God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Shaking his red fists, Cain nodded in satisfaction,

"That did the trick nicely..."

Evangeline threw him a side glance,

"How exactly did you figure there would be a passage here?"

Cain turned to her and grinned,

"Airflow..."

Evangeline raised a brow,

"Airflow?"

Cain closed one eye and gazed into the pitch-black hole that had revealed itself once he had punched the wall down.

"When I first discovered this place, not only did I notice the strange energy coming from the heart of the Devil of Chaos, but I also noticed that the airflow in the cave was... strange."

"How so?"

Cain rubbed his hands together, "Well, although I am not properly in tune with the wind element, I can still sense things like wind current if I try hard enough."

Cain pointed at the hole in the wall,

"There is air flowing through here. That should be impossible, considering that it clearly leads down, into the heart of the mountain. Hence, I could only imagine that the Heart is not located here. Rather, this place will lead us to the heart instead, since air needs space to travel."

Evangeline shook her head,

"Guess you aren't that much of a muscle-head after all..."

Cain tipped an imaginary hat, "Thanks for the compliments..."

"In that case, let us get going..." Evangeline said.

"Wait..." Cain interrupted her.

"What is it now?!" Evangeline said, clearly fed up with the constant interruptions.

Cain chuckled, "I'd like to go over my gains from the last battle if you don't mind."

Evangeline blinked, "Come to think of it, you are right. Certainly, the system should have something nice to give after all we've been through, right?"

Cain looked stupefied, "You haven't checked yet?!"

Evangeline shrugged, "I forget sometimes..."

Cain waved his hand, "Never mind..."

Cain took a seat in front of the hole and pulled up his status screen. Evangeline did the same...

Looking through his stats, Cain realized that the {Chaos Orc} gave him far more start points than the Four-headed {Chaos Troll}. While the Four-headed {Chaos Troll} was strong, he had killed numerous {Chaos Trolls} before. Thanks to the way the system worked, the more of a particular creature he killed, the fewer stats he would be able to get after each consecutive kill.

Hence, he had gotten a lot of stat points from the {Chaos Orc}, as it was the first {Chaos Orc} he had ever killed.

He has also acquired something quite peculiar...

***

{You have acquired an Armor, Heart of Scourge}.

{Heart of Scourge}:

Description: Chaos begets scourge. A blight upon the world. It never consumes, and in turn, is never consumed. It is the other side of Order, for without Order, Chaos cannot exist. A heart borne from a Scourge is birthed from Order.

{Heart of Scourge}: Deadly[Armor].

Defense: 750.

Durability: 1000/1000.

Weight: 3000 kg.

Skills: Attachment, Order in Chaos.

{Attachment}: This armor can be worn quickly.

{Order in Chaos}: The Heart of Scourge covets the order in chaos, turning it into more chaos, creating a neverending cycle of Order and Chaos. Attaching an energy source to the armor will give the host access to a special attribute, ability, skill, or spell related to said energy source.

NOTE: The {Heart of Scourge} can only be socketed once.

***

'Deadly rank armor?!'

Cain knew that armor and accessories were different from weapons. The {Weak Bloody Carapace} Cain had used previously was only at the special rank, which was two whole ranks below this one...

'However, it has only two skills. The {Weak Bloody Carapace} had two, or was it three? And it was only a special grade armor.'

Shaking his head, Cain concentrated on reading through the description again.

'Order in Chaos? What does that mean? Scourge? Is this scourge in the literal sense, or is it just implied figuratively?'

A scourge was an event borne from wanton destruction. It was a chaotic event. Something that couldn't be controlled once it got out of hand.

'Naming a piece of armor after something like that doesn't seem like a wise decision, right?'

Cain took a deep breath, 'Scourge, huh... Seems like it has a lot of potential.'

Cain had used Deadly grade weapons before, the Black and White Claws. However, he had never used a deadly grade armor before. Most armor and accessories were always more powerful than weapons of the same grade.

As such, he was quite excited to see what the {Heart of Scourge} could do.

