Seven Sins System Chapter 706. WOMB
Seven Sins System Chapter 706. WOMB
We stepped deeper into the temple.
The walls pulsed faintly. The air thickened.
And in my gut?
A whisper of something familiar.
But wrong.
So very wrong.
Stone met our feet, not cold but weirdly… warm. Like the temple itself had a heartbeat. A pulse. Some slow, ancient rhythm echoing beneath our boots and into our bones. Light filtered from crystals embedded in the ceiling—purplish, like bruised amethyst, humming with dormant mana.
I exhaled slowly.
“…Okay. Yeah. This isn’t a lab.”
Puriel’s wings shimmered gold behind her, her form glowing just enough to make her seem like a walking sunlit statue. She trailed a hand along one of the walls, her voice thoughtful. “Not in the modern sense.”
“This is more… tomb than tech,” I muttered. “But my tentacle saw the sigil marks.”
Puriel turned to me, her expression serious but soft. “So… what exactly did you see?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, sighing. “Hard to describe. But my tentacle—when I sent it in earlier—it didn’t feel like it was in a place of science. It was like…” My brow furrowed. “Like it was being watched. Not by cameras. By something older. Maybe alive. And the structure—these tunnels… they didn’t follow standard architecture. No grids. No symmetry. Just endless offshoots. Like ant tunnels.”
“A maze.”
“A damn cathedral for cockroaches,” I muttered, then glanced at her. “No offense to bugs.”
She smiled faintly. “None taken. Bugs never built this, though. Something smarter did. Older. Greedier.”
“That’s supposed to be my line.”
Her lips twitched. “Please. You’re greed with manners. This place?” She turned in a slow circle, golden hair brushing her shoulder. “This reeks of obsession. Faith turned inwards. Worship of self.”
We both fell silent, listening.
There was no wind. No echoes.
Just… breath.
The temple breathed. Not metaphorically. It breathed. I could hear it. Feel it in my bones.
Inhale.
Exhale.
“It’s alive,” I said under my breath.
Puriel looked at me, wings flickering nervously now. “Do we proceed?”
I didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, I closed my eyes, reached inward, and let the infernal current flood my veins. Shadows rippled over my skin. Tentacles coiled behind me, twitching like they sensed home.
‘Analyze…’
Puriel followed. Her form ignited, divine light blooming around her in radiant arcs. Her halo flared open—not a ring, but a broken circle, like a sun shattered on the edge of dusk. Her armor glimmered with star-etched symbols, and her fingers—bare now—curled into fists glowing with divine threads.
[The surrounding mana density is reacting to your bloodline.]
[Compatibility: 93%]
[Warning: Area signature does not match celestial or infernal registry.]
I stared at the notification.
She narrowed her eyes. “So neither side owns this place.”
I smirked. “Neutral territory. Or a third party.”
“Let’s go deeper,” I said.
She nodded once. No hesitation.
The corridor stretched on like the throat of a dead god.
The walls?
Black stone carved with symbols—some demonic, some celestial, and some… not. Just swirling shapes, fractals bending into impossible loops, like someone had tried to carve a madness that didn’t belong in this reality.
I reached out, brushed one of the symbols.
The wall flinched.
Puriel swore under her breath. “Okay. That one blinked. I saw it.”
“I don’t think we’re supposed to be here.”
“That’s never stopped us.”
I glanced at her. She stood close now. Really close. The warm divine light of her body brushing against my infernal glow. We were opposites in every way. Flame and shadow. Heaven and hell.
But right now?
She was mine.
“You okay?” I asked quietly.
She hesitated. Then nodded. “This place… it reminds me of the old war.” Her eyes flicked to a distant archway that twisted upward into teeth. “The temple cities. The bio-structures. I thought they were all gone.”
I touched her hand. “We’re not in that war anymore.”
Her fingers gripped mine tightly. “Aren’t we?”
Then the floor groaned.
No.
Not groaned.
Sang.
A low hum vibrated beneath us. The crystals above dimmed. The walls convulsed like muscles twitching in a nightmare.
[Environmental Change Detected.]
[Trap Activated: Illusory Labyrinth]
[Effect: Spatial Reorientation – Non-Euclidean Shifting]
[Timer: ???]
“Oh good,” I muttered. “It’s alive and it hates us.”
The corridor split. Forked in three directions.
We each stepped back, watching as the walls moved like liquid clay, reshaping themselves. The exit vanished.
“You know what this means?” I muttered.
Puriel deadpanned, “We don’t have a map.”
I chuckled softly. “That and we’re in a goddamn mimic dungeon.”
“Charming.”
We picked a path—left. The floor was slick with some resin-like substance that glistened red under the crystal light. Not blood. But definitely… something that had bled.
Hybrid corpses littered the corners. Some humanoid, some insectile. Others… I had no clue. One had three torsos but no limbs. Another was just a spiral of teeth and one blinking eye. None of them decayed.
They were preserved.
Like trophies. Or ingredients.
“Experiment room?” I guessed.
“Sacrifice chamber,” Puriel corrected grimly. “Look at the rings.”
I glanced up. Sure enough, the walls were etched with circles—binding marks. Runes that pulsed softly when our energy moved too close. This wasn’t a burial site.
This was a forge.
For bodies. Souls.
Weapons.
I swallowed hard. “Still think this was just a rogue lab?”
Puriel stepped over a corpse with elegant grace, her voice low. “No. This was a womb. For something worse.”
As if on cue, something skittered in the dark.
Claws against stone.
Fast. Hungry.
I summoned a wrath tentacle. My tentacles lifted, twitching with alertness.
She flared her wings, eyes glowing. “Left. Close.”
We turned. Readied.
But nothing came.
Just the sound. Just the tension.
Just that pulse in the air like something watching from beyond the veil.
We pressed on.
No words now.
Just breath. Steps.
Until we reached another chamber. This one large. Circular. A dome of pale glass filled the roof, showing the dark earth above like a warped lens. Dozens of archways branched out.
All identical.
[You have entered: Heart of the Maze]
[Pathfinding Disabled.]
[Reason: Sentient Structure Detected.]
I growled. “The whole maze thinks.”
“And it doesn’t want us to win.”
“Well.” I looked at her. “That makes two of us.”