Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer

Sloth couldn't believe what she just witnessed.

A female human just suddenly appeared on their turf and inflicted a fatal injury on one of her comrades. The human wasn't alone, there were at least a hundred of them here.

It truly makes one wonder how they were able to come this close without them noticing it...

But that's not the important thing she should be focusing on right now. Pride and Greed had completely lost their marbles, and Envy's furs were bristling from sheer anger too.

She too felt some trepidation and fury for the sheer audacity of humans but inwardly, she was very hesitant.

They are in no shape to fight now. They are too tired. The battle against the Celestials took more than what they initially expected.

Sloth tried entering the Sin Takeover mode but she couldn't, that's because her condition is nowhere near optimal to be in that state. And if she's like this, then it should be expected from the others too.

This was the greatest source of her worries...

"Greed, Envy, Pride! Be careful, don't underestimate them!" She hollered, but to her surprise, it seems that her voice wasn't reaching them.

'They're most likely too consumed by anger. This is bad.' Sloth pointed out to herself. She clicked her tongue and prepared for the worst.

"How very daring of you, you pest!!!" Greed snarled as his entire body quivered from sheer anger.

"Yes, indeed. I am very daring, thank you for noticing." The female human winked, mocking Greed even further.

She then stared at their soul as she harshly pulled out the weapon that she embedded in Wrath's chest.

As she did so, they witnessed how Wrath's body turned into ash before dissipating in the air. They saw some remains of him, his skull to be more specific, but the woman took it away before they could say anything.

Sloth felt shivers down her spine as she watched this happen.

Wrath was dead. There was no way they could ever deny that. His immortality was nullified through some unknown means. She couldn't even feel his soul anymore.

He was gone. Completely, and utterly dead.

She couldn't help but feel a wave of sadness in her heart. Even though she mostly spent her time asleep and unmoving, she still cares about her comrades.

They are her siblings. They're born from the same mold, raised through similar means, and had been together since the dawn of their creation.

To see her brother dying unjustly like that, and through dishonorable means too, really pricks her heart, and the pain was maddening.

And if she could feel this, then the others surely feel the same. And to prove that point; Pride, Envy, and Greed simultaneously attacked once their mobility was restored.

It looked like they moved before they could even register what they were doing. And even if they did, they wouldn't stop it.

These dirty humans killed their kind right in front of their faces. That's a sufficient reason for them to go mad and attack the ones responsible for it.

Sloth watched as her brothers recklessly attacked the humans. She saw how they fought and suddenly wondered to herself;

'What am I doing? Why am I standing still?'

It's as if she was frozen all of a sudden. She wanted to move, she wanted to fight. She wanted to send those humans to hell for doing that to her brother.

She wanted to kill them. But for some reason, she couldn't.

"Sloth!! Wake the fuck up! They killed Wrath! What the fuck are you standing there for!?" Pride snarled at her.

"I-I can't move! I don't know why!!" She yelled back at him.

"...Sloth!! What is up with you!? We need you here! Come on!" Pride hollered as well while defending himself against an attack.

"I told I can't--"

"Sloth!! Say something!!"

Envy's shout paralyzed Sloth. His words rang in her ears like loud church bells.

"Y-you can't hear me?" She said, clearly cognizant that she was indeed speaking out loud just now.

"Damn it, Sloth! Say something or move! Don't be so useless now! We're in the middle of a crisis!"

"Man, you guys are slow." A human male commented all of a sudden.

The Sin Demons looked at him and saw him brandishing his shield before saying:

"Isn't it obvious at this point? She can't hear you. And you can't hear her either. That's that."

"What do you mean!? What did you filth do to her!? Answer me!?" Pride attacked the guy with the shield but his blow was easily deflected by the latter.

"Well, it's not really us. It's someone else who's taking good care of her right now. As for who, well...only she would know I suppose." The man with the shield replied.

"What is he talking about?" Sloth confusedly asked herself.

"It's more like who actually." She heard from behind, causing her instantly jumped as if she got electrocuted.

"And that 'who', is me obviously." Said the man who mysteriously appeared behind her without her knowing.

The man she saw was wearing a white cloak. It has a hood but he wasn't wearing it, allowing her to see his facial features.

The first thing that struck her was those heterochromatic eyes of his. Sloth has never seen something like that before. His skin was fair, his hair was black and short with some hints of verdant color on the edges.

He was sitting on the air, playfully smirking at her as if he was some jester or something. Just from a simple glance, Sloth could tell that this guy was up to no good.

"Who are you?" She asked, feeling slightly concerned and concerned.

"My name is Ashton West, Sin of Sloth. A mixed Human and Fey, at your service, I guess?"

Just from that alone, Sloth has already decided that she did not like this guy.

"What did you do to me?" She asked in a demanding tone.

"Oh, so you haven't caught on?" He asked in return, his tone slightly mocking her. "You're slower than I initially thought."

He shrugged as if shaking away the hostility she was sending his way.

"Look carefully around you and guess. That shouldn't be hard right?"

Sloth was so tempted to not fall for it, but in the end, she got curious.

She looked around to figure out what she was talking about and it turns out that he was right. It didn't take long for her to realize what was going on.

"T-this...I'm dreaming?"

"Spot on!" Ashton replied. Chuckling as she made her realization. "You're in a place and a state where your thoughts are alive but it does not influence reality. You're quite familiar with it since you're you, I suppose. But isn't it great?"

"How is this possible? This has never happened before. I didn't know I could do something like this!?"

"Well, that's because it's not you who's doing this, Mistress of Crippling Depression. It's me, yours truly."

Sloth nearly gave herself a whiplash from how she quickly turned her head to face him. She searched his face for any lies or deceit but found nothing.

"How? And why me?" She asked.

"Hmm, aside from my name, I also go by the monicker of the Sorcerer of Dreams. This is my thing, you know. That's how."

"And why you? Well, you see...you're the most problematic out of your siblings." Ashton stood up and suddenly went close to her.

"The Sin of Sloth could take away one's motivation and desire to improve themselves. This sin could snuff out the flames of inspiration and the well of development to anything it touches, causing it to be stagnant."

"As they say, stagnant water might turn poisonous." He added, "The Sin of Greed, Envy, and Pride? We can handle that with no problem. But you, the Sin of Sloth and the Sin of Wrath? Both of you needed a special kind of attention. That's why I'm here."

Sloth took a deep breath to calm herself down. From his words, she could tell that they didn't come here without any plans. It's pretty fucking obvious at this point that they've severely underestimated Humans, and now they're paying for that.

"And you're certain that what you're doing right now is enough to contain me?"

"Contain? Well, I guess you can say that. But you see, I didn't just merely contain you."

Ashton then snapped his fingers, and instantly Sloth's brain was assaulted by memories.

Memories of what was supposed to happen from the very moment they arrived here and what went wrong. By the time she digested all of it, she returned to the present with a pale face.

She looked at Ashton as if he was some horrifying monster...

Ashton wore a Cheshire grin on his face as he stated:

"From the very moment you landed on this world, you were already dancing on top of my palms."

"You, the Sin Demons..."

"The Apostles..."

"Even that Demon Emperor of yours and that perverted Miraculous Son of the Celestials..."

"Every single one of you was dancing to the tune that I was producing."

Ashton laughed and said: "See? I wasn't just containing you."

"I turned all of you into my puppets! And it's been hella' fun playing with all of you. Sadly, the curtain calls..."

"You all should've never stepped foot in this world."