God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The duration of the lightning enchantment of {Burning Spirit} and {Azure Burst} had yet to run out, so he was still able to keep up, albeit with difficulty.

'This must be a backlash from using the skill. Cain did not doubt that one of the system prompts he had received after he had executed {Hell's Nexus} would show how and why he was suffering now.

The enraged {Chaos Troll} attacked him like a violent hurricane, never letting up its mad downpour.

Its lower body was covered in rock armor that had the same texture as mud which allowed it to move around since it had no legs anymore.

Cain dodged and twisted his body, sometimes parrying the creature's mad blows.

'Damn it!'

Each clash felt like his bones were going to crumble into numerous pieces, so just resorted to simply dodging.

Golden chains sprung forth from the ground and tried to take hold of the creature, but it simply sank into the ground, reemerging behind him with its axe overhead.

Cursing, Cain bent his knees and rolled away.

BOOM!

The giant axehead split through the hard ground and influenced by the {Chaid Troll's} ability, it formed sharp earthen spikes that chased after Cain.

The sharp spike slammed into his dull red armor, while a few of them dug through the gaps and pierced his flesh. He inhaled a deep breath as he felt the sharp pain.

He tried getting back to his feet but ended up staggering and failing.

'Damn it! Stand up!' Cain gritted his teeth as he tried forcing himself up. However, his body simply refused to listen.

The effects of that single skill were just too much. Not only had he used all his Ki and most of the devil essence in him in one go, but he had also pushed his partially transformed body to the brink. There were currently numerous fine tears in his muscle fibers, tendons, and ligaments, as well as cracks in his bones. The Ki that he was passively recovering was trying to heal up those damages.

This made him feel incredibly weak as a result. It was simply an unfortunate twist of fate...

'Shit!'

Gritting his teeth, Cain rolled to the side and dodged another axe swing. Tapping lightly against the ground, he became airborne. His feet smashed against the sides of one of the heads of the {Chaos Troll} causing it to stumble back.

A growl rang out as it grabbed the spear it had previously been holding. A majority of the spear's shaft was gone, but its dangerously sharp spearhead was still intact.

Cain barely landed on his feet when the {Chaos Troll} twisted its body and threw the spear with all its power.

Cain's eyes turned white as he let out a yell. His mana surged forth as he summoned wall after wall of metal to block the approaching spear. The thing was the creature had poured a hefty amount of its unique Aether into the spear.

The spear cut through the layers of metallic walls and quickly arrived before him. He tried to dodge, but it was just too fast.

His blood gushed out from a huge gaping hole that had formed in his chest. Cain's eyes went wide from the shock and pain.

'Is this where I die? Is this how it's going to end?' Cain was rather shocked by the turn of events.

It wasn't going to end like this. It couldn't...

His mind was filled with many thoughts. However, the engraved and bloodthirsty Three-headed {Chaos Troll} was not going to wait for him.

The creature rushed forward with reckless abandon and threw itself at Cain. The surface of the axe glowed black due to the abundant energy within it.

Just as the axe was about to descend, the creature stopped in its tracks. Cain looked up, but what he saw left him puzzled. The expression on the faces of the {Chaos Creature}, was quite something to behold, particularly because it was as though it was frozen in time.

Then Cain watched as bloody lines appeared all over the body of the creature. With great horror and fear, he watched as the body of the creature was divided into bloody little square chunks.

Worst of all, the blood didn't spill. Instead, as the chunks of flesh fell to the ground, the blood that was supposed to fall to the ground began floating up. Soon, all the blood within the creature's body had turned into a rather small crimson bead that floated in the air emitting a ghastly light.

'What the?-'

Cain was beyond baffled. Was there another creature around that was also after him?

Then he suddenly felt something. His eyes turned wide as a certain realization set in...

'Is that?!'

Then a slightly raspy voice broke through the air,

"Blood Manipulation: Essence..."

This voice was not angelic in any way, but the being it belonged to looked like something carved by the heavens itself. Cain was beyond surprised.

