Seventy-Six: Value of Life

Phetue city 

Litvain

Osa Solar system

Pavesa Galaxy

Colony planetary Region

Karkinos 9th Y-1909

The once-immaculate administrative department of the Magistrate Tower had been reduced to a nightmarish battlefield. Desks, books, and ornate marble flooring had been obliterated, leaving only scorched ruins, fragmented stone, and smoldering embers. Jagged remnants of shattered walls jutted from the wreckage like skeletal remains, and the acrid scent of burning parchment and molten steel thickened the air.

Above the devastation, two figures clashed in a tempest of raw power. Meri enveloped in a shroud of whitish-gold mana, radiated an almost divine brilliance, her aura crackling with an intense energy that warped the air around her. Opposing her, Torhen was wreathed in a suffocating veil of darkness, his presence a void that seemed to swallow the light.

Their weapons met in a violent collision, unleashing cataclysmic shockwaves that sent embers and debris hurtling in all directions. Each strike carved deep furrows into the remains of the tower, reducing anything unfortunate enough to be caught in their battle to dust. The very air trembled as they moved, streaking through the wreckage like comets, their movements too fast for mortal eyes to follow.

Meri's golden aura flickered like a righteous inferno, her attacks precise and unyielding, while Torhen's shadowed form twisted unnaturally, his blade a void cutting through existence itself. Their battle was a symphony of destruction, a clash of forces that threatened to unravel the very foundations of the Magistrate Tower. Meri moved like a dancer, her every step through the air a perfect blend of grace and control. Each motion was deliberate yet fluid, the serenity of her movements belying the deadly precision behind them. The Equilibrium Style, the pinnacle combat art of the House of Libra, was on full display, its philosophy manifesting in her every action. With one hand wielding her axe, Meri executed a flawless sequence of attacks, seamlessly shifting weight to deliver rapid cuts, counters, and deceptive feints that kept her opponent guessing.

[Equilibrium Style – Libra Stance: Weighing of the Soul]

This technique allowed Meri to analyze the weight of Torhen's actions—not just in a physical sense, but in a metaphysical one as well. She could perceive the intent, force, and presence behind his strikes, reading the very balance of his abilities.

Torhen's spear, wreathed in shadows, was a weapon of unpredictable reach. By phasing his strikes through the darkness, he could make the blade appear from any angle, extending his attacks through rifts of shadow portals. But Meri, attuned to the minute disturbances in the Odyllic, sensed the fluctuations in reality before the portals fully formed. Each ripple signaled an entry and exit point, giving her the precious seconds needed to anticipate his next move.

Realizing her growing awareness, Torhen increased his speed, his spear darting through the darkness with lethal precision. Yet Meri's gaze remained calm, analytical—she was beginning to see the pattern beneath his chaos.

Torhen lunged, his spear slicing through the void, a strike meant to tear through her defenses.

[Equilibrium Style – Libra Stance: Equilibrium Break]

With a subtle but decisive shift in her ability factor, Meri exerted control over the battlefield. The rooftop beneath them subtly warped, the surface's equilibrium disturbed just enough to throw off Torhen's footing. The shift was slight, almost imperceptible, but it forced him to rely more on his shadow phasing—exposing the rhythm of his technique with each evasive maneuver.

Meri seized the opportunity. In a seamless transition, she abandoned Libra Stance and shifted into Scale's Stance, manipulating her weight until she became nearly weightless. In that instant, her movements accelerated beyond their previous limits. With breathtaking speed, she weaved between Torhen's darkness-infused strikes, each attack passing harmlessly through the space where she had been mere moments before. The balance had tipped in her favor. As Torhen phased in through a generated shadow, Meri was ready to counterattack.

[Equilibrium style-Scale Stance: Scale of Justice]

As soon as Torhen's spear came for her, she was able to use her Axe to redirect the force of the attack back along the same trajectory to its source. Torhen was forced to avoid his attack, which disrupted his rhythm. Now she could apply the pressure she desperately wanted to inflict.

