One Last Time
"For destruction of both public and private property…"
"Assaults of all kinds…"
"Torture…"
"For the loathsome amount of brutal murders, numbering far above the thousands!"
"You have been found guilty on all charges, Mister Edrick Lucien Anoteros!"
The decaying, old geezer's voice echoed throughout the empty courtroom, the seats reserved for the jury were empty, no audience was there to shout obscenities and get in the way of the law, no lawyers either.
Neither for the prosecution or the defence, the vast span of the glorious and immaculate court of law was only filled with three, distinct groups.
The judge, an old man that was vastly past his expiration date, was nothing but a mass of wrinkles without any hair or original teeth in sight.
Barely resembling a human at all, at least in appearance.
The bailiffs, or rather, the elite guard as they were all garbed in state of the art body armour and armed to the teeth.
Their equipment and numbers seemed to indicate that they were preparing to go to war, some of them were even shaking from sheer terror.
That indication was perfectly right, simply not in the more conventional way.
All of them had their gazes fixated on the third group, consisting of a single man.
Dressed in a grey suit that was near perfect match for his hair, a middle aged-looking man was sitting on a metal chair melded to the ground, his hands cuffed in chains that were themselves melded to the block of iron serving as a table.
He was all smile and relaxed, the defendant, despite being the target of the words being spat at, wasn't taking offence, or at least it appeared so.
Mister Edrick Lucien Anoteros appeared like the spitting image of a nice grandpa one could leave their kids with without any worry.
"Even I, a man who has been in this profession for so long, I have treated despicable killers before, but I had yet to come face to face with pure evil!" he slammed his gavel as though it was going to actually smite the accused.
"Do you have any more witty commentaries? Do you wish to reveal more of your murders to stall this trial another few weeks? Months? A year perhaps? Or have we reached the bottom of your wickedness?" the judge spoke sternly, staring right into the murderer's eyes.
Those deep purple eyes full of vitality and youth, despite being even older than the crumbling judge, Edrick Anoteros remained perfectly able, as he had demonstrated during one of his earlier trials, when they had yet to realise just how terrible he truly was.
Doing any sort of physical activities should be an unbelievable strain for a one hundred and two year old man, so breaking a man's neck and leaping over the glass cage he was put in had come as a great surprise, without even talking about what he did on his way out before going to eat a sandwich at a nearby store and surrendering.
Claiming that he was simply hungry.
After a few more fiascos, it had come to this scene straight out of a dystopian movie.
"Well, Chris…" he started with a sigh and rolled his eyes.
"I admit that I have yet to confess to all of my crimes, but it is starting to get quite boring here" he glanced at the bailiff to his right, making the poor man flinch.
"My current kill count is up to one thousand three hundred and twenty three victims, all killed by my own hands by the way, impressive am I right?" he addressed the bailiff to his left this time, this one was as stiff as a statue, his face hidden behind a protective mask, it made no doubt that he was as pale as a sheet.
The two closest to him were really starting to believe the phantasmagorical rumours claiming that he was a demon that sucked his victims life force or devoured their souls for sustenance.
"Let's add three hundred more to that list, I'll leave the crime experts and my groupies to guess who those victims are" he pointed finger guns toward the judge, who wasn't amused.
"It truly pains me Mister Edrick Lucien Anoteros, that the maximum sentence I can bestow upon you is nothing more mundane than death" he slammed his gavel and signed for the two bailiffs by his sides to take him away.
"Oh wait!" Edrick called out, tapping his fingers on the iron block in front of him.
"Chris! I have two other confessions to make!" he spoke excitedly, flashing a bright smile.
"Add fifty one more kills to my resume, if you will"
The judge felt like scoffing, but had to switch this gesture of contempt for one of sheer, brutal understanding.
Anoteros rose his hands high, way too high in fact and stood up, no chains were binding him at all.
With the same naturalness as a bee landing on a flower, he kicked the left bailiff's knee in, slapped his automatic weapon away and lifted him, using him and his ample body armour as a shield for the few other bailiffs that weren't pissing themselves from fear.
After five minutes of near unending gunfire, the old man of age, and old man of body were left all alone, the former flashing a most satisfied smile to the latter, covered in blood, none of which belonged to him.
"You know Chris, I said that I had two more confessions to make, and I would appreciate if you opened your clogged ears to hear it…" calmly seizing the sweaty gavel, Edrick began explaining.
"...It's a bit more serious than the first, but you know your granddaughter? The one that is pregnant- Come now, don't look at me like that, I did not even have any occasion to kill her recently… You silly goose! No, I just wanted you to know that you are actually my father-in-law" nodding his head, repeatedly, softly striking his own palm with the gavel, like the ticking of a clock, the judge waited for midnight to come.
It never did.
"Anyways, see you soon Chris" calmly putting the judicial hammer down, Anoteros went on a little tour.
One hour after the last and most secure trial for the most prolific serial killer to have ever been recorded, the man in question stepped out of the building all by his lonesome.
The entrance was already tightly packed by police, he adjusted his suit and looked down upon them from the top of the stair leading to the house of justice.
He smiled for all of the adoring fans that had gathered just for him and acted as though he was going to pull out a firearm, prompting the police forces to shoot him down.
Edrick Lucien Anoteros has died, death by firing squad.
A smile adorning his mangled cadaver, all of the world's hybristophiliacs, his greatest fangirls, were going to be mourning tonight.
Leaving behind his last slaughter for the first responders to bear sight upon, may they be enlightened by his amateur paint job and expression of his talent.
The world's most renowned butcher was parting from this world, onto the next.