God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Its body was as big as a small hill, and the snake on its tail had turned into a mighty python. Its black, serpentine eyes were filled with the desire to kill and devour.

The creature was perched on top of a very high mountain. Above the mountain, was a sky filled with vengeful clouds. Bolts of lightning swam within these clouds, some of them striking against the mountain peak. The thunder spread shockwaves that also impacted the mountain peak. Cain watched as the mighty creature howled at the heavens, bolts of electricity swimming in its eyes.

As it opened its mouth, a roar that shook the heavens was released. Its eyes turned blinding white. A field of lighting bolts swam all around it...

Then, the heavenly bolts of judgment began to fall...

Cain watched in amazement as each bolt of lighting fell, aiming to claim the mighty creature's life. The entire sky lit up, revealing a network of lightning bolts.

It was a truly captivating sight...

However, what was even more captivating was the creature itself. Cain watched as the creature stood still, allowing each bolt of lighting to fall onto it. The first few bolts of lightning turned its white coat black. However, it began healing its injuries fast...

Soon after, it was able to withstand the bolts of lightning. Cain watched as it even began purring comfortably after a while. This seemed to enrage the turbulent clouds, as the bolts of lightning descending turned even more numerous and thicker.

However, the creature opened its mouth. And began to devour them...

A mad look appeared in its eyes as a thundercloud appeared beneath its feet. It then rushed into the clouds with a mad roar, bolts of dense lighting swimming furiously across its fur. It continued devouring the lightning bolts, growing bigger each time it did...

Eventually, it devoured the storm until nothing was left...

'This is...'

Many more scenes played out, and eventually, the final scene was revealed...

The {Manticore of Sky Purgatory} had turned into a disaster. A force of nature...

Its initial two wings had turned into six somewhere down the line. Its eyes were filled with madness and cruelty, and its mighty body was so big, that its head would still be above the surface of an ocean if it stood on the ocean bed...

And standing right above it, was a being that was so indescribably magnificent as it was unidentifiable...

With a roar that shook the world to its core, the {Manticore of Sky Purgatory} challenged the being standing before it.

Cain watched all these scenes unfold with a captivated look in his eyes...

'This is...'

Just as abruptly as it had begun, the white void disappeared and the scenes stopped appearing as his vision was restored.

Cain stared down at the piece of metal in his hands. The only difference was that in his status window, there was now an option to activate the armor...

Just as he clicked on the button that would allow him to put the armor on, the piece of metal glowed once again...

***

{Your equipment, the {Heart of Scourge}, has been socketed with a mana core belonging to the Manticore of SKy Purgatory}.

{The Skill, {Order in Chaos} has been changed to the external passive skill, Riding Tempest}.

{Congratulations to the host... You have acquired the external active skill, Lightning Thief}.

{+50% Lightning Resistance}.

***

'Hm? There are two skills?'

Cain was a bit confused. The description of the skill clearly stated that he would gain a single skill from the mana core.

'However, Azazel also said that the mana core contains a special skill, spell, or ability of its own. Perhaps the existence of the mana core's skill and the skill given by the {Heart of Scourge} is just because of this unique circumstance.'

Cain frowned as he continued reading through the descriptions...

***

{Riding Tempest}(passive): The {Manticore of Sky Purgatory} was slain, but its legacy remained. Hidden in the deaths of its soul, was an ability that allowed it to move as fast as lightning through the skies. Wherever it went, a tempest followed, the skies darkened, and the heavens cried for the souls it would consume.

When this skill is active, the host's body will be enveloped with lightning elemental energy, achieving a new speed potential and breaking previous limits. The host's attack, movement, and reaction speed increases by 250% as long as the host has the armor on.

***

{Lightning Thief}: The {Manticore of Sky Purgatory} was a beast born with the ability to steal and devour the chaotic power of the heavens for its own. Eventually, the ruler of Sky Purgatory had enough of its insolence. In a battle that would shake the realm, the Ruler and the thief fought for ten days and nights until eventually, the Ruler was devoured...

