Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

Greed and Sloth stood by the side, watching a spectacle happening.

They observed Pride who was currently standing in the middle of his training area with his eyes closed. His expression was warped as if he were in pain. They could hear occasional grunts of discomfort.

But what really got their attention was the deep sea blue aura flaring on Pride's entire body.

Pride's horn crown glowed with the same brilliance, his muscle mass increased and they could feel the sheer power coursing through him.

"Incredible." Greed murmured.

He watched in fascination as Pride displayed the power he unlocked purely by chance. A trace of desire welled up in Greed's heart, he too wanted to experience what's that like.

Sloth, as usual, was sleeping on her makeshift bed that she always carries around. She can't really help it, this was her thing. But beneath her slumbering appearance, she too was observing Pride.

'He told us to keep our distance.' Sloth thought to herself, 'I'm guessing he did so because he's aware of the possibility that he may lose his sense of self upon entering this state of being. He didn't want to hurt us. Good for him.'

She can tell just by looking that Pride was struggling to keep himself sane. The sheer amount of Sin oozing from his body could drown out a crowd. It's probably not easy to handle.

Yet the fact that he was able to figure it out earlier than Wrath did says volume. After numerous attempts and failures, he finally succeeded.

But as they expected, this increase in power has a downside.

"Should we try to talk to him in this state?" Greed asked softly to Sloth.

Sloth kept snoring despite being asked, but she didn't need to answer at all.

"....grrhh!! Mad! Dan-...dangerous! Grrrhhh! Stay....away!!" Pride growled loudly, seemingly replying to Greed.

As it turns out, Pride could hear him despite the distance. That means that not only Pride got physically stronger upon entering this state, but his senses were also boosted.

From Pride's words, uttered with so much difficulty, it's clear that he's barely hanging on to his sanity. Getting close to him would be akin to a straight-up provocation. And driven by sheer instincts, Pride would attack anybody who dares to come close.

"Can you deactivate it?" Greed asked curiously.

Pride replied using several grunts and whines. Greed could see that he was trying to do so, but it was proving to be difficult for him.

"Keep trying. You already succeeded in entering that state, just do the opposite, I think." Greed suggested.

Pride barked at him, which caused Greed to be taken aback but he didn't mind it so much. He just alloted that behavior to Pride not being in a proper state mentally.

A few minutes passed and eventually, they could see that the flaring aura around Greed's body faded completely. Once it was all gone, Pride collapsed on the ground, panting and extremely exhausted.

Greed took Sloth and started walking closer to Pride. It should be safe now, Pride's already exhausted.

"Good work." Greed said he gave Pride a bottle of Ambrosia which the latter down in a single gulp.

Pride then sat down while still catching his breath, he then exclaimed, saying:

"Hell...that felt so uncomfortable."

"I'm guessing it's quite different from what you felt during the first time?" Greed asked.

"Not entirely." Pride replied, "The only difference is that now, I was stubbornly holding on to a piece of consciousness while I could feel myself drowning in my Sin. The last time, I wasn't putting up a fight at all so it just felt empty, but we all know the risks if it stayed that way."

"Right. You wouldn't be able to distinguish friend from foe." Greed supplied, it's not hard to figure out what Pride was trying to say at this point.

"You know, I just realized this now since I was more conscious, but entering this state really saps out one's endurance. Holy shit, I'm fucking tired already. I think I will need to sleep for like, three days straight after this." Pride pointed out.

"It's that serious?" Greed frowned, then he saw Pride nodding in confirmation. "You don't think that it's just because you're not used to it yet?"

"...huh, yeah that might also be possible." Pride shrugged. He then lay flat on the ground again to rest. "I wanna sleep now, hey Sloth, help me out here."

"...tell us how you did that first." Came Sloth's reply to his request.

"Right. I almost forgot." Pride scratched his head. "Well, as it turns out, the trick to entering that state was a lot simpler than we initially thought."

"Oh? And how so?" Greed asked curiously.

"All this time, we've been trying to see if there's a trigger to it or something. We've been looking at this power like a tool that needs to be switched on. But in reality, the clue was already right up in our faces, we just failed to see it."

"This is a state of being. You don't switch it on, you allow it to consume you." Pride stated.

"Which means?"

"Letting go of control, completely." Pride added, "By doing that, you'd be allowing your Sin to take over your body. Your consciousness will sink deeper into it."

"Our Sin is like a well of water. Your consciousness is like the bucket that's connected to a rope. You throw it down the well and let it sink deeper and deeper. The rope represents your sanity, it's connected to your consciousness but it's also affected by water in the well."

"And your control is the force that will decide whether that bucket will only float on the surface of the water or sink to it deeper. That's essentially how I see it right now."

Greed looked fascinated by the logic that Pride used just now. Inwardly, he couldn't believe that Pride's mind was able to reach this conclusion, but at the same time, Pride's more familiar with this state than he was so he guessed that he would understand it better.

"It's comically so simple in the end, I couldn't believe it took me this long to figure it out, especially when the clues were all over the place." Pride chuckled to himself.

"Sink your consciousness into the well of Sin deep within you and let go. Allow yourself to submerge into it, just beware of your sanity cause trust me, it would be hard to maintain it upon entering that state."

'Alright, at this point, this guy's just bragging.' Greed groaned inwardly, but he didn't say anything since Pride had a valid excuse for that.

"Did you feel strong when you were in that state?" Greed asked.

"Not just feel." He said, "I knew that I was incredibly strong the moment I entered that state. There was just no comparison."

"But above that, I also felt pressured. You won't believe this but in that state, you'd feel that the power of Sin, the power that was bestowed to us by the Demon God, was much greater than we initially expected."

"It gave me the impression that I was just scratching the surface of my power all this time. What lies beneath that surface, was the real deal. The true power of our Sin lies at the very depths of that well."

"But I can't reach that far yet. The pressure was already too much for my body. I'm afraid that if I go deeper, my body would just collapse from too much power."

Pride put a stop to his monologue after saying that, leaving Greed mumbling to himself.

He couldn't hear what Greed was saying but judging from the way his eyes glowed, it seems that he was interested now.

"Come..."

Pride looked at Sloth and saw her opening her arms to invite him, her eyes were still closed but Pride didn't mind.

He didn't hesitate and dove into Sloth's bosom. He shamelessly parked his face in between her bountiful chest and hummed in comfort. Pride then felt Sloth caressing his horns as she hummed a tune.

In mere seconds, Pride felt drowsy. Then he fell asleep just as fast as the drowsiness came for him.

Now resting on top of Sloth, Pride was carried off somewhere. Since they were done here, there was no reason to stay.

Sloth left Greed to mumble to himself. Now that she got her answers, she could give it a try whenever she feels like it. Not right now though since she's feeling a little too lazy to do that.

As for Greed, his mind kept repeating Pride's words just now. That part where he said that they're barely tapping onto their real power.

He couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. His mind got into thinking that they; the Sin Demons, were destined for a greater purpose, yet because they were lacking, they're only finding that out now.

Greed is greed after all. After discovering that there's more to their power that their naked eyes couldn't see, of course, he will be compelled to discover it.

He is Greed, it is in his very being to want and need more because that is his identity.

That is his Sin.