God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

'Ha... Not pleasant at all.'

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hands, he slumped to the ground. The heavy scent of blood finally hit him once the adrenaline and the purple cloud had faded away.

He continued staring at his fists for a few more seconds,

'Back then... I almost found something.'

During the battle with the four-headed {Chaos Troll}, he had felt a connection form between the veins gifted to him by Lyx, the violent Ki rushing through the veins, the {Draconic Transfiguration} skill, and the elemental fire enchantment of the {Burning Spirit} skill.

'What was that?'

He found it difficult to describe. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before...

'Not like finding the missing piece of the puzzle. More like creating the first piece for a puzzle that wasn't even there to begin with.'

It was confusing, yet it gave him an avenue to channel his otherwise haywire thoughts.

'The only way I can grasp it again is if I get lost like that again.'

Cain had never truly lost his mind before. That was why his heart was gripped with fear as he came down from the high of adrenaline.

For the first time, he had lost himself. It was a terrible feeling, even though it boosted his battle prowess.

Cain summoned the {Hand of Stingè} and stared at it, his eyes filled with distrust.

'What sort of evil weapon is this?'

He then remembered the description of the weapon...

"Blood flows from everything Stingè touches. To appease his mother, Leonis, the Blood Dragon, Stingè offers the freshly drained blood of his victims to his mother, but is brutally cast aside and rejected. As such, he grows resentful..."

Who exactly is Stingè and Leonis, the blood dragon? Are they actual people, or are they fictional characters attached to the description of a weapon?

However, there was also a skill attached to the weapon that explained what exactly made the weapon so dangerous and terrible.

"Stingè's place is on the battlefield. He was born to kill by the sword, and then, die by its edge. However, as the perfect spawn of the battlefield, death is nothing but a non-existent privilege. The more enemies slain, the deeper the bloodlust."

The greater the bloodlust, the faster, stronger, and more keen he was. The only downside of all of this was that he lost his mind in the process.

'There has to be a way to control this. Otherwise, I won't be using that weapon again.' Cain frowned when he thought about it.

'No point in thinking about this now. I have to recover swiftly...'

Cain deactivated the flame enchantment of {Burning Spirit}...

'I guess it is time for more experimentation...'

He had come to realize certain things about this skill of his.

'Fire increases attack power, wind increases movement speed, lightning increases attack speed, metal increases defense. Hence, it is only normal for water to increase regeneration.'

Cain had thought about it for a while. The elemental enchantments he could use for {Burning Spirit} could only work for elements he had some degree of control. He could use the water or ice elemental enchantment because he makes use of the water element with {Maelstrom} as well as the ice with {Frozen Paths} and {Frost Temple}, which he had never used before.

Looking at the correlation between them, it wasn't very difficult to take a guess at what buffs and debuffs each elemental enchantment produced.

However, after everything, it was still just that. A guess...

'Here goes nothing...'

He quickly activated the Water enchantment and waited...

The soothing feeling of having one's being submerged in cool, refreshing water wrapped around him, caused him to let out a sigh of relief.

{All regenerative abilities increased by 200%. Attack power decreases by 100%}.

Cain raised a brow, 'How odd...'

This was the first time he had seen such a drastic difference.

'I guess the rule doesn't apply to all elements. I wonder what the Spatial and Poison enchantments will give.'

Although he felt like testing it out, unfortunately, he didn't have the time not liberty to do so.

His energy recovery rate was already impressive as it was previously. When it was boosted by two hundred percent, it was like all the life and blood he had lost during the past few hours had rushed back into his system.

'Incredible...'

Cain truly appreciated the beauty of the {Burning Spirit} skill. Not only was it incredibly diverse, it was also performed brilliantly when the situation changed abruptly.

Once he had recovered a fair amount, he took a deep breath, then activated {Spatial Jump}.

***

It took less than a second for him to be transferred back into the cavern where Evangeline and the Chaos chief were supposedly duking it out.

As soon as Cain arrived, his eyes were greeted with absolute darkness. Even the smallest of light couldn't be noticed. The worst part of all of this was that he couldn't notice anything. He couldn't smell anything, he couldn't hear anything as well. N

If not for the fact that he could feel the ground he was standing on, he would have been convinced he had mistakenly stepped into outer space with his {Spatial Jump} ability...

However, there were no stars...

There was nothing...

