God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The arrow dug into the chest of a strange creature but failed to kill it. Cursing, Cain dodged the creature's sweeping claw and fired another arrow that had magically appeared on his bowstring again.

This time, the arrow dug into the creature's brain and killed it on the spot. Without even wasting breath Cain turned on his heels and ran. Behind him, a flood of similar creatures chased after him, madness and hunger flooding their eyes.

'How the hell did this even happen?!'

After a long time of fighting and walking, they finally arrived at the other end of the Island they had been on. Once they crossed over to the next Island, their troubles had begun. Well, more accurately, his troubles...

"Ignis, Jenny! Now!"

Cain slid under a low-hanging branch and ran into a thicket on the side of the naturally formed forest path.

Ignis had flames covering her fists and feet as she dove into the swarm. These creatures were incredibly fast and had a striking resemblance to feral cats that hundred from blood and flesh.

They had chased them for a long time, and the swarm of them was all that was left of the main horde. The remaining had fallen...

However, that didn't mean Cain's group had gotten out unscathed. It was quite the opposite. They were all injured severely, the worst of them being Susan who was currently unconscious. The most terrifying things about these creatures were their frightening sense of smell, their agility, and the ability of their fur to resist cutting.

When Cain had used the {Hand of Stingè} to cut one of them and he realized he could only shave off a tuff of fur, his eyes widened in shock.

He could use the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} to kill them, but that would be no different from overkill. Plus, using the weapon drained him too fast.

Instead, he had opted to use his other weapon, Maelstrom: Tears of the Water God. The bow had frightening penetration damage and could bypass the creature's strange fur and deal direct damage to it.

However, although the {Forest Lynx} was the main source of their headache, that didn't mean it was the only source of it.

'This cursed forest!' Cain gritted his teeth as he let out another arrow.

The forest was insidious and dangerous in more ways than one. Cain had mentally divided the Island into four regions.

The Forest of Nightmares, The Valley of Death, The Marsh Plains, and The Evil Mountains. Cain and the girls had to traverse the Marsh Plains first before they got to the Forest of Beast Hordes.

The Marsh Plains had been terrible, but they had pushed through it. However, the Forest of Nightmares had proven to be their match. Cain could only wonder what evils lay in wait for them at the other parts of the accursed Island.

But first, they had to take care of what was in front of them...

Soon, the entire swarm was decimated by their combined efforts. Both girls looked exhausted and drained but their eyes still burned with conviction.

Cain sighed, "Let's get going..."

This Island didn't have any caves they could rest in, so they had to find alternative shelter or make one their own. However, finding shelter in a forest wasn't something that could be considered easy.

Luckily for them, they had found a very huge tree that had a hole at its center which was home to a single, very huge, and very violent bird that had taken Cain's eye before it had been killed. Luckily for him, he had the {Draconic Transfiguration}, which restored his lost organ at the cost of some Ki.

Cain walked within the shadows of the trees in the forest, Jenny and Ignis trailing behind him. The {Dark Soul} scouted the path ahead to make sure they wouldn't run into any aether beasts along the way.

The canopy of leaves made it so that even the dim lighting from the spire of light at the center of the fragmented land didn't reach the forest floor. Even with the help of the {Dark Soul}, for some reason, the darkness still managed to obscure his vision a little. He realized the darkness wasn't something so simple. It was cold and insidious.

A living entity of its own...

Just thinking about it made him shiver violently. However, he was still in a much better state than the girls.

Cain could only sigh as he continued to lead the way forward.

Upon getting to the hollow tree, Cain gently climbed up, careful not to make any unnecessary movements and sounds.

Jenny and Ignis followed after him. Upon getting to the edge of the hole in the tree trunk, he was met with the pointy end of an arrow pointed at his throat.

'This is...'

Cain had a difficult smile on his face, "Erh... Susan, it's me."

Sussan simply shrugged, "Just wanted to make sure."

She dismissed her now and an arrow of light limped back to a corner of the hollow tree trunk and sat down with a layer of sweat covering her face.

It was apparent that she was facing difficulty walking. This made a frown appear on Cain's face.

"How bad is it?" Jenny said darkly as she moved closer to Jenny.

With a pained look on her face, Susan replied, "Could be worse. I give my thanks to the {Detoxify} spell. If not for it, I would probably have to lose the leg." Susan said, talking about amputating her leg so casually.

Cain stared at the dark patch on Susan's slightly tanned skin. He couldn't help but grit his teeth as he recalled the events that led up to their circumstances.

'If only I had been faster. If only I had paid more attention.'

In more ways than one, Cain found himself to be stuck. He was stuck in the stupid forest, stuck on the stupid Island, and worse of all, stuck in this demented land that knew only bloodshed and suffering.

Cain had lost count of how many creatures he had killed already. He was well on his way to reaching level 100 with only a few levels left. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to feel even an ounce of joy.

The forest was peculiar not just because of the hordes of beasts that constantly migrated through its dark undergrowth, it's absurdity came from the trees. Or at least, Cain thought they were trees.

These trees looked similar to normal trees, except that every single one of them was the same. Their leaves, their branches... Everything was the same, with a rare few oddities in between. They had to search for a long time before they found the tree they were currently staying at.

What Cain found to be the most strange was the pattern on the leaves and trunks of these trees. On the leaves produced by these strange trees, were eye-like patterns, and on the rough bark of the trees, Cain could make out what looked to be handprints. However, he could tell that they had not been put there naturally. All these trees had grown naturally. These patterns were naturally created.

And yet...

He just couldn't shake off the profound feeling of fear and wrongness that came from the trees. Everywhere he turned, he felt as though he was being stared at by a thousand pairs of eyes.

When he tried burning the trees down, he found, much to his horror, that these trees could regenerate at a frightening speed. He also had a feeling that hurting the trees too much would upset the creature responsible for this. Therefore, he had left the trees alone.

And that wasn't all...

The worst part about all of this was that despite seeing the entrance and exit of the forest once when he had fallen through the chasm and calculating how long it would take them to pass through, the estimated distance came and went like a fleeting wind.

With a lack of better words, they were stuck, trapped in the Forest of Nightmares.

Cain shook his has and stared at Susan, "We are running out of HP potions. There aren't any ingredients on hand as well. I'm going to go see if I will be able to find any I'm this damn forest."

Susan let out a shaky sigh, "Then let one of them follow you. Going by yourself is too dangerous."

"No. I can manage on my own. If something were to happen here, then you three's combined effort would be able to defeat it, or by enough time for you to run." Cain said coldly.

Without waiting for them to say anything, Cain leaped out of the hole and fell to the ground with a light thud.

'Crap! This is all crap, damn it!' Cain gritted his teeth as he weaved through the low-hanging branches.

After running for a while, Cain spotted a small posse of aether beasts lurking within the shadows of a rather huge tree, tearing the carcass of a dead aether beast apart violently. Although he could take them all on without suffering too much, he kept his vigilance up.

He would only strike when he saw that the time was right. Any earlier or later than that, and he would have major problems on his hands.

Thus he observed the group of aether beasts continue their feast uninterrupted. The blood of the dead creature mixed together with their frothy saliva and fell to the ground as the creatures bit through flesh with grim glee.

'Disgusting...'

Cain had never seen something so vile before. Even the hordes and swarms of mutant beasts and normal aether beasts seemed tame compared to these evil creatures.

This was the case for most creatures within the Forest of Nightmares.

Cain watched them for a while before he dove into action once the time was right...