“Dead?”
“Yes, even detect life wasn’t working.”
“How long was I like that?”
“For three hours.”
“Three?”
“Yes, we were going to have a burial, but then your brother came in and his daughter noticed that you were still technically alive.”
“That’s good.”
“Jalad, Mammon, could you leave the room for a second?”
Elren came in with Thalia and Alice. Royce asked,
“Should we leave too?”
“No, you two should stay.”
Jalad gave us an odd look before leaving with Mammon.
Elren looked around to make sure no one was in the room.
“Silence.”
The room went silent.
“So, what was that?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean? You worried me into thinking you were dead, but you were off doing whatever, so what were you doing?”
“The Sin of Wrath called all of the Shards into a meeting.”
That was clearly not what he expected me to say.
“What?”
“As I said, the Sin of Wrath summoned all of us into a meeting.”
“What was it about?”
“Is it okay for Alice to be here?”
“She figured out your nature shortly after meeting you.”
“I see.”
“What was it about, Rose?”
“Apparently, they noticed me absorbing Sloth.”
“YOU DID WHAT?!”
I flattened my ears.
“Right, I didn’t tell you about that, yet.”
“Elren, she did tell me and Royce.”
“I see, but why were they concerned about that?”
“Apparently, I am the core lie Innocence, and the sins wanted a sin to be the core of the Evil God, but since I started it, I was basically on trial, and Sloth was my attorney.”
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“Core lie?”
Royce spoke up,
“I guess you wouldn’t know, the demon king Zath explained it to me. Basically, the evil God is split into 10 shards. 7 of those are the 7 deadly sins that we know of, and the remaining 3 are called the core lies. Innocence, Peace, and Benevolence.”
“Those don’t seem evil.”
“We are supposed to mark deception. If us three lies were the first to merge, I could make the entire world support me, but then adding the sins, if one were a core, would cause the world to collapse and feel betrayal.”
“But why do the sins insist on being a core?”
“Because the Core Lies act as our names would suggest. I am innocent to a lot of things and despite knowing about certain concepts I will miss hints to it. Peace is a diplomatic person who cares for lives and wants people to prosper. Benevolence is a kind person who wants everyone to live happily and creates smiles wherever she goes.”
“They sound wonderful.”
Then Elren’s smile soured.
“So, you three are the precursor to the true evil of the evil god.”
“Yes.”
“How did the meeting go?”
“I asked Wrath why she was wanting revenge, I stood up for myself, then she threatened to force merge me into her.”
“That sounds a little serious to be said like that.”
“Eh, I’m sure I gained the support of some of the other shards.”
Thalia looked at me oddly.
“Would we be able to speak to Sloth?”
“I think so, why?”
“I want to know if we can trust her.”
“Okay, I’ll ask her.”
‘Sloth, what do you think.’
‘GHHHHHHH Fine.’
‘Okay... how do I give you control.’
‘Just relax and go faint, I can only take control when you are unfocused, but you can still take over at any time after you refocus.’
‘Okay, mellowing out...’
_
Rose suddenly started lounging in the bed.
“Yo, you wanted to talk.”
Royce looked confused, but Thalia realized.
“Are you Sloth?”
“Nn.”
“Do you have any intention of destroying the world.”
“Eh, too much work. While I would like revenge like the other sins, it’s too much work to destroy the world. Just slaying the other gods would be what I would call okay.”
“So, you aren’t against it because it’s bad, but because it’s too much work.”
Sloth snorted,
“Hey, ya want morals, then talk to one of the lies. Though, all of them are annoying. The only tolerable one is Innocence. She at least lets me sleep. The others, ‘Oh, we need to feed the poor children,’ or, ‘Oh, we need to stop the brutal war.’ Like just let me sleep. I don’t care who dies as long as I get a nap.”
We all looked at her in shock, we understood that it was another entity in her body, but hearing those vile words coming from Rose’s mouth was still disconcerting.
“What? Oh, you assumed that because Rose took some of my attributes, I took some of hers? Remember, she is called a lie. It’s because she is based in pure deception, so pure that even she believes the lie that makes up her being.”
This revelation shocked us, the idea that Rose was deceptive to a level that tricked even her was something that we hadn’t even considered.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Innocent is innocent, Peace is peaceful, and Benevolence is benevolent, but it’s less of a pure hearted hero and more of a fake it ‘til ya make it. Sorry to burst your bubble, but while we can utilize the lies, they can only silence the sins. Another reason none of the others likes the idea of a Core Lie being our core.”
“So, why does Wrath want to be the core.”
“Because Wrath is an egotistical *****.”
“Why are you supporting Rose, if you don’t like the lies?”
“Because Rose is the only one of us brave enough to stand up to Wrath.”
“What?”
“She didn’t tell you, but when Wrath threatened her life, she said, ‘try me’. It was epic, Wrath’s furious face as the meeting ended was awesome.”
“She threatened a shard of the evil god...”
“Yup.”
“Does she have a death wish?”
“I don’t think so, I think it’s more, she wants to be the core, so we won’t kill anyone innocent. Heck, she even told Wrath that she could be the core as long as she promises not to hurt any innocents.”
“At least she has her morals, well Sloth... Sloth?”
Sloth was asleep. Then she straightened and looked more focused and active.
“Was that good?”
“Rose?”
“Yep.”
“That was... disturbing.”
“You don’t know how I felt, it was like a giant slug was crawling all over my body.”
Then she was silent for a moment.
“Apparently, she took that as a compliment. I still need to take a bath.”
She shivered before getting up and leaving. Ignoring the guildmembers who asked if she was okay.
“I guess bringing her out caused Rose a lot of discomfort.”
“We should only ask her to bring one out in cases of emergency from now on.”
“Agreed.”