God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain rested his head on the pile of rubble as he forced the blood out of his mouth. Coughing a bit, he turned to face Susan who had a pale face and a few bruises on her head. Cain was glad she wasn't seriously injured during the fight.

"You idiot!" Gritting her teeth, she pressed her bloody hands on his chest which was soaked in blood.

'Oh, that's right... I'm dying.'

Cain could feel his life slowly slipping away as he lay on the cold ground. Although they had managed to escape from the horde, some sacrifices had to be made.

Ignis and Jenny stood beside him, with looks of panic and worry on their faces.

"Are you sure you can't do anything?!" Jenny said, her voice tense with indescribable emotions.

"It's too bad... It's just too bad. Even if I tried, he would bleed out before I could do anything." Susan said in a voice so silent, that it was barely audible.

Although Cain could feel himself losing consciousness, he heard her words...

'Fuck!'

***

An hour ago...

Cain slaughtered his way through the hoard of aether beasts, the corpses of the slain monsters falling to the side everywhere he turned.

His sword flashed, his magic flew, and his body turned into a machine of war. He was like an omen of death unleashed onto the world. He had butchered the enemies that had surrounded him previously and was finally approaching the last leg of the battle.

This was the most crucial moment in the battle and would determine whether all their efforts were just for nothing.

'Almost there...'

His hands were heavy with exhaustion, and the number of injuries piling on him would be enough to kill a person ten times over. However, the combined work of Susan, his powerful vitality, and {Blood Regeneration} made it so that he suffered, but didn't fall.

Splitting another aether beast from the torso, a hole got drilled into his shoulder by the beast as it fell to the ground. With every enemy, he slew, a new injury appeared on his body. The aether beasts were violent and vicious. They fought to the death, and their frenzy was enough for them to leave the phantoms of their rage behind on his body.

Cain staggered but stood on his feet. His helmet had been knocked off his head ages ago, but he had no time or energy to recall it. His hair was slick with blood, but there was a wide grin on his face. His eyes had been painted a deep hue of purple. A set of runes appeared in his irises, filling them with a boundless and ancient madness.

If Cain had been in his right state of mind, he would have known that there was something seriously wrong at this point. The bright purple runes burned their existence into the air around him. The purple mist contained insidious whispers that slowly drove him to the madness of unending battle. The way he was, he was ready to battle for eternity.

However, like a blessing or a curse, that wasn't going to be the case...

A rumble spread across the ground...

Pebbles bounced on the ground. Despite all this, the aether beasts paid it no mind and continued their unrestrained attacks. It almost felt as though they had upped the ante.

Despite his mesmerized state, Cain could sense that something was wrong.

And that's when it happened...

They were so close. Just a few more meters, and they would be able to escape the sea of monsters. But fate had other plans in mind.

A gigantic creature suddenly broke through the stones and raised its terrifying head to face Cain. In all his years, Cain had never seen a creature that had produced so much fear in his heart. The Purple light in his eyes immediately dimmed down and his grip on his blades tightened.

Cain had never seen a creature such as this before in his life. It didn't look like any other creature he had come across, nor did it resemble anything he had seen in the books of old.

Instead, it just looked terrible. And evil. And corrupted...

The sides of its body were covered with hundreds of very long sharp threads that stretched across the battlefield. Its head, or what Cain assumed to be its head lacked any eyes or nose. Instead, there was a large wide maw that had rows and rows of sharp dirty fangs. Yellow pus and a green miasma radiated from the open maw. It also had two feelers on its faceless head.

The body of this abomination was a pale pink and looked like a cancer upon the earth. Cain knew the feelers had locked onto him so there was no point in running.

'I need to buy time for them...'

Now that they were so close to the other island, Cain couldn't abandon the others. If he left them, they would last long. What he needed to do was buy enough time for them to exit the island as fast as they could so that he would be able to follow suit after the creature was killed.

Since the creature wasn't blocking their path, there was still hope.

"I'll deal with this one. Reach the other side as fast as possible.

"Reach the other side? What about you?" While most of the distance had already been covered, they still needed to fight through the remains of the horde.

Cain could only hope they were enough for the job. If not, then they were going to die, no questions asked.

"Just go!" As such, he had no choice but to yell at them. He didn't want his efforts in keeping them alive up to this point to be wasted.

"I'm not going anywhere. That thing is to dangerous. You'll never defeat it by yourself." Ignis said suddenly as she stood firm on her feet without moving. Her first cracked down on the skull of an aether beast that had failed to escape from her grasp despite struggling with will its might.

