneae confirmed a rumor of a fake deity known as the Null Balance. This so-called deity promised bliss for souls lost in the years of Purgatory trials and was likely made by Hayong to lure souls to the irregularity.”

“Lord Araneae,” the Presiding Judge called.

The demon in her eighteenth-century dress and heavy makeup moved elegantly and calmly to where Lord Bibi had stood, but her tight frown told Minseok her true emotions.

“Lord Araneae, confirm or deny or modify in your own words.”

“The idea of the Null Balance exists in Purgatory Level Three. I discovered it half a hell month ago. It is rumored to bring eternal peace to souls who can’t pass their trials.”

“I verify what I witness,” the Presiding Judge said. “Lord Araneae does not lie.”

“I find no equivocacy in her words either,” Satan said.

“Lord Araneae, you may return to your seat. Lord Leenzy, your defence.”

“I… I acknowledge this information.”

“Commander Tongza.”

“My postulation is this: Hayong opened the portal irregularity to Lord Leenzy’s location at the time of the lord’s renewal of the enchantment. The criminal used deception, the promise of a Null Balance’s bliss, to have souls send themselves, undetectable, through the irregularity. The Eagle Eye, with its ability to search for any angelic regardless of location and to direct portals to the specified angelic, becomes necessary. When Hayong had suddenly escaped to an undisclosed place, Lord Leenzy had to use the Eagle Eye to find her and send the souls to her, remaining in the Vault to renew the enchantment without arousing suspicion.”

Minseok heard gasps and murmurs, but the judges made no expressions or inclinations as to what they thought. They waited for the noise to die down before the Presiding Judge spoke.

“Lord Leenzy, your defence.”

“I did not help Hayong kidnap the souls from Purgatory. I had never even met her in person. Every action I have taken since she had been declared wanted had only been in helping to capture her and return the souls.”

“You do not lie. This I confirm. But the use of the Eagle Eye. What is your defence?”

She in a breath.

“The Eagle Eye, did you or did you not use it? And if yes, for what purpose?”

Her body trembled, and she hung her head.

“I must abstain my answer.”

“Why?” Satan asked.

“I cannot say.”

“What do or did you gain from this unspeakable reason?”

“I cannot say.”

“When was this reason enacted?”

“I cannot say.”

“Is your abstention a matter of being unable to or because you are unwilling?”

Lord Leenzy bit her lip, her eyes b with tears.

“Both.”

While the judges spoke amongst themselves, and the audience’s murmurs rose in the room, Minseok’s head whirled with information, trying to straighten the facts. Angels couldn’t lie to any who knew their true name. Lord Leenzy wasn't lying, as the Presiding Judge noted, but her story had no other backing. How and why the portal irregularity would be in a library’s Vault would be explained by Commander Tongza’s explanation, but Lord Leenzy said that she had never even met Hayong, although her inability to speak about using the artefact didn’t put her in a good position.

But Minseok thought that commander Tongza’s explanation was also too simple. Lord Leenzy was authorized to change the enchantment, but couldn’t someone else do it illegally? And timing. No one knew when the portal irregularity was made nor exactly when the last enchantment renewal took place. From the perspective of the judges, they only knew that the irregularity’s creation had to be during a time when someone knew that Bibi wasn’t near the Vault.

He glanced up at Chen and saw him and his team discussing too. The lightning demon caught his eye though, and amber flashed in his eyes. When the gavel thundered down again, the crowd quieted.

“The contradictions are too great, and the evidence not yet uncovered. The judges withhold judgement until all have been prosecuted. Commander Tongza, you have yet to mention your claim of your coordinator’s role in Hayong’s criminal activity.”

“Yes, because this angelic’s deception is on a greater scale and even more shocking than the revelation of one traitor’s scheme. We all know the basic idea of how the proxy process works: an angelic lends their aura to another creature, and through time, they become someone with a connection to heaven or hell. The human turned proxy by Hayong, Kim Minseok, is living proof of the success of this process, but there lies an oddity. I’ve noticed in Yixing’s reports knowledge if not certainty of what must be done for the human. How can this be if no one—not even the Master of Hell himself—has concrete knowledge of the complicated nuances of manipulating the proxy process?”

“Do you have the reports you received from Yixing pertinent to this mission?”

The angel commander nodded and clapped his hands, light illuminating between his palms. Once pulled apart, scroll cases appeared and floated up to the judges’ bench. Commander Fauin raised an eyebrow.

“Here, I read, ‘Mission Rho 786, Report 9, Yixing of Malakim. The encountered supernaturals, the vampire and werewolf, are benevolent creatures. Because of the advancement of the proxy’s sign, I have deemed it unsafe for him to revert to fully human through the proposed use of hellfire or holy fire. He also started to attract some low-level demons, so in addition to his assigned guard, we will slowly teach him the ways of his inevitable transformation.’”

“‘Mission Rho 786, Report 19, Yixing of Malakim. I’ve commenced his training. His assigned guard, Chen of Tehom, has experience with the individual training of demons, so his job is at once protecting and training the proxy. Minseok’s body needs to adjust as well as his mind. As his body physically changes to suit the power of a demon, we must stretch his human limits now to ensure no fragility when the proxy process nears its end.’”

“Th