Sloth (2)
'Sloth.'
The only reason Kim Sung-tae hadn't attacked the boy yet was simple. He just had a soft spot for kids.
It was a survival tactic sometimes used by the weak in nature. He recognized the boy as an enemy, but he couldn't help hesitating to throw punches at a child.
'Is he some really evil bastard, then?'
But the boy had introduced himself as Sloth, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Whatever those beings were, they weren't good news. Hadn't this Sloth already corrupted the World Tree?
"Alright. Shall we see what breaks?"
Sloth stretched, his eyes staining red with killing intent. Darkness poured from his body, invading the sky, the forest, and the earth. The wasteland left by Sung-tae was engulfed in shadow, the sky darkened, and the air grew thick with it. It was utter blackness without a single ray of light, yet Sung-tae and Sloth's forms remained perfectly visible.
"Here we go."
The darkness filling the world morphed into Sloth's hands, lunging at Sung-tae. Each strike carried destructive power beyond even the hero's strength that Leo had shown. Sung-tae dodged nimbly to protect his armor, but in this space that was entirely Sloth's domain, there was nowhere to run.
Watching the encroaching hands close in, Sung-tae muttered softly.
"So this is the power of a Deadly Sin."
There were at least six more Deadly Sins out there. He might have to fight them eventually, but it never hurt to know what he was up against. He'd seen enough of their attack patterns. Now it was time for defense.
"I wonder if it'll break."
Sung-tae's fist smashed straight into the darkness. With shadows everywhere, direction didn't matter. The full force of his punch shattered it like glass, extending out to the world beyond.
Krunch!
"You... just broke my darkness?"
"Not enough, huh."
It had broken, but like his armor, the darkness regenerated at blinding speed. Impressive recovery. Did that mean he had to hit the main body after all?
"You're no ordinary hero. How did you—?"
Sung-tae ignored Sloth's words and charged, swinging his fist. Sloth instinctively sensed it: that punch would shatter the body he'd barely forged over thousands of years.
"What the hell are you?!"
Sloth recalled the darkness he'd unleashed. The world brightened again, but before him, the shadows clumped into a dense void like a hole punched in space.
"Kim Sung-tae."
Sung-tae's strike hit the darkness dead-on. No explosion—just quiet dissolution. A silent erasure.
"Guh... You dare... you mere human!"
Watching Sloth summon even more darkness, Sung-tae wondered: How much of that stuff could he produce? Thicker, stickier shadows enveloped Sloth.
"You dare challenge me?!"
Sloth vanished. The darkness trailed behind him like a meteor's tail. Sung-tae's eyes followed it—up through the clouds to the high sky.
Be still and become my house!
"Trying to become a god?"
The darkness extending from the heavens took form: a colossal hand. Like a deity from beyond the sky reaching down to punish humanity.
"You up there too? Then bring everything you've got..."
The shadowy hand erased space itself as it descended on Sung-tae, a force transcending matter to annihilate even voids. His fist met it, pouring in extra power just in case—cracks spiderwebbed across his armor's right arm.
The clash silenced the world.
"Guh! H-how...?"
As the hand vanished, Sloth reappeared, stunned that Sung-tae had nullified his attack.
Sung-tae was shocked too.
'It canceled out my full-power strike? That's insane.'
Even sealed twice over, it'd been his all-out blow. The cracks on his right arm lingered. For that to merely cancel out...
Now he truly felt Sloth's strength.
"How dare you! How dare you!"
Sloth screamed, face flushing red—an anger unfit for the sin of Sloth.
"Yaaawn..."
The raging Sloth suddenly yawned hugely, body going limp, tears streaming from the effort. As it ended, he muttered.
"Fine... yaaawn. Guess I'll... get serious too..."
His yawn echoed across the continent—to people living vibrant lives under the bright midday sun. Bringing utter lethargy with it.
A ordinary rural village of mountains and fields. A boy from the village plunged into a stream to beat the heat. Fish scattered from him, but the nimble lad like an otter stomped to catch them.
'Gotcha!'
