God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Pivoting his attention back to the strange proceedings, Cain strained his senses to make a little sense of what was going on.

'I just hope they aren't planning to sacrifice him or something. That would complicate a lot of things...'

Looking at the strange things from afar, it was almost like he was looking at the scene of a strange ritual sacrifice taking place, and the council engaging in the occultic sacrifice...

Searching around, Cain finally allowed his eyes to settle on the ladies that surrounded to stage. He could feel immense strength radiating from every one of them. They were also abnormally gorgeous. In fact, even the slightly less than normal humans that surrounded them all looked incredibly beautiful. It was just that every single one of them, from young to old were women...

However, a few figures gave off auras that made him pause and frown...

'This might be a bit harder than I imagined...'

Cain decided to just watch whatever it was they were doing...

The four figures on the platform all surrounded Hunter, mumbling something under their breath. The one at the head was dressed in a very lithe and sexy armor piece that accentuated all her natural curves. She had a head full of raven-black hair and her eyes were as black as midnight with an electrifying yellow slit at its center.

Beside her was an even more mysterious entity. She was a bit on the shorter side. Her facial features were not as impressive as the others, but there was something about her presence that just made Cain's gaze gravitate toward her. It was very similar to the aura Susan radiated from time to time.

'Ha...' Letting out a deep sigh, Cain slowly cleared his mind of distractions...

The figure was dressed in a white coat and there was a shockingly large great sword attached to her back. He could just imagine the amount of strength needed to lift and fight with something like that.

To the other side of the one with the electrifying eyes was the tallest of the bunch. Her body was slender and straight as a ruler. Her face was filled with strict lines, but that only seemed to boost her beauty even further. She had light blue hair and a very thin waist. However, her assets weren't as bountiful as that of the others. She sported two silver rapiers at one side of her waist as well.

At the end of the group, Cain stared at the figure for a while, before feeling the urge to rub his eyes...

The figure before him was not human...

It wasn't even because of what he saw. He automatically knew that was the truth. Although it possessed a few human features, Cain was sure it wasn't human.

The hands of the creature ended with long claws. Its eyes were bigger than those of a regular human, and two sharp canines peeked out of its closed mouth.

A dark cloak that seemed to be forged from darkness itself rested on its shoulders and a long serpentine tail stretched from its posterior. A single horn stretched from the center of its head as well.

Staring at the monster Cain could feel that something was fundamentally wrong with the creature. It was wrapped with an aura of perverse evil so dense, it was difficult to notice the malevolent aura in the first place.

'What... What wretched abomination is this?!' Cain felt a need in his very soul. A need to slaughter the abomination before him.

However, there was something else that caught his attention. The people that surrounded Hunter and were standing so close to the creature didn't even seem to know that it was a maleficient being from the depths of hell itself. In fact, they even seemed to gaze at it with a bit of reverence and respect.

'Something is definitely unnatural about this situation!' it was almost like the creature had every one of them in an illusion.

'An illusion...' Looking at Susan and Steve who also had apprehensive expressions on their faces, Cain knew they were seeing exactly what he was seeing.

'That bastard!'

Cain immediately knew that the people on the central Island had been bewitched.

However, his thoughts went a bit further. What was its goal? What did it want to achieve by bewitching so many people at once? Especially the weaker people...

Soon, he was granted the answer, disturbing as it might have been...

Suddenly, the four on the central platform stopped mumbling. Then, the perverse creature opened its mouth and began to speak;

"The beast of Ragnarok is the harbinger of grace and relief. It is exactly what we need to appease the gods and take this blight away from our world. With this last sacrifice, we will be able to finally send all these evils away from our world and return back to the way things were!"

As soon as the creature was done with its words, the crowd of people exploded with cheers and applause. Some even broke down in tears, while some just sighed in relief.

However, Cain had an incredibly dark expression on his face,

'What?! What the hell did it just say?!'

Cain knew without a doubt that the creature was lying through its teeth.

Without paying too much attention to the applauding humans, the creature continued,

"For eons, the myths of the beasts of Ragnarok have graced the Aether. To stop the apocalypse, we need to offer the beasts to the supreme one as a sacrifice. Only then will the Ragnarok never come to be. Should they be allowed to grow, they will only bring havoc and mayhem!"

Turning to Hunter in a voice full of poison, the evil creature continued,

"This one is a spawn of the bastard, Skōll. His fate is to devour the sun and plunge the world into darkness, chaos, and an endless winter alongside Hati." The creature said.

Suddenly, it all seemed to make sense to him. He had read this story before. Apparently, this was a popular story in the old world before the war a thousand years ago. It was said that during the final days, two celestial beasts chased after the sun and moon, devouring them and plunging the world into darkness, chaos, and hunger.

