Chapter 87

"Oh wait, I forgot to mention that you will be able to utilize the powers of those whom you consume, so I guess I should teach you how to awaken the power of greed in you."

Alex was surprised when he heard what Percy said and waited for him to continue, which he did.

"It's simple really. The success rate depends on the amount the respective chains glow and looking at the chain of green, I reckon you have a success rate of a hundred percent. Hey… do tell me, just what did you do in the first year?"

Alex contemplated for a few seconds whether to tell him or not and decided that it wouldn't harm him as he was getting a lot in return.

"Well, I stole the philosopher's stone."

"Huh? What's that? No wait, don't tell. I'll try to remember. Hmm… the stone that generates the elixir of life and is able to transform base metals into gold… holy shit, now I understand why the chain glows so much. You basically achieved infinite wealth."

Alex, for the first time in his life, sat there awkwardly, confused due to the emotions he was feeling. He didn't know why but imagined that it was due to the fact that the person sitting in front of him knew the most about him other than himself and soon, he would know more than his most trusted being, Toffy.

"All right, back to the topic." Percy said after gawking at him like he did a miracle, "All you have to do is hold the chain and try to control it. Your consciousness will be forced into the chain and you will have to show off your power to the devil that resides in the chain.

If you win, you absorb the devil, gaining control over the chain and if you lose, the devil consumes your soul in return. Do it later, not now. It won't work now anyway.

As for sloth, you cannot consume it. If you want to, you will have to sleep for the whole year, and not do anything, and that includes eating and drinking. I don't know if breathing will be considered but I suspect it will be as devils don't need to breathe.

As a human being, it is almost impossible to do that so the only option is to kill the devil by doing the exact opposite of what it stands for, pure hard work."

Alex nodded, "Then should I start by practicing spells and other stuff at night?"

Percy shook his head, "It won't work. Many souls like me have seen people being consumed by sloth and only recently did we learn how to beat it after sacrificing more than a hundred souls.

Magic is a partial product of sloth and the more you use it, the stronger sloth becomes as magic is used for convenience. It isn't as effective as doing nothing but it is detrimental when you want to kill sloth.

You need physical exertion and an insane amount to boot as we are a few months late, but since you were able to overpower greed, I'll place my trust in you for this too. All I can do is give you advice."

Alex nodded, beginning to think of ways to exert himself physically while Percy simply continued, interrupting his thoughts.

"As for the other sins… I'll tell you when the time comes and I forgot again… if you kill a devil, you get some random power and it could be extremely bizarre, powerful, or weak. It's more of a gamble but as long as you can survive, I feel like it doesn't matter what you get.

I also hope that you don't kill Harry. The soul I consumed, had agreed to the devils' conditions before being sent here, so I have to follow them as he is now a part of me. Just don't kill him and we should be good since my job is to protect him from you."

Alex's left eyebrow rose up instinctively as he looked up at Percy, "Interesting… did you also get some spells? Spells like expelliarmus, protego, and the Patronus charm?"

"Huh? How did you… Wait, looks like you were involved in giving me this stuff."

Alex nodded, "Yes. If I knew that something like this happened, I'd have picked the mind magic for you."

"No, it's all right. These people cannot read the minds of other-worlders. I want to treat this as a vacation since I stumbled upon you. Trust me, you are pretty impressive for a first-timer. Anyways, got any questions?"

"Yeah. How are you able to stop time?"

"Oh, that. You see, this world is connected to those devils to the extent cannot imagine. They see all our moves and since you still had the chains on you, I couldn't reveal myself completely. The time-stopping thing works only when they aren't aware of me and even now, the time is in a state of stasis.

Once I lift it, they will be able to notice the unshackled chains. Unfortunately, they won't be able to do anything to you but since they know that there is someone else in the scene, they will increase the power of the protective film covering this world. That will restrict my powers and since I used up most of my reserves to unshackle the chains, I won't be able to stop time again.

Don't look at me like that. Time-stopping is a power I got from some other world and even I don't know the intricacies of how it works. All I know is that the more people near me, the more mana I have to use to keep the time in stasis.

The ratio increases exponentially as the number of people increases and currently, it's just us so it puts less stress on my mana reserves. I've also noticed that the magical particles in this world aren't similar to mana so I cannot replenish my mana in any way. Anyways, got more questions?"