After reviewing the evidence, the Leader was asked to step into the Judgment stand.
This is similar to a lie detector, or even somewhat similar to the scroll that Sam made. They would feel the extreme pain in the soul if they lie and it is done by a bunch of cursed ghosts attached to the stand.
The leader stood on the stand indifferently.
Even before the grand elders could speak, he started talking.
"I would confess everything. There is no point in this trial anymore."
The grand elders looked at him intently but still gave him a green light.
"I am the one who started this parallel organization that runs all these rackets, I am the one responsible for enticing the successor candidates of my generation and the previous generation who are the only ones that have a free will that could desire things other than the devotion to the Black Ghosts.
I enticed them and brought them to join me to create this parallel organization.
But apart from the desire for personal benefits and the growth of the organization in other areas, I don't have any other malicious intentions. I believe that we are limiting ourselves with our current style of operation.
I wanted to get us out of this shell.
I know that if I do not become the leader of the organization I wouldn't be able to achieve what I wanted to achieve, but Markan is a better candidate like he always was and I was not able to achieve what I wanted.
I never really thought of killing him until then. I just wanted to achieve the difference I wanted in another way.
But with Markan's mentality, that would be impossible and when I am conflicted with what I need to do, someone contacted me.
He wanted to experiment and test something on someone and Markan is perfect for that test, so I made both of them meet, Markan was injected with a special parasite that devours his elemental energy, then he was attacked, without the elemental energy, he is not at his full strength, with a constant twenty-five attempts on him, he was finally captured alive and he was planted with the seal.
His face was changed by the same person, he changed it and threw Markan in a different realm. He observed his actions for a few days and after achieving his desired results, he went away.
I took some things from him in exchange for this help and used them to create this parallel organization.
That is the whole story."
The leader spoke without a hint of frustration or any other emotion for that matter. He is direct and precise. He didn't bother with any nonsense. He knew he is fucked and he knew it the moment Markan safely returned to the headquarters.
Markan is someone he cannot handle himself and this is known to all the successor candidates who participated in this.
There is a reason they committed suicide when Markan appeared in front of them. They knew the fate worse than death would be awaiting them if they were alive and got captured by Markan, his love for Black Ghosts is too much.
So, they decided to commit suicide.
If not for the fact that it would be impossible to kill himself in the headquarters after the impeachment trial was accepted, he would have done the same.
Even the week he used to destroy the rackets, it was just a desperate attempt to reduce the amount of disgust the grand elders would have of him so that he could get a lenient sentence.
But now that the evidence was clearly shown in front of everyone, he decided to come clean.
There is no point in struggling.
"Who is the person that approached you?"
One of the Grand Elders asked and this made the leader smile.
"Do you really want to know? I don't think you would be able to do anything to him, even if I tell you. Besides, Markan already knows."
"I am asking you a question and all you have to do is answer me."
"The Divine Healer Vardar."
His words made the Grand Elders lose all the color in their faces. Vardar is someone they could never dream of touching. Even making a contact with him will take all of their connections and favors they have collected over the years.
If not for the Judgement stand, they would have chosen to believe that the leader is lying. But they cannot deny it now.
The leader looked at Markan and said.
"I believed that I would be able to achieve my goals after you were gone, but only then did I realize that Vardar wanted to control the Black Ghosts through me. The men you have seen with duplicate memories and faces are all sent here by him.
He managed to create those faces as well as the memories for them. They are not the Black Ghost members. I have the people who were injected into the organization right here."
He said as he pointed at his head. He had a smile on his face as suddenly took a knife and stabbed himself in the heart.
Everyone is completely caught off guard. They didn't expect that this guy would just kill himself as soon as he revealed the truth.
He slipped down the stand as he fell on the floor. Markan ran along with some other guards and attendants.
"It is right here." The leader said as he once again pointed at his own head and lost his life.
Markan thought for a moment and he called for Night Ghost who is currently disguised as a member of his crew.
He performed Memory extraction and transferred the information to Markan.
Markan was surprised when he learned of the details.
Vardar's goal from the start is to find the best information organization, but Markan is not just some side effect or collateral damage, he is also a target. But there is no reason or cause explained in those memories.
But there are some details explained.
One of them is that Vardar has been trying to completely control all the organizations that are based on the information trade on all levels. In these surrounding twenty realms, Black Ghosts are the best. They regulate all the information.
The same thing happened to many other organizations like them.
But Vardar didn't use the same method as Markan, eliminating their cultivation and such.
He used a simple method to kill them with the help of his subordinates and moved on with controlling the organizations.
But there are no reasons or explanations regarding why they are being controlled and what their motive is.
There is also something that made him understand why the leader killed himself. It is because there is a destruction mechanism similar to the suicide chant of the duplicates and other subordinates. The subordinates that are directly working with Vardar could have killed him if he was alive and the memory extraction wouldn't have been possible as the soul would be destroyed.
Markan also noticed the identities of the duplicates and gave all the information to the Grand Elders.
The very next day, the funeral happened normally. Even though many people resented the leader for what he had done, they figured that there is no need to hold the resentment towards the dead.
The next day, Markan took over the organization and a mass execution was made as he killed every single duplicate.
After that, he went to the personal room of the Leader where he saw the Black Ghost disc hung on the wall behind his seat.
Suddenly, Sam appeared in the room. He came from the lightning divine dimension and looked at the black Ghost disc.
He looked around the office and said.
"You have a nice place here."
"Yeah, for a while."
"While?"
"Yeah, a few decades maybe. I think I will be replaced in thirty to forty years."
"That is a long time. Anyway, let us not waste any more time. Luckily this whole thing was concluded faster than I thought. That guy who is your enemy is not as bad as I thought. He is at least honest and didn't occupy some hypocritical pedestal. He is honest to himself and died like that.
If he didn't kill himself, he might have been killed by that destruction mechanism that would have been activated.
This is the least he could do after all the shit he has put you and the organization through."
"I think so, too. At least, he didn't waste your time."
Markan said and he took out the disc from the wall and gave it to Sam.
Sam used the observation ability and created a hologram of it before giving the disc back.
"I will give you the duplicate by tomorrow, we can exchange. If you want anything else. Tell me now. I will prepare and leave as soon as it was exchanged."
"Give me another day. Since you are now my crew in name, I need to make up something to let the team go away."
"That would be great. I am really glad that we didn't have to put much effort this time. Because the next journey is going to be a great ride and interesting one at that."
