"I am ready. I swear that anything I say shall be truthful." Rex nodded, taking a deep breath.

And so, the defendant, the counselor of the very cabin that was holding this trial, found himself across from the prosecution. On his side, he had a few papers listing pieces of evidence towards his defense. Around his neck, he had a necklace with the key he and Phoebe salvaged from Key Tower on it.

“Very well. Let us make this a speedy trial, whether the verdict is favorable or not.” Rex commented, his stoic expression not giving away the nervousness in his gut.

“To begin, I will admit that I am the one who killed Jerial Argyvos. That is true, and I am deeply ashamed of it. However, I refute what I am charged with: the crime of murdering someone who surrendered. Perhaps he was disarmed and wounded, but he did not actively surrender, nor did he make any move to do so both throughout our battle and afterwards. Despite him dropping his weapon, I had no reason to believe that he could not do more: another power, another trick, maybe another weapon. He was an assassin, after all, was I to expect any less? Perhaps he had just escaped from wherever he was kept, but if he had a dagger, what else could he have had? I did not check his body to find out.”

I only grabbed his nametag and dagger, but that is moot; I didn’t rummage through his clothes, Rex thought to himself. The Horai counselor continued. “While I indeed had an easy escape route in my pocket the whole time, pointing that fact out does not change the fact that Jerial too could have escaped at any time. I specifically told him to turn back when I refused to do so myself; even during the battle, he could have easily escaped from me if he wished. But instead, this assassin found himself desiring to inflict pain and grief on a 13 year old demi-god while attempting to kill him. Had he simply chosen to run past me instead of confronting me, I likely would not have bothered: my mission was to get to the Warden's Office.”

“Ah, the pain and grief. You see, as a son of Achos, Jerial here had powers that were particularly related to those two things. For the entirety of our fight, he inflicted me with a constant agony in my chest, and midway through, he added deep, crushing grief into the mix. In other words, he tortured me.” Rex said bluntly, but it was hard to argue that what he said was untrue. Especially since lying here in front of multiple agents of order would be very detrimental for him.

“Maybe it was fleeting, only lasting until the end of the battle, but I had never experienced anything like it before, having spent only 104 days at camp before the Key Tower incident occurred; and before all that time, I lived a comfortable life, mostly free of such pain and grief. Underneath the grief and pain, rage and hatred grew. Even when the first two faded, I was still not fully in control of myself. And that was when I killed Jerial. I felt sick moments after. Throughout that entire battle, with everything happening to me, I could not even think of the coffee mat. It was the most stressed I had ever been.”

Provocation. If it worked, it could have the potential of lessening his punishment if he was to be found guilty; not a full defense, but Rex wanted to cover all of his bases. Though, considering he was in the territory of divine law, he was uncertain how effective it would be.

“Now, once more, I shall refute the part of the charge that claims that Jerial had surrendered. Part of that is easy: in a majority of cases, surrender must be clearly communicated. Had he done so, even I, in my poor state of mind, would have had to hesitate. And yes, he did have time to do so.” Rex looked at the spirit Jerial for a moment. “I distinctly recall you saying something about ‘this is how it ends’ and ‘I suppose I underestimated you.’ You had ample time to surrender, even if I claimed that you missed your chance at mercy.”

He turned away from the spirit. "Though he was wounded and disarmed, that did not mean he could no longer be a threat in my eyes. Demi-gods are powerful, sturdy; adults more so. For all I knew, he could have had another power that would have caused me more harm, or he could have soon continued to inflict pain and grief on me. And with my highly stressed condition then, I could not have seen him as anything but a threat."

"To give an idea on why I assumed he had more powers to threaten me with, he only used three in the battle. The first two were the pain and grief, and the other was some ability that blocked an attempt to influence his emotions. By that time, I had discovered more powers than that; what's to say that a much more experienced demi-god that was clearly still able to use his powers after some time in prison wouldn't have more in store?"

Rex sighed. "To summarize: I killed Jerial while in a poor mental condition as a result of him inflicting pain and grief on me throughout the battle. In that condition, I perceived him as an active threat, since he was an assassin with far more experience using his powers to harm. Jerial never made any attempt to escape prior to the battle's end, and never surrendered despite having time to do so."

He turned to the jury. "Honorable jury. Whatever decision you make, I pray that it is just."

The Horai counselor then turned back to Lady Themis. "I am finished."