Usually slippery as loaches, today they were weirdly slow. He figured his swimming had improved, but as he checked his catch on the bank, something was off.
"I didn't squeeze that hard—why're they dead?"
The fish lay limp. He'd held them gently to brag to friends, yet they floated with bulging eyes like they'd burst inside. The boy, unaware fish had no eyelids, mistook it for exhaustion. Even if he'd known, the sudden drowsiness would've made him ignore it.
"Soo sleepy... gotta go home."
He needed to nap at home, but the overwhelming sleepiness won. He collapsed by the water and dozed off.
Just before drifting, he thought: Maybe I ate too much lunch. Big meals make you sleepy. Or maybe the sun's too warm.
"Yaaawn..."
But the boy didn't know: every living thing on the continent felt the same sudden drowsiness. And as he slept, they all did too—in unison.
"Yaaawn."
A lazy yawn echoed drowsily. The one yawning was no longer a boy—Sloth had become a sturdy young man, tree leaves barely covering his lower half.
He gazed at Sung-tae with heavy-lidded eyes.
"Didn't wanna use this. The others'll find my location. Yaaawn... then I can't sleep freely."
Sloth lay back—not on the ground, but floating in midair. He vanished, reappearing above Sung-tae's head.
"So you're responsible. Become my mobile home."
"Changing form makes you way better."
Space warped around Sloth. Even without attacking, his mere presence distorted reality.
"Kinda pervy, but at least the leaves are only down there."
"Alright. Time to remodel."
Sloth embodied human laziness—the sin of having power but not using it, abandoning duty in lethargy. Even life itself was no exception.
"Yaaawn... Alright. Fight my power... all out..."
As the embodiment of sloth, when Sloth drew his true strength, he didn't fight himself. Instead, he gathered his mana from every life on the continent and birthed a single entity.
A black shadow puppet rose from Sloth's shadow—Sung-tae's height, his proxy creation. It twitched a finger, and the air quivered.
I fight.
"Gonna nap then. Wake me when it's over."
"!?"
It was an explosion. Air-shattering blast. The finger-twitch signaled it—the puppet tore through the atmosphere toward Sung-tae.
I kill.
"Looks like a culprit from a mystery manga."
Unlike its lazy master, the puppet moved tirelessly. No spells or skills—just raw power to kill Sung-tae. Its physical prowess equaled the combined might of every life on the continent.
'Good thing I stashed Garba far away.'
Before Sloth transformed, Sung-tae had moved her to a distant safe spot. If she'd been near, the puppet's shockwaves alone would've shredded her.
I kill. I kill. I kill. I kill.
"Shut up. You're not a broken cuckoo clock."
I kill.
The puppet's relentless assaults. Sung-tae dodged by a hair, but each graze cracked his armor. He feared neither puppet nor Sloth—but if the armor broke?
That worry filled his mind.
'The best defense is a good offense.'
His fist slammed into the puppet's chest. Cracks formed on its black body, but they sealed instantly, restoring it.
First time. Something that didn't shatter under his blow.
I kill.
"But too predictable."
Hearing Sung-tae? The fist-swinging puppet's mouth gaped wide. Black energy gathered and fired as a beam. A crescent black explosion bloomed on the horizon.
"Too predictable."
Destructive, sure—but simple. Dodging from the open maw was easy.
Sung-tae clenched his fist. Armor cracks healed, but Gepelt's magic circle looked ready to shatter. Quick finish. If one hit wouldn't do...
"Just beat it till it dies."
Flurry of blows. His fists hammered the puppet relentlessly. Precise pummeling. Cracks formed and reformed, but limits showed—fissures multiplied, healing slowed.
Final strike: it shattered like glass.
I kille—
"Done."
'No— just starting.'
Sloth smirked at the puppet's destruction. It was infused with his power. Breaking it would unleash lethal lethargy, stripping all will to live from any lifeform.
He'd known Sung-tae's physical might from the start—no intent to overpower him bodily.
'Your body's strong, sure. But your mind?'
