"Do you know why you have been called here, White Sinclaw?"

The person sitting at the lead table, a lean-looking old man with long silky white hair and blank white eyes, called out to him.

White didn’t know who he was, but the fact that he was sitting at the head of the table while the rest of the Vices, and even that powerful Prison Warden, sat by the side made it clear he must hold an important position in the academy.

"I assume the academy has deemed me to have committed a crime?"

White asked.

"So, would you testify then before the First Order Assembly that you have indeed committed a crime?"

He followed next.

"Unless I see what crime I committed, of course."

White replied, and the man turned quietly to the one on his left.

It was a lady with rainbow-colored hair that constantly shifted in color, matched by eyes of the same hue.

"Please reveal the Memory Orb, Genevieve."

He said, and an orb appeared, floating up to the center between White and the assembly.

Then it flared with light and began to project a footage.

It was the footage of White’s broken body on the ground, Inumaki and Rukun exchanging blows, before slowly, the transformation began as White’s shadow started to change.

The Memory Orb recorded everything perfectly right until he completed his change, only stopping at where White ripped out Rukun’s head from his body.

Then the Memory Orb disappeared from the air.

There was silence in the room, shock in the eyes of some of the Vices.

It seemed not all of them were already aware of his accused crime.

"Now that you’ve seen the footage of yourself, White. Would you say the footage is incorrect in itself?"

The old man asked.

"Not really. It captured it pretty well."

He said.

"Do you therefore plead guilty to the crimes of killing two students of Xtremcyber, confirming yourself a cold-blooded murderer, and having broken one of the ultimate rules of Xtremcyber Academy?"

"No."

White replied curtly.

"Before you label me as a cold-blooded murderer, and I agree, you would have to play me the footage of exactly what happened that brought me to that broken state that I was in before the transformation started."

"It doesn’t matter what happened before!"

Vice Rohan’s roar blasted through the hall.

"You killed two students. Two S-rank awakening students because of a petty feud! You broke the rules of the academy, and that is clear enough to see."

"You will not be given a chance to humanize your actions!"

He said, as silence fell for a while, and all eyes turned to White, who responded.

"Play me the footage before that one." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

It was a pretty simple request, and in the end, the elderly man turned to Genevieve and nodded once more.

She brought out her hands, and another Memory Orb appeared.

This time, it showed the true beginning. White killing off a Supernatural before taking to the sky, only to be dragged down by Inumaki.

The chase that followed, and him eventually being ripped through, along with surviving due to Rukun’s interference, and of course, the footage of Rukun also raising the blade to stab into his neck.

There were no sounds recorded in the footage, but everyone could easily make out what happened.

"What did you do to get into a feud with Inumaki, for him to wish to kill you so badly?"

The golden-haired Prison Warden asked.

"I actually don’t have any feud with Inumaki. He challenged me, I took his challenge, and he lost."

"Then his Otherworld summon, Irasul, took over, only to lose, but due to Inumaki’s own weakness."

"I expected he would challenge me a second time, but Irasul chose to kill me instead, and at my final moment, Inumaki himself said it, that only I needed to die, and he did try, didn’t he?"

White replied.

"You appeared to have been saved by Rukun."

She noted.

"Rukun, actually, I could say I have a feud with. It started during the entrance test when he tried to kill Nova, and I saved her."

"We’ve had unresolved bad blood ever since."

"But as you can see, he wasn’t trying to save me. All he wanted was to be the one to put the blade in my neck that ends me for good."

"So essentially, both of them were fighting for who would be the one to take my life."

"But they never did!"

Vice Rohan said, and White scoffed.

"Of course they didn’t. If they succeeded, would there be this meeting at all?"

"So, you killed them both because they tried to kill you. So self-defense, huh? Is that what you’re pleading?"

The white-haired old man asked, and White replied,

"All I did was in self-defense. That is obvious enough."

"Bullshit!"

Vice Rohan said, but paused when a hand was raised.

It was none other than the Prison Warden, and in the next moment, she floated off her seat into the air, closer to White.

"I think we both know this isn’t true of you, White."

The Prison Warden said, tapping on the Memory Orb as it revealed the footage of him slowly becoming that shadow monster.

"This... this isn’t you, White. You lost control to whatever that thing is... again."

She said curtly, something only White and a few of them understood.

And White couldn’t deny it.

He had indeed lost control of his Astral Monarch Skill and killed a Punisher.

Then he had lost himself to the darkness he chose, and it killed Rukun and Inumaki.

"You’re wrong,"

White responded, and she froze, turning to him.

"I chose to kill them because they chose to kill me first. It was in defense of myself. There was no loss of control."

He said.

"At least now, with your own mouth, you’ve admitted to how cold and evil your soul truly is. Ripping out the head of your own classmate in cold blood and crushing it to paste, while grinning!"

Of course, Vice Rohan wouldn’t allow a chance like that to escape.

The Prison Warden, on the other hand, had her eyes narrowed at him before it cleared, and she uttered, while floating back to her seat,

"You broke our promise, White."