[Equilibrium style-Judgement Stance: Graviton Verdict]

Meri's weight and density increase exponentially, using a downward strike with her axe that causes a shockwave to distort the space around them. Torhen had no choice but to phase or risk being crushed by the shockwave that was ripping through the space. But before he could, Meri offensively used an Equilibrium break, aggressively shifting the air pressure to destabilize the environment. The density of the tower's roof floor was altered, the shadows becoming denser than normal, making it hard for Torhen to phase out of the way. Being off balance, Meri gained the opening in the fight.

[Equilibrium Style – Judgment Swing: Scales of Sin]

Meri's Judgment Axe cleaved through the air in a powerful arc, its weight shifting in response to the karmic balance of its target. As the blade neared Torhen, the technique measured the weight of his existence—his power, sins, and intent. The greater the imbalance, the heavier the axe became, a force dictated not by mere physics but by the unseen scales of justice itself.

A righteous soul might have suffered nothing more than a standard cut, the weight of their deeds barely tilting the balance. But Torhen—a sadistic killer whose hands were stained with the brutal slaughter of civilians mere weeks ago—bore the full burden of his atrocities.

The moment the swing connected, the force behind it magnified exponentially, crashing down upon him like the judgment of the cosmos itself. The sheer gravitational weight of his sins turned the attack into an inescapable sentence, threatening to crush him beneath the enormity of his misdeeds.

Torhen's body was sent hurtling through the air like a broken doll, crashing violently into the towering wall that encircled the Magistrate Tower. The impact sent a web of fractures splintering across the stone, dust, and debris erupting from the force of his collision. His once formidable form was now a mangled wreck—flesh torn, bones shattered, and blood pooling beneath the grotesque remains of his body.

Meri stood unwavering, her whitish gold aura flickering around her as she observed the aftermath. She knew the destruction she inflicted wasn't merely physical—her attack had lacerated his very soul, using the weight of his sins as the executioner. The metaphysical force that accompanied her strike had ripped through his essence, ensuring that even if his body somehow reformed, his very existence should have been irreparably damaged. He shouldn't be able to regenerate from this.

The thought was firm in her mind, a certainty drawn from the overwhelming power of her technique. And yet—A flicker. Meri's Eye of Judgment caught it before her instincts could react—an unnatural flow of energy, raw and radiant, converging toward the remains of Torhen's broken form. It was not just lingering mana—it was a deliberate force, a lifeline surging toward his corpse with intent. Then, without warning, the air ignited in a blinding eruption of dark purplish light.

A pillar of luminous abyssal radiance shot skyward, its eerie glow twisting the atmosphere with an overwhelming presence. The energy did not merely heal—it reconstructed. Blood slithered back to its rightful place, bones reknitted themselves with an unnatural snap, and torn flesh wove itself together as if time itself had reversed within that single, horrifying moment. The wounds, the damage, the agony—all were undone, consumed by the regenerative might of whatever technique Torhen had used.

From within the fading glow of restoration, Torhen stood once more. His breath came in slow, measured exhales as he stepped forward, half of his once-pristine armor now disintegrated from the intensity of the battle. His bare torso was a striking display of his dual heritage—one side a deep, ashen gray, the other a shade of abyssal darkness, split cleanly along his midsection. Pleiadian purity on one side. Daemonic essence on the other. His red eyes, once filled with unrestrained malice, now glowed with something far more dangerous—an adaptive awareness. He had died once, but that was the last time Meri would ever be able to kill him the same way again.

"You should have destroyed all of me," Torhen's voice carried across the battlefield, deep and edged with something more than arrogance—certainty.

His golden eyes, flickering like dying stars, locked onto Meri with a newfound intensity. The lingering traces of pain and injury were gone, replaced by a quiet, unshakable resolve. He rolled his shoulders, flexing his fingers as if reacquainting himself with his own body. The first death was a lesson. The second would not come so easily.

"I underestimated you, Meri Karajan," he admitted, his lips curling into something that was neither a smirk nor a grimace. "But I won't make that mistake again."

The remnants of his shattered spear lay scattered across the battlefield, reduced to nothing but fragments of dark metal. But Torhen didn't need it. His true strength had never come from mere weapons—it came from the abyssal power that coursed through his very being. A pulse of energy erupted from his core, sending ripples through the very air. Shadows coiled around his outstretched hand, while divine radiance bled from his other, twisting and merging in a violent, chaotic embrace.

