Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

It was as though time itself ceased when the Bone Scythe was out...

Everyone, and yes this includes the trio who are in stasis, felt their blood freeze the moment they saw the scythe.

It was wicked, sinister, and soul-chilling. The thing was big, making one wonder how was it supposed to be wielded yet it rests perfectly still within Ashton's grip like a proper tool.

The scythe might also be causing them to see things.

There seemed to have been an endless sea of black river where thousands and thousands of Celestials and Hypogeans drowned in agony.

This image was even more striking to the Revenants since they could feel these poor tormented souls reaching out to them, begging and screaming at them for help.

This scene was so shocking that the white-eyed Seraphim lost all momentum.

She had been so confident a few seconds ago, even going as far as respectfully informing Ashton that he had lost completely. Yet now, her face was frozen in fear. Her summons could even be seen so badly terrified that they were shaking like a leaf.

At this point, all of them are looking at Ashton in fear and trepidation as he stared at them with a flat expression. He didn't look mad or excited. One could even say that he looked bored.

The Revenants felt their souls trembling whenever his heterochromatic eyes landed on them. It's as if those pair of eyes could see through all of their thoughts and intentions.

"L-Lu? My precious little brother Lu!?" The six-eyed Crow Demon King cried out, ruining the chill silence of the surroundings.

Ashton blinked. He swiftly sifted through his memories and finally remembered.

'Ah, Demon Prince Lu. The Leech Demon Prince. It seems that they know each other, huh? Small world.'

"Lu!! Lu!! Big Brother is coming! I'll save you, just hold on for a bit longer!" The six-eyed Crow Demon King then glared fiercely at Ashton. "Y-You monster! What did you do to him? How dare you touch him! Let him go!!"

Ashton pursed his lips and took out something from his Inventory before throwing it at the feet of the demon.

What he threw was a Noble Demon Crown.

"What's this?" The Crow Demon King asked.

"Didn't you want to see him? There you go then! That's him...well, what's left of him at least."

"..." the Crow Demon King looked as if he just lost a soul.

He stared at Ashton, the scythe where he could see the visage of his poor brother being tormented and the Demon Crown in his hands.

"...ah, he was a fun guy you know?" Ashton recalled wistfully. "He gave me some trouble at first but eventually, he turned out to be a good source of entertainment."

"He was even more stupid than the one I killed earlier. I tortured him for months until he was terrified to even sleep and not once he managed to catch me! Hah!"

"But eventually, he got boring. And I have somewhere else to go so well...you don't need me to tell what I did next right?"

Ashton's smile was sickening, everybody felt chills running down their bodies as he told the story.

The Crow Demon King took it the hardest though. He howled like a mad animal and recklessly threw away all caution to the wind. It flew towards Ashton with every ill intent it could muster.

Sadly, that's the single most horrible thing he could've done at that very moment.

Ashton grinned and flicked a finger at the Bone Scythe's edge. The sound trickled into everyone's ears. Nothing seems to have happened but all of a sudden, the Crow Demon King fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Under everybody's horrified expression, they saw that the Crow Demon King's body was sliced cleanly in half.

The chilling part is that nobody saw what happened. All they saw was Ashton flicking the edge of the Bone Scythe using his fingers. Isn't it a little ridiculous for that to be the culprit of the Demon King's death?

Sadly though, that is indeed the case.

Don't forget that Ashton's Scythe Arts has reached 2-star Ascended Rank. That means that even the most mundane thing he does with his scythe could cause an irreversible effect on his surroundings so long as it's within his intentions to do so.

The Demon King's body fell not too far from where Ashton was. Smiling, he dragged the scythe with him as he walked closer to the corpse.

The sound of the scythe being dragged around made them uncomfortable, yet none could even utter a word of defiance since they'd grown too scared of him.

When Ashton reached the corpse. He hoisted the scythe and poked the Crow's head with the tip. Then, under everybody's horrified gaze, the scythe eagerly lapped up the blood of the fallen Demon King.

Some could even see the soul of the Demon King trying to crawl out of the suction but it failed in the end.

And like the others who came before him...the Crown Demon King has now joined that endless black river of a tormented soul. Never to surface ever again.

"Y-y-you're him!" A Cherub from the Revenants stumbled backward and uttered out of sheer terror, seemingly recalling something.

"You're the White-Cloaked Reaper!! The White-Cloaked Reaper is a Human? Of course! Now it all makes sense! You fooled us all! Ahah! Hahahahaha!!"

A sick smile appeared on Ashton's face as he asked: "Oh, it seems that I'm famous among you. I'm surprised."

'The White-Cloaked Reaper?' The trio asked inwardly. Sadly, they can't ask questions right now since they're in stasis.

"Y-you! Let us go! In exchange, we will never bother humans again! Don't make me call for reinforcements! I'm telling you, I'm acquainted with an Apostle! An Apostle you hear me! If you kill me, then Humanity is done for! Let me go and I promise I won't call them!"

'You started with 'we' and ended up with 'I', you don't even realize how much of a coward and piece of shit you are.' Ashton inwardly shook his head.

He then wore a teasing smile and said:

"Really? You're close with an Apostle? I'd like to see it then. Go on, call them." He said in an amused tone.

The Cherub froze on the spot.

"...well, what are you waiting for? Call them. I'm giving this chance, take it while I'm still feeling relatively generous." Ashton encouraged.

The pressure on to the Cherub then. It looked at Ashton, trying to guess his intentions. But seeing that it couldn't even tell from his expression, the Cherub turned wretched.

It procured a stone from its body and poured energy onto it. The stone glowed for a few moments before dimming again. The Cherub was shocked. It poured energy into it but was met with the same result.

"Damn it! Why won't it work!? Work, god damn it!! I don't want to die here!"

The Cherub was panicking completely now. This stone was supposed to be its last resort. It was an Oath Stone given to him by an Apostle. This was a reward given to him back then and ever since then, it became his most prized possession.

Sadly, when it needed the most, the stone failed. And it couldn't understand why. Could it be that the Oath Stone was fake? But that can't be! An Apostle will never stoop that low!!

It was then that they heard Ashton's crisp laughter in their ears. They all looked over to see him almost collapsing on the floor and in tears due to how much he was laughing.

"Oh, that's the best." He wiped his tears away as he slowly composed himself. "You all should've seen your faces. It was priceless. God, it's so fun to mess with you guys."

"W-what did you do?" The Cherub asked-- no, demanded.

"You're an idiot." Ashton ruthlessly remarked. "Did you honestly think that I didn't take that into consideration?"

"..."

"All while you all were busy drooling and harassing my friend over there, I have set up a formation that trapped all of you in," Ashton revealed. "And you idiots didn't even notice it. Hell, I wasn't even trying to deliberately hide it, yet you all fell for it still!"

Ashton hoisted his scythe to his shoulders and said:

"Currently, this formation is feeling false signals to your camp. I know you all have Life Jades back at your respective camps, allowing your allies to check your life signals. Well, those are useless now."

"They will all think that you're still alive even after you died. You cannot ask for any reinforcements since I specifically prevented that from happening."

"Why else do you all think that I'm taking my time to make you miserable? It's because it doesn't really matter."

"The moment you all showed up here, you all signed your death certificates."

Ashton wore a soul-chilling smile as his grip over the Bone Scythe turned a bit tighter.

"Suffice to say, you are all dead the moment you appeared before me. And even after I killed you all, nobody from your camp will be alerted."

"So if I were you, I'll cooperate. Who knows? Maybe you can appeal to my human side which might let me let go of you..."