God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The once mighty beast was now reduced to a hot pile of smoked flesh.

'Tragic...'

Stepping closer to the worm, a wave of heat hit him hard, causing him to pause. The area around the worm-like Aether Beast was still molten, so he couldn't get through to the worm.

Complaining inside his head, Cain furrowed his eyebrows,

'I don't want to wait any longer...'

He was getting impatient, because, for all he knew, Stingè could be waiting for him when he got out. It was best to round up his business as fast as possible and get out of there.

His mind quickly spun as he thought of what would help him best in this situation.

'Hmm... Seems like it will work. However, does this really call for that skill?'

This was a spell that Cain had never used before despite spending a long time in his arsenal.

{Frost Temple}...

***

{Frost Temple} lvl 1: The power of frost has reached the point of over-saturation within the host's body, and now leaks out to affect both the physical and spiritual planes. Upon activation, a 50m radius freezing domain is created. Within this domain, any other creature apart from the host will be subjected to extreme debuffs as long as the domain is active.

Movement and attack speed and reduced by 5% and +1% for every minute that the creature spends within the domain. Mana flow is also hindered, causing the activation of skills to become more difficult. Spell and skill mana cost for enemy skills increases by 30%.

Cost: 10,000MP.

To get {Frost Temple} to the next level, the host must absorb Frost mana twice his current capacity...

***

Cain had no doubts that the power of this skill was far beyond what he could understand.

The main enchantment of the skill was the ability to reduce the movement and attack speeds of targets within the domain's radius. The oppressive frost elemental mana also made it difficult for mana to flow properly within the boundaries of the domain.

However, all this was done by simply releasing a frightening amount of frost elemental energy. Such that the cold, frigid mana seeped through the skin, flesh, and bones of the target and targeted their Ley Lines, which weren't even completely a part of the physical body.

It was the perfect counter to the effects of the {Flame of Darkness}. The only issue with the spell was the incredible mana cost it needed to be activated.

That was one of the reasons why Cain had never felt inclined to use it...

'It does feel like a waste...'

Because of the transformations that had happened to his body, plus the effects of the water enchantment of {Burning Spirit}, Cain was receiving his spent mana quite rapidly.

However, there was no way he could recover so much mana in such a short period. As such, even though he didn't want to, he decided to wait.

'Besides...' A sharp glint appeared in his eyes as he used {Spirit Sense} to investigate a hunch he had.

'Sure enough, this smoke has poisonous properties. The thickness of the poison mana has me concerned...'

Perhaps due to the action of the intense heat on the blood of the worm-like Aether Beast, a lot of the poison in its blood had mixed with the smoke.

'There's also a lot of blood elemental mana.'

Without thinking twice, Cain quickly activated {Elemental Vault}. It didn't take a lot of time for the currents of mana to be sucked into the small spatial crystal embedded within Cain's being somewhere...

Observing with {Spirit Sense}, Cain was able to see the different streams of mana being sucked into the Vault separately.

'Ha... I'm such a genius.' Taking a look at the result of his marvelous work, Cain couldn't help but be satisfied.

The stream of poisonous mana settled into the Vault and began swirling into a whirlpool. At the center of the whirlpool, a small pool of thick viscous green and black liquid was firmed, releasing an occasional bubble every once in a while.

'Yep. That's poison alright.' Cain was really thankful for the poison resistance he had. If not, he would have been turned into a bloody mess the moment he stepped into the smoke.

Then, he saw the stream of blood elemental mana swirl around the blood pool that was previously within the Vault. Although the mana that swirled around the blood pool had been drained when Cain had used {Maximum Blood Restitution}, the blood pool remained, quietly swirling within the Vault, although it had lost its magical glow.

Now, it seemed more vibrant after absorbing the blood mana...

Cain was shocked to see yet another stream of energy leak into the Vault. However, for some reason, he couldn't quite tell what sort of element it was. It was too small to be even called a stream, more like a strand. However, the moment it appeared within the Vault, the elements seemed to light up one after the other.