Celestial light, pure, and radiant, interwoven with the dark, writhing mass of abyssal dark force mana, the two opposing elements clashing yet harmonizing within his grasp. The contrast was mesmerizing—the light did not purify the darkness, nor did the abyss consume the light; instead, they fused into something new, something unnatural. A weapon born of two irreconcilable forces.

A creation that should not exist. As the energies solidified, a lance emerged—an unholy fusion of celestial wrath and abyssal entropy, a spear of annihilating destruction that radiated pure devastation. The air around it twisted and distorted, unable to withstand its overwhelming force. The very space around the weapon fractured, as though reality itself rejected its existence. Torhen exhaled, raising the weapon with an ease that defied its immeasurable weight. The battlefield, the tower, the very fabric of equilibrium—all had shifted.

This was no longer a battle of technique or endurance. This was a battle of destruction incarnate. Torhen lunged toward Meri with terrifying speed, his Umbral Starlance slicing through the air, distorting the very fabric of reality with its passage. The lance did not merely cut—it unraveled space itself, pulling the battlefield into an unnatural collapse. The moment the weapon reached critical mass, the space it had twisted imploded, spiraling into a churning void that threatened to consume everything caught in its path.

Meri's Eye of Judgment flared to life, her Internal Sight expanding beyond the physical, allowing her to perceive the implosion in its entirety. She saw the way space bent inward, collapsing under the force of its destruction. It was an attack designed not just to kill but to erase, swallowing existence into a singularity where even energy and matter had no escape. A direct hit meant annihilation. But Meri was not one to be consumed by chaos—she was balance itself.

A pulse of golden-white mana surged around her as she activated her Scale of Balance ability, her power reaching out to the collapsing space. Instead of resisting the implosion, she did what no ordinary warrior could—she accepted it, equalized it, and controlled it.

[Equilibrium Style – Scale of Balance: Event Horizon Balance]

The gravitational pull of the implosion shifted, no longer drawing everything inward but instead dispersing its force outward in a controlled, measured release. The collapse lost its power, and its destructive singularity stabilized before it could consume her. What was meant to be an all-devouring void became nothing more than a ripple in space, nullified before it could reach her.

The battlefield, once on the verge of ruin, stood unchanged—the scales had been tipped in Meri's favor. And now, she would strike. Meri's stance shifted, her muscles coiling with overwhelming force. Her Judgment Axe gleamed as she brought it down in a devastating arc, the air trembling under the sheer weight of her attack.

[Scale-Tipped Execution]

As the axe descended, its weight did not remain static—it multiplied exponentially, growing heavier with every fraction of a second, feeding on the very resistance it encountered. The greater the force that opposed it, the stronger it became, an unstoppable executioner delivering absolute judgment. Torhen's resistance became his undoing. The moment he braced for impact, the force amplified, distorting the very space around them. His body twisted unnaturally, caught in the crushing force of the attack before he was sent hurtling backward like a meteor, his form slamming violently into the enlarged stone walls around the Magistrate Tower.

The impact shattered the wall behind him, sending cracks webbing through the structure. For the second time, Torhen died. His body, once again, was reduced to a shattered husk, his form mangled beneath the crushing force of Meri's Scale-Tipped Execution. His once-proud stance was gone, his limbs limp, his breath nonexistent. The battlefield was silent, save for the crumbling stone behind him, the remnants of the wall he had been sent crashing through. But Meri did not celebrate. She stood firm, her golden-white aura still flickering, her Eye of Judgment still analyzing the battlefield.

She had already seen it once—Torhen's death meant nothing. And just as expected, reality shuddered. Once more, a pillar of dark purple light erupted from his fallen form, its eerie glow clawing at the sky like an omen of defiance. The air trembled under its presence, the oppressive pressure of his rebirth washing over the battlefield.

The shattered remains of his body reconstructed, each splintered bone realigning, every wound closing as if time had been rewound. The Daemon-Pleiadian hybrid was reborn. Torhen's eyes snapped open—not with rage, but with certainty. Meri clenched her axe, her grip unwavering. She had already anticipated this.

