Judgement Executioner: The Sin Collector System

"My name is Axel Bright and I'll be in charge of you." Said the energetic young man with a frackled face and thick brown hair as he addressed the man seated before him in his office. "I hear you're special."

Elias felt anything but special with his current predicament, he tried to calm himself down as he addressed the man before him. "Whatever this is I want nothing of it."

Axel spun a pen with his fingers as he observed Elias under his keen gaze, Elias could immediately tell that he was dangerous. "It don't work like that mate, you work for us now. Don't worry you'll get paid about as much as officers workers annual pay which is generous for an upstart such as yourself."

Elias almost faltered at the concept of being paid for god knows what. "And how much does an officer worker get in a year?"

Axel rubbed his thumb around his lower lip as he gave it deep thought before saying. "About two hundred silver coins."

Elias almost exploded, "Two hundred, how much does that get me?"

"Should be enough to pay for a well deserved meal and a cup of tea." Axel said with a quirky smile.

Elias exploded, "Are you messing with me now, I should do god knows what for you people and get paid that little. I have a family, I'll have you know."

"And so do I." Axel's words quieted him, his tone grew darker and the bulb seemed to dim for a bit. "Listen Elias Grayes, the world you have just stepped into is full of shit, bot literally and figuratively. Would you enlighten me on what you know about sin collectors?"

This was one thing Elias could confidently answer.

"Yeah, they pay cheap."

Axel's face frozen for a few seconds before it exploded with laughter, he banged his fist on the table a couple of times. Elias did not like him but he did not hate him either, Axel was the first person who was not hostile to him.

Axel calmed down after a moment and immediately went back to his serious demeanor. "There are some conditions need to be met to trigger the awakening of a sin collector, guilt, sorrow, all the negative emotions needed for someone to wield the power of sin without being corrupted. On awakening the serpent takes form, and if it is not fed sins on birth, it goes wild."

Axel pulled up the sleeves of his uniform to reveal the tattoo of a dark serpent coiled around a huge metal gear, "This can be said to be the source of our powers in a way, for those of us born here it's more or less not much of a hassle to control our first hunger. Buts it's different for those like you."

Elias leaned a bit closer as he had his attention drawn. "Those like me?"

Axel nodded. "Before you came there have been quite a few others over the course of history. And all of them crossed over to this side with an ample amount of sins within them, on awakening they would go into a crazed and unpredictable state. They would search for their first judgements and occasionally kill innocents."

"But I didn't kill anyone innocent now did I?" Elias said in his difference.

"Not that it justifies me killing a man." He thought to himself.

Axel smiled softly. "And that is why you are somewhat special."

Elias pondered for a bit before asking. "So, sin collectors judge criminals and kill them."

Axel tapped his fingers on the table rhythmically, "Not exactly, normal criminals are none of our concerns, there are times we absorb their sins to keep them from being corrupted. You might not know this but this world has had some ugly times in the past, which led some people to make some questionable choices and become consumed by sin."

"These people were so corrupted by sin that they lost their sanity to it and became monstrosities we call a sin wraith. Nasty things that caused chaos, there was chaos everywhere till the church order known as the clockwork inquisitors were formed, the founded the sin collector organisation. And the warriors were blessed with the cursed seal of the serpent, with every wraith we defeat we absorb the sin into our seals and summon weapons. But if we absorb too many sins within a short period of time, we ourselves lose ourselves and become corrupted."

Elias took a long time to digest everything he had just been told. "So you guys fight monsters while not becoming monsters yourselves. I'm sorry to say I'm not the kind of guy you want on your crew."

Axel chuckled, "You have family on the surface world don't you? In a world where many parts of cities are polluted and almost impossible to live in, we do what we can to keep the monsters in the shadows. You already have high sin content, and you don't have much of a choice, we are already short staffed as it stands."

Elias took a long time to ponder on those words, would he really want to be a sin collector? He had no motivations to do so, he could not do it to protect the family that was not his.

"I suggest you find your motivation Elias because you are already a big part of the turning wheels that protect humanity." Axel threw a small business card to Elias. "Come to the address by 8am and for your sake don't be late."

Elias reached out and grabbed the card, the moment it was firmly within his grasp he found himself back in his bedroom. It was not late in the afternoon, the room was just as he had left it, it almost felt like a dream.

He felt the smooth texture of the business card in hand and stared at it. "This is a seriously fucked up world."