Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

Ashton sighed for the nth time today...

He's once again, watching the ridiculous battle ongoing at the Chaotic Warzone. And just like the previous ones, it all started from sheer pettiness.

At this point, Ashton's convinced that the reason why Mr. Slayer and Bruce didn't say anything about this place is that they don't understand it themselves. Honestly, this is just ridiculous.

Aria just laughed at his dilemma too, how cruel.

Needless to say, Ashton can't get a solid read from these opposing camps. They fight for the smallest reasons possible. They just can't stand each other that much, is what Ashton concluded.

This is why, instead of searching for a reason why these things are fighting here, he chose to plan for his move. After all, he's already here. He just can't stand here and watch as this all happens right?

Ashton kept observing. Thinking of ways to cleverly take advantage of this situation. In his observations, he noticed a few things that were weirdly happening as the two sides fought...

The most obvious one for him was the fact that, even though the Celestials and Hypogeans here fought a lot, nobody really died.

Sure, they'd attack each other with a heavy hand and all, but none of them actually manages to kill each other. It's either the injured successfully retreat or reinforcements will arrive in time to cover for them.

The other thing he noticed from his observation was tied to this as well...and that is, there's no coincidence here.

No, that demon/angel just didn't happen to be there at the right place at the right time. Ashton refuses to believe that when he specifically saw how they waited and acted just in time as if everything was rehearsed.

Normally, it'd be difficult to see everything on such a chaotic battlefield but Ashton's senses could not be fooled. He is far too observant for things like this to escape him.

It's because of this that Ashton truly finds this whole fiasco interesting and suspicious.

But, once again...he's clueless for the most part.

Actually, does it even matter? Why was he paying so much attention to understanding the 'whys' and 'hows' of his enemies' thought processes? What's the point? Especially when his goal remained the same in the end anyway?

'I just need to kill them, then they won't bother me anymore...'

Yes, it's as simple as that at the end of the day. No need to complicate things for himself. It's not worth having a headache for anyway. All he needs to do is to kill everything on sight and there would be nothing barring his way from returning home.

That's it, plain and simple.

Because of this, Ashton forgot about reading too much between the lines. He'd still pay attention though because that's just him, but he wouldn't place too much importance on that anymore and he instead, would focus on what he has to do.

As Ashton continued his observations, he was gradually increasing the count of enemies he can recognize on the battlefield. In turn, this also updates his mission in real time but he won't clear it unless he kills them all.

He was lucky that there's a book on the Grand Archives left by another martyrized Hero that's about the Celestial Race and Hypogean Race. This book contained all kinds of demons and angels, and it's extremely detailed which was of great help for recognizing them.

After two weeks of doing nothing but observing the Chaotic Warzone and doing some simulations. Ashton was finally ready to make a move...

Today was that day.

He stood in the mirror, silently looking at his reflection. He was once again wearing the exosuit which could defend him against all types of harm. He wore the Cloak of Apparition on top of that which hid most of his features, especially with the hood on.

He wore a mask that prevents senses from capturing what he looks like and minimizes his presence even more. The Mortal Reminder was holstered on his belt in their base form and he's holding the wicked scythe made by Aria for him.

After admiring his get-up, he kissed Aria before he turned around to cast all sorts of Support Spells to prepare him for the battle.

And just like that...he's ready for war...

Ashton disappeared from the library and appeared in the humid and foul vicinity of the Chaotic Warzone.

His chosen spot was somewhere that's usually missed by the patrols of both angels and demons.

Due to the stack of spells he placed on himself and the various paraphernalia that he's got, his presence was minimized to the maximum. Even though he struck out like a sore thumb due to the uniqueness of his attire, he blended with the surroundings so much that nobody was alarmed by his presence.

Instead of moving, Ashton remained in his spot. Casually standing there like he's rooted in place. No, of course, he's not afraid nor frozen in fear. He didn't feel anxious or excited. He's just calm. Like this day's just another work day for him.

The reason why he's not moving is that there's no need to yet. He's perfectly isolated and unseen for so long as he stood still. Nothing was going on yet so there's no need for him to do anything right now.

Although, not for long...

Ashton spread out his senses and covered a 5-mile distance around him. Everything here couldn't escape his senses. He observed in real time and watched the patrolling units in anticipation. He mumbled 'soon' in his heart, because he already predicted that the usual will happen not too long from now.

...and just as he expected, a few hundred meters away from where he stood, he could see two units, one from each side, about to cross paths.

"Fuck off, Filth." An angel spat.

"Make me, you bald Pidgeon." The demon spat back.

"RAAAAGGGHHH!!!"

Ashton rolled his eyes and snorted softly. Yeah, he just can't with that anymore. It's whatever at this point.

Nevertheless, the event he was waiting for finally happened. But he didn't move right away. He waited patiently until this escalates and turns into a full-scale clash between two sides.

He didn't wait for that long either...

Not even ten minutes after that, the whole battlefield's in chaos once more. Streaks of gold and black light clashed and big explosions occurred everywhere on the battlefield.

Ashton looked up and saw the big leagues appearing one by one. He counted in his heart and once he was done, he saw the Noble Demons and First Sphere Angels duking it out beyond the clouds.

His eyes shone as he muttered: 'It's go time, I have 10 minutes before they come down.'

Ashton took a mighty step forward and disappeared from his position. He turned into a streak of light which passed through several foes at once.

Demons who are Young Adults or fully Matured ones...

Angels of all ages and sizes, be it coming from the 3rd Sphere or the 2nd Sphere...

Ashton wasn't picky. By the time he reappeared, he was already holding his scythe which was bathing in their blood. In his trail, a river of blood appeared and bodies exploded.

Ashton snapped his fingers and instantly, a rainbow cloud appeared. Nobody noticed the cloud though, before they could do so, they already inhaled it and were already hallucinating about something.

This Spell is called 'Rainbow Fantasy', a peak High-Order Spell he learned at the Grand Archives. It causes everyone who inhaled the cloud to hallucinate. The hallucination was realistic enough that their brain is completely convinced that nothing was amiss, but with this, Ashton can make small adjustments to what he wanted them to see to keep himself hidden from plain view.

Once he saw that most of the clashing invaders had dull eyes and moving mechanically, a smile appeared on his face which was hidden behind a mask.

He brandished his scythe and went on a killing spree. Freely slices and feeds the scythe as much as he wishes. The river of blood followed him as it was being absorbed by the weapon.

Ashton could feel the sheer jubilance coming from the scythe, it was urging him for more. More blood, more victims, more death, and more, more, more...

He wasn't moved nor disturbed by the vicious intent his weapon was sent to him. Despite it sounding enticing and rather sinister, Ashton's spirit was far stronger than that so he wasn't affected.

Ashton paid attention to how much time he has left before the big shots returned. When he only has a minute left, he placed the scythe behind his back so that it can keep drinking the blood of his victims while he loaded a shell on his Rocket Launcher.

Once the shell condensed, Ashton hopped into the air, casting Blink to reach an even greater height, then as he fell, he aimed below and fired the shot.

As soon as the shell exited the launcher's chamber, Ashton disappeared entirely from the scene.

But he left a massive gift before he disappeared.

It was a huge explosion that resulted in a massive mushroom cloud appearing on the Chaotic Warzone.

And by the time the bigshots returned, all of them were horrified to see the corpses of their men littered across the ground...