The Demon Monarch System

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"Whoa, this is quite dense," Sappyhr muttered as she looked up. The sight within the pathway was akin to a floating river since rather than on the floor, the dense stream of Ira spanned across the ceiling. Eventually, Sapphyr was compelled to touch it, which she did.

She stuck her finger inside the dense mist before withdrawing it. It was an action performed on a whim, yet she was surprised by the fact it produced a result. A thin coat of Ira stuck to her finger and, for some odd reason, it compelled her.

In the next moment, Sapphyr sucked every morsel of Ira off her finger without a worry of her surroundings. To make matters worse, she even closed her eyes and basked in the pleasure that it brought her.

Only once it subsided did she open her eyes and look around with an extremely embarrassed expression, "U-Uhm… What?" 

"N-no. Nah, nothing." 

Though her appearance was simply breathtaking, and even more tempting because of the inherent nature of her actions, everyone aside from Apollo stammered and shook their heads while looking away after recalling how Apollo punched Valac in a wall earlier.

While he didn't voice it, everyone present was positive that Apollo was defensive about this one. Though, as per his earlier display, he was defensive towards Valac as well; so it was hard to get an accurate read on his actions.

"Ahem!"

Finally, Fuhrer coughed, clearing the awkward atmosphere while pointing forward. "The storage room should be just beyond this. Otherwise, the saturation of Ira wouldn't have grown so dense."

"Of course," Apollo nodded with a slight shake of his head. While it escaped the attention of everyone else, Geneva sniffed the air for a moment before narrowing her eyes at Apollo from behind.

She could smell it. As an Infernal Succubus, she was extremely sensitive to two things―anger and lust. However, it wasn't the former that she was sensing. Yet, unlike Sapphyr's prior display of jealousy, Geneva felt something completely different.

'The Lord's Luxuria… I want it,' Geneva thought while biting her finger. She couldn't help herself. As a succubus, part of her drew power from feeding off lust. Sadly, there was no true source for the Sin inside Ashiraem, at least not in the purity she needed.

As a result, Geneva's body was reaching a new starved state. Though Apollo distributed some Fragment of Sins, they didn't satiate her how absorbing it from the purest source could, or even through contact of another demon.

Not only would extracting it from someone calm the urge to ingest the Sin, but it would subdue to the emotions that accompanied the feeling as well.

Conversely, a pink hue faded from Apollo's eyes as he narrowed them, 'Does this Complete Immunity not work properly? What the hell was that?!'

Though it was only for a moment, an immense surge of lust overtook Apollo's mind. Hence, why he questioned the activation of the immunity trait.

But, what Apollo didn't know about the trait was that it only worked from outside sources. The trait's effects were rendered null when the source of the Sin was his body. After all, it wasn't designed to neutralize itself.

For that matter, it was up to Apollo to possess the iron will to resist temptation or the finesse to wield it properly. But, that was a matter beyond his knowledge for the time being.

Not too long after this incident, the team arrived within the underground clearing. As the ruins had been buried for quite some time, and were shaken by the aftershocks of the gruesome war millennia ago, the appearance was run-down.

All the once majestic pillars were now broken, with the other pieces strewn across the floor nearby. However, Apollo and the other immediately noticed the grand steel doors to the storage room.

Despite all the damage this place suffered, the doors were unharmed. In fact, the broken stones from the pillars and the statues that laid nearby didn't even put a scratch on the interior of the door.

Aside from the colossal doors, Apollo laid eyes on something else―the source of the sin signatures he sensed earlier. There were at least three different types. The first were familiar―simply reanimated corpses. Except, they felt even stronger than the one that greeted them at the entrance of this ruin.

Apart from the corpse, stone figures sat atop the broken pillars. They numbered at least 30 and each of them looked oddly familiar to an Ifrit, except there was no sign of lava, just a thick stone exterior.

Furthermore, their sizes varied, but each one of them possessed robust figures and two large bottom teeth that resembled tusks.

"The Demons of Stone, Gargoyles," Fuhrer muttered while he observed the figures as their crimson eyes shot open. Cracking noises were heard as dust fell from their limbs as they moved.

On the other hand, the last enemy was something Apollo was all too familiar with, but also didn't understand why it was here; an Iraym. However, it appeared to be sleeping as it was hunched over in a kneeled state with its eyes closed.

Still, Apollo picked up vibrant fluctuations of Ira from the "sleeping" figure.

"What do we deal with first?" Typhir asked while instantly withdrawing his sword. With the number of demons present, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he wouldn't get to stretch his limbs.

"Well, from what I'm sensing, everything here is at least a peak Greater Demon. So, we'll have to turn to Fuhrer for this advice," Apollo said.

"It doesn't matter which you begin with. The corpses and the gargoyles are pretty much identical in terms of durability. However, gargoyles are demons without Sin, they just operate on anima alone," Fuhrer revealed.

Apollo frowned for a moment because an absence of Sin meant their experience worth was lacking. However, he only frowned for a moment before shaking his head, because although they were without sin, each of them were Archdemons.

So, at the very least, he was bound to level up.

"Go," Apollo ordered. 

Everyone unleashed a battle cry before storming towards the gargoyles. Meanwhile, Apollo remained in place while monitoring the dense Ira. Eventually, his attention fell back on the so-called sleeping Iraym.

Though it was subtle, Apollo sensed a movement from the demon. One of its fingers twitched. 'So you're awake?' Apollo thought before walking away from the current battle.

While the other kept the fight limited to the two sides of the underground clearing, Apollo walked up to the Iraym's frozen body before kneeling before it.

As he did so, the Iraym's eyes opened slowly. A moment later, it raised its head and its grey eyes looked into Apollo's bizarre eyes.

Suddenly, the demon spoke, but since it hadn't spoken in a long time, its voice was grating to the ears as it carried a guttural tone. "Are you worthy of coming here?"

"Do you think you're worthy of asking if I'm worthy?" Apollo countered with a smirk. After learning of his identity as the Monarch's Descendant, one thing Apollo understood was that no demon could match his potential worth.

After all, what other demon carried the techniques of the strongest demon to walk the Rings? What other demons possessed the tools to revive their race's honor? Therefore, there was no demon alive who could question his worth.

The Iraym sensed that superiority in Apollo's tone and narrowed its eyes. On the other hand, Apollo's hand opened and closed with a popping noise as he looked at the demon with an icy gaze.

For some reason, Apollo didn't quite like the fact that he was being asked this question. In fact, his despise for the question was so great that it triggered the appearance of a few notifications before his view.

〈System: Your current mindset has triggered an effect.〉

〈System: Would you like to announce your title? [Y/N]?〉

〈System: Depending on your choice, you could fulfill a condition.〉

Although the notifications were vague and seemingly harmless, Apollo didn't make a rash decision. The reason was simple. The system had asked him a similar question not too long ago. It was during the time of making his household.

During that time, the word announce was meant in the most literal sense. The system used his body as a beacon to broadcast the recreation of the Dominus Household. Thus, Apollo wondered if the system intended to broadcast a portion of his identity.

'Could that be true? Isn't it far too earlier?' Apollo thought to himself.. If this truly was the case, then the system was instigating a foolish move.