God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain chuckled under his breath as he counted the mana shards. The different colored gems glittered within his palms.

'Over two hundred at once! A jackpot!' Cain grinned sheepishly as he counted the mana shards for the third time.

Evangeline threw him a disgusted look,

"Are you done?"

Cain cleared his throat and put the mana shards into his inventory,

"Yes. Let's get going..."

Cain dusted his hands with a smile on his face. His mind was already sinning at the thought of all the things he could do with the mana shards. Ever since he made the {Black Egg}, he had wondered just how many more things he could create with his unique magical forge.

If the power of flames and metal could create such a terrifying explosive, what would happen if he utilized other elements...

'The possibilities are limitless. Wind, flames, earth, water... Anything, even these intangible elements, can be turned into tools and weapons with a bit of imagination.'

Truly, the possibilities were endless...

Cain let out a sigh, then exited the realm of his thoughts. Brought back to reality, he was reminded of the task at hand.

'I almost forgot. I'll have to face that fiend soon...'

Cain had been thinking about how he was going to deal with Og-solath and the situation with the Heart of Chaos. Since he didn't want to take the heart from Evangeline forcefully, he had to think of something. If he didn't, then who knew what the Primordial Devil would do?

'Flay me alive, probably...' Cain joked to himself. However, after a few seconds of reflection, he no longer found it funny.

Soon, he and Evangeline had left the crater behind. No other creature bothered them again for the duration of their journey.

Eventually, they decided to take a short break before resuming...

"It should be safe now. We won't require any more shelter." Cain said as he pulled a few items out of his inventory to make a campfire.

Evangeline nodded as she sat down on the opposite side. A few twigs appeared out of thin air and into Cain's hands. A metal hand materialized and created a relatively deep hole in the ground. Throwing the twigs into the hole, Cain activated {Flame Orb} with a small amount of mana, making it docile, such that it wasn't too hot to burn through the wood and turn it into ash.

As soon as the fire was created, Cain leaned back and let his body relax. It had been a while since he got any rest...

'Exhausted...' Cain thought to himself.

Then, his attention shifted to Evangeline, who looked like she was thinking about something serious as she gazed into the distance behind him.

"How did you activate that skill so many times, consecutively?"

Evangeline raised a brow and glanced at him. She was silent for a while before she turned away and answered in an uninterested voice.

"The ring..."

Cain scratched his head before he got what she meant.

"The ring you got from the {Chaos Orc}?"

Evangeline nodded in affirmation. Cain was still confused. Seeing that, Evangeline explained further,

"The ring allows me to fix in a preexisting external active skill. That skill can be activated with ten percent of its original mana cost, no cooldown, and no casting time. It also boosts its output and damage by two hundred percent. {Blood of Black Rendition} is one of my most powerful and original skills. It was also the first one I thought of..."

Cain was a bit floored, "That is... powerful."

An extremely powerful skill that could be spammed at will. Even Cain didn't possess something as preposterous as that.

Evangeline shook her head, "Compared to that spell of yours, it's pretty much just child's play."

Cain chuckled in embarrassment, "To be honest with you, that power wasn't all me. Half of the mana used in the spell was as a result of-"

"Save it. Don't try downplaying what you did. That wasn't something a Tier 0 being should be able to pull off.

Cain wanted to argue, but he couldn't help but agree with her. The power of that skill was simply extraordinary. However, it wasn't something he could activate willy-nilly. The boosted spell was not only very dangerous, but it also required a hefty amount of mana to execute on the same scale.

Regardless, she was right...

"Well, your skill was very powerful as well. {Heavenly Blue Lightning} might be strong against an army, but different from the normal {Blue Lightning}, it is not that powerful against powerful individual creatures. The lightning managed to kill the injure the three leaders. However, it was ultimately your skill that ended all three of them".

Evangeline remained silent and didn't speak after this. Cain could tell she had something on her mind, so he just let her be with a sigh.

'So much for initiating conversation.'

They were now dangerously close to the Garden of Self-Reflection, so now was the time to start making plans.

After thinking about it for a while, he finally came up with something...

'Like they say, dialogue first, fists later...'

Cain figured he might as well try reasoning with the Primordial Devil of Madness before anything else. He had seen just how powerful the ancient being was.

However, he had a few tricks up his sleeve that could stand as potential bargaining power...

The first of them was the existence of the energy in his {Elemental Vault}, the pool of flames particularly...

Cain had first created {Fireball}, which had then transformed into {Flame Orb}. He then used his understanding of the fire element to create a variant skill of the {Flame Orb} and call it {Imploding Star}. He had further expanded upon this set of skills and created the third and final skill, {Vampiric Star}.

Both spells had formed the basis of the third spell, and together, they made up the {Celestial Infernal Arts}.

The combination of these three spells was quite scary. {Vampiric Star} was dangerous because of its ability to gather fire elemental energy and release it all in one go, just like the {Elemental Vault}. The difference here was that the {Vampiric Star} was a physical manifestation, while the {Elemental Vault} was, in basic terms, a storage facility.

Both were more similar than different, but they had vastly different uses and purposes. Using {Vampiric Star} to boost the power of a flame spell was like adding gunpowder to swelling flames.

However, {Vampiric Star} needed a source of energy to gather from. It could be Cain's mana pool or external energy sources. Sources which could also include the {Elemental Vault}. The flame pool was the second largest pool within the Vault. The amount of Lightning Elemental mana he had gathered for {Heavenly Blue Lightning} was far smaller in comparison.

Just imagining the amount of raw damage he would be capable of if he linked {Vampiric Star} to the Vault scared him.

'It is like opening Pandora's box. Although it contains my only hope for peaceful negotiations, I and everyone else might end up dead if I open it.'

Cain prayed he wouldn't be forced to do so...

'Even if he is a Primordial Devil, he is too weak right now to take on a spell of that magnitude.'

Cain's eyes flashed with resolve as he made up his mind.

'It's go big, or go home. I'm willing to stake everything I have for this.'

If they hadn't entered the forest in the first place, there would have been no need for all this. They probably would have found Hunter by now. But such was the natural order. There was no point thinking about it. Faye was a cruel mistress, after all...

Cain couldn't help but wonder if there was truly a mystical being or group of beings pulling the strings from somewhere up above.

'If they really exist, then they have a terrible sense of humor.' Cain shook his head before trying to get some rest. He had to get ready for the events of tomorrow as he would finally be reentering the forest. He needed ample rest.

His thoughts gradually grew still until he finally fell into a deep slumber...

***

White noise flooded Cain's senses as he was jolted awake.

Snapping his eyes open, he instinctively summoned a weapon from his inventory. The {Hand of Stingè} cut through the air toward the culprit that was disturbing his sleep.

BANG!

Grabbing his throbbing forehead, Cain yelled out in agony,

"But why?!"

Evangeline snorted, "Good morning..."

Cain didn't know how he had offended her. However, looking at her face, he could tell she had woken him for good reason. Letting out a tired sigh, he groggily rose to his feet. Fighting his fatigue away, he gazed right into Evangeline's ruby eyes. Without saying a word, Evangeline began walking in the direction of the forest.

'She seemed cranky for some reason today...'

Cain decided not to pry as he also began walking forward. They walked for an hour more before a line of very tall trees greeted them.

Cain felt his heart rate accelerate as he went over the plan in his head. He then came to a halt all of a sudden.

He took in a deep breath, and stared at Evangeline who had also stopped in her tracks when she felt his gaze, her back facing him,

"Ehem. I think this is where we part ways..."