Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System! - Chapter 569

Chapter 569: The Awakening of Judgment

Evelyn found herself standing atop the palace with Parker’s entire family spread out around her—Maya, Tessa, Nyxavere, Zhang Ruoyun, Helena, Annabelle, Noctavine, and others whose names probably filled entire phonebooks.

She looked at them all, these people who somehow felt familiar despite being strangers, but her soul was doing something weird.

Pulsing.

And not the gentle, rhythmic pulsing of a normal soul going about its business. This was raw, violent waves of energy that made the air around her shimmer like heat rising from summer pavement.

Above them, the soul of Ma’at was pulsing too, hovering over the massive statue of Judgment like a golden heartbeat made visible. The two souls were responding to each other, sending out waves of power that made reality itself hold its breath.

Pulse.

Pulse.

Pulse.

The waves synchronized, growing stronger with each beat.

“One of the Three,” Evelyn muttered, the words falling from her lips before she even knew she was speaking.

And then the memories hit.

Not gently. Not like a gradual awakening or a slow dawn of understanding. They slammed into her like a cosmic freight train loaded with ten thousand lifetimes of experience.

She remembered being Ma’at, standing in judgment over the dead, weighing hearts against feathers with the kind of perfect balance that could make the universe weep with its beauty. She remembered the satisfaction of feeding truly terrible people to Ammit, the soul eater, and the gentle joy of guiding good souls toward paradise.

But deeper than that, older than that, she remembered being Judgment itself. One of Parker’s oldest companions, forged in the fires of creation when the universe was still figuring out the difference between right and wrong. She remembered standing by his side across nine lifetimes, through wars that spanned galaxies and quiet moments that lasted centuries.

She remembered being whole.

The sheer weight of it—lifetimes upon lifetimes of memory, cosmic purpose, the responsibility of being one of the fundamental forces of existence—sent her crashing to her knees like someone had just dropped the entire weight of creation on her shoulders.

Before her family could step forward to help, before anyone else could react, Parker was already moving. He went down on one knee beside her and pulled her into his arms, and she was shaking from within like her soul was trying to vibrate itself out of existence.

The warmth was so familiar from the new memories flooding through her, but so unfamiliar to her current self. It felt like coming home to a place you’d never been before.

But it felt good. Safe. Right.

The Evelyn of this life had been in love with Parker since they were kids—even when he used to beat her up during their childhood, even when he was being a complete ass, even when logic said she should probably find someone who didn’t regularly get into fights with cosmic entities.

She snuggled into his embrace like she was trying to disappear into the safety of his arms.

“Well, isn’t this fucking adorable,” Ere said from her perch in Annabelle’s arms, her voice dripping with the kind of sarcasm that could cut through dimensional barriers. “Look at that. Half-soul gets a cuddle session while the rest of us just stand here like background decoration.”

Annabelle, who had her own complicated feelings about Parker and wasn’t exactly thrilled to watch someone else get the affectionate comfort she’d been hoping for, couldn’t help but add, “Some people get all the luck.”

But even as she said it, Annabelle’s mind was drifting back to her own memories—the day when Parker had hugged her too, after she’d received punishment for something she couldn’t quite remember.

He’d called her something specific, a name that had made her feel special and safe and loved. What was it again?

The memory was right there, just out of reach…

Bella, meanwhile, was having her own moment of sibling rivalry. She hadn’t expected her sister to be the first one to get Parker’s full attention and affectionate comfort, especially since Bella was usually the clingy one.

She stood there watching, trying not to pout about the cosmic unfairness of it all.

As Parker held Evelyn, the soul of Ma’at began to descend from above the statue, moving with the slow inevitability of a sunset. It drifted down like liquid gold made of pure justice, approaching Evelyn with the gentle insistence of something that belonged exactly where it was going.

The moment it touched her, the integration began.

Evelyn’s body glowed from within as the soul of Ma’at merged with her essence, two halves of the same cosmic entity finally becoming whole again. The light was warm, golden, and carried the weight of absolute justice tempered with infinite compassion.

Above them, the massive statue of Judgment began to crack.

Not breaking, not crumbling, but shedding. Like the outer shell was just a cocoon that had served its purpose and was now ready to fall away. Pieces of crystallized starlight and divine justice fell to the palace roof like cosmic snow, each fragment dissolving before it could hit the ground.

Maya and Zhang Ruoyun smiled as they watched the awakening unfold. They knew what this meant, knew what was coming, and they were as ready as anyone could be for the return of Judgment herself.

But their smiles carried a hint of something that might have been nervous anticipation.

“Unfortunately,” Maya said quietly, her voice carrying the weight of someone who could see probability threads stretching into an uncertain future, “or fortunately, depending on your perspective, no one is ready for Ignisra and Nyxara and Selzara.”

She gestured toward other parts of the palace, where more statues waited in cosmic slumber.

“The two Phoenixes and the Primordial Dragon. They’re going to be woken up too. And not just them.”

Zhang Ruoyun nodded, her flames flickering with something that looked like excitement mixed with cosmic dread.

“The awakening has begun,” she said softly. “And once it starts, it doesn’t stop until everyone is home.”

Around them, the air itself began to hum with anticipation, as if the universe was holding its breath for what was about to unfold.

The cosmic family was about to become a lot bigger.

And a lot more complicated.