[Equilibrium Style – Libra Stance: Weighing of the Soul]

Her Internal sight expanded, her Eye of Judgment flickering with intricate mana circuits as she analyzed his very essence. This revival—it was not a trick of raw lifeforce, nor was it purely a Daemonic ability. This resurgence had structure, a rhythm, and an energy signature that did not belong to the abyss alone. Then she saw it—the flow of Star Force Mana. It coursed through him, radiant yet unnatural, a celestial lifeline tethering his existence to something beyond mere biology.

His resurrection was not simple regeneration—it was an invocation of celestial power, the essence of Pleiadian divinity fused with abyssal resilience. That was the key. Torhen's immortality did not stem from an endless well of vitality—it was sustained by the celestial nature of Star Force Mana, a force that was not infinite. If she could disrupt, sever, or neutralize his access to that energy, his cycle of resurrection would end. For the first time, Meri saw the path to victory.

Meri knew she couldn't afford to let the battle drag on any longer. Every moment that passed worked against her—the longer Torhen remained standing, the more unstoppable he would become. His adaptive immortality would only grow stronger, and soon, even the smallest openings she had exploited would vanish completely. She had only one option left. She would end this battle with absolute finality. Meri exhaled slowly, her golden-white aura intensifying as she prepared to invoke a power that even she hesitated to wield.Her Supreme Mana Art.A power beyond conventional combat techniques. A power that reshaped reality itself.

[Supreme Art – Territory Creation: Scale of Equilibrium]

The world around them shifted. A surge of overwhelming darkness erupted like an endless ocean, swallowing the battlefield whole. It wasn't ordinary darkness—this was an erasure of space itself, a severance from the natural world. The very air trembled under the weight of the invocation, the boundaries of existence bending as the battlefield was dragged into the abyss. But then, from within Meri's consciousness, something vast and boundless stirred. Her Soul Realm—the internal space that had always existed within her—expanded outward, no longer confined within the depths of her being.

She projected it into the physical world, forging it into reality itself. It wasn't just an illusion, nor was it a mere domain. It was a world of her creation. A separate reality manifested entirely from her will. Her mastery of mana manipulation wove the very foundation, shaping the raw energy into a tangible landscape of her design. Her Odic Force expansion allowed her consciousness to stretch beyond the limits of flesh and mind, integrating seamlessly with the new world. Her Vitality Forcefield, the essence of her lifeforce energy, fused with the very fabric of the space, embedding within it the absolute principles of her ability factor. The laws of nature no longer dictated what was possible here—only she did.

Torhen was now severed from everything. The external world, the Odyllic's awareness, and the environmental factors that had been sustaining his regeneration—all were cut off. The battlefield no longer belonged to fate or chance. It belonged solely to Meri. Torhen clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth in sheer frustration as he found himself trapped within the manifested Territory of Meri Karajan. The space around him was no longer part of the real world—it belonged to her, shaped by her will, dictated by her absolute control.

His fingers curled into fists, his nails digging into his palms as he fought against the suffocating realization. Despite being in the same Realm as Meri, he was still unable to manifest his own Territory. It was an issue that had plagued him for years, a lingering weakness that he despised. Yet, here she was—a mere Pleiadian Ascendant, standing before him, wielding the very power that should have been beyond her reach. His golden eyes burned with questions as he studied her, searching for an answer. How? How had she done it?

Territory Creation was a technique that only those who had reached the King's Realm should have been able to perform. The sheer mana cost alone was an insurmountable barrier for anyone below that level. No ordinary Sage could muster the energy required to expand their Soul Realm into reality itself.But Meri was not ordinary.She was a Pleiadian—one who had awakened her Gratia. The Divine Blessing of her Household Goddess. The weight of that realization sank in. The Named Families, those who carried lineages of power, were always above the norm—it was why their names echoed through history, why their bloodlines shaped the course of fate.

