Sins (comic)

Sins was the first work in the Sins Universe by Adam Schlosser. It followed the Host Rhett. It must be noted that although this was the first arc written, it does not follow the first host.

Summary
Rhett's adventure is divided into four chapters.

Chapter One


Chapter one, "Head Injuries and Fashion Accessories", introduces the character of Rhett, a young child playing ball with some other children. The first half of the title refers to Rhett being hit (quite hard) with the ball during the game. The latter half refers to the silver Gauntlet.

After the ball bounces off of Rhett's head, he goes to retrieve it, only to be swallowed up and pulled into an underground chamber by some sort of plant. Following a light source, he finds the gauntlet, which he tries on. A blinding light flares out of the Sealing Stone, and Rhett is rendered unconscious.

When he awakes, he hears a strange voice talking to him. The voice tells him that he must visit seven locations to complete his task (but won't actually tell him what this task is.) There is another burst of light from the Gauntlet. Rhett is clearly in pain, and when the light subsides, he finds that he has aged several years. As if this wasn't bizarre enough, a small child looking exactly like he had at the start of the chapter appears, and urges him on to complete his goal.

Rhett, "not feeling good" - and looking a little sad, as if he's got some idea of how long he's about to be - perhaps already has been - separated from his family and friends, departs.

Chapter Two


Chapter Two, or "A Cat, A Job, and A Big Headache", opens with Rhett realizing he is in a town completely run by small children. There is then a Succubus flying around, which Rhett throws a rock at. The Succubus reveals she is the reason the parents in this town are absent. In her words she "...did away with their inhibitions and let them have some... Fun." Rhett loses control and kills the Succubus, then absorbs her. The Succubus reveals herself as the Sin Lust. It should be noted, that due to some of Lust's words and body language, she is possibly not yet the "leader" of the Sins. Lust explains the burdens and job of a Host.

After meeting a bunch of fearful worshipers, they climb up a gigantic mountain to find their God, a treasure chest. The chest takes a coin from Rhett, and eventually just takes Rhett entirely. After waiting atop the box, since Lust can't leave, as she's bound to Rhett, the box explodes. Rhett is alive, and the next Sin is revealed, Greed. Rhett demands that Greed returns his money, along with the money of Greed's worshipers. Later, while walking through a town, Greed pickpockets a bunch of civilians, but the blame is left on Rhett.

Greed and Rhett enter a dark cave, while for some reason Lust disappears. In the cave Rhett encounters a giant monster. Rhett and Greed get the crap beat out of them. Lust then reappears, and the spirit possessing the monster leaves. Another Sin is revealed, a big guy, Envy. Lust freaks out, asking Rhett to immediately seal him. Envy does pal around with Greed, though. Envy then reveals his true, perverted nature.

The next stop is coincidentally Rhett's home town. Lust makes Rhett wear a cloak, as returning after seven years then leaving again would be cruel. Rhett finds that the town appears to be untended and in disrepair. He finds a lazy apathetic man taking a nap. The man reveals a big thing is blocking the southern entrance, which is sizable. Rhett, once again, throws a rock at the thing, which turns out to be an animal. Rhett loses control again and completely mutilates the animal. Lust slaps Rhett back into consciousness, who has no idea what he just did. The gigantic beast turns out to be the tiny Sin Sloth.

A corral is revealed. In it they find animals. Being eaten. By the ground. A plan to get to the bottom of this (literally) is created. Rhett will be bait, and eaten, so the Sins can get down there. They find a giant spider. Lust makes Rhett sit this one out. They defeat the Spider, and Rhett absorbs it. It is revealed to be Gluttony a plant like Sin. It attempts to eat Rhett.

Next they find a boulder. It is Anger. He was oddly quite easy to defeat for a Sin of such a violent nature.

The next one is in the sky. To find it, they decide to throw Rhett up until he spots it. He finds a large bird. They throw him upon it and Envy crashes it into the ground. It puts up a fight, but the bird is eventually killed by Rhett. The bird was hosting Pride. A self loving prick. He yells at Rhett for killing his beautiful host.

This chapter ends with Lust suggesting she and Rhett get a good view.

Chapter Three
Chapter Three, dubbed "If you want the job done right...it's going to take a helluva lot longer", begins as the Universe starts collapsing on itself thanks to Rhett's actions having disturbed the balance of good and evil. Lust explains that this is a rarity (at this point in the timeline). She tells Rhett that most masters have bound the Sins the easy way (the "quick bind"), and that all bindings cost the Sins energy, but the full bind carried out by Rhett has cost them a lot more energy. Because the forces of "evil" now have a lot less energy than the forces of "good", the Universe is now unbalanced and beginning to deteriorate.

Lust tells Rhett about the temples. These are not in fact places of worship, but act as recharge points, each temple being built on an area of ground where the convergence of ley lines allows the corresponding Sin to draw energy. This will also allow the Sins to regain their powers, some of their physical forms, and even some of their freedom ("So you'll be captured but not locked up?") As the Sins luckily still remember where their temples are, Rhett trudges off to unlock them.

First up is Lust's cave temple. Rhett is confused by a pillar with strange markings outside the cave. Envy and Greed explain that this acts as a form of collar. Possibly realising that they've given too much away, they try to pretend that Rhett won't need to use it until after Lust has powered up - unfortunately, Rhett sees through this and realises that she will be able to escape if he doesn't use the "collar" before they enter the temple. He inserts the arm with the Gauntlet into an alcove on the pillar - and is surprised when the effects of the "collaring" drain Lust's energy to extremely low levels and reduce her intelligence so much that she seems drunk. (Fortunately, both of these effects wear off after Lust reaches the pedestal directly above the correct point on the ley-line, and is recharged.) After a delighted Lust rejoices in her restored body (except for her lack of legs), Chastity shows up to stop them and Lust gives Rhett a primer about the Virtues. As Chastity and Lust get into a argument, the others flee and take Lust with them. Before Chastity can give chase, an off-panel voice tells her to stop.

