Chapter 12

For a long time, the system task option has been grayed out and unusable. I suspect that this must be activated by the plot to be usable.

I have been waiting for this main storyline for a long time, but I didn't expect it to give me two options.

But after a moment's thought, everything seemed perfectly reasonable.

This world is called Axi, composed of countless planes. The species here are countless.

Although the world and the largest continent are named after the creator god Axi, she herself has no divine miracles. It is said that due to the fatigue of creation, she fell into eternal sleep. However, before falling asleep, she entrusted all her duties to her two daughters.

The goddess Asteria, the goddess of order and daylight, created the high elves, metallic dragons, angels, titans, and other gold races.

The goddess Cynthia, the goddess of chaos and night, created demons, chromatic dragons, yellow-blooded vampires, elemental races, and other sulfur races.

The two goddesses represent two divine systems and countless races. As the elder sister, Asteria hopes that everything basks in the sunlight, and the races follow the arrangements of the gods, with a hierarchical structure. Her creations tend to be orderly and good.

Cynthia, on the other hand, hopes that her creations can evolve through competition, without much interference from the creator, and without imposing her order on them.

For mortal races, the conceptual differences are just verbal disputes, but for the true gods who embody concepts, the conflict of concepts is equivalent to questioning the other's existence. Therefore, a war inevitably broke out between the two.

The two goddesses, who were almost equal, fought until they both fell into eternal sleep. Their remaining creations continued their endless war. The gold races and sulfur races were almost wiped out, and then the silver races, represented by the moon elves, and the mercury races, represented by the fallen giants, continued their soul wars.

This war has been ongoing since the beginning and will never end.

When order prevails over chaos, it is the relatively stable Order Era. If chaos prevails, it is the chaotic Chaos Era. Each transition represents the rise and fall of countless races.

Now, it is the Order Era of the Black Iron Age, also the era of mortals. The previous dominant race, the trolls of the chaos race, has handed over their throne. The current dominant race on the continent is the humans, known as the Black Iron Race.

The alternation of battles between order and chaos is always the main theme of the Axi continent. My Law Codex has already been recognized by the source of order and has become part of it. Therefore, the Holy Light Knights, who belong to the order side, have come to study.

In my view, it's not a big deal. There is still chaos within the order. The mainstream races of the chaos camp, such as devils and undead, have a strict hierarchical system and relationships, which is also a special kind of order.

In my eyes, it's just a matter of choosing sides. Do you follow the order gods or the chaos evil gods?

Choosing to help Ande become the mayor, I will fulfill my duties as an elder and mentor, and as scheduled, I will regain my physical body and get a chance to start over. This choice leans towards the order camp.

After all, as living humans, they are the backbone of the order camp.

If I choose to be the leader myself, the system will restore me to my peak strength, but as a demigod lich, I am still the undying king, the dominant force of the chaos camp.

This seemingly ordinary choice is actually a critical point that determines one's fate.

"Ah, what's there to hesitate about? Should I walk down a path that's already been blocked? I choose... the epic task, Phoenix Rebirth. I want to be resurrected!"

Indeed, past facts have proven that pure power cannot solve problems. The chaotic group is disorderly and chaotic, with endless internal strife, and they are more likely to cause trouble than to achieve anything. How could I repeat the same mistakes? Moreover, without a physical body, a lich can only stop at the demigod level.

Yes, yes, it's definitely not because being an undead means I can't taste delicious food, can't have a girlfriend, or can't enjoy physical pleasure. I don't want to be an undead.

"Alright, let Ande be the mayor. I'll help her. By the way, her full name is Annie, right? Wasn't she just called Ande before?"

"Annie is just a nickname, and it can be used for both boys and girls. Margaret named her. I think Annie Han sounds nice, but she used Margaret's last name."

"Annie Levin?"

For some reason, I felt this name was familiar.

"Snap!" With a snap of my fingers, a black leather book opened, and the pages flipped rapidly, stopping on a color page.

It was a screenshot of a mature and heroic woman holding a sword, looking into the distance. She was covered in fiery red, with a phoenix pattern on her red battle robe. The fiery red divine sword was enveloped in a field of flames, clearly the Phoenix's Favor of this idiot.

"Annie Levin, the Eastern Flame Phoenix, the supreme commander of the demon coalition's eastern front, the hero who personally slew the Black Knight Emperor Roland Lam."

Well, are you and your disciple my enemies? What a deep hatred!

Your disciple killed me in the future, and after I changed the future, you, the master, killed me again! Do I have to be killed by the divine sword Phoenix's Favor over and over again?

Killing me once wasn't enough, and after I barely changed my fate, you have to kill me again?

No wonder Ande is my nemesis. It turns out that you, this dead brat, are destined to kill me!

"No way! You bastards, get out! Spell: Banish!"

Unable to contain my anger, I waved my hand forcefully.

After the divine light of order, the half-god Adam, who was mysteriously confused, was directly thrown out.

"Thud!"

He landed hard on his buttocks, and then a book hit his face.

The text on the book had already been translated, and it wasn't the first time Adam had received a martial arts manual from Roland. He slowly read it aloud.

"Manual of the Sunflower? What is this? 'To practice the divine power, one must castrate oneself'?"

"Go and practice it. I think it suits you, you eggless one!"

---

This isn't the first time he has made me angry, and he should be used to being thrown out. He rubbed his buttocks and left.

After he left, I fell into confusion. What is fate? What kind of fate has it arranged for me? Am I destined to be a demon king, or a demon king who seeks his own death? I trained Adam, who killed me once, and now I have to train another hero who once killed me?

