Monarch of Gluttony: System of Sin

Azekiel stood at the entrance of the city of Abaddon, gazing inside the city.

From the outside, the city looked mostly ordinary if one was to ignore a few things. However, those few things were hard to ignore, like screeching sounds that were coming from inside or the blood marks that were on the road not too far from the entrance of the city.

From where he stood, he couldn't see a single person inside the city.

"Raphael, what do you think is making these noises? Beasts or Spirits?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is that we need to be careful."

Azekiel took a deep breath before calling out his Gauntlets. He wanted to be prepared before entering the city, as a single moment of delay could place his life in jeopardy, especially when Raphael and Lia couldn't help him.

He couldn't help but wonder how amazing it would be if Raphael and Lia were once again back in the Material World like they were in the Heavenly Prison. However, he didn't keep his hopes high. His safety was dependent on him entirely.

Donning the Metallic gauntlets, he took his first step inside the city.

As soon as he entered the city, it was as if his entire surroundings had changed. A change in atmosphere could be felt evidently. The air inside the city was cold, unlike outside.

From the outside, the sky appeared to be clear, but now that he looked up after entering the land, he noticed that the Sky looked pitch black for some reason. It was as if he had entered a completely different domain.

The screeches he could hear when he was outside were gone as well. He couldn't hear those screeches anymore.

"Raphael?" he called. "Did that noise stop for you as well?"

"Yeah. The silence is really strange. I don't like it."  Raphael grimly observed his surroundings.

He observed the blood marks on the ground. "The Blood is still fresh. It hadn't been long since the blood was spilled."

"So someone fought here... It seems someone entered before us. But then who were they fighting?" Azekiel didn't stop walking even as he thought about the blood.

Unfortunately, he didn't have an answer to his questions.

As he walked toward the center of the city, he didn't realize that a small golden circle had started taking shape around him. It was only after the Formation Circle became visible that he realized what was happening.

He didn't know what this Formation Circle did, but he knew it couldn't be anything good.

"Get out of this Formation!" He yelled, warning Raphael and Lia before smashing his foot on the ground with his entire force, propelling his body ahead and upward.

The force of his stomp should've been enough to leave a crater on the ground, but there was nothing even similar to that. The ground was completely intact.

Thousands of pitch-black vines came out of the formation circle, advancing straight to Azekiel with lightning-fast speed.

None of these vines targeted Raphael or Lia, as if not being able to sense the two Spirits.

"Watch out!" Lia was the first to spot the Vines and warm Azekiel. However, even as she warned him, her warning came too late.

A vine wrapped around the right foot of Azekiel, stopping his forward motion. Azekiel turned his body mid-air, slicing the vine that had captured his feet.

The vine was cut swiftly. Azekiel landed outside the formation. However, the vines didn't stop attacking him. Instead, ten more Formation Circles appeared all around him, each sending black vines after Azekiel.

The vine which he had sliced also healed, coming to him again.

"What a headache!"

Azekiel spun his body shooting energy bullets at the black Vines that were behind him. Unfortunately, even his energy bullets failed to destroy the Vines. All the damage that was done to the Vines was healed instantly. In fact, not only did he fail to decrease the Demonic Vines, but they only increased instead.

Raphael couldn't stand back and watch Azekiel in trouble. Azekiel kept cutting the vines, but it wasn't having much effect other than keeping him free. The Vines still kept coming. If it was like that, Raphael knew that Azekiel was soon going to run out of strength, only to be drowned in the Vines.

"I am going in to help him!" Raphael declared. His beautiful black wings appeared once again as he flew straight to Azekiel from above the Vines.

"Give me your hand!" Raphael yelled, alerting Azekiel.

Azekiel couldn't afford to be distracted. He knew that if he was distracted for even a minute, he was going to be gone. When the Vine had wrapped around his door, he was able to sense the strength each vine had. He knew he couldn't free himself if he were caught. He couldn't take his eyes off the vines to look where Raphael was as he danced with the wind.

However, he placed his entire trust in Raphael. Without even looking up, he jumped. At the same time, Azekiel fired even more Energy Bullets so that his foot wasn't caught like before.

His blind trust didn't fail him either, as his timing matched perfectly. Raphael grabbed the hand of Azekiel before flying into the distance. More and more formations kept appearing wherever Raphael flew to.

In fact, some formations even appeared in the air, from where more Vines came out.

Lia followed after them through the ground. Even as she walked right past the Vines, she wasn't attacked. Maybe because the Vines couldn't even hold her as she was a Spirit.

Only having one free hand, Azekiel kept attacking the monstrous Vines that he saw getting close to them. On the other side, Raphael showed his skills through his flying.

The Vines that were missed by Azekiel were avoided by Raphael, who appeared to be a treat to watch, making some really fascinating maneuvers.

After a long time, Raphael noticed that the Vines had actually stopped. There weren't any Vines anymore. No more Formation Circles were appearing around them.

Frowning, Raphael stopped. He looked down, wondering why the Vines had stopped.

As he and Azekiel looked down, they noticed that they were right above a Graveyard, which was right at the exact center of the town.

"The true graveyard of Gods... We are here." Azekiel observed the graveyard. The Graveyard was covered with pitch black grass.

"It seems the safety mechanisms were just to stop us from getting here. Even the Vines can't enter the Graveyard. Let's get down."

Raphael and Azekiel landed on the black grass inside the Graveyard, finally being able to relax a bit since they didn't need to fight constantly.

Behind him, Lia also entered the Graveyard of Gods... The exact place where real Gods were said to be buried.