However, he didn't know how much of that was true. And now, he doubted it even more since it came out of the mouth of such a deceitful creature.

"To stop Ragnarok, we need to offer him to the one true god! His might knows no bounds, and he watched over all the realms with benevolence. You all know his name..." The creature continued. Cain and the other listened attentively, trying to pick up as much detail as possible.

When the creature was done with its speech, Cain finally concluded what was going on...

'They want to throw him in... there!'

Their plan wasn't to kill Hunter, but simply to throw him to the other side of the chasm that stretched out on the other side of the Island where the bridge had formerly been.

The question had subtly changed from 'what?' to 'why?'. Why did this creature want to sacrifice Hunter who had nothing to do with it? However, Cain had a feeling that maybe it wasn't so simple.

'We need to investigate more.' Cain thought to himself.

However, time was truly not on their side...

Suddenly, the shorter, attractive girl on the other side of the girl with the electrifying yellow eyes turned to the malignant creature,

"Angel, are you sure this is okay?" She said, concern in her voice.

'Angel?! More like evil Devil of manipulation!'

"Seph, it is necessary to make sacrifices for the sake of a common goal. Besides, you have already sacrificed all of the other men on this island, so what's one other." The creature said with a benevolent smile. However, the sheer madness Cain could see through its eyes was a very obvious contrast to its words.

Her face pale, the girl muttered a reply and turned back to face the kneeling Hunter with great pity, sadness, and hesitation in her eyes.

Upon hearing this, Cain felt his blood run cold...

'So that's why there are no more men on the island?' Cain thought to himself.

Staring at the group of girls, he suddenly didn't feel any pity for them anymore. They had sacrificed all the men on the island to the wide chasm. To him, that was the height of evil and degeneracy.

'Shit!' Controlling his rising bloodlust, Cain kept watching.

"Seph, don't be sad. This is what must be done to ensure the survival of our race." The strict-looking one said with a somewhat gentle smile on her face.

'Survival my ass!' Cain gritted his teeth.

The girl at the head turned to 'Seph' and said in an almost magnetic voice,

"Seph... It is a necessary evil. This is just what must be done."

Cain immediately felt like he had heard enough...

'To hell with this! Survival?! Necessary evil?! Are you idiots blind?!' Although they probably were, this did nothing to quench the anger and coldness that was rising in his heart.

He wasn't a Saint, nor was he a savior...

He had seen the bad parts of life and had no longing for the good ones. He was not new to suffering, but he had never been broken before.

All in all, he was a normal human being from his perspective. And he had the same emotions normal humans possessed. Seeing something so vile take place in front of him nearly made him snap.

However, the things he possessed the most were clarity and self-control. He knew he couldn't attack yet. Suddenly he felt a cold sensation on his right hand. Turning, he saw Susan holding onto his hand tightly with a hard expression on her face. It was as though she sensed he was about to lunge forward.

"I'm fine now..." Cain whispered to her. Something suddenly clicked in his mind. If she had just touched him without the curse of the frost goddess activating, it meant that she had not developed any romantic feelings toward him. This immediately sent relief through his heart, although he did feel a sense of loss afterward.

Shaking his head, Cain cleared his thoughts and directed his gaze back to the infuriating scene.

Luckily, he didn't have to watch anymore...

And that was because the creature was now standing directly before Hunter and was lifted by the bronze chains that bound him.

"I will see you all in a while. Once I go back and deliver this offering to the Lord, he will bless you all with more power to combat the darkness before he arrives to banish it completely. Till then, you will have to persevere..."

Bowing their heads at the departing creature, the girl at the lead said in a voice full of reverence,

"We understand, Angel. We will not let the Lord down."

The rest of the people echoed it immediately after her,

"We will not let the lord down!"

"We will not let the lord down!"

"We will not let the lord down!"

The creature looked at them, its eyes seemingly filled with happiness. Nodding, it turned around and walked toward the chasm...

Cain watched as the crowd chanted ignorantly and the creature made away with Hunter dangling from its hand. Shaking his head, he moved further into the room. Nodding toward Susan and Steve who immediately began to summon their weapons, he placed a leg on the wall.

Stretching his hands out, his blades settled onto them, one radiating a cold and austere aura, while the other was filled with endless darkness. The auras were concentrated, so it wasn't noticed by anyone.

"Wind Weaver..."

The air surrounding him was suddenly pushed back, creating a vacuum around his body.

"Let's go..." His words were soft, but their meaning was already enough.

With a growl, Cain poured his over a thousand points worth of strength and agility into his feet.

The wall behind him immediately shattered into dust, but Cain was already long gone by then...

He was already airborne, descending upon the evil creature with his blades aimed at its neck to separate its head from the rest of its body.

'Die!'