Behind him, her hands covered in bloody runes stood Evangeline with an expressionless face. Her lithe body was covered in a leather and metal armor piece. However, that only served to enhance all her curves and figures. Once their eyes met, a grin slowly formed on her face until her pearly teeth were showing...

"This isn't a good look for you, you know?" She said, her tone flat, almost contradicting the expression she had on her face

Cain shook his head, "How the hell did you get here?"

The smile on her face became deeper, "Take a guess..."

Cain's eyes narrowed, "You followed me?"

This answer seemed to displease her as her smile faded from her face and was replaced with the neutral mask,

"What? That's boring. Why would I do that?"

Cain was shocked. He was a bit confused. Not only because she was standing before him, but because she was doing so within the Aether realm.

"If you weren't following me then how do you explain this?" Cain said with a crooked smile.

A small smile tugged on her lips, "That... Is a long story. One I am not willing to recount now. First, let us harvest the spoils and get some shelter."

Then she looked around, her eyes filled with wonder,

"You did all this by yourself?" She asked, her time filled with curiosity.

"Yeah. But as you can see, I had to pay dearly for it." Cain said with a shrug.

Her eyes began shining brightly as she nodded her approval, "Not bad..."

Cain's brows shot up, 'Just not bad? Give me a break...'

Cain knew Evangeline was strong, but he had no idea just how strong she was. The white-haired, ruby-eyed girl was an enigma with a strange personality. He couldn't make heads or tails of what she was.

Suddenly, her hands stretched out as she muttered beneath her breath,

"Blood Condense: Turbulent Rivers."

Cain watched as numerous magic circles appeared all over the decimated battlefield. The corpses of the {Chaos Goblins} and {Chaos Trolls} were engulfed by the numerous streams of water that erupted from these magic circles. In a single second, the entire battlefield was spotless, with not a single body to be found.

The numerous streams of water that were now a deep red condensed back into her hands. Her eyes glowed as a complex magic circle appeared on her hand. The red contained within the orb of water began to fade away until the original colorless disposition of the water was restored.

'Darkness, Blood, and now water?' Cain was shocked, but he wasn't surprised. However, he had been told by the system that it was rare for a human to have an affinity with more than one element. He was an anomaly, and as it turned out, so was Evangeline.

A smile appeared on Evangeline's face as she turned back to Cain...

"What are you waiting for? Lead the way..."

'This...'

Cain cleared his throat, "Can you at least give me a few minutes to rest?"

The white-haired girl rolled her eyes, "We don't have a lot of time. I suggest you make it quick."

Cain there where a dead stare before he sat down on the ground. His body was tired, but his mind was clear. Clearer than it had ever been. He could sense the dense energy flooding into his body. It was dispered into every part of his body. Some of it even went into the runes that were attached to his flesh.

Cain could feel all the tears and cracks mend slowly. However, he had to speed the process up. Now that he was out of battle, the rate at which he recovered his Ko had increased dramatically. When he concentrated, this speed increased even more.

However, with the consumption of Ki and the healing of his body, came a deep hunger.

'Hold on for now...' Cain forced the hunger down and concentrated. Soon, his eyes snapped open. He wasn't at a hundred percent, but at least he could run now...

Cain nodded to Evangeline, "Let's go..."

With the {Dark Soul} leading the way, they were able to head back to his hiding spot in a few hours.

Cain collapsed onto the cold, hard cave floor.

'Finally...'

The hunger that had been resulting in him had let up a bit, and now, all he wanted to do was have some rest. His body demanded it. The rum back to the mountains and the climb had sucked up whatever little energy he had left.

Before he knew what was happening, he had lost consiousness.

Meanwhile, Evangeline had a slightly amused expression on her face as she came closer to him. Although the cave was pitch black, the confidence with which she moved within it showed she could see almost perfectly within it.

She stared down at him for a few seconds. Suddenly, her hands wandered onto his face, and traded the long scar that stretched across it.

"What do you think?" She said to an unseen entity within the darkness.

Silence reigned for a while before it was broken by a chuckle from her...

"I think so too..."