July 17, 2025

Seven Sins System Chapter 654. A Devil Should Remain Devil

I dropped to my knees.

My hands dug into the sand.

And I whispered—voice so low it barely counted as sound...

“…I shouldn’t feel… A devil should remain devil…”

It was the worst truth.

The version of me that still dreamed about dragging her into my realm. Locking her away. Not to hurt her. Just to keep her. Mine. Away from the world that kept trying to tear us both into obedient pieces.

Yeah, I could be that bad.

I knew I had the power to do it.

I’m Wrath. I’m rage with rules. But if those rules snap?

So do I.

And that’s what scares me.

Not for my sake.

For hers.

Because loving someone like me is a risk no god should ever ask a daughter to take.

But she chose it anyway.

And I don't know how long I can keep choosing restraint in return.

I stayed in that desert until the sun died.

Didn’t sleep. Didn’t eat. Didn’t need to. The monsters came in waves, small and rabid and increasingly stupid, like they didn’t learn from the mess of shredded corpses piling across the sand. I sat through all of it. Let the system ping me like a persistent mosquito in the corner of my vision.

[LEVEL UP!]

One level.

That’s all I got out of wiping an entire ecosystem off the face of the mortal realm.

Sad.

I leaned back against a half-dissolved monster ribcage, bones still warm from where I’d split it open an hour ago. The sky above me flickered from deep purple to bleeding orange, morning trying its best to pretend nothing bad happened. But the air reeked of death and burning sinew. The sand was wet in places it shouldn’t be. Steam curled from the pits and trenches I’d carved through the land like someone tried to rewrite the terrain with hate and claws.

I sat on the hill of corpses I made.

Didn’t even blink when one of the Gluttony tentacles wriggled beside me with a wet pop, multiple jaws snapping open in a rhythmic chewing pattern. Mouths. Teeth. Black flesh curling and expanding. The tentacles didn’t speak, but they didn’t need to. I felt their hunger, the mindless satisfaction as they tore into dead meat and bone like it was a seven-course banquet.

I let them feed.

Didn’t stop them.

Didn’t care.

Their power flowed into me like molten syrup—heavy and thick and a little sickening. Boosts to my stamina. Passive regeneration. Madness resistance, for whatever that was worth.

And I didn’t smile.

Not once.

Just stared into the sunrise like it owed me something.

The light broke over the dunes, casting gold across everything—my boots, the corpses, the twitching limbs half-swallowed by the sand. I could still hear chewing behind me. Wet. Crunchy. Rhythmic.

[+0.001+0.001% Critical Damage Boost (Gluttony Passive Absorption)]

Wow. A fraction of a percent. Amazing. Worth the bloodbath. Really motivates a guy.

My hand dropped to the sand. Fist clenched. Loosened again.

I needed more than this.

I needed something real.

Or maybe just more dangerous.

Or maybe… the potion.

The one Baelthor gave me the recipe for.

Most of the ingredients I already had.

I just need one more angel’s tear.

From her.

I could break her if I wanted.

But somehow… I didn’t want to.

I clicked my tongue. ‘I’m gotten soft, am I?’

I sighed.

Loud. Tired.

“Dammit…” I grunted.

It sounded pathetic, echoing across the graveyard I made.

Pathetic to sit here in my own personal monument of slaughter, thinking about whether or not I should just go home.

Back to the dorm I barely slept in.

Back to my bed.

Or maybe I should send my double.

Let him do the boring crap.

Fake me. The smiling version. The collected one. The one who knows how to lean against a doorframe and charm his way into a dozen hearts with a grin.

Let him sit in class. Let him play nice with the world.

While I—

What?

Sulk in the desert?

Go screw around with my harem?

Just drown myself in skin and heat and distraction?

Gods. Even thinking about that felt tasteless.

Indulging in pleasure just to make everything less bitter.

Ha!

Yeah. I’ve done that before. Haven’t I?

Hundred of years ago. Before the calamity came.

Used people like bandages. Held them close to forget what burned inside me. Called it comfort. Called it need.

It worked. But then chaos came.

And somehow… I didn’t want that.

“Gluttony,” I muttered.

Another tentacle flared out behind me, chittering with satisfaction. The chewing intensified.

“Faster,” I ordered, voice hardening. “Finish it. We’re leaving.”

The tentacles slurped through the final bodies with a speed that was more efficient than grotesque. I didn’t need more power. I just didn’t want to leave a mess.

Another ping hit my system.

[Minor Buff: Gluttony Consumption – Temporarily increases resistance to divine damage.]

Cute.

I stood.

Bones cracked. My coat reeked of burnt flesh. My arms itched with dried blood and sweat. I looked like a feral warlord who just clawed his way out of a nightmare.

Which… wasn’t that far off.

The sun was higher now. Clearer. Crueler.

And somewhere out there… she was waiting.

Maybe back at the academy. Maybe near the dorm. Maybe already pacing my room, deciding whether or not she had the strength to say what I already knew.

I didn’t need her confession.

I needed to know what she would to with all that truth.

Even if it came with pain.

Even if it made me worse.

Even if it changed everything.

I exhaled through my nose, low and sharp.

“Well…” I murmured, just before stepping through the portal, “let’s see what you’ll tell me.”

My eyes narrowed.

“Don’t disappoint me, Puriel.”

I clenched my jaw.

Time to go.

I opened a portal. Not flashy. Just a tear in space, the kind that rippled like silk and tasted like blood at the edges.

I stepped through it. And left the desert of corpses behind.