Monarch of Gluttony: System of Sin
chapter-193-30041322

"The only thing in the Tower that can't be controlled are the missions. Since I knew it was going to be hard to handle giving everyone missions, I made the tower self-reliant on that. The tower decides the missions and gives them accordingly. Even the one who controls the tower can't control the missions," Azekiel explained

"But that person can still control many more things in the tower. That's why the old man didn't want to help me. Saying that the other side is strong would be an understatement. It's an uphill climb, even for me. The only thing that's helping me are the missions, but even they can only help me to a certain extent."

"You didn't answer. Who controls the tower now?" Lia asked. Even though she still felt betrayed, after seeing Raphael believe Azekiel, she decided to give him another chance as well.

Throughout their entire journey, Raphael had been the only person who was great at guessing such things. Every time she believed something, it turned out to be a lie. This time, she didn't believe her heart, but she believed Raphael and gave Azekiel one more benefit of the doubt.

If Azekiel was actually telling the truth, that meant he really didn't imprison their soul. And it also wasn't his decision to make them his Familiars. In other words, he wasn't as bad as she thought. However, that was only if he was telling the truth, which she still didn't believe entirely.

"The person who controls the tower... She is the real traitor. After I gave her everything... After I taught her everything, she backstabbed me," Azekiel answered. "That person was none other than one of the Kings in the Tower."

"A King?"

"Yes. A King. When I controlled this Tower, I paid a lot of attention to the Kings that performed the best. Amongst them, there was one person amongst them who caught my eyes. She was similar to a human, yet quite different. She could control magic even before she entered the Tower of Sin, so after receiving the system, her strength only increased."

"It was right at the start when the Tower of Sin had just finished being completed and had only protected a few worlds."

"While everyone else hadn't even reached the 20th floor, she was on the 70th floor. She was also the first person who managed to reach me on the top floor. There, I told her the purpose of this tower."

"Then she attacked you?" Raphael asked.

"Not right away, but more or less. She told me that she thought it was a good cause and that she wanted to help me in this. She asked me to teach her more about this tower, and I did... I suppose you can guess what happened next?"

"So you were naive at that time. It seems some things never change. She took advantage of you and learned everything from you about the tower before backstabbing you and taking control of the tower," Raphael took a guess, noticing that Azekiel was nodding.

"For a few weeks, she was quite good. She helped me observe the tower and even improve some of the mechanisms. She was also the one who reminded me about the flaw of the tower, about the higher floors being somewhat unstable."

"That problem was something even I hadn't realized since I didn't take into considering as to how many worlds would be in danger and how much burden would be on the tower, which could affect it in a really bad way."

"That's when the limitation was applied that only one person from one world could climb higher after a certain point to keep the burden a little low," Azekiel explained. "Her ideas were quite good, which even impressed me. I was happy that there was someone else who was as interested in my cause as me."

Unfortunately, that was all a lie. All her ideas, they were good, but she gave them to me with a specific purpose in mind. She wanted to see just how the laws of the towers could be changed and how I achieved that. She wanted to know all the secrets of the towers, and she selected an indirect method to achieve it to not make me suspicious."

"I only found out when it was too late. I couldn't do anything at that point. She took control of the entire tower and attacked me when I was focused on something else. She stabbed me from the back, all for this Tower."

"How did you end up outside the tower then? If you were killed on the top floor, why did you appear on earth and as a child?"

From what he heard, Azekiel was an adult when he was inside the tower, but he was a little baby when he was found on earth. How? Did that girl not kill him entirely?

"Honestly, even I don't know how that's possible. I don't have the answer to that question. It's only after I killed Alion and took his memories that my memories also returned. I only know being killed by her. Other than that, I have no idea how I ended up on earth."

"There's only one thing that I know. It's that when I entered the Tower, the Tower most probably recognized me. But it didn't give me a System. Maybe because it didn't think I was ready. Or maybe because it was waiting for me to regain my memories. It's also possible that the Tower didn't think I needed a system since it knew what I was."

"But when the Tower saw me die, it realized that something wasn't right about me. It understood that my memories were a mess and that I needed some more help if I wanted to survive. That's when my conscience went back in time. I have a feeling it's because of the Tower as well."

"The Tower gave me a system, making me one of the Kings as well, most probably hoping that I'll remember again. Ever since then, all the missions, all the given quests, they've all been to help me. It wasn't a coincidence."