"If I hadn't come here, Annie wouldn't have met Adam, and she wouldn't have received the Phoenix's Favor and Adam's legacy. Is it because of my presence that they met? Am I destined to be defeated again? Or am I destined to be defeated by a hero who inherits the Eastern Phoenix, whether it's Adam or Annie?"

Unfortunately, my understanding of causality is poor, and I haven't even learned prophecy spells. It would be strange if I could unravel such profound causal philosophy.

"Whatever, I won't think about it. Since I've already decided on my goal, I'll complete the task first."

If I can't figure it out, I won't think about it. This is my best quality. Now, the most important thing is to complete the task in front of me and be resurrected!

So, after thinking for a while, I pressed the bell on the table.

"Have the four department heads come to see me."

Originally, I established the court to gain evil points from judging criminals. If I were to spend all day on this, it would be putting the cart before the horse.

So, I established a system and institution that could operate independently, so I wouldn't have to invest extra energy into it.

The judicial system of Sulfur Mountain City was built by me. I divided it into four relatively independent parts based on the principles of power dispersion and checks and balances from the judicial systems of modern countries in my previous life.

First, there is the Supreme Court, which oversees the entire judicial system. I personally preside over it and have the most important authority to make laws and the final appeal. It is the head of the entire judicial system.

The Supreme Court has four subordinate institutions, which are the internal organs and skeleton of the entire judicial system.

The Enforcement Department is responsible for law enforcement and management. They are the ones who handle the dirty work, such as maintaining discipline and managing street vendors.

The Urban Management Corps, or the city management, is a subordinate department. Unlike the city management in my previous life, which mainly dealt with street vendors, the dark elf knights mainly deal with various criminals, performing the duties of police.

Their leader is the tall and muscular masked man, the minotaur Snowhoof Eta.

Yes, the same minotaur pervert Snowhoof who runs naked...

Name: Snowhoof Eta

Race: Minotaur

Occupation: Level 60 Warrior / Level 20 Just Knight / Level 7 Order Guardian (Total Level 87, Overall Evaluation: Legendary, Second-Stage Advanced Warrior)

Honor Title: Steel Guardian

Fortunately, to imitate the sleepless silver-faced ones and to show that they have abandoned their personal identities and enforce justice impartially, my judicial officers all wear masks. Otherwise, I wouldn't know how to face my subordinates who are always in jail for polluting public morals, even though they are the crown of law enforcement.

Fortunately... every time he enjoys his "hobbies," he is very careful to hide his identity. Even when he is beaten by the city management for running naked and thrown into the black prison, he never uses the power of law to reveal his identity as a law enforcer.

The second institution is the Law Department, which is not often seen.

The Law Department is nominally a theoretical department for studying laws and regulations, but it is also the place where spellcasters, just knights, and judges advance. There are not many people, but those who successfully advance to higher professions are all at least gold-level. Outsiders may not know, but in reality, it is the strongest of the four departments.

These strong individuals are also responsible for initial trials, constantly refining their understanding of the power of law through their work.

In my system, only those who are recognized by the Law Codex and have advanced to a higher profession have the right to conduct independent trials. Therefore, few people know that those seemingly refined judges are actually all at least gold-level strong.

Their leader is the high elf scholar Kalle Dia, a former governor of the Ring of Law and the strongest mage in Sulfur Mountain City after the Great Sage.

Name: Kalle Dia

Race: High Elf

Occupation: Level 60 Mage / Level 30 Knowledge Keeper / Level 10 Codex Guardian / Level 5 Spellcaster (Total Level 115, Overall Evaluation: Third-Stage Advanced Mage, Human Saint)

The Law King Hall, with its impressive name, is responsible for legislative and management duties, which are mostly delegated to other departments. Most of the time, it handles internal affairs, such as organizing new legislative meetings and collecting legislative proposals.

As an internal affairs department, the Law King Hall does not require strong power. What it needs is flexible administrative skills and meticulous business ability. Therefore, most of its members are rookies still in training and female law enforcers who do not want to be on the front lines.

Their leader, Lilith Milan... Yes, the crazy yuri, the mobile obscene item...

I have been grateful countless times that our law enforcers wear masks and abandon their personal identities. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to face these two members of the Gentlemen's Alliance and the endless contempt of the citizens.

I have also doubted countless times where things went wrong, allowing two perverts to gradually become the highest leaders of the judicial system...

Well, let's not talk about these sad things.

Finally, there is the Trial Hall, which sounds impressive, but after the initial trial rights were taken by the Law Department and the final appeal rights by the Supreme Court, what they are left with is dealing with various challenges. When the city management cannot handle an opponent, it is their turn to act.

Filing public prosecutions, providing legal defense, investigating and pursuing criminals, and arresting suspects are also their responsibilities. Since these are all troublesome and infuriating tasks, they are known as the "thug hall" and the "quarrel hall."

It's worth noting that the Sulfur Mountain City prison is also under their jurisdiction. Before the establishment of the city management, they were the only visible force of the judicial system. Of course, if we really rank the internal forces, they are firmly in the second-to-last place, just slightly better than the Law King Hall.

Their leader, Kevin, is a typical model of a holy knight, with average strength, a steady and calm personality, and an average appearance. His main characteristic is being ordinary, and his strengths and weaknesses are also ordinary, but he is a rare normal person in the upper echelons of the judicial system...

I don't know why, but when I talk about this, I feel a deep sadness... Why can't my judicial system have more normal people with common sense? Why so many perverts! Is it because I am a pervert myself?!

Cough, let's get back to the topic...

These four departments and one court form the foundation of the entire Sulfur Mountain City judicial system, which is also the foundation of the city's peace and stability. When they operate smoothly, all I need to do is hold court every day and earn some points.

Now that I have decided to help Annie secure her position as mayor, my four departments and one court must get moving.

"Today, I have called you here to arrange the aftermath."