You probably already know about the Seven Deadly Sins:
Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Wrath, Lust and Envy
Well, [Call of the Black Magicians] have something similar too in this world of Zarraf. In this world, there are 7 individuals who wield the power to control one of the cardinal sins.
That power can only exist in one individual at a time. It can be stolen or taken, or even given away to another by the individual who has it.
While it sounds all good to have the power to control a sin, it is actually more complicated than it looks like. Each sin's power comes with an individual demon that resides within the individual who holds the power.
The demon grows stronger with the individual and, once with enough power; he fights for the ownership of the body. That is the sole reason the demon gives power to the individual.
The purpose of an individual to use the power could be anything, while the purpose of the demon is to gain freedom from its chains, take over the owner's body and then launch an attack at the highest authority among the powers of darkness, the Ancient Gods.
Thus, they are also known as the Successor of the Ancient Gods.
Depending upon the power they wield, consumed with the most negative feature of the individual possessed, they become the God of that emotion if they succeed in their mission. For example, if an individual's most distinguishing negative feature is rage, then the sin will become the Ancient God of Rage.
"It is okay. I should be the one introducing myself first… I am Gray Ian Schringer, you may also know me as the Former Sin of Greed," Gray spoke as he looked at me, making me take a step back away from him.
I tried checking his status, but all it showed were question marks.
"Ah! No need to be on guard! I gave up on that title quite a long time ago," he said with a sad glance before speaking," my real body was taken over by the Sin Demon, and he is roaming around freely while I survived by using Self-Necromancy."
I gave a side eye to Oriel and Evelyn, who were really cautious as they looked at Gray. Their eyes seemed to be ready to fight for a life and death battle at any moment.
After giving a bit of thought on the situation, I then took a deep sigh before looking at Gray before speaking,
"Well… his is a bit awkward situation, isn't it?" I relaxed my guard for now. If Gray wanted to kill us, he would have done it by now. Even being a shell, I have felt his power the last time. He must be at least powerful enough to erase all of us with the least of his power.
"I guess it is," Gray spoke with the same chuckle, not minding the distrusting looks of Evelyn and Oriel.
"Adam! What are you doing standing there? Don't you know what that thing is?!!" Evelyn was shouting while still in fear. If perhaps, the slight confusion wasn't there, both Oriel and Evelyn might have jumped at Gray already.
I could see Oriel looking at me more than Gray, while Evelyn was breaking the more time was passing. I should do something or Evelyn might end up taking more mental damage than she could recover from.
"Oriel. Can you put Evelyn to sleep?" I asked him, rather than doing it myself. It was to test what was the current stability of Oriel. Was he in his right mind, or was he pretending to do so?
"Have you… turned to the dark side, Adam?" Oriel asked as he looked at me. His eyes filled with fury, as he was losing his rationality second by second. This was one of the reasons I didn't want to show 'Adam' using both dark and light magic to at least these two.
It's a deep-rooted belief they have that all dark mages are evil. I guess it is impossible for them to take it out.
"[Fireball!!!]" Evelyn shouted as she threw a ball of fire, not at Gray, but me. Her eyes instilled with fear. It seemed like she had lost all hope. And even Oriel's sword was shining brightly, as he moved towards me at a rapid speed.
"I can't let my friend die as someone who sided with the dark side, so I will kill you while you are a good person," Oriel spoke as he slashed his sword at me.
'I guess I will be careful next time,' I thought as I saw them almost reaching me.
"[Decay!]"
An eerie voice came out of Gray's mouth as the fireball extinguished in front of me. Oriel's sword almost reached my neck before it withered like ashes against my neck. Wasn't just the sword, but Oriel himself was aging at a rapid speed.
"Adam… why?" Oriel spoke as his eyes turned red in anger. I saw his severely malnourished face that turned into ashes within the next few moments, while Evelyn, who was standing at a distance, looked at me for a second.
"[Esteruna!!!!]"
Evelyn shouted as her body started turning blue. She looked at me with a disgusted look before her body exploded at a rapid speed.
"[Dark Wall]" Gray muttered, creating a black wall that protected me from the flame that approached me.
[Quest Failed!]
Both Oriel and Evelyn died before I could even manage to do anything… to think the belief was this deep-rooted in both of them. Or perhaps it was the fear of the 'Sin of Greed?'
"Seems like they aren't as close as I thought they were to you. I don't sense enough remorse from you," Gray spoke as he looked at me, while I smiled at him. Well, I am going to repeat the whole scenario until I find a way to save them so it doesn't amount to much.
"Well. You can think of it that way… I had just met them not too long ago," I sighed as I looked at that skeleton, Necromancer Gray. I pondered for a few seconds before asking,
"So… why did you lie about being the 'Former' Sin of Greed?"