God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

'What did he mean by that?' He thought to himself as he floated on the calm black waves.

The Golden Dragon was gone, and the golden sun above the sky dimmed all of a sudden. Cain had noticed this change but paid little mind to it.

'A Remnant? A God remnant? What does he mean by that? Am I an object?!'

Remembering the strange-looking coral Stan had given to him, or the shell he had found that contained the legacies of different Celestials, he couldn't help but scrunch his face up a bit.

Eventually, he let out a sigh. The world around him was not real. He could feel it unraveling at the seams already. This world of solitude and solace was just a part of his mind that longed for some rest.

'No rest for the wicked, huh...'

Cain shook his head. Despite being a little down about the unfortunate turn of events, he decided to forcibly get over it. Now was not the time to wallow for no reason. He had better things to do...

Eventually, the world around him collapsed, and his mind returned to the land of the living.

The first thing to hit him was the acrid stench of burning wood. It was so heavy, it sent him into a coughing fit.

"What the-"

Before he could even finish his words, Cain's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he collapsed to the ground.

One of the effects of Ashur taking over his body was the strain and pressure he had put on it. Cain's body was the body of a mortal, while Ashur's soul was one that greatly surpassed what a mortal could tolerate. If not for the limits placed on him, voluntarily or not, Cain's body, and possibly his soul, would have imploded. It wouldn't have been a pretty picture...

Not only that but when Ashur had activated {Golden Body}, he had broken the previous limits of what {Golden Body} was capable of. Every time Cain activated {Golden Body}, his body went through the process of being destroyed and rebuilt over and over again in the process of harnessing the violent and chaotic power of his Ki to boost his physical capabilities.

His body automatically made use of his Ki to complete this function. Although he was granted a tremendous amount of power, his body was still forced to bear tremendous amounts of trauma.

When Ashur activated {Golden Body} with Cain's body, the changes were more apparent. There were no drastic changes in appearance. This was because Ashur's activation of {Golden Body} was much deeper than Cain's as he understood the skill far better.

Instead of appearing like a deranged devil that was being burned by glowing coals from the inside, his body was instead covered by a layer of place golden energy.

The reason the skill was called {Golden Body}, was because it allowed the host to experience what it felt like to break through the shackles of their flesh, even if it was for just a brief moment. The reason Cain could activate the skill for that long was thanks to his monstrous stats.

However...

The damages that occurred were now being processed at the cellular level. It was mitigated by Ashur, but there was only so much he could do.

Even {Draconic Transfiguration couldn't do much against this level of damage. His soul had also taken massive damage when he had been exposed to continuous soul attacks by Og-solath.

The soul was one of the greatest mysteries in the universe. It was the anchor that tied sentient, and even non-sentient beings to their mortal bodies and the spiritual realm.

Any damage the soul took was ten times worse than physical damage of equal magnitude. This is what made Og-solath a very fearsome foe. {Phantasma's} were born skilled with proficiency in dealing with the soul. Og-solath, who was the godfather of every {Phantasma} or Soul Devil was so skilled in the soul arts, that even the strongest of Celestials feared him.

Even Tian, with all his power, was wary of every Primordial Devil. The Primordial Devils had fallen from power when the Nomad abandoned their race. That didn't mean they weren't strong. Every single one of them was a Tier 7 being...

As Cain's body fell to the ground, a shadow passed over him. The shadow turned tangible and cushioned his fall.

Four figures approached him rather quickly. Upon reaching him, Susan squatted at his side and placed her hand on his chest, her face grim,

"His heart isn't beating."

Indeed, what was happening to Cain was merely the repercussions of his body trying to assimilate a power that it couldn't bear. His body had been tempered by the {Dragon's Gate Ki}, and his physique was being strengthened by {Draconic Teansfiguration}. Despite all this, it still wasn't enough.

The only thing that could save him, was something that could bear the power that was running rampant inside his body as a result of the {Golden Body} skill Ashur had activated in his body.

Ignis bent down and put her hand on his chest as well. Meanwhile, Jenny was staring down at his still body with a grim look in her eyes. Only Evangeline looked on, unbothered by his comatose, near-death state.

"Relax. He isn't dead. Yet..."

All three girls turned to look at her, clear confusion in their eyes...

Ignis turned to Susan and Jenny, who were just as confused as she was,

"Who is this chick?"

Susan sighed and turned to Evangeline,

"How did you get here? The last time I saw you, you were running away with your tail tucked between your legs."

Susan, Jenny, and most likely everyone else apart from Cain were under the wrong impression that Evangeline had decided to simply leave midway through the battle. Although she had faced the {Broodmother} all by herself, that wasn't enough to clear up the misunderstanding.

Evangeline snorted, "If you have the time to question me, you'll have the time to tell his corpse why you let him die."

Susan's face fell. With a sigh, she placed her hand back on Cain's chest, then activated a few healing spells,

"Although his heart isn't beating, his body is still warm. No, not warm... Hot!" Susan said with confusion on her face.

Evangeline nodded, "His heart has collapsed because it couldn't handle the load of his blood circulation. He should be sea right now, but something is keeping him alive." She said with uncertainty on her face.

Susan pulled a magic orb filled with dancing light particles out of her inventory as soon as she heard this. With a face of utmost concentration, she uttered a chant and applied pressure to the orb. It immediately shattered into thousands of pieces, and the light particles within it fell like a waterfall into Cain's slightly parted mouth.

"This will stabilize his condition. However, I don't know for how long. We have to get out of here."

All of them agreed on this. Immediately, Ignis leaned down and picked Cain up from the ground roughly.

"Still... It's hard to believe he did this." She said to herself, looking at the utter destruction and catastrophe a maximum {Imploding Star} powered by the {Elemental Vaukt} and the {Flames of Darkness} caused.

Jenny shook her head, "I've seen him defeat a giant devil that stood at over a hundred meters. This is tame in comparison."

Ignis shook her head, "No. You don't understand."

Her gaze was directed at the ground which had been charred black. The previously rugged forest floor had turned into a crystalline, rocky flat land. There was not a single soul present in over four kilometers. Anything that had been in that part of the forest had been killed the moment the spell was activated.

It was pure destruction. Nothing was left behind. Standing in the midst of the frigid, no man's land, they couldn't help but shiver, their faces grim.

"We don't have a lot of time on our hands. The more time we waste, the closer to death he gets." Evangeline said.

Without wasting any more time, she took off.

"Can we trust her?" Ignis said, looking at Evangeline with mirth in her eyes. It was clear she didn't have an iota of trust for the white-haired beauty.

Susan shrugged, "I don't know. However, she doesn't bear any ill intent towards us for now."

Jenny chimed in, "Even if she tries to do something sketchy, she definitely can't take on all there of us."

The other two nodded. However, their faces were still tense. The three girls had built a good rapport during their time in the Garden of Self-Reflection. Relying on one another, their bonds had grown a bit stronger than before, and they had developed some form of trust.

Eventually, Susan sighed, "All that matters is resuscitating this idiot."

Gritting her teeth, she muttered under her breath,

"Stupid! So stupid! Do you really want to die that bad?! What is all this about?!"

Jenny and Ignis also had annoyed looks on their faces, but they were less vocal about their anger than Susan.

Unknown to them, Cain's extremely hot bodily temperature dropped slightly. However, the change was too minimal, almost non-existent for any of them to notice...