Cain swiftly activated {Eye of Clairvoyance}. Although his {Devil Eyes} were powerful, they still had a hard time breaking through the spell. As a result, Cain could only see a few meters in front of him. However, this was enough as he was quickly met with an absolutely gnarly sight.

Tore bodies and broken limbs everywhere made Cain feel the bile rising in his stomach again...

Cain who originally thought he had gone too far with how brutally he murdered the {Chaos Trolls} was quickly humbled.

'I knew that girl had a few screws loose, but this... This is pure insanity.'

The way she killed them made him question her humanity. When he thought about it a bit more, he also began to question his own humanity as well...

For lack of better descriptions, despite their bodies being horribly mutilated, there was not even a single drop of blood spilled around their bodies. They also looked like dried-up husks. Their corpses were obviously lacking more than a fair bit of blood...

Cain was instantly convinced he knew who the culprit was...

Suddenly, a loud pop sound entered his ears and the large dome of darkness surrounding him was broken.

Cain stared around in disbelief for a while before his eyes finally stumbled across a terrifying scene...

White hair stained with blood, Evangeline slowly fell to the ground, a jet-black obsidian dagger sticking out of her midsection.

The large Chaos Chief stood towering above her, a wicked grin on its face as it swung at her with its massive fist.

Cain didn't even think about it...

His body moved before he could register what was going on. Azure flames burst out of his feet as he dashed forward, after then a bullet, faster than a missile. His body seemed to disappear from reality. A jet-black blade with red engravings appeared in his hands as he swung horizontally.

BANG!

Cain felt his world shake as his body was blown backward. However, he was fast enough to cast a golden chain that wrapped itself around Evangeline's waist and pulled her with him.

'W-what was that?!'

Cain held onto his weapon with shaking hands. His bones were still vibrating due to the power of the impact.

"Are you okay?" Cain said to Evangeline without taking his eyes off the Chaos Chief.

He heard a low chuckle, and then her raspy voice replied,

"I'm so surprised. You actually came back? With how long you were going, I was convinced you had already left."

Cain gritted his teeth, "What are you blabbing about?!"

There was a slight pause. Cain took this time to finally sneak a peek at the details of the monster standing before him, looking at him with eyes filled with scorn and disdain.

***

{Chaos Orc, Champion of Chaos}: Level 100 (Godly).

Strength: 5,500.

Agility: 7,000.

Defense: 8,000.

HP: 60,000/180,000.

Aether: 21,000/75,000.

Skills: Magic Resistance, Advance Weapon-Handling, Devil Source, Regeneration lvl3 Body of Chaos, Basic Ki Fire, Devilish Transformation.

***

Cain was completely at a loss for words...

"Oi, what is this?!" Cain asked no one in particular, his voice filled with horror.

Evangeline chuckled darkly, "Death. Looks like we've bitten off more than we can chew this time."

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, a torrent of blood followed. Cain threw her a sideways glance,

"You most definitely are not okay."

She rolled her eyes, "Of course not. Fighting that guy is a nightmare. He just heals up every time. I can't beat him."

Cain shook his head, "No. You did a very good job. His aether and health are down by more than half."

Evangeline shook her head, "One of his skills makes it so that the more he fights, the stronger he becomes. I had to activate one of my ultimate skills just to survive this long. If you hadn't shown up in times I would be dead." She said, her eyes filled with darkness. However, her words were genuinely grateful.

Cain heaved a sigh, "I guess it is my turn..."

Evangeline furrowed her brows, "Whatever you do, do not let him land a direct blow."

Cain turned slightly, "Why?"

As soon as he asked, the Chaos Chief, or more accurately, the {Chaos Orc}, snorted.

BOOM!

Cain's eyes widened as he watched as balls of flames consumed the {Chaos Orc's} fists.

'That is not elemental fire!'

Due to his affinity with the elements, Cain could tell that the balls of flames developing the creature's fists were not made from elemental fire. In fact, it wasn't even regular flames.

Rather, it could be more accurately described as a physical manifestation of Ki, much like how Evangeline could allow her Ki to manifest and take on any shape or form she wanted.

"Just was type of demon is this?!" Cain said through gritted teeth.

Evangeline flashed a look of worry at his back but said nothing.

'I can't afford to turn around now...'

Cain knew better than anyone just how unprepared he was for this battle. His energy levels were incredibly low. His body still hadn't recovered from what it had done after hundreds of battles. His mind was tired, He was so damned hungry too...

The worst thing of all was that none of the trump cards he had would be sufficient to deal the finishing blow. He was completely and utterly,

Screwed...