Seven Sins System Chapter 878. Awful
Seven Sins System Chapter 878. Awful
“You are alive.”
The female voice came from the darkness near the chamber door.
Soft.
Smooth.
A little amused.
And far too pleased with itself.
I knew who she was before I even turned my head.
There were very few women in the Shadow Realm who could walk into the Royal Abyss Chamber without permission, insult me while I was half-submerged in ancient healing darkness, and still sound like she was greeting me at a private dinner instead of visiting my almost-corpse.
I opened one eye.
Lily stood beneath the glowing demonic script, arms folded beneath her chest, hair falling over one shoulder like spilled ink. Her eyes were crimson, but not hot like mine.
A small smirk curved her lips.
“Lily…”
She tilted her head, looking me over from the edge of the chamber.
The burned hand.
The blood under my skin.
The Abyss pool crawling up my chest.
The royal wounds I would rather throw myself into war than admit were ugly.
Her smirk widened. “You look awful...”
I closed my eye again. “Don’t ask.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were.”
“I was going to enjoy the view first.”
“This condition already humiliates me enough,” I muttered. “Especially since that creature was made by mortals.”
The words tasted bitter.
Mortals.
Tiny, fragile, short-lived mortals.
The creatures I used to look down on like ants building towers from dust.
And today?
They bit us.
Hard.
They had made something that wounded me, Luci, Mamon, Puriel, and Lumira. Something that poisoned devils with holy power and angels with demonic rot. Something designed not as a wild experiment, but as a weapon.
A smart weapon.
I hated that more than the wound.
Lily walked closer, her heels silent against the black stone. The Abyss Chamber did not react badly to her. It recognized her blood, her authority, her place. The ancient letters along the wall brightened faintly as she passed, like old beasts opening one eye and deciding she was allowed to live.
She sat beside the pool, facing me.
Close enough that I could smell her perfume over the sulfur and blood.
Dark roses.
Smoke.
A hint of iron.
“I heard about that,” she said.
I looked at her.
She rested one elbow on her knee, chin in her palm. “Mamon skipped his meeting twice today.”
I blinked. “Twice?”
“Twice.”
“That’s worse than my injury.”
“I know.” Her smile sharpened. “The entire Greed Palace is probably experiencing spiritual collapse.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Lily continued, “He’s still in the Greed Abyss Chamber. Luci too, in Pride’s restoration hall. Dad sent war healers to their palaces.”
I stared at the black pool. “Their condition?”
“Not as bad as yours. But they are exhausted. Poisoned. Burned. Very angry. Luci reportedly threatened to execute anyone who looked at his ruined coat with pity.”
“That sounds healthy.”
“Mamon demanded a full damage report before he let the healers touch him.”
“That sounds worse.”
“It is.”
The pool bubbled around my ribs. Another thin silver strand pulled out from beneath my skin and dissolved in the black liquid with a hiss. I clenched my jaw but said nothing.
Lily saw it.
Her smirk softened by one degree.
Not pity.
She knew better.
“Algan is still in the mortal realm,” she said. “Doing your work.”
My eyes shifted back to her.
“Coordinating cleanup with the mortal servants and keeping distance from the residue sites. Good thing you didn’t bring him with you.” Her voice lowered. “He might have died if you did.”
I didn’t answer.
Because yeah.
She was right.
Algan was strong. Loyal. Good in war. But that creature? That poison? The holy-demonic adaptive shit? It would have torn him apart before he understood what hit him.
I stared into the pool.
The surface reflected my face badly.
Eyes duller than they should be. Skin pale under the black veins and silver poison. Hair damp from the Abyss steam. Blood dried at the corner of my mouth.
Pathetic.
Wounded.
“I once looked down on mortals,” I said quietly.
Lily did not interrupt.
“Thought they were noisy little things with short lives and loud prayers.” My fingers flexed under the pool. Pain answered. “Now look.”
Her eyes stayed on me.
“They learned.”
“No,” I said. “Someone taught them.”
That was worse.
Mortals did not make weapons like this alone. Someone gave them crumbs. Knowledge. Residue. Theory. A path. Maybe they built it with mortal hands, mortal desperation, mortal arrogance.
But the seed?
No.
Something older had touched this.
And if I had destroyed them long ago, before the peace agreement, before everyone started pretending mortals were innocent by default, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
The thought burned.
“I should have destroyed them a long time ago,” I muttered. “Before the peace agreement.”
Lily’s lips curved faintly. “And the angels?”
“They probably regret protecting them too.” I looked up at the glowing ceiling. “They tried to save mortals from us. Look what happened. Mortals started learning how to weaponize both sides.”
Lily leaned forward.
Slowly.
The way she moved was dangerous because it was not rushed. It was controlled. Smooth. A predator approaching something wounded enough to bite and still choosing to come closer.
She lowered herself beside the pool, one hand touching the black edge, then crawled nearer.
The Abyss water stirred between us.
Her face came close to mine.
Her lips hovered near my ear, breath warm against skin that had been cold from poison a moment ago.
“You are angry,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes. “I have a lot of reasons for that.”
“Yes.” Her voice dropped softer. “But one reason is louder than the others.”
I opened my eyes slowly.
She was still beside my ear.
Too close.
The scent of dark roses wrapped around me. Her hair brushed my shoulder where the pool hadn’t fully covered it. The contact should not have mattered.
It did.
“Is it because of her?” Lily asked.
My gaze sharpened.
She smiled against the edge of my hearing. “Puriel.”
The name moved through the chamber like a blade.