'What is that?'

Just as he began to wonder what the strand of energy was, it dissipated with a poof...

'What the hell?!' Cain was shocked. There was no logical explanation for this, yet it had just happened. Thinking about it for a few seconds, Cain decided to let it go.

'Truthfully, I now live in a world of magic. There exists no such thing as logic...' With that realization in mind, Cain took an enlightened step forward.

He had finally managed to recover the mana needed for activating {Frost Temple}...

A solemn air blew across his face, dispelling a great amount of smoke and soot.

Cain felt compelled to take a deep breath. However, knowing how that would end, he quietly kept his mouth shut. Since he couldn't speak for now, he decided to simply chant in his mind.

Chanting, as well as hand signs and symbols were a very fundamental part of activating magical skills and spells. Although it was not necessary, it was very helpful when it came to visualization of magic circles, which in turn increased the stats of the spell or skill about to be executed.

It was not a necessity, but in battles where life and death could be determined by a hair's breadth advantage, every millimeter counted...

Besides, he was already used to chanting and activating hand signs, so it was not a big deal to him.

His mind cleared up as he focused on the skill he wanted to activate,

'Frost Temple...'

A huge magic circle materialized beneath him and stretched out until it formed a radius of fifty meters around him. Cain could only describe it as beautiful.

An illusory image of a temple carved from solid ice appeared behind him for a second before disappearing like a fleeting cloud.

Then, a crippling wave of icy energy spread out like a rippling fabric. Steam rose into the air like mist dragons, clearing up the smoke as the icy power and the remnants of the devouring flame fought against each other.

In the end, the wisp of divine power that the icy waves carried was enough to completely suppress the flames. Seeing that the ground had cooled, Cain walked towards the worm-like Aether Beast with brisk steps.

Although the creature was almost dead, it hadn't given up yet. Cain admired its perseverance. It truly was a marvelous beast. He felt very remorseful for having to play a role in its death.

He let out a sigh, 'Time to sleep, big guy...'

Summoning two {GT-01 Magnum} from his inventory, he walked to the other side of where the beast was lying and got exposed to the remnant tissue of its underbelly. A revolting, charred smell filled his nose, but he ignored it and pointed his gun.

The magical patterns on the surface of the weapon all lit up...

Round after round was fired into the creature's chest continuously until both magazines filled with metal bullets were emptied. Then, he removed them from the barrel and placed two magazines that could fire magic bullets.

Once again, the process was repeated until Cain could see the creature's disfigured burnt flesh squirm no more.

Alas, the system finally chose this moment to inform him of the death of the mighty Aether Beast.

***

{Congratulations to host... You have slain a Tier 1, Special Aether Beast, Amethyst Silkworm}.

{+2,000 to Strength}.

{+1,000 to Agility}.

{+1,000 to Defense}.

{+3,000 to Stamina}.

{+2,000 to Magic}.

{+5,000 to Spirit}.

{Congratulations to host, .. You have received a weapon}.

{Congratulations to host... You have received an item}.

***

Cain's brows furrowed, 'An item and a weapon?'

His luck wasn't bad this time around. He decided to check the details of the item first...

The moment he tried to visualize the item that had been deposited into his inventory, a rather strange image revealed itself.

'What in all the abominable depths is that?!'

***

{Amethyst Silkworm Embryo}: (Tool)

Description: Within this cocoon lays the unborn form of a creature that possesses the ability to devour worlds whole, absorbing the natural essence of these worlds to satiate its unquenchable hunger for growth.

Skills: Threads of Compliance, Natural Harvester, Acid Spit.

{Threads of Bondage}: The soul of the Amethyst Silkworm is bound by unbreakable threads and will pledge allegiance to you upon forming a [Body and Soul] contract, becoming a part of your very soul, giving you unrestricted access to the treasures that lay beneath the ground.

***

"Holy shit..."

Cain was beyond stumped...

***

Shout out to Echelon_5 for sponsoring this extra chapter!!!