Cain stared at her with his deep black eyes. The purple in his eyes was fading away, but the bloodlust around him was still potent,

"Ignis, get off this place and take these girls with you. Now!"

The [body and soul contract] worked its magic. Before Ignis knew what she was doing, she grabbed Susan and Jenny. Then she made a beeline straight to the other edge of the floating landmass, her legs swinging from time to time. Corpses dropped like close wherever she passed, but Cain didn't have the time to appreciate her wonderful fighting style.

The nightmarish creature was upon him...

***

{World Eater}: Level 90 (Godly).

Strength: 5,000.

Agility: 3,000.

Defense: 1,000.

HP: 120,000/120,000.

Aether: 15,000/15,000.

Skills: Mimic God Aura, World Eater, Earth Disaster, Earthquake, Blood Eater.

***

Cain dismissed the {Hand of Stingè} and summoned the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} in a split second. Although the blades were powerful, Cain doubted he would be able to do much to the creature before him if he didn't use his most powerful weapon.

He tilted on his heels and pushed with all his might. His body flew backwards like a bullet when he looked down all of a sudden and realized that the ground beneath him was slowly crumbling away. Twisting his body midair, he dodged the thread like feeler that flew his way. Cain watched as the solid ground was sliced through like butter with a pale face.

'Sharp!' The feelers moved through the air like the wind, whipping at him with malice. He put every single agility stat he had to use as his body twisted and contorted to dodge the incredibly sharp threads.

The blade in his hand was as light as a feather, yet would become as heavy as a rock when he wanted to parry an approaching blow.

Although he was able to hold out for a while, eventually, his exhaustion caught up with him and he made a mistake. The ground beneath his feet gave way all of a sudden, and he found himself stumbling.

'Crap!'

The tiny thread approaching him was too fast. It the blink of an eye, it cut through his scale armor and flesh. Cain's eyes went wide in shock as the thin thread got stuck in his chest and began grow bigger and bigger by feeding on his blood.

"Arghhh!"

The {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} turned into a blur as it sliced through the large feeler. Cain stumbled back in panic as he felt an insidious poison seep into his body.

Cain's panic turned into rage as he dashed forward in his frenzy. Seven golden swords appeared floating all around him, deflecting the feelers. The blade in his hands moved like a phantom as he cut through.

The creature suddenly let out an ear-splitting screech...

The ground beneath it turned soft like water, and it swam toward Cain. Its terrifying maw filled with jagged fangs opened up wide, revealing the abyss within its body.

A mist of blood erupted out of his body as his eyes suddenly turned red.

A deep crimson aura exploded out of his body. {Golden Body} was activated.

"Raghh!" Cain turned into a blur as he dashed at the creature. They clashed again and again, the numerous feelers striking at him furiously. The blade in his hand was suffused with the same crimson aura that surrounded his body. At the same time, his left hand was filled with a deep, boundless blackness.

The blows they exchanged became faster and faster. The floating landmass beneath them was crumbling to pieces as their clashes tore through the world.

Despite all his attacks, Cain realized he was unable to land a single hit on the creature's body.

'No! I need to do something!' His mind was clear, but his body was failing. The power of {Golden Body} was grand, but the damage it caused was greater. His blood evaporated and speed through the cracks of his destroyed flesh due to the intensity of his Ki.

However, he couldn't stop. Stopping meant death after all...

And so, he threw his body and soul into every attack he threw. He chopped, punched, kicked, parried, smacked. Everything he could, he did, and then some more...

However, it still wasn't enough. In fact, the creature was enveloped with a green aura that pressed down on his body and mind. His body and soul were gradually growing sluggish. The panic in his heart grew with every second that went by. His Ki, vitality and stamina were being sacrificed to give him more power. And it still wasn't enough...

So he did what he though was the best thing to do...

His blood-red eyes narrowed as his focus grew. Despite the growing panic in his heart, he forced himself to remain calm.

Somewhere during his fight, he had learned how to improve his control of both Ki and devil essence. Using only mana had turned out to not be enough as the intensity of fighting so many enemies at once required him to exercise his potential to the maximum.

His blood flowed...

His mind cleared...

He sacrificed his body to pursue a higher state...

The blackness of the Devil essence enveloped him. The crimson radiance of the Dragon's gate illuminated him. An ethereal dark dragon appeared behind him.

In a hoarse voice, a voice that belonged to the deepest and darkest abyss, he chanted,

"Abyssal Dragon Blade Technique: Rakshasa!"