God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain's face was the epitome of calm and indifference. He was finally returning to the {Draconic Blast Furnace} after a full day of attending to his responsibilities.

Planning with the other Squads leaders, taking the ten Beastmen, or Mutants, as they prefered to call themselves, to hunt for Mutant Beasts, and creating various weapons and items.

Now, he finally had time to himself. However, that time couldn't be used to rest. Instead, he was going to use it to sort a few things out.

Walking towards Ruby who wagged her tail violently the moment she saw him, he patted her shiny fur coat to calm her down before walking into the forge. Ruby had taken on the role of his bodyguard. With her there, no idiot would be foolish enough to come near the forge without having recieved permission beforehand.

Ruby was an incredibly capable fighter. She had the ability to create skills, something that was supposed to be almost impossible for Mutant Creatures. The vast majority of Mutant Creatures were born with the skills they possessed.

These skills would then evolve naturally, either to higher forms, or into more unique skills. However, all this could only happen through natural changes.

Ruby was able to bypass these restrictions and simply create skills like humans. And she could do this frighteningly well, even compared to most humans.

Cain walked past her and into the forge. It was empty. The Ten Mutants that usually accompanied him couldn't spend all their time here. They would often leave for breaks, or simply when the day was coming to an end. If was difficult to tell the difference between day and night, but not impossible.

The forge was littered with so many items, it was completely different from how it used to be. Despite that, it still maintained a semblance of order.

Cain gracefully walked through the piles of scrap metal and spare parts before he sat down on an iron still, directly adjacent to the four dragon heads that spewed fire when he wanted to activate the forge's magical properties.

He pulled something out of his inventory. A colourless light spread for a brief second before the item was revealed in his hands.

It was the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame}.

***

{Scale of the Abyssal Flame}: [Weapon]

Attack Power: 100

Attack Speed: 2.0

Description: Standard weapon of the abyssal army created from Fiend Steel treated with the sacred flame of a dying Nightmare dragon. This blade has absorbed a special foreign energy that has greatly mutated its properties. It is of the flame and darkness and can currently only be used by devils.

Skills: Heart of Despair, Wicked Blade,

{Heart of Despair}(active): Despair is the heaviest of burdens, and the despair of a dying celestial even more so. Pouring Ki and devil essence multiplies the weight of the blade.

{Wicked Blade}(passive): Sharper than a razor, a blade wielded by wickedness cuts through even the most holy of beings. The more devil essence and Ki circulates through the blade, the sharper the blade becomes.

Current state: Damaged [0/1000]

***

The dull blade covered with glowing crimson runes was revealed to the world. It's edge was jagged, and it's tip had been broken off at some point in the past. It was made from illustrious material, as despite all the battles Cain's had gone through with the blade, it wasn't damaged in the slightest.

It was huge and slightly curved, making it look almost like a saber. The devilish runes on its surfaceade it look incredible sinister.

He was now aware of how he could repair the damaged blade. Whatever was damaged within the blade needed Ki and Devil Essence to be repaired. Whenever Cain used the blade in battle, he also poured these energies into the blade. However,the quantity was too small.

However, just before his battle with Stingè, he had access to incredible amounts of Ki and Devil Essence. These rampant energies swam into the blade and did some kind of repairs to the damage.

Staring at the lusterless blade, Cain's eyes were dark, just like the blade's surface,

'Ki and Devil Essence seem to restore you, but that isn't what you want, is it...'

Cain could tell...

The greatest damage the weapon was suffering, was the physical damage. Although he could try to repair the runes with Ki and Devil Essence as much as he wanted, that wouldn't change the fact that the blade's structure was damaged.

He was still a novice, yet he was trying to do something so great. He didn't know what grade the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} was. However, he did know that he couldn't make sense of the runes on it. They were incredibly high-tiered. However, due to its damaged state, it was not nearly as strong as it was supposed to be. As such, someone like Cain could conveniently use it.

'High level materials. And a lot of power.' Cain thought to hinsefl as he rose up from his seating position.

He had read the {The Tome of Weapon and Skill Thesis} multiple times. Although the book contained little to no information on crafting weapons, he had gleamed of important knowledge from it.

