November 22, 2025

Seven Sins System Chapter 725. Council Hall of Equilibrium

The moment the glow hit my skin, my vision flared white. It burned, not physically, but metaphysically. Like being judged on arrival. The divine light tasted like judgment. Dry, clean, antiseptic. Like someone scrubbed the sins off the air just for show.

We emerged into the Council Hall of Equilibrium. A place that wasn’t quite Heaven, not quite Hell. Just… the edge. The void between mercy and massacre. The architecture stretched like mirrored arches woven into the air itself, impossible and serene. No shadows. No echoes. Just a silence that screamed.

There were sixteen seats.

Eight bathed in celestial gold, polished so bright they nearly glowed.

Eight wrapped in cold shadow that shimmered like oil over obsidian.

Eight Lights. Eight Shadows. Balance, they called it.

But balance was a fucking joke.

The Light side was already occupied, of course. Punctual bastards. The Queen sat in the central throne, Lysathie, Mother of Light Realm. Puriel’s mother. Hair braided in loops behind her back, a crown shaped like a rising sun. She didn’t smile. Didn’t flinch. Just watched.

Next to her, the Seven Virtues.

Justice, Patience, Kindness, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, and of course, Chastity.

All robed in divine silk, polished armor, or shimmering ceremonial crap.

All wore expressions like they were trying not to gag at the smell of sulfur we dragged in.

Their gazes landed on me.

Yeah. They recognized me.

But they didn’t recognize this face.

Because for the first time since the war, I wasn’t wearing my half-mask.

I let them see me.

All of me.

No mask. No filter. Just me, short black hair, six sleek tentacles slowly curling behind me like they had minds of their own. Skin paler than it used to be, jaw sharp, eyes… wrong. The kind of wrong that came from crossing too many lines and surviving.

The mask had been branding. Back then, I wore it to become fear. A symbol. The monster who broke the Heaven Gate, who led the Infernal Assault with numbers so devastating their prophets pretended it never happened.

But this wasn’t war.

This was diplomacy.

And I didn’t want them to fear the monster.

I wanted them to fear the man behind it.

We walked in together. My sins.

First came Luci, lean, dazzling, expensive-looking bastard in an ivory suit with golden embroidery. A half-full wine glass in his hand. Smug smirk already plastered on his face.

“Lovely décor,” he drawled, eyes lazily sweeping the ceiling. “Bit too humble for my taste.”

Then came Mamon. Clutching his tablet, fingers tapping across glowing graphs, flipping through charts like this was a quarterly finance meeting instead of divine diplomacy and he didn’t look up. Didn’t need to. He was already calculating how much each Virtue’s artifact could sell on the black market.

Belph floated in next, lying sideways on a translucent pillow like he was horizontal royalty. Eyes half-lidded. Probably high. His yawns echoed more than our footsteps.

Asmo strutted in like a damn catwalk show. Muscles, eyeliner, smirk. Long coat unzipped to the waist. Chest bare. “S’up, Ladies,” he purred. “Miss me?”

Levi followed, hands in pockets, expression sour as if someone farted in his personal space. Which, knowing him, was always. He didn’t speak. Just glared at everything like the room offended him.

Beelz was last, holding two burgers. One already half-eaten, sauce dripping down his arm. He mumbled through a mouthful, “Ayo, you think they got fries in this place?”

I ignored them and walked to the seats.

We didn’t wait for ceremony. Didn’t wait for permission. We took what was ours.

The Shadow seats shimmered in unnatural dark. One for each sin. Except...

Lily didn’t have one.

My sister. The only one not technically a sin.

She blinked at the empty lineup, then sighed. “Guess I’m crashing with you again.”

I didn’t argue.

She plopped herself onto my armrest, curled her legs up, and yawned like a cat. Her hair glinted in the artificial light. She was in full battle gear, but still somehow made it look like pajamas.

I sat down. Tentacles curling in, draping over the back like dark silk. One brushed her leg. She kicked it gently.

“Behave,” she mumbled.

“I am.”

She rolled her eyes and stole Beel’s second burger with zero hesitation. Beel didn’t even look up. Just chewed.

I felt the shift then. Like warm sunlight spilling over an oil-slicked blade. The divine side finally reacted.

Queen Lysathie’s voice rang out, clear, regal, and sharp enough to slit throats with grace.

“You have arrived.”

Yeah, no shit. But no one spoke back yet. There was a kind of mutual tension to these meetings, like everyone needed a moment to remember we weren’t supposed to kill each other today.

My sister Lily yawned, kicked her shoes off, and curled into my side like a cat made of sarcasm.

Queen Lysathie’s gaze didn’t flicker. “I assume you’ve already heard… from your son… about what’s happening in the mortal realm.”

She said it like my son was an insult. I didn’t take it personally.

Diablo folded his hands together. The rings on his fingers pulsed faintly, like they were listening too. “I am,” he said. “And I’d like to say I’m surprised. But I’m not.”

The Queen’s lips twitched. Not quite a smile. “Are you suggesting this was inevitable?”

“I’m suggesting you’re all too naive.”

Gasps from the divine seats.

'Oh, here we go.'

Seren, the Virtue of Kindness, straightened, her pastel robes practically glowing with offense. “You dare—”

“Yeah, I dare,” Diablo cut her off without even raising his voice. “You let the mortals build unchecked, dig into our bones, our magic, our corpses. You didn’t monitor them, you didn’t question them… because they worshipped you. And you liked that.”

Lysathie narrowed her gaze but didn’t interrupt him. Which meant she knew he wasn’t wrong.

“You believed their pretty prayers and forgot what they are,” Diablo continued. “Monkeys with matches. Sinners with sharp tools. Every damn time.”

Levi leaned toward me, whispering behind his hand. “Oooh, he’s in lecturer mode.”