Damned Healer-Chapter 114: Atmosphere Shift

Freon and everyone in the courtroom were stunned when they heard that. The mission's description had been crystal clear: time was limited, and everyone would be slowly poisoned. At most, they could survive ten days.

Lasting ten months? That was impossible.

But Freon couldn't hide his happiness — a smile crept up on his face. Only the power from his clan's Supreme Artifact core could've made such a miracle happen. His son, without a doubt...

The Supreme Judge was the first to speak:

"How many died?"

"Reporting, five are dead. All from the Red River Pact clan. The other ten came back alive and unharmed."

Freon's face immediately darkened and twisted.

"Seal the needle in her," — the Judge pointed at Rhea, and the officer instantly froze the effect — "Bring all five from the Azure Haven clan to the courtroom. They'll give the report for everyone to hear."

The man nodded and quickly turned to leave.

The entire room went quiet. Meanwhile, Rhea's process had stopped halfway. The damage to her soul was so bad anyone would say it was beyond healing — but she wouldn't die quickly while the needles were still inside her.

Two minutes later, five figures entered the center of the courtroom, surrounded by several military guards.

As soon as they arrived, everyone's eyes went wide.

"Damon!" — Leander roared when he saw his brother's collapsed body, completely shriveled and darkened. Anyone could feel there wasn't a trace of life left in that body.

"You insolent brat, silence!" Freon shouted, consumed by rage.

Leander ignored him and almost ran toward his mother and brother, but was immediately stopped by Mattero, who held him back with both arms.

He looked like he was about to lose it, when he heard Freon's voice. Harper also stepped in and helped hold him back by force. Veyle, on the other hand, stumbled forward with her face already soaked in tears.

Darian was just as shocked, watching the whole scene. 'What the hell happened here?'

"You've been summoned to give clarification," the Supreme Judge said seriously. "We'll go step by step. First, tell us exactly what happened in the mission."

Darian took a deep breath. He was the only one who could 'explain'. Stepping forward, everyone stared coldly at him.

"A lot happened, and honestly, things could've turned out very differently. First off, halfway through the mission, the bastards from Red River Pact betrayed us. That almost caused a total collapse..."

"Bullshit!" Freon cut in harshly. "Raon took one of our Supreme Artifact cores for emergencies. We already reported that to the Empire — this mission had a huge reward and was worth the risk. He probably saw the mission was gonna fail and acted to make sure he'd still get something."

Darian looked at Freon with a mocking smile.

"Is that so? I didn't totally agree with the leadership's decision at first either. But according to the Empire's rules, orders from the mission leader are absolute. Everyone's supposed to give their all as a team and forget personal differences. Deciding on your own to kill your teammates and take over the mission — no matter the reason — is already considered betrayal, right?"

"You son of a bitch, don't slander us! There's no way he died while using the core — especially in that place, where his blessing worked easily. He should've been invincible. Supreme Judge, these bastards are obviously—"

"Silence," the Judge said flatly. "You don't need to tell me the obvious. And I didn't give you permission to speak."

Darian looked at the judge. His eyes gleamed.

Oddly enough, the judge had a grayish, slightly dark aura. In other words, his past wasn't perfect, but still better than average — and in his current life, he didn't do anything malicious or without cause — otherwise his karmic aura would be way more tainted.

He clearly liked his job, especially dealing with punishment and criminals. But that didn't mean he wasn't fair or that he didn't follow the rules properly.

"Supreme Judge," a woman — leader of a smaller clan — spoke up to back Freon. "That's irrelevant right now. If what he's saying is true, it'll be confirmed later when we analyze the group crystals..."

She clearly wanted to skip that part, which might turn into a big problem. After the punishments were handed out, Freon could quietly cover everything up.

"No need to wait," Darian cut in calmly. "The mission leader, Gregor, should've already spread copies of the images from my group crystal. He's probably nearby — if the Judge allows it, just ask him for a copy."

He looked at Freon and the woman coldly: "I was told to explain what happened. I said there were several problems. That's the first one — why delay it, if we can clear it up right now?"

Freon and the woman narrowed their eyes. The artifact capable of doing that was extremely rare, so this caught them off guard. Still, it wasn't against the rules to use one.

"Alright. Bring the leader of that mission here too." The Supreme Judge gestured, and several figures left the room.

Didn't take long. Gregor was already at the door, waiting. Right after getting back from the mission and seeing those five being taken away, he'd rushed off to buy artifacts that could copy the footage. He left a copy with another clan member, who ran off with the goal of spreading everything, making more copies.

When he walked in, he looked tense. He saw his clan leader among the important figures. The two of them locked eyes, then Gregor took a deep breath and calmed himself.

"Gregor, from the Amazon Sentinels clan," he bowed to the judge. Then he raised his hand and released a small crystal that floated forward.

The judge made a simple gesture. The crystal stopped in the air. A moment later, it exploded. Then, a glowing mist about two meters wide formed. Within seconds, in the center of that mist, the footage began playing — everyone in the courtroom could see and hear it.

The scenes of Raon acting after they got to the mission site, choosing to ignore orders and doing whatever he wanted inside that temple were crystal clear. He didn't have any strong or solid reason — he just did whatever he felt like, not caring about anyone else.

The view was from Darian's perspective. When everyone saw that massive golem, their eyes widened — but the surprise only got bigger when they saw how it got dealt with.

Then came the scene of Darian tricking Raon's group into drinking that potion... mocking laughter echoed through the room. Freon clenched his fists as hard as he could, already thinking about how he'd get revenge for this...

Soon after, there was the scene of Raon activating the artifacts and locking everyone up. The group argued, and his own words made his malicious intent obvious.

Then... the footage cut abruptly.

Everyone's eyes jumped.

Raon showed up in the recordings, screaming in pain, brutally injured.

CRACK!

Freon completely lost it in less than five seconds — his chair exploded.

A few people turned toward him... then sarcastic smirks started popping up.

Freon took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

All his enemies were there, since he was the main one who'd pushed for this trial to be such a big event. They came just to make sure he wasn't doing anything shady — and at the slightest slip-up, they'd point fingers and tear everything apart.

Now... that footage was like a gourmet meal to them.

Freon couldn't even handle the first few seconds. But he had no idea what was still coming...

Screams and pure agony — an unprecedented torture — were seen by everyone. And it didn't let up. It just kept getting worse and worse.

Freon turned pale. He shut his eyes and sealed his senses. He felt like he was a hair away from snapping. In his mind, there was only one thought: stay calm now, so I can take revenge later.

When he felt the people's energy shift, he opened his eyes.

The scene had ended. But everyone was silent, deep in thought.

"What did you see happen?" the Judge asked Darian seriously.

When the Judge asked, he saw a glimmer in Darian's eyes fade.

That was him coming back to reality.

Darian focused on the judge... secretly using that moment to observe a lot of interesting things.

Then, he clearly felt the atmosphere shift in his favor. A faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.