'A strong weapon can never be a disadvantage.' That was what the book had said. At first, it just seemed like stating the obvious. However, Cain thought about it deeply.

{The Tome of Weapon and Skill Thesis} was a piece of literature he had obtained from Azazel, the bastard Demon. It was meant to show him the secrets of linking his fighting skills with the mystic art of magic.

The only progress he had made with the book was the creation of {Burning Spirit}. It was huge progress, but Cain knew the book had a lot more to show.

The book possessed insights into battle techniques. However, they all seemed too difficult for him to even comprehend. But that wasn't all that was contained within the tome.

'Come to think of it... More than a month has gone by now... Why haven't I been spirited away?'

Cain frowned, remembering the Demon's words. Thirty days... He was supposed to come get him in thirty days. However, thirty days had come and gone, and there was no sign of the insane Demon.

'Works for me either way, I guess. Although I cajty deny this is incredibly suspicious? Could it be that someone's clipped the bastard?'

Cain sighed. Now wasn't the time to be worried about an existence like Azazel.

Cain pulled out three more items from his inventory. The first was a clump of black, lusterless metal, the second was an eerie neon green crystal, and the third was a high grade water elemental shard

He attached the mana shards to the bottom of a basin situated nearby. This basin was one of the facilities that had come with the {Draconic Blast Furnace}. If he attached a water or ice elemental mana shard to it, it would produce a large amount of freezing cold water continuously. This would be used for quenching weapons.

The clump of dark metal was rather unique. It was something he had been working on for quite sometime. During the many battles he had had with the Devils, he had noticed that the exoskeleton of the {Blade Devils} was made from an incredibly sturdy material. As such, he had always kept a portion on him.

It never occured to him that his weapon and the bodies of these Devils were the same. The only difference between them, was that according to the description of the weapon in his hands, the Fiend Steel used in its creation had been treated with the flames of a dying Nightmare Dragon. It had also been mutated due to the influence of foreign energies.

He had absolutely no idea what a nightmare Dragon was. However, what he did know, was that the Fiend Steel used to create his weapon was of very high grade. The flames had then purified whatever impurities it had, making it countless times stronger and tougher than it originally was.

What Cain was trying to do, was to do the same. For this reason, he had even enlisted Evangeline's help in getting more Fiend Steel. Since the carcases of the Devils they left behind on the Northern Island were still there, that meant the Fiend Steel of the Devils that hadn't been completed disintegrated was still there.

The clump of Fiend Steel in his hands wasas a result of smelting all of this metal together. That was how terrifying the flames of the {Draconic Blast Furnace} were. The Nightmare Dragon} was without a doubt sime type of dragon. That meant its flames were Draconic in nature.

The flames produced by the forge were of the same nature. Although their quantity would never be the same, their quality was mostly similar. At least that was what Cain thought.

He had no doubts that if not for the existence of the large magic circle on the ground, a single activation of the Dragon heads would turn the entire island into a smoldering hill of magma.

Thanks to the forge's amenities, there was no need to worry about such a catastrophe.

All he needed to worry about now, was forging.

And that was what the second item was for. The green gem shone sinisterly in his palm. Cain stared at it nervously. He had gotten it from Pudding. As it turned out, there were many precious magic gems, stones and metals appearing beneath the islands already. One of them was this terrible item.

A {Blue Mystican}. A magic gems that didn't have any power of its own. Instead, there was a natural network of runic patterns within the stone that amplified mana output to a simply terrifying degree. Meaning, putting in just a small amount of mana would allow the energy to amplified by an order of ten.

However, the only downside of this magic stone, was incredibly lethal. It made all that energy produced incredibly volatile.

This meant one didn't even need to make a mistake before an explosion that could destroy a portion of the world would be created.

Cain didn't want to result to this, but he didn't want to wait anymore. He had refined a decent chunk of Fiend Steel for himself. Now, he needed enough energy to melt and incorporate it into the weapon.

That was where the {Blue Mystican} would come in...

It would make up the difference in magic power he would need. All he needed to do now, was gamble his life for success.