But even among the Named, Meri stood apart. She wasn't just a prodigy—she was a perfect fusion of talent, discipline, and divine favor. Her bloodline was unparalleled. Her training had been relentless. Her control over mana was beyond natural limits. And above all—she possessed the Eye of Judgment. Torhen understood it now. The Eye of Judgment had allowed her to perceive not just the physical world but the very essence of existence. With it, she had found a way to manifest her Soul Realm into reality, something no ordinary Ascendant could hope to achieve. Meri Karajan had done the impossible. And now, in this isolated battlefield where only her laws applied, she would decide his fate.

****

At the heart of the Territory, a massive, ethereal Balance Scale loomed, its frame crafted from translucent light, shimmering like a celestial construct. The enormous structure did not remain static—it continuously shifted and adjusted, its plates tilting as it weighed the unseen forces that governed this isolated domain. It did not merely exist as a symbol; it was the fundamental law of this world, an arbiter of equilibrium itself. Everything within this pocket reality was subject to its influence. Energy, elements, even the very essence of beings who stepped into the space—all were drawn into alignment, forced to adhere to the ever-shifting scales.

Around the Balance Scale, clusters of floating orbs, composed of radiant light and abyssal shadow, orbited in an intricate dance. These orbs embodied opposing forces—creation and destruction, harmony and discord, stability and entropy—forever in flux, yet never tipping too far in either direction. The landscape was surreal, a fusion of opposites woven together in a paradoxical harmony. On one side, lush forests bloomed with vibrant flora, their canopies bursting with emerald leaves and celestial flowers that pulsed with gentle light. Beside them, barren wastelands stretched into the distance, their desolate beauty stark and untouched. Bright, sprawling cities, illuminated with golden energy, stood beside deep, abyssal valleys veiled in perpetual twilight. Each sector of the Territory embodied an aspect of balance—life and death, light and darkness, growth and decay—none overpowering the other, all existing as part of a grand, cosmic design.

Mountains of crystal spiraled upward, their jagged forms perfectly symmetrical, gleaming like mirrored reflections of one another. Rivers of prismatic energy carved through the terrain, their currents flowing in opposite directions, intertwining like the twin streams of yin and yang. These rivers did not merely flow with water; they carried the pure metaphysical essence of existence itself—etheric tides representing life, death, time, and fate. Their paths shifted in response to the unseen forces at play, forming intricate, circular patterns in the air, mimicking the perpetual cycles of balance. The sky was neither bright nor dark but an endless twilight, where the sun and the moon coexisted within the same space, each casting their opposing glow upon the world below.

The moment one stepped into this space, they felt it—the absolute, immutable presence of equilibrium. A sensation of unshakable fairness, of unyielding justice, permeated the very air. Every action had an equal reaction, every movement was counterbalanced by an unseen force that ensured no side tipped too far into dominance. For those who harbored emotional, spiritual, or energetic imbalance, the Territory itself reacted. But for those in harmony, for those who accepted the natural flow of balance, a sensation of serene clarity would settle over them—a moment where everything simply made sense. In this space, there were no lies. No deception. No falsehoods. Only the immutable truth of equilibrium.

And within this realm, Meri was its sovereign. With Torhen completely severed from Star Force Mana, his Abyssal Star Rebirth rendered useless, and no way to counter a Territory technique, Meri executed the final move that will judge and sentence him, ensuring his existence was frozen in an inescapable state of static equilibrium.

[Supreme Judgment – Absolute Sentencing: Immutable Balance]

Within the Scale of Equilibrium, Torhen no longer had control over his fate. The ethereal Balance Scale at the heart of the Territory pulsed, its plates tilting in response to his very existence. Every sin, every crime, every moment of destruction he had wrought was weighed and measured, and in return, the universe—Meri's universe—demanded an equal reaction.

Meri raised her hand, her Eye of Judgment blazing as she invoked the final law of her Territory. A ring of golden-white glyphs appeared around Torhen, inscribed with ancient celestial symbols of balance, law, and truth. They spun in unison, shifting in response to his energetic state, emotions, and past actions. The Verdict: Irreversible Stasis.

Torhen's body froze mid-motion, his energy ceased to flow, his breath halted, and his very consciousness suspended in equilibrium. The world around him softened into silence as if existence itself refused to acknowledge him anymore. Meri took a slow step forward, standing before her frozen enemy. Her gaze, unwavering and absolute, regarded Torhen with the weight of finality.