***

Cain was stupefied as he read...

Once he was done, he became speechless. He stared into space for a while, empty...

'Damn...'

His pupils widened as he stared at the item in his hand...

'W-what the hell is this?!' Cain couldn't help but shake slightly.

The power of the {Heart of Scourge} in his eyes had simply catapulted through the roof. Just the description of the {Riding Tempest} made him want to faint. Even {Azure Burst}, which was a skill that increased his movement speed greatly didn't even come close.

The increase in reaction speed was the most welcome. Regardless of how fast he was, if he couldn't react in time to a deadly attack, he would still end up dead.

He couldn't even begin to wrap his head around the description of the {Lightning Thief} skill.

'It doesn't even look like a description. It's more of a story. Who is this Ruler? Just how strong was he? How strong was the Manticore, that it was able to defeat the Ruler after fighting for so long?'

Cain had many questions, but there were no answers available...

'It doesn't matter. However, I will need to see what the skill is about later.'

Shaking his head, Cain asked the system,

'So how do I use the armor?'

{Replying to host: Now that the host has done the needful, all he needs to do is give a mental command, and the armor will obey}.

Cain was a bit surprised. How could an object without sentience obey commands? He had no idea...

Without thinking about it too much, Cain gave the armor a metal command. The shiny price of metal in his hand suddenly began to change. The metallic surface immediately melted onto his hand and began flowing across the surface of his body.

"What the hell?!"

Cain watched with wide eyes as his entire body was covered head to toe with the metallic substance.

Then, the armor began to take form...

Cain could feel the liquid-like metal begin to solidify on his body. However, he could still move freely in it. It was as though the armor had shaped itself to fit him perfectly.

If Cain could see how he looked, he would be surprised to see that he looked very similar to the devils. However, he still had arms, rather than bladed appendages. Also, unlike the carapace of many devils, his wasn't covered in sharp spikes. Rather, it was smooth and streamlined, almost like it was built to maximize his speed. It was also a bit bulky, with a stable center of gravity.

This meant that it offered a sizeable defense alongside the speed.

The joints of the armor were sharp, and the material was very strange. At the center of the chest piece, was the mana core that belonged to the {Manticore of Sky Purgatory}. Many runic lines were connected to the mana core, running across the length of the entire armor, from his chest to his arms, feet, and eyes.

The helmet was also strange as well. The thing covered his entire head, but there were no holes other than holes for him to see through. He could still breathe fine even though there were no breathing holes.

'Odd...'

However, he was not one to complain. Rather, he was very pleased. Extremely pleased even.

'Looks like everything's in order.' Cain checked his suit of armor one last time before nodding approvingly and turning to Evangeline.

While she had not been the one to land the finishing blow to the {Chaos Orc}, she was still heavily involved in its demise. She had been the one to kill off the other guards as well as the second Four-headed {Chaos Troll}, while still facing the {Chaos Orc} all by herself.

When it came time to give out rewards, the system was certainly not stingy. Cain looked at the ring with an emblem of a broken skull. It gave him chills simply looking into the empty eye sockets.

"Nice ring..." Cain said, not sure what to say when he saw the ring.

Evangeline looked him up and down, then giggled,

"Nice outfit..."

Cain shrugged. Since she couldn't see his facial expressions under the helmet, he figured he was safe from any teasing on her part.

"In that case, we can finally go..."

Saying that Cain walked closer to the hole in the wall. Well, it was technically not a hole in the wall, but a tunnel that led straight down, into the belly of the mountain.

Although he was not a hundred percent certain, he had huge reason to believe that this place would lead him to the Heart of the Primordial Devil of Chaos.

Evangeline hummed as she tapped the surface of her shiny new ring, an excited look in her eyes,

"Let's go..."

With that, both of them took a step forward and jumped...