The moment Kai entered the Legendary Grade starship, a power took hold of him.
This power did many things simultaneously.
First, it rattled his mysteries, almost like observing a piece of equipment from all angles to make an early impression.
Second, it pulled Black out of Kai's Inventory against his will.
Third, it locked the Inventory, like propping up an invisible, unbreakable mental wall in Kai's mind, preventing him from even thinking of accessing the materials within, whether they were Items or general things in his Miscellaneous Rent Box.
Such a mental barrier would have been impossible given Ad Infinitum's presence.
So, along with the third point, fourth, this power confined the Ad Infinitum—the entire Solar System Mindscape, with a Black Hole at its center—in a spherical dome.
The spherical dome not only cut off all the various inputs that Echoes had been sending the Ad Infinitum, but it also made it impossible for the AI to generate further Echoes and… scatter them in the atmosphere like a virus, something that Kai had done before and was obviously planning to do here as well.
That wasn't all, though.
At fifth, the power did several tasks almost instantly.
It distorted reality, activating Fiend and bringing it to completion, giving Kai massive nausea, something he hadn't experienced in a long time. It brought all activated Skills, whether from Standalone Titles or otherwise, to an end, locking them along with the others. It locked his Titles, preventing him from adopting another Title. And, defying all logic and reasoning, the power threw all his Abilities, other than those that had become mysteries, into a chasm, making them… sluggish.
Both Kai and Black stumbled, their knees landing on the ship's metallic floor.
At all times, Kai and Black, through the AIs, kept rotating their Skills and Abilities between them—at a rate of several hundred times per second.
Mang Jian's Blind Domain had inflicted such a trauma that it had forced them to adopt this method, allotting this task a significant portion of Ad Infinitum's processing power.
So, if someone with an ability like Blind Domain were to attack Kai or Black, one of them could easily get away with the most useful Skills and Abilities, using them to save the other.
The sudden breakage of that crucial, survival-related process was enough to shock the Ad Infinitum, bringing all its processes to a sudden, momentary halt, making even Kai and Black falter.
They shared a glance.
After all those precautions, after all they had thought would happen when they entered the ship, they hadn't imagined it would be the worst Lucky Intuition that would end up playing out.
Suddenly, a mechanical noise entered their ears.
Kai and Black looked forward together and found R2-D2 beeping toward them. Once the droid noticed that they were looking at it, it turned around and rolled away, heading deeper into the empty corridor.
Sharing a final glance, the pair of Contestant and Item stood up and followed the droid.
After a full fifteen minutes of walking, taking the wildest turns as if they were in a maze, they saw the droid finally stopping next to a hall, using its mechanical arm to suggest they go inside.
Kai and Black entered the hall.
The hall was rectangular, with almost no decoration whatsoever. It had a black floor and bare walls with a mirror-like finish. In the middle of the hall, on a round table, a device projected the hologram of a planet—the planet in whose space the ship was suspended.
And, beyond that round table, on three high back chairs, were the Inquisitors.
In the middle, it was Vlad Dracula Tepes, rotating a ring on his finger, his eyes gazing at someone, or something, very far, lost in contemplation.
To Dracula's right was Sousuke Aizen, who was looking right back at Kai and Black, going as far as to recognize their existence with a nod.
To Dracula's left was none other than Darth Vader, his low mechanical breathing filling up the entire hall singlehandedly.
R2-D2 rolled near Vader and came to a halt.
And, with that, the Trial began.
"Did you kill the Contestants during the Night of Truce?" Darth Vader asked.
Kai looked straight at the Sith and shook his head. "I did not, Your Excellency."
"Did you order either a member of your Party or a Magical Creature or any related force, animated or not, directly or indirectly, to kill the Contestants during the Night of Truce?"
Kai turned his head and faced Sousuke Aizen.
He was just about to answer when Aizen gave him a meaningful look. "Answer wisely, young man," he advised. "It is…"
"He has already been given the procedural time of a week to prepare his defense," Darth Vader interrupted. "There is no need to warn him of either consequences or repercussions. Not anymore."
Aizen merely chuckled at that, but also refused to pick up where he had left off.
"My answer would have been the same, Your Excellencies," Kai said with Calm. "Wise or not, it is meaningless where truth is concerned. My answer is still… No. I did not order anyone, in any manner possible, to kill Contestants during the Night of Truce."
Silence.
Dracula finally brought his gaze back to the hall and lifted his eyes to look at the accused.
"Where were you during the Night of Truce?" the Inquisitor asked.
"I was…" Kai said, almost smiling.
Black finished, reflecting that smile. "… Well, right there, Your Excellency. Watching them getting killed."
Silence.
Aizen, who had been maintaining a small smile since the beginning, instantly let go of it. Darth Vader straightened his spine, as if these weren't the words he had expected to hear from the accused at all. The sudden admission by Kai and Black was so shocking that even Dracula brought his full attention upon them.
"Who?" Darth Vader demanded. "Give us the name."
"It was a Magical Creature of mine," Kai said, almost making the three Inquisitors stand up. "A Magical Creature gone… rogue. The Three-Headed Devourer."
"Where is it?" Aizen asked, his voice lacking the previous favorable tone.
But, at that question, the corners of both Kai and Black's lips twitched.
"Someone stole it, Your Excellencies," Kai said helplessly.
Aizen, Dracula, and Vader shared a glance among themselves before they asked the question—the only question Kai had come to answer.
"You must have heard of him… Him," Black answered. "The Deep One from the Fate Bubble…
"… Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg."