God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain almost couldn\'t believe his ears. How could he? After all, these were the last words he would have expected to hear from anyone, especially Evangeline...

"I have put some thought into it. Seeing how we both fight, I have realized that it would do us both immeasurable good if we worked together from now on. I will be the shadow, controlling you from the darkness. If we do this, then we might just be able to rule the world one day."

Cain was convinced...

\'Yeah. She had done insane for sure.\'

There was no other way to explain it. Why else would she be saying such things?

"Did you fall and hit your head recently?" Cain asked cautiously.

Evangeline shook her head full of white hair and continued, still staring at him completely serious.

"I am being serious. You need me, and I need you. Think of it as a mutually beneficial relationship."

Cain was still a bit skeptical but decided against his better judgment to listen.

"We can create a bond of shadow. I will assist you in the places light cannot reach, while you use your absolute power to bulldoze through everything."

Cain cleared his throat, "I can\'t say anything about absolute power, but please do continue..."

"Your ability to deal damage in a fight is second to none. If I am a hidden blade that strikes insidiously, then you are a sharp and swift great sword that cuts the enemy down with brutality."

Although Cain knew she was stroking his ego, he still let it go on with a smile...

\'Well, she isn\'t wrong, is she...\'

"However, you lack direction. I can provide you with that."

Cain frowned, "What do you mean?"

A violent twinkle appeared in her crimson eyes,

"Your eyes are too narrowed. You have no goals or aspirations. I can fix that."

Cain was trapped. He had already bitten the bait,

"How so?"

Evangeline revealed a foxy smile and stretched her hand out,

"There are many things to discuss, but the first thing we need to do is find the dog boy, get out of this place, and back onto Urbus."

Cain nodded. They had indeed been here for a while now...

"I\'ll think about it." Cain decided not to give her any solid answers for now. He still thought she was crazy. However, the seed had been planted in his mind.

\'Ha... I\'m so tired.\' Cain thought to himself as the fatigue finally hit him. Fighting for so long had worn him down, so it was only natural that his body demanded rest.

With a smile, let his body fall back down to the ground with a thud. As soon as his body hit the ground, he was out cold.

Evangeline stared at him for a while before letting out a sigh, a strange smile on her face...

***

Cain had a dream...

It was fleeting, but its remnants were still there when he woke up...

Staring at the ground, he became lost in his thoughts. That was why he didn\'t notice when Evangeline crept up behind him...

"What\'s on your mind?"

Startled, Cain jumped a bit. However, when he recognized the presence behind him, he calmed down.

"Nothing..." Cain dismissed it. He leaned deeper against the rocky walls, his gaze blank and empty.

Looking around, he saw what was left of the once-thriving community of creatures. Cain had a complicated expression on his face as he let out a hearty sigh.

As though she could see his thoughts Evangeline threw a glance at him before she moved over to his side and sat down.

"Don\'t let it bother you. You should be used to it by now." She said, her voice solemn.

"The world is cruel and forgiving. The weak and the weaker constantly devour each other so they can survive the attempts of the strong to devour them."

Her words seemed to garner no reactions from him, however...

Regardless, she kept speaking,

"All this was necessary. Didn\'t you need to get something from here? Would that big guy have allowed you to take it if he was still alive?"

Cain heaved another sigh,

"I know. It\'s just... Was this slaughter really necessary?"

Although Cain was not one to shy away from a battle, he was still human. A part of his mind was constantly being tugged. Was he doing the right thing? Did he have the right to kill all these creatures because he wanted to take something that was not rightfully his?

\'No... It is not right. However...\'

Evangeline\'s sharp words cut through his thoughts like a sharp knife,

"There is no right or wrong. He with the sharpest knife eats the biggest portion at the dining table." She said, her eyes completely serious as she turned Cain\'s head, looking him dead in the eyes.

Cain stared back, "What right do you... do we have to play god? Do we have that power? I don\'t think so..."

Evangeline let out a dark chuckle, "Maybe not... However, for now, we have the sharpest knife..."

Then she shrugged as she let go of his head,

"Once someone with an even sharper knife comes to the banquet, we will have two options..."

Cain gazed at her, his eyes filled with questions,

"One, we surrender, or two, we sharpen our knives..."

\'Damn. That was... strangely inspiring.\' Cain couldn\'t help but think.

Shaking his head, he stood up,

"Ha... Looks like I didn\'t need to think too deeply about it then."

Hearing that, Evangeline smiled with approval,

"So, what next?"

"First..."

Cain walked up to the corpse of the {Chaos Orc}. Stooping down, he touched the chest of the creature.

\'Cold...\'

Evanheline watched him silently from the side...

\'Sure enough, it does have a Nexus of Ki. Just as powerful as that of the {Bog Serpent Wyrm}.\'

Cain jammed his hand into the chest of the creature. As soon as his hand touched the [Nexus of Ki], his body absorbed the Ki greedily. The influx of such concentrated energy nearly made him moan out loud.

\'So comfortable...\'

Once he was done, his body looked more robust. The Ki of the {Chaos Orc} was very potent and concentrated. As such, his own Ki was boosted by several ten thousands all at once.

Cain looked down at the corpse of the {Chaos Orc} once more before he turned away...

He then frowned, "Second... We gather all this ore!"

Cain\'s eyes sparkled as he looked all around him. As it turned out, a lot of the {Black Tungsten} that was in the ceiling of the cave had fallen together with large chunks of rocks during his fight with the {Chaos Orc}.

Cain\'s eyes glittered as though he could see a huge pile of shiny gold coins.

Evangeline shot him a strange look,

"Uhm... You get to gathering then."

Without hesitation, the shadows beneath her became alive before she sank into them faster than Cain could blink.

"Tch..." Cain clicked his tongue when he saw how quickly Evangeline abandoned him.

\'Doesn\'t matter.\'

Letting out a sigh, Cain summoned the {Draconic Blast Furnace}. The large structure materialized from thin air and landed on a section of empty ground with a very loud thud.

Without wasting a beat, Cain walked up to a large boulder and smashed his fist into it several times. After the third blow, all the external rocks had been cleared away, and a large chunk of ore was exposed, revealing a rather large chunk of ore.

Giggling to himself, Cain carried it into the {Draconic Blast Furnace}. Dusting his hands, he set out to work again, breaking through layers of stone to access the ores. He could work freely now, as the former guardians of this place had all been killed off.

This cycle of ore extraction continued for a while before he had finally stripped all the boulders surrounding him of their ores.

Despite that, a look of frustration appeared on his face,

\'Ha... If only there was more space inside. I would have been able to store a lot more.\' Cain clicked his tongue. He had managed to extract a large amount of ore, but he had not even gotten five percent of the way when the entire {Draconic Blast Furnace} was filled up with the ore.

\'Nothing I can do about that. Perhaps I can come back sometime in the future.\'

Once he was done, he placed his hand on the body of the {Draconic Blast Furnace}, transferring it into his inventory.

"What? Done already?"

Cain heard a voice coming from behind him. Rolling his eyes, he turned around and gave her a dead stare,

Evangeline ignored his blank stare and looked around,

"If you are done, then how about we proceed?"

Cain sighed. Pointing at the far wall of the cave, his face turned serious,

"I believe you have noticed it?"

Evangeline nodded, "Yes. It would be weird if I didn\'t notice it."

"I have good reason to believe that what I am looking for is behind that wall..."

Evangeline frowned, "The Heart of a Primordial devil, huh..."

Cain had previously explained to Evangeline his motives for coming here. He had also told her what his end goal was.

"So if it might be behind that wall, then what are we waiting for?"

Cain shook his head, "No, not behind the wall..."

Evangeline looked at him with a frown,

"What?"

Cain pointed at the wall with his index finger,

"If my guess is correct, then behind that wall is a passage. A passage that leads to the heart of the mountain."

A look of understanding appeared on Evangeline\'s face. However, there was still a bit of confusion,

"How are the Chaos creatures and the Devil of Chaos related? Are they perhaps, offspring? If they are, then they shouldn\'t be Aether creatures, but devils..."

Cain shrugged, "I have no clue as well. However, something tells me we will find out soon."

Cain stared at the far wall of the cave, his eyes filled with darkness...

There were so many mysteries tied to this mysterious land. The creature that had forced him to come here, the mysterious Angel, what was its connection to this strange place? Did it have any connection to these primordial devils, or was it just a coincidence?

Where had it in off to? Was it at the center of the fragmented land, or was it hiding in a dark hole somewhere?

Most importantly, what had happened to Hunter and the rest of the men who had been kidnapped?

There were so many mysteries to unravel, each one as deep and dark as the next...