After a brief argument as to who should be next, the group heads for Greed's temple. To their surprise, a city has been built on top of the area. Lust theorises that this might be because the level of Greed's energy in the vicinity would allow the city to rapidly become prosperous. The gang try to enter, only to discover that the city is inhabited by an all-female cult, who have built it as a temple (a temple in the usual "place of worship" sense) to their goddess, and who have forbidden men from entering.

Unable to infiltrate as a guy, Lust distracts Rhett, and quickly turns him into a girl (He is, unsurprisingly, very annoyed by this). Unfortunately, Greed attempts to steal a gold bar, and Rhett's attempts to stop him are misunderstood by a nearby guard, who throws him (and hence the gauntlet-bound Sins) into jail for theft. Fortunately, Greed has stolen the key from the guard (and the guard's packed lunch, and several other gold bars...) This allows them to escape and eventually succeed in unlocking Greed. Sharing arrives shortly after, but (in one of the funniest scenes in this arc) Rhett is able to use his mark against him and escape.

(Note - Sharing's sword looks as though it may be broken, with part of the blade having snapped off. Perhaps Sharing never bothered to get it fixed, knowing that someone would probably just take it away from him...)

Rhett forces Lust to change him back into a boy, although Lust is very reluctant to do so.

Next came Envy's underground temple. Shortly after collaring Envy, Content popped up and pulled Rhett aside, explaining to him why the other Virtues want the Sins dead (to possibly make paradise) and why she doesn't want to take the chance. In the end, she lets Rhett finish the process and continue onward.

On the road to Gluttony's temple, Fast appears ahead of time to try and take out Rhett, only to fail miserably due to his frail body. After that, Lust explains to Rhett about the battle between the Sins and Virtues and why a second round isn't feasible. Gluttony is unlocked afterward, and Fast is easily defeated again when he returns to the temple.

Following that was Anger's temple. Finding it creepy, Rhett had Envy seal the place. Before he got far outside, however, Joy appeared and had Rhett at rapier's point to take him out. Lust managed to distract her for a second while the other Sins pummeled her into submission.

Next was Sloth's temple, hidden in a town well. Labor was waiting for them at the bottom and soon resumed his rivalry with Envy. As the two slugged it out, the soon unlocked Sloth was squished. Finally angered enough to do something, Sloth summoned his mega strength and took out Labor.

Last was Pride's temple. The ornate mirrors that made the place blinded Rhett, driving him to use Envy's power to shatter them all. Modesty awaited them at the altar, giving Rhett a final chance to surrender, but he refused, not wanting to risk universal destruction and just not liking the Virtues. Modesty left and Pride was unlocked.

Realizing the Virtues were preparing a final strike on them soon, the Sins told Rhett about the Sealing Stone in his gauntlet and how it could give one of them a body to unleash their full power. With threats and recommendations all around, the chapter ends as Rhett ponders who to give the gem to.

Chapter Four
The final chapter, titled "Disgruntled Employees", begins as Rhett decides to give the Sealing Stone to Lust. She instantly devours it and regains her full power. As the gang debates on what to do next, a zombie girl suddenly arrives on the scene and attacks Pride. Her body is hosting another Anger (A less powerful Anger, looking like the other one did before being taken to the temple). The zombie is wearing another gauntlet like Rhett's - the other gauntlet in the pair, the Golden Gauntlet. She is revealed to be Perrin, the previous host whom Anger is now using as part of an elaborate plan to be free of having masters. Using Rhett's body while in stasis, Anger transplanted part of himself into him and used his body to kill Perrin, sparing the Sins as the new Host was already picked. Anger also used his power at certain points to ensure Rhett's survival by turning him berserker against some of the earlier foes. Once Anger was unlocked, he regained control of Perrin's body and planned to kill Rhett. Doing so would prevent more future hosts, due to Perrin still being active as a zombie.

(It doesn't occur to any of the Sins to wonder why this didn't stop Rhett from being chosen... or whether Anger might be wrong and the Virtues might still be able to give the Silver Gauntlet to someone else... or whether Rhett's later bindings might have cancelled out Perrin's bindings, meaning that they too would die when Rhett did.)

Battle lines were drawn as Lust, Envy and Greed decided to fight against Anger for turning on Rhett while Pride and Gluttony sided with him. After a brief battle, the Sins channeled their power through Rhett and disabled Perrin long enough to ask how Anger knew who was next in line. The answer appears as the Virtues arrive on the scene, explaining the plot would actually kill off the other Sins and that they've been picking the Hosts all along. The ranks rearrange again as Gluttony and Pride rejoin Rhett, Joy and Modesty sit it out due to not wanting to work with Anger and Content and Sharing side with Rhett.

As the battle wages on, Sloth uses his power on Rhett to make him gooey and invulnerable to Labor's attacks, driving him into enough of a rage to wear himself out, but not before taking out Fast and Chastity in the process. Anger then draws power from both hosts and channels it through Perrin, giving him power enough to hold the others at bay and nearly killing Rhett. Before he could land the finishing blow, Lust killed Perrin, forcing Anger out and banishing him to the Valley of Darkness. Joy and Modesty then attempt to take out the worn-down Sins, but a last second save by Content and Sharing causes them to leave.

Some time later, Rhett recovers. He and the Sins go back to Rhett's home and begin the simple life of farming.