Even though this was the first time Siena and Nalea met Rhode, he couldn’t be more familiar with them. It could also be said that any players who experienced the second phase of the game knew who the twin dragons were.
In the game, they were the only BOSS-level figures who players were afraid to mess with and not even Rhode ever considered attacking the Country of Law. Even though the Country of Law was relatively sealed-off, had a neutral diplomatic stance, and never provoked players and foreign organizations, this didn’t mean that players wouldn’t consider attacking them. For instance, Erin was also like a mascot of the Country of Darkness where she wasn’t involved with anything apart from acting cute for players and assigning missions to them. In the end, she was instantly slaughtered by players after Rhode killed the Dark Dragon and she lost the protection of the moon. This went to show that being harmless definitely wasn’t the reason why players wouldn’t kill someone.
However, the reason why players didn’t attack the Country of Law was really simple.
The Judgment & Ruling Twin Dragons were insanely powerful.
Everyone knew that the Country of Law’s churches were responsible for supervising the signing of contracts. It was due to this that various countries and organizations didn’t need to worry that their signed contracts would become obsolete. The only exception was when the Country of Light and Country of Darkness signed their second truce agreement. Back then, the Country of Light was terribly paranoid, where after they were tortured by the undead army, they treated all non-human races with hostility. As a result, they signed the truce agreement publicly with the Country of Darkness without the supervision from the Country of Law and thereafter… the Country of Darkness tore the agreement because to them, humans were just lowly slaves who were in no position to speak about trust with them.
On the other hand, there were also many fearless organizations formed by players. Everyone knew that players loved to exploit advantages and it went without saying that many of them took advantage of a contract’s loophole. It was especially so after the players’ era arrived and many guilds started to grow. That was when they compelled others to agree and sign their clauses. Occasionally, some guilds didn’t honor their words after their clauses were signed because this was merely a game to them and only fools would be serious enough to talk about trust. It was due to this that some guilds took things further and eventually got caught in a conflict with the Country of Law.
The conflict happened in the initial stages of gaining new territories. Apart from Starlight, there were four other large, powerful guilds. Among the four, two were interested in the same resourceful territory and signed an agreement to jointly develop it. Of course, it was signed under the supervision of the Country of Law.
But in the final juncture of developing the territory, when the tinder was about to be awakened, one of the two guilds suddenly rose in revolt and eradicated the other guild completely, claiming the controlling rights of the new territory.
It went without saying that the guild that was backstabbed reported this matter to the Country of Law immediately. After thorough investigations, the Country of Law dispatched the churches’ guards and pursued the guild that violated the agreement. It went without saying that players weren’t favorable of being under the supervision of NPCs. As a result, the guild that violated the agreement ridiculed the other guild for being ‘a group of trash who clings to NPCs for support’ and sent out their men to destroy the churches’ guards. In fact, it was common for players to go against the rules, but most of the time, they couldn’t defeat the churches’ guards. Therefore, they would either hide in the wilderness of the mountains or wait to be captured since the punishment dealt to them was either having their possessions confiscated or issuing fines.
However, as this guild took things too far, Siena and Nalea showed up and dealt with them personally.
And that was the first time when players witnessed the Judgment & Ruling Twin Dragons’ true powers, which were strong enough to shake the entire continent.
The battle against the twin dragons was different from the battle against the Dark Dragon. In fact, no violence was allowed in the battle. In other words, no matter the level, mysterious skills, and powerful equipment, they were all meaningless against the twin dragons because there was no battle to begin with. Instead, the twin dragons were there to settle things through talking!
At the start of the ‘battle’, all hostile players against the twin dragons were sent to a place called the Judgment Court, where Nalea was the ‘public prosecutor’ who narrated all crimes of the ‘defendants’. On the other hand, players held the dual roles of ‘defendants’ and ‘lawyers’ and they could either plead guilty or innocent against Nalea’s allegations. Then, players had to provide evidence to support the authenticity of their statements. Their rebuttal would still fail if they lacked sufficient evidence. As proof of failure, the ‘Order Scale’ with more authority than the judge would tilt to one side slightly for each failed rebuttal. Slowly, the scale would reach the bottom and that was when Siena showed up and executed the punishment.