He couldn't pierce Sung-tae's spirit directly, but a full hit of lethargy? Easy infiltration after. Once inside, puppetizing him was guaranteed.
"!?"
Sensing the ominous aura from the puppet, Sung-tae raced to Garba.
BOOOOM!!!
The puppet exploded. The blast swallowed the ruined high elf forest, mushroom cloud piercing the heavens, blackening the world like a nuke.
To shield Garba, Sung-tae took the sloth blast full-on. Sloth appeared above, grinning triumphantly.
"Now, time to become my house!"
"...you ruined it."
"...?"
Sloth doubted his ears. Wrong? He should be asleep—how speech? Sleep-talk? No—even under full sloth, no dreams.
"You undid the magic circle...!"
Sung-tae glared murderously. Sloth recoiled, sensing the fury—as a mental being, he saw the flames engulfing him. Crimson energy ready to incinerate all.
"How aren't you asleep!?"
"Huh, now that you mention it, a bit tired."
'Knew it!'
Late activation. The puppet's blast condensed continental lethargy plus Sloth's mana—no Deadly Sin could fully block it.
As relieved Sloth smiled, Sung-tae stretched arms skyward, yawned hugely, then did light stretches.
"Phew. Wide awake now. Bit drowsy, but a quick stretch fixes that."
"Just stretches!?"
"What's the big deal? Stretching's best for sleepiness."
"N-no way! Even Wrath or Lust couldn't shrug it off like that!"
"Quit freaking. Bigger issue—you wrecked Gepelt's circle again!"
Sung-tae's fist flew at Sloth. The gauntlet looked seconds from breaking. He barely contained his rage, but the flames wreathing it threatened to consume Sloth.
Sloth didn't dodge. Sung-tae's fury was his chance.
'Just infiltrate!'
Sloth's body burned away on the rage-emotion from the fist. But his spirit rode it into Sung-tae's inner world.
The flames nearly erased the mental Sloth, but as a Deadly Sin, he condensed his remaining power to endure.
'Guh... terrifying... Rage emotion rivaling Wrath itself... Hurry to the inner world... there!'
Rage clouds reason. Sung-tae's ironclad inner world cracked slightly. Sloth sharpened himself like a needle and dove.
'Once inside, you're mine!'
Exciting. Absorb this power or corrupt it—strongest ever. Maybe lord over his mocking siblings.
"Finally!"
The gap widened bit by bit. Sloth slipped into the inner world.
"Grrgh!"
Burned by flames, he groaned—but forgot pain beholding the golden sea.
Sung-tae's life force, invisible from outside: a golden ocean unbelievable for a human. Dwarfed the World Tree, "mother of life"—firefly to sun.
"You bastard!"
As awestruck Sloth admired, Mukkebi charged.
Sloth calmly dodged the surprise attack.
"What? Another being in the inner world? Is this guy's mind a brat like you?"
"Get out of Sung-tae's body!"
Mukkebi swung wildly in wolf beastkin form. Sloth phased through like a ghost.
"Hmm. Weird. Another mental lifeform like me?"
Studying Mukkebi, Sloth shook his head. He knew the seven mental sins—none looked like this kid.
"Someone beat me here. But this is my house now."
"Eek! Sung-tae! Help!"
Sloth's darkness snared Mukkebi as she tried summoning Sung-tae, binding her tight.
"Didn't expect another mental being besides us. I'll look into it later."
Ignoring Mukkebi, Sloth approached the golden sea.
"So beautiful. Entrancing."
Too perfect to touch. Who knew such a life ocean existed?
But no time to admire. To rule, dye it his power. Regretfully, Sloth exhaled darkness.
"Beauty is fleeting, but power eternal."
His shadows sank into the golden depths. Soon, gold gone—only dark.
Sloth waited. And waited.
"...Not enough?"
More darkness. No change.
"Need more?"
Again...
"More!?"
Again...
"Arrrrgh!!!"
Frustrated by the unchanging sea, Sloth unleashed maximum power. Vast jet-black abyss plunged in.
Then, staring blankly long after, Sloth collapsed limply.
"Why won't it change!!!"