Monarch of Gluttony: System of Sin

Osiris commanded his men to go along with the plan and burn the witches. After his command, he did look a bit hesitant as if he wanted to recall his command, but he couldn't. He clenched his fists and controlled his urges.

He wasn't an ordinary man here! He was the King, and it was his responsibility to go with what was best for his people, even if it meant taking harsh decisions. For the safety of his people, he had to do it.

Lia felt a powerful urge to jump in between and kill everyone who was trying to burn her, but she also remembered the words of the old man. No matter what happened, she wasn't allowed to interfere. She could only stay behind and just watch things happen as they did.

"Something isn't right."

Lia was having a hard time controlling her urges when she heard Raphael's words which slightly distracted her.

"What do you mean something isn't right?" she asked. "How can people being burned be right?"

"Even though that's also bad, that's not what I was talking about," Raphael clarified. "It's something else."

"What else then?"

"You are more focused on the Witches since it's your past, so you probably didn't notice it. But something is different. The winds have suddenly stopped." Raphael raised his hand. There was no wind.

"Also, until recently, the sky was completely clear. However, now it's filled with clouds. That isn't it either. It's something about the atmosphere in the surroundings. Something is seriously wrong. I have a very bad feeling about this...."

The old man nodded, feeling impressed with Raphael's analysis.

"Not bad," he commented. "One should always know about their surroundings since they are always the best indicator of what's to come later."

"What are you two talking about?" Since Lira was distracted by things that were happening before her, her mind was not in the right place. Just what were they implying?

"The appearance of the Tower," the old man explained. "The Tower of Sins is about to appear."

All these signs that Raphael had noticed were just the indicators of that.

"Why would the tower appear here? Doesn't it only appear at times of apocalypse when the worlds are about to be destroyed?" Raphael asked, intrigued. " I see no apocalypse here."

Even though the burning of the Witches was bad, that wasn't equivalent to an apocalypse. Other than that, the world seemed quite peaceful.

"You see no apocalypse, that's true. But that doesn't mean there isn't one here," the old man answered. "The apocalypse of this world had started a few days ago already. It's just that no one noticed it."

The old man started rising in the air, carrying Raphael and Lia with him.

The men moved closer to all the Witches with torches in their hands, but just as they were about to burn them, the ground started trembling as if an earthquake was taking place.

It wasn't just their surroundings that were shaking, but the entire world. The earthquake had covered the entire world within seconds, and it was only getting more intense with each passing second.

Cracks kept appearing all around the World, which only became wider.

Seeing the sudden changes, all the men who were about to burn the Witches were scared, thinking it was the doing of the Witches! It was their revenge for them trying to burn them?

"Argh!" Some men still moved forward and lit the women on fire. On the other hand, there were also some who were scared of the earthquake and what more the Witches could do if they didn't stop. They stepped back.

Amongst the men who stepped back, one of them was the person, who was supposed to kill Lia. He was so scared that he couldn't even think of burning her anymore. He just looked at the King, apologizing.

"Is this the doing of the Witches?" Raphael asked the old man. It was quite possible that there was a spell that was being used for something like this.

"It can't be." Lira shook her head. "There is no spell which could be this strong. It's not a spell of ours. But why don't I remember any of this?"

She could see the earthquake with her own eyes, and she was alive as well. However, this was a part of her memory that she didn't have.

Instead, her memories were only up to the point where she was about to be burned.

She used to think that she was actually burned after that point as she didn't know better, but now that she was seeing it with her own eyes, she understood that there was a lot that she didn't know.

"It's certainly not the work of the Witches," The old man agreed. "It's just the Nature correcting its course.

He clarified, "The Core of this World had been getting unstable for a long time. A few days ago, it reached a point of no return, and that's where the seed of this apocalypse was planted. The unstable core has finally cracked, causing all these effects."

"This was an apocalypse that should've wiped every single person here in this world. But not everyone was killed... Because of that..."

The old man pointed in the distance, where a giant tower started appearing. At first, the tower looked like it was no more than an illusion, but with time, it became more and more realistic.

Fountains of Lava burst out of the ground at places as the apocalypse intensified.

The people who were here were scared for their lives as they watched everything that was going on. Some of them had already fallen inside the cracks in the earth while running. Meanwhile, others had their bodies burned inside the lava.

Screams, filled with fear of death and pain, could be heard everywhere. The people needed shelter, and the only place that they could find was the tower with the open doors in the distance. Even though the ground was trembling, the tower was completely still. It seemed even the lava couldn't affect the tower.

The men didn't waste a single second in thinking about it as they started running toward the tower. There were a lot of them who wanted to go back to their City to save their families first, but they neither had the time, nor the opportunity as a sea of lava had started taking shape, blocking the path that led to the city.

They could either survive on their own or die in the process of trying to save their family. All of them chose survival over tossing away their lives.

Osiris watched all this destruction around him. He considered this entire land his home, and his home was being destroyed right before his eyes. He couldn't do anything about it but watch.

"And here I thought there was no god." As Osiris was watching all this destruction instead of running, he heard Lira's laughter.

"It seems god wants to make sure that you all die with me. Not bad."

Osiris could hear the mocking tone behind Lia's statement, but he didn't have time to get angry over it.

"If there is really a god, I don't believe he would take the lives of his own creation in retaliation. This isn't the doing of the gods. But this doesn't seem to be your doing as well."

Even though Osiris was quite upset, he didn't blame Lia for it. He was quite sensible in his reasoning.

"Hah, who knows? Maybe it's my handiwork. And don't you run and hide in the tower like all your men as well? I'll see how long that tower stands!"

It wasn't as if Osiris didn't want to run. All his men were inside the tower already. Only he was left here for no reason. There was also a reason behind it.

He could run, but there was some hesitation in his heart. He couldn't come to terms with running while leaving Lia to die here.

Even though he had given the command to Lia's death, his heart had been against it. He had always been against it. Unfortunately, now the question was completely different.

The World was being destroyed. That meant his Kingdom was also destroyed. Without a Kingdom, how could he be a King? And if he wasn't a King, he didn't have to think like one.

Without the morality of the King, he was just an ordinary man... A common man who was supposed to be Lia's childhood friend, who couldn't let her die in the apocalypse.

Ultimately, he decided on something that even he was uncertain about. Clenching his fist, he ran closer to Lia. He drew out his Sword and slashed.

Lia saw his Sword coming toward her. She thought he was going to kill her with his own hands. A mocking smile spread across her lips as she accepted her death.

"What?" She opened her eyes, realizing that the attack didn't come to kill her. Instead, the sword sliced the rope that was keeping her trapped.