Cthulhu Gonfalon

The God of Fear was a very shrewd fellow. Although sometimes his tricks brought him nothing than trouble, at least at the moment of life and death, his tricks were quite reliable.

As he had said, good and evil were inherent in the world, and the balance between them was the basic law of the world. Judging evil with good was to deny the balance between them, and that didn’t make any sense.

What he had said was quite remarkable. Not to mention ordinary people, even the gods nodded their heads in secret.

Most of the gods in the world belonged to the Neutral Camp. For them, the general good or evil did not matter. Instead, they cared more about their own camp and rules, and that was all.

If the balance between good and evil was broken, there surely would be a winner between these two, and that would have a huge impact on the world. Whether it was good or bad, currently, no one wanted to see it happen—no one knew what it would lead the world to.

Faced with the God of Fear’s justification, Sui Xiong gave a cold smile carelessly.

It was not surprising to see the God of Fear defend himself in this way, or, in other words, not surprising for the God of Law.

For this trial, Sui Xiong had talked to the God of Law in detail in advance, and he had also asked the God of Law to play the role of the God of Fear to conceive how he would defend himself.

And what the God of Fear was saying now was one of several possibilities that the God of Law had conceived at that time.

Thus, Sui Xiong was well prepared for such an argument.

“Are you the world?” he asked.

The God of Fear was surprised at that and then shook his head.

“Then, am I the world?” he asked again.

The God of Fear shook his head again.

“Well, are we, I mean you and I, the world?”

“What on earth do you want to say?” the God of Fear asked cautiously. “I don’t think this topic makes sense.”

Without paying attention to him, Sui Xiong turned to the audience and said, “All the gods present here, do you think our gods together are the world?”

The gods discussed it and after a while gave a relatively consistent answer.

“No.”

The world was vast and boundary-less. It had been a great cycle since ancient times and had even existed long before the gods appeared. Even if the gods died in the future, the world would still exist. The gods were the masters of some laws of the world, the guardians of the operation of the world, and the strivers in pursuit of infinite power even beyond the world. But anyway, even if all the gods of the Pantheon temple were counted, they were still smaller and not worth mentioning compared to the world.

Since ancient times, many clergies had been occupied by different masters, and even many gods had passed their titles on for several generations. Everyone was just the master of a certain clergy in a certain generation. Even if all gods were united, they were just the masters of clergies in a single generation—that was all.

They were not the world. Even if all of them were counted, they were still not the world.

Sui Xiong listened to the results of the discussions among the gods and looked at the God of Fear. “Do you agree with them?”

“Yes.” The God of Fear nodded.

“Then here is the question. Since even if our gods together are not the world, how can the death of a single god be serious enough to influence the balance of the world?” Sui Xiong sneered and said. “Whether there is a trial for you or not, does it have any influence on the balance of the world?”

The God of Fear was speechless and didn’t answer that.

“Let me ask you again, am I the good? Are you the evil?” Sui Xiong continued to ask. “Of course I don’t think you will answer it, so I’d like to ask all of you here. Is there anyone here that thinks that you are the good or evil? Or do you think that all good gods add up together to be the good itself? And the same for the evil?”

After a brief discussion, the gods gave a negative answer.

Not to mention the gods here, even the former God of Virtue and the former God of Evil were just the supreme masters of the good and evil, but not the actual good and evil themselves.

It was like the God of Sky not being the sky, the Sun God not being the sun, and the God of Joy not being joy. Even the God of Fear himself was not fear.

A god was just the master or manager of the clergy, and that was all.

After getting the answers from the gods, Sui Xiong looked at the God of Fear with a sneer again. “You see, I am a good god, but I am not the good itself, you are an evil god, but you are not the evil itself. So it has nothing to do with evil when we are judging you here. How are you related to the evil? For the world, for the evil itself, you are nothing more than a temporary staff holding the clergy of fear. Why do you value yourself so much? You’re so arrogant!”

At this point, he paused for a moment and continued ironically, “I’ve seen more than once that when ordinary people are drunk, some of them claim to be the king of the world, some boast that they are the most handsome man in the world, and some shout that they are invincible in the world. I definitely remember that you weren’t given a drink, but why do you suddenly get so drunk?”