He summoned the armor from his inventory, half expecting to see a huge suit of heavy metal plates.

However, he was shocked to see that the so-called armor was nothing like an actual piece of armor. Rather, it looked like a small carved piece of metal that was smaller than his index finger in width.

"How the hell am I supposed to use this thing?!" Cain couldn't help but exclaim out loud.

{Replying to host: This equipment will remain dormant until the host fulfills the conditions of the {Order in Chaos} skill}.

'Hmmm...' Cain contemplated in silence.

'I can use this armor once I have attached an energy source to it. Does that mean I will need a mana shard, or perhaps something else?'

Cain's brows were furrowed as he thought about it. He had a feeling that he needed to think about his choice very well.

That was when he recalled having something that could be considered a power source...

'The mana core of the {Manticore of Sky Purgatory}...'

"Remember... You are still too weak to use this. Without a doubt, you will perish if you even think of touching it as you are."

Cain immediately remembered Azazel's warnings...

'If a fallen angel is unable to use this thing, will a mere Deadly Grade armor be able to handle the power?'

Cain had no idea...

However, he was willing to take the risk. He had learned from Azazel that a mana core contained not only the accumulated power of a slain creature but also the knowledge it had attained about the specific elemental energy.

'If I use a mana care instead of a mana shard, the gains will be certainly greater. Regardless of how impressive a mana shard is, it can never amount to a mana core. Plus, I can only make this decision once. There will be no do-overs, so I better make it count.'

Cain felt nervous but excited. He had no idea how it would turn out.

Still sitting in front of the hole in the wall, he summoned the mana core of the {Manticore of Sky Purgatory}. As soon as the shiny gem appeared in his hand, the energy flow within the cave changed drastically.

Even Evangeline who was busy with her own business couldn't help but throw him a wide-eyed stare.

The orb was smooth, with no imperfections at all. Its color was sky blue. However, streaks of fierce lightning rolled within the confines of its beautiful exterior.

'What overbearing power!'

Although he knew it wouldn't harm him in this state, the sheer pressure the gem released was enough to make his knees quiver.

"W-what is that?!" Evangeline finally said after starting at Cain incredulously for a while.

Cain returned the stare with a sly smile,

"Hehe... It is a mana core."

Evangeline raised a brow, "A mana core?! Where the hell did you find that?!"

Cain smirked, "A certain demon gave it to me..."

With that, he ignored Evangeline's displeased expression and placed the mana core onto the piece of metal that was supposedly the {Heart of Scourge}.

Almost immediately, the surface of the piece of metal lit up. The mana core also glowed similarly. Cain immediately became excited. Just before he could begin to celebrate, the mana core suddenly began shooting out arcs of electricity.

His face paled immediately. He tried to drop the items to the ground but before he could do that, one of the arcs of electricity touched him.

Cain immediately felt like he was hit with ten thousand volts of electricity at once. His mind became blank instantly...

Then all he could see was a white void.

'Damn. So I'm finally dead. Well, I saw this coming, I guess...'

Just as Cain was about to curse his fate again, a rather peculiar scene began to play out in front of him.

In the white void, the image of a strange creature was revealed. This creature was small and dainty. It was also rather cute...

It had the head of a lion cub, with a luscious white mane. Its eyes were blue, and it was the very personification of a calm sky. On its back, were two small raven-black wings, and instead of a tail, it had a slithering snake the size of a slightly overfed worm wagging behind it.

'What a strange creature...'

Cain watched as the creature flew through the sky alone. It had no guardians or companions, and would often hunt and devour small creatures like birds and insects on its own.

The scene then shifted...

The huge chimera had grown up. It was no longer small and cute, but rather, huge and majestic. Its eyes had also lost most of its innocence. It stood over a battlefield, its once white mane the color of blood.

The battlefield beneath it was filled with disfigured corpses and charred remains. Cain watched as the weather changed greatly around the creature.

The creature summoned a thundercloud and stepped on it, riding it away from the battlefield.

The scene cut and changed again...