"This is what a balanced soul feels like, Torhen," Meri said. "The weight of your actions has brought you here. There is no rebirth. No second chances. You exist only at this moment—unchanging, unrelenting, unfree."

The Scale of Equilibrium flickered, then solidified. The battle was over. Torhen was no more—not dead, not alive, but eternally bound in the immutable stasis of perfect judgment. And just like that, the Territory collapsed, dissolving into nothingness as the world around them snapped back to reality. A rush of Odic energy flooded the space where Meri's law of balance had momentarily overwritten existence itself. Torhen stood motionless. His body remained, but his mind was elsewhere— lost in a plane of torment where he was forced to endure the weight of his sins. His glassy, vacant eyes reflected the void of consciousness, an empty shell bound in static judgment. It was the least Meri could do—for every soul he had maliciously torn from existence, for every innocent life that had met its end by his hands.

Then came a voice.

"You didn't kill him."

Meri turned, raising an eyebrow as she saw Hephaestion standing behind her. If they were here, then the mission below had gone smoothly. That meant Bishop Cervain had been defeated.

They're no joke, then, she thought.

Truthfully, she had hoped the Bishop would put up more of a fight—at least enough to keep Hephaestion occupied. That was the reason she had assigned them to assist Effie, backing her plan to liberate the planet's inhabitants. It wasn't because she needed them to win. It was because she needed them to be distracted. She knew what they had planned to do. She couldn't let that happen.

"There's no need to kill him," Meri said simply. Her voice was calm, unwavering.

Hephaestion's gaze narrowed.

"No need?"

Meri folded her arms, her golden-white aura dimming as the residual energy from her Territory faded.

"I saw his history. I weighed the weight of his existence. And I judged that he still had a role to play. He still has something to offer the universe in exchange for his sins."

The Android's expression remained unreadable, but their response was sharp.

"Something to offer the universe." They stepped closer, their metallic boots pressing against the scorched ground where the Territory once stood. "And what about the people he's killed? The lives destroyed because of him? Do they not have meaning? No value?"

Meri smiled. Not out of amusement—but out of recognition.

"So you still remember the question I asked you." She met Hephaestion's gaze, her expression unreadable yet firm.

"Yes, their lives had meaning." She exhaled, her eyes flickering with a quiet intensity. "At least, to me, all life has value—just as all things in existence possess an intrinsic worth. Killing is easy, Hephaestion. Any fool with a blade can accomplish that. But true power... true strength is knowing when to let something live." A pause. The Android's eyes glowed faintly, scanning her.

"You think sparing him is power?" Meri's smirk barely flickered.

"I think knowing how to use every resource available is power." She let the words settle before tilting her head. "But you didn't come all the way here just to analyze my decision-making skills, did you, Tion?"

There was no mistaking the shift in her tone. She wasn't just questioning him. She was calling him out.

"I can't let you leave this planet with the knowledge of the Crown of Stars' location," Hephaestion said, their voice steady—absolute. A faint hum resonated through the air as traces of cyan light gathered around their right arm, energy condensing into a luminous construct. In an instant, the glow hardened, shaping itself into a long, curved blade, its edges pulsing with faint ripples of light-forged precision.

Meri didn't flinch. She merely exhaled, rolling her shoulders as she tightened her grip on her Judgment Axe, the weapon's weight shifting subtly in response to her intent.

"I figured you'd say that."

The tension collapsed into action. Two opposing auras detonated into existence, surging outward in a violent clash of raw force. One burned with golden-white radiance, its glow flickering like divine fire, an embodiment of equilibrium and authority. The other flared with pale cyan light, a perfect construct of calculated brilliance, and seamless precision.

The sheer pressure of their collision shattered the Magistrate Tower's rooftop, sending shockwaves rippling outward. Stone and steel groaned under the strain, ancient structures collapsing further than they had in Meri's battle against Torhen. This was not a battle of emotions. This was not a battle of revenge. This was a battle of ideologies, control, and power. And neither of them intended to yield.