What gave players the biggest headache was that they knew that Nalea was a muddle-headed person who often deviated from the topic at hand in the judgment seat and even sometimes read the wrong testimonies. Even though that gave players a chance to retaliate, they didn’t believe that she was truly that foolish. There was only one simple reason. No matter which wrong testimony she read, she definitely wouldn’t ‘overlook’ any of them. It was due to this that many players thought that perhaps she was only acting like a fool in order to lure them into making mistakes.
There was indeed such a scene from one trial that caught every player’s attention. Back then, Nalea accused one of the guild’s elite players of using spells to kill a victim. As a result, the accused burst into laughter, saying, “Can’t you see that I’m in the thief-class? I clearly stabbed that bugger in the back with my dagger!” Then… there were no more thens, because he basically dug a hole for himself.
What was more terrifying was that it was impossible for players to remain silent. This was because if they didn’t refute within the given time, even the accusation of them killing with a wooden plank would be determined as valid by Nalea. Therefore, in order to ensure that one wasn’t wrongfully trialled, one must refute with evidence to prove one’s innocence. But from a certain perspective, this was as though self-incrimination.
It was obvious that all players were bewildered by the twin dragons’ peculiar ‘battle’ style. Players had specially prepared their best equipment and secret weapons, only to realize that they were useless in the Judgment Court. Moreover, they weren’t mentally prepared for trial and as a result, they were all defeated. After they were convicted, Siena would appear with her unsheathed longsword.
Then, she would brandish the blade.
Just once.
Every player of that guild was instantly killed by 9999999999 damage, despite their godlike equipment or immunity from harm. Not only that, but all their equipment and weapons were also destroyed on the spot. Furthermore, after those players revived fumingly, they discovered that their level and attributes had been reset to level 1!
This news stunned all players. This was the first time that they witnessed such an unreasonable BOSS. Thereafter, the official forums saw waves of uproar from players’ complaints, but it wasn’t. As a result, their guild disbanded and many players quit the game. Well, they couldn’t be blamed since they had put in such hard work, only to have their best equipment and weapon destroyed and level reset. No one could take such a blow to the heart.
There were even some players who committed suicide after losing their powerful character and this raised discussions in society. But.. That happened much later.
Thereafter, no players were foolish enough to taunt the twin dragons anymore as their insane and unreasonable ‘battle’ style wasn’t tolerable for most people. Some players who were lawyers by trade conducted research on the video of the entire trial process and the conclusion they got was that unless the players had the IQ of conspirators of premeditated crimes, there would basically be no hope of making a comeback. Moreover, even if a player cleared his name, it would be deemed invalid if other players from his guild pleaded guilty. Judging from this point, it would be an unresolvable situation unless a player could settle all conspiracies and guarantee all evidence was obliterated. But such a genius wouldn’t be playing this game in the first place.
Even though Rhode didn’t know if the twin dragons had such powerful strength in this world, he wasn’t that naive to give it a shot. In the game, the twin dragons’ powers came from Order itself and coupled with their church’s unique contract supervision system, it was apparent that their responsibility was to maintain the Order of the continent. In this case, not only were there no conflicts between him and the twin dragons, but they also had common interests. Therefore, he couldn’t possibly become enemies with them.
As long as he didn’t take things too far…
“We’re here.”
Siena’s crisp, stern voice pulled Rhode back to reality. He came to a halt and looked up at the tall, enormous door of steel. Judging from its appearance, it seemed to have lasted for a very long time. It was carved with sacred and complicated floral patterns and also an eye-catching young lady.
Her eyes were closed shut while her long hair was scattered. She spread her arms apart as though welcoming or offering a hug. But what was more important was that her exquisite and beautiful face seemed somewhat familiar.
Because he had seen this face not too long ago when retrieving Alice’s body from history.