There were laughs in the audience, and among them, the happiest one was from Yorgaardman, the God of Justice.

The God of Fear was very angry. He knew that he had lost this debate, completely.

After that, Sui Xiong turned to the God of Law who was the judge today. “Your Honor, I don’t think his defense is tenable. The judgment on him will have no effect on the balance of the world. Please adjudicate it.”

The God of Law looked around at the whole court calmly and finally looked at the God of Fear, who was in a bad mood but had nothing to say now.

“The defendant, do you have anything to say?”

The God of Fear silenced for a moment and said, “Whether it will have an impact on the balance of the world is one thing, and whether it intends to is another. A trial with a clear tendency doesn’t make any sense.”

This was his last rebellion because he knew that once the trial entered the stage to discuss and provide proofs for his specific crime, there would be absolutely no room for him to defend.

If he wanted to survive at last, he had to fundamentally deny this trial, and then he could manage to find a chance to save himself from this doomed dead ending.

The God of Law was indifferent to his statement and turned to Sui Xiong.

“The plaintiff, do you have anything to say?”

“I think what the God of Fear said is ridiculous,” Sui Xiong said. “Why doesn’t the trial make sense? The trial is based on the law, and the law itself has its tendency more or less—to maintain social stability, to guard the interests of the public, or more clearly, the law is the product of order, and its existence is to maintain a stable ruling order. Thus, why can’t the law have its tendency? Why should the trial not be biased? If there’s really no tendency, then there is no need to hold a trial. I can kill the defendant with one knife and finish everything here.”

He turned to the God of Fear and said, “What will you say?”

Fear rose in the eyes of the God of Fear because he knew that Sui Xiong was absolutely not joking. If it hadn’t been for the sake of the public hearing, Sui Xiong would have killed him long ago.

“You’re just insulting me!” the God of Fear said stiffly. “Judging an evil god by the law of the good is simply an insult!”

“I really doubt you’ve drunk too much.” Sui Xiong shook his head and sighed. “I just made it clear that the law existed on the basis of order. Order and chaos are another set of balances parallel to good and evil. Why are you talking about things that have nothing to do with good or evil right now? You must be drunk!”

Then he looked at the God of Justice under the stage and said, “Brother, did you give him a jar of wine or something like that today?”

“How could I!” the God of Justice cried out. “If there was a good wine that could make a powerful god drunk, I would have saved it for myself! For this bastard, I prefer to give him an axe than wine!”

The other gods laughed again, and that laughter was full of irony.

The God of Fear frowned tightly and tried to think about how to defend himself in the debate, but he could not think of any useful words.

To be honest, he was not a skilled debater. He had pursued the principle of solving problems with his fist but not his tongue, and he had preferred a fight than a negotiation all along. Who was he? The God of Fear! He was a god that brought disaster and fear to the world! To negotiate with others with words? That was not that cool.

But now he hated his old ways and regretted that he hadn’t practiced how to debate over the years. If time could go back, he would have practiced arguing. No! If time could go back, he would not dare to disturb that jellyfish.

This was clearly looking for death when the weak tried to disturb the strong!

Unconsciously, the God of Fear had placed himself in the position of the weak, and regarded Sui Xiong as the absolute strong that was invincible. In the mind of the God of Fear, not only rose the fear of death, but also the fear of Sui Xiong.

The power of the clergy made him understand that in an instant, and he was ashamed and angry. He could not help roaring like a beast that fell into a trap and was caught in a net by hunters with spears, forks, and crossbows aimed at him. He had fallen into despair.

But it was too late for him to regret. The God of Law just waved his hand to cut off his roar from the defendant’s seat, and with a short delay, the trial entered the stage that was familiar to the audience.

The crimes of the God of Fear were mentioned one by one. The witnesses appeared in court one after another, and the evidence was constantly provided.

The crimes committed by the God of Fear over the past 100,000 years had been shown before the public without any disguise. As the sentences were made, the face of the God of Fear grew darker and darker, so were his eyes.

Everyone could see that this evil god, who had committed countless crimes and spread fear widely to the world during a long time, had finally come to his end.