Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

Was it dishonorable to take advantage and kill the enemy while they're weakened?

It may be so, but they still went ahead and did it.

See, why fight a losing battle? Humans are already painfully aware that they're completely outclassed in terms of prosperity. Both the Celestials and the Hypogeans are old existences. Their foundations run deeper than humans could ever imagine.

Humanity was still in the process of catching up, and it will take a very long time for them to stand at the same level as the invaders. Unfortunately, they need to deal with them now so they could only resort to underhanded tactics to cinch victory.

Well, other people would call this underhanded, Ashton on the other hand calls it being smart.

Why send people to their deaths? They have more value in being alive than dead, so why not deliberately stage everything to sharply reduce the casualties?

While the weaker cultivators kept the lesser demons in check, preventing them from interfering in the fight happening above, the Big 3 was obviously handling the weakened Sin Demons.

Blake, Mary, and Alice worked as a team to confront them. Judging from their expressions, it's clear that they don't have thoughts of leaving this place without killing the Sin Demons.

Pride, Greed, and Envy tried their best to resist the combined efforts of the Big 3, however, they are slipping up.

The Apostles took out a lot from them and they're obviously weakened. They can't enter the Sin Takeover State due to their exhaustion.

What's worse is that Sloth could've seriously made this a lot easier for them. Her Sin allows her to take away their motivation and cause them to lower their guards, killing them would've been so much easier if she helped, but for some reason, Sloth was unresponsive.

They don't know what's happening to her and they have no time to help her out either. Their hands were full trying to handle the relentless killing intent of Humans.

What didn't make sense for them was the fact that their Sins did not affect their enemies. Pride, Greed, and Envy. It's as if these three people didn't have those at all, rendering them ineffective.

The Sin Demons are the personification of their Sins, not only do they have authority over it, but they could also release their full weight to their chosen target, and usually, that's enough to make their enemies mad.

But like what's stated earlier, their Sins are ineffective against these humans. It either has immunity over it or they have something that completely nullifies it.

In truth, it's the former.

The Big 3 had developed a certain level of immunity against the Sins all thanks to their rigorous tempering at the Lake of Blood.

Those mental demons that tormented them tempered their hearts, allowing them to easily resist outside influence.

They're not completely immune per se, it's more like they're developed some resistance against it.

And since the Sin Demons are severely weakened, their powers are also in a similar state, making it easier for the Big 3 to resist it.

As the fight intensifies, Sloth could do nothing but watch as her siblings were slowly pushed to a corner.

Within her, she held hope that Pride, Envy, and Greed would be able to do it. She hoped that, even in their weakened state, they could successfully kill the humans that invaded them and teach them their proper place.

Unfortunately, the situation looked extremely grim no matter which angles to look at it from.

Sloth never thought that Humanity could reach this level of strength, and within a short period too. If they have been just a bit weaker than they are right now, then their chance of successfully driving them away would be greater. Sadly, that's obviously not the case at all.

As time passed, Sloth felt hope draining away from her body. She saw how her brothers got wounded. Due to their exhaustion, their healing factors could no longer keep up.

She watched as they lost a limb, she watched as they bled and gritted their teeth, not giving up until the very last moment.

And finally, she also watched as the humans landed a killing blow to them, lighting them up in pristine white flames, just like what happened with Wrath earlier.

Sloth felt a sharp pain in her chest as she witnessed their deaths. She also felt angry but mostly, she felt helpless.

She did try her best to get out of this place. She tried waking herself up or shattering this dream to take control over her body once more. The Demon God knows she wanted so badly to help her sibling fight, however, nothing mattered.

Sloth was kept here, forced to watch with her own eyes as her siblings fell one by one. She had lost count of how many times she had cursed this mystical cage and tried to attack the one who put her there to no avail.

The man named Ashton was untouchable in this place, he was omnipotent and omnipresent here. He's like a God here. The power he holds over this domain could easily squash her down like she's some sort of a bug.

But Sloth...she remained tough even through the end.

Her siblings are dead and she's the only one left. She knows that there's no that she's going to survive this. But even so, she kept up her dignity. She will not bend, not beg, nor she will ever betray her kind to keep herself alive.

She doesn't have the time to mourn the deaths of her siblings, but that's fine. They will see each other again, she's sure of it. The Demon God won't abandon them.

"...I wouldn't be so sure of that If I were you." Came in the devil's voice echoing in her ears.

Sloth glared harshly at Ashton, if looks could kill, he would've been dead a thousand times over by now.

"Oh, you poor thing. Do you honestly think that you Sin Demons hold that much value to your God? That is some serious devotion you have right there." Ashton sneered, "Your God doesn't even hear your prayers right now, what makes you think that he cares about you?"

"Isn't that because you're deliberately cutting off our connection from the outside?" Sloth fired back.

"Mn! That may be so but...are you telling me that a mere barrier coming from a backward planet is enough to stop your all-powerful god?"

That rhetoric silence Sloth.

"If that's so, then your Demon God isn't that special after all. If your God's that incapable, then I guess I could turn him into a puppet as well. What do you think?"

"You're sick and arrogant! There will come a day when you will pay for all that you did to us!" Sloth snarled.

To Sloth's surprise, the man suddenly bursts into explosive laughter, the kind that shook the very fabrics of the dream itself.

"Shit, that's a good one! I didn't know that your kind has a sense of humor! How incredible!" Ashton continued laughing as Sloth continued glaring at him.

"You, a Hypogean...the so-called locusts of worlds and rival of the Celestials, are calling me, us, sick and arrogant? Oh, how ironic! It's almost as if we're the ones who begged you to come here..."

Sloth was once again silenced by that.

"We call your kind often as Invaders here, instead of differentiating you from Hypogeans and Celestials. That's because, in our eyes, you all are the same."

"Demons? Angels? The only difference those two have is their appearance, nothing more."

"Your purpose of coming here was practically the same. To harvest the Providence of this world and turn it into a battlefield suitable for your races to use. Whoever wins that fight, gets the right to decide which one will take custody of this world. Isn't that so?"

"..."

"Not even once did you ask us, Humans - the locals of this world, about our opinion about that. Not even once did you respect us! Hell, you lot never even recognized us as proper intelligent species."

"In your eyes, were nothing but food. A rare delicacy that could only be found in this world. Now, who's the sick and arrogant one?" Ashton raised a brow as he asked this question.

"And missy, the day when I pay for all the things that I did to your kind will never come." Ashton sneered, "You wanna know why?"

"It's simple really. This is just the start of everything. I'm nowhere near close to being done with all of you."

"You killed way too many of my kind. Your kind threatened us, disrespected us, humiliated us, and denied this world from us, just to satisfy the sick and twisted desire of yours to fan this petty rivalry you have."

"Your sins against my kind are stacked as high as the heavens could get. And I plan to settle it all one by one. I'd wage this entire way by myself I have to, and I refuse to die until I achieve my goals."

Ashton stood in front of Sloth, staring down at her like a furious deity.

"Our revenge started the very moment I was born on this planet. What makes you think that there will be anything left of you once I'm done, huh?"