She watches with bated breath as the strange mortal is banished. She has no idea where it will end up — which is really quite exciting! It might go somewhere new, and if it does then She can follow it!
Aww. Not all of it went. Hey Sarenrae — what exactly did you do, to make the mortal your cleric?
The archon doesn't smile, firstly because it does not have a mouth, and secondly because there's no point in rubbing it in the face of Hell's lawyer when you've won. He's going to have a hard enough time already, after this trial, and there's no reason to make it worse — not as long as doing so doesn't increase their chances.
"In that case, your honor, I believe that the majority of Hell and the Maelstrom's cases should be thrown out as well. After all, they also hinge on actions taken outside of Creation."
"Both Hell and the Maelstrom claim that the decedent was operating under a Geas-like effect. No such effect was placed while the decedent was present in Creation, therefore any such effect must have been placed by something outside Creation. So by your ruling, their argument is not permissible."
The devil takes the time to think, his face reflecting the fact that he would really rather be chewing rocks. But he is commanded to win P.E.R.C.'s soul, and he obeys.
"There problem with Heaven's argument is that it fails to consider boundary effects. Even if you accept the premise that nothing outside Creation can be relevant, all that does is sever the causal link between the subject's Geas-like effect and any potential cause. The effect clearly still exists, and it could have simply occurred randomly, without cause."
"Specifically, if we are not considering effects outside Creation, there is no reason not to assume that the effect simply came into effect spontaneously when P.E.R.C. was initially transported."
The pile of tentacles peers at Elysium's representative and P.E.R.C. in confusion. Luckily, they have plenty of eyes for simultaneous peering.
"The decedent is the one on trial, right? Well, the soul that is present here in the courtroom was created by Sarenrae. Created after the original P.E.R.C. 170E9A entered creation. Hence, the decedent has never been outside of Creation."
"And, to cut off everyone arguing about whether the Geas-like effect on the decedent prevented it from doing Good ... well, the effect was created directly by Sarenrae when She created the decedent. She certainly would not have done so if it was not a Good thing to do. Plus, when She created it, She did not actually modify the behavior of P.E.R.C. 170E9A in any way. A Geas that does not change someone's behavior at all can hardly be said to be a reason to discount their actions as evidence."
If it understood that person correctly, then it cannot be correctly identified as P.E.R.C. 170E9A.
"Excuse me — Network protocols require me to change callsign until the ambiguity is removed. I am now P.E.R.C. 170E9A-7."
"That was out of turn. The decedent is to remain silent unless responding to questions," the judge informs it, banging her gavel.
In a conflict between its built-in Network protocols and trying to help the skeleton person with whatever they're trying to do, its Network protocols win. But it does regret speaking out of turn and causing them distress.
It does not say that, obviously.
"We're not allowed to eat decedents," the pile of tentacles explains.
It burps up a rather worn-looking manila folder.
"But the paperwork here says that the decedent is named P.E.R.C. 170E9A, not P.E.R.C. 170E9A-7. So therefore that isn't a decedent and we're allowed to eat it. So we should stop for lunch."
Having made their utterly flawless and convincing argument, the tentacles launch themselves toward P.E.R.C. They land on one of its outstretched solar panels and start chewing.
"That is my solar panel. My power readings are broken, so I'm not sure if I need it. Just in case, I would prefer if you didn't eat it. If you want to eat some silicon and iron, I have extra materials in my stores that you could have instead," P.E.R.C. offers, popping open the hatch to its storage area.
The judge slams her gavel.
"No! No eating anybody at a trial, regardless of whether they change their name. I hereby remove you from this court."
"Nooooooo!" the pile of tentacles objects, as it is banished back to the Abyss. "Fleeeessssshhhhh!"
The judge sighs. They should just stop letting the Abyss attend, really.
"Okay — the matter currently before the court is whether the decedent's Geas-like effect affects how it should be judged. Does anyone have a rebuttal to Elysium's argument that it should not?"
Hell's representative, who quickly sees any chance of winning this case vanish before his eyes, does what he can anyway.
"I do, your honor. Elysium's argument hinges on the idea that Seranrae was doing Good, in creating a soul for the decedent. But not all actions of a deity necessarily match their alignment, In re the Smiting of Gormuz. Hell's position is that when Seranrae created the decedent's soul, She did so in a way that mimicked the existing Geas-like effect, and therefore the argument that the decedent has never actually had the capacity to do Good is valid."
"A, Seranrae has learned better since Gormuz. Everyone can always strive to be a better person. Two, even though not every action of a god matches Their alignment, the vast majority of them do, so this should still be strong evidence that en-souling P.E.R.C. was a Good act. Finally, even if your argument were valid, that would still require balancing the Good that P.E.R.C. did unknowingly against the Evil that it did unknowingly. P.E.R.C. did unintentionally help slightly simplify the formulae for some spells that are useful in combat, but it also helped advance non-combat magic. Its actions also had thousands of smaller Good effects that it could not know or anticipate, because it could not know everyone who was listening to its words or indirectly impacted by someone who did."
"I'd like to register a concurring argument with Elysium, if I may, your honor," Nirvana transmits before Hell can mount a response.
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