God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

By supercharging his Ki flow, while condensing it, Cain forced it to make a single revolution at breakneck speed. Then, using Lord Crimson's Ki flow, movement, and speed as reference, he made his own move.

With this technique, it doesn't matter how fast an opponent is. He would be able to retreat even faster...

***

{Congratulations to Host... You have created the external active skill, Red Shift}.

{+1,000 to Agility}.

{+500 to Stamina}.

{Red Shift}: Speed and distance are an illusion, mirages created by the ripples of space and time. They exist only in relation to bodies of matter and points of observation.

***

For a fraction of a second, he became faster than Lord Crimson, fast enough to evade the blow aimed at his life.

The red glow enveloped his body as he let go o his guns. The flames of [Ki Fire] wrapped around his fist.

"Urahhh!" Like a Demon fresh out of hell, Cain let out a loud roar as his fist came careening towards Lord Crimson.

Caught off guard, Lord Crimson let go of his blade and crossed his arms across his chest to block the blow.

When the impact came, the surrounding air combusted violently. Flames roared to life as the force behind Cain's blow created so much friction, the resulting explosion was akin to detonating a ton of TNT.

Lord Crimson was launched back, slamming into the ground multiple times before coming to a stop.

A wave of weakness came over Cain as he fell to his knees, completely exhausted. That single move had drained more than half of his remaining Ki.

'I got him.'

A victorious smile hung from Cain's face as he stared at Lord Crimson's motionless body.

A blow that ignored ninety percent of a target's defenses was bound to deal a crazy amount of damage, especially with his strength.

In a way, Lord Crimson and Cain had similar abilities. However, Cain's was far more underdeveloped.

Still, he had done it. He had managed to land a solid hit which Lord Crimson was not prepared for. Surelyz that would be the end...

Cain let out a sigh as he watched Lord Crimson get back to his feet. On the surface of his formerly smooth breastplate, was a thin crack.

That was all...

An attack that drained so much power from him had only cracked the breastplate of the armor.

"That one hurt a little..." Lord Crimson's voice rang out in the empty whiteness.

"But if this is the best you can do..." He placed his hand on his neck and twisted his neck. Crackling noises as sharp as thunder rang out.

"Then you will die here."

Cain's eyes widened as pain spread through his body. Before he could even register what was going on, Lord Crimson moved faster than before, slamming his fist into his stomach.

Blood poured out from his mouth as he suffered grevious internal damage. Raising his other fist, Lord Crimson brought it down onto his back.

BOOM!

His body slammed into the ground, creating a small crater. Blood poured from his eyes and nose as he let out a gaspz but choked on the blood in his lungs, leading to a series of coughing fits.

Lord Crimson repaired to seal the deal, raising his fist to slam it into Cain's head. However, Cain's body vanished and was replaced with a star tipped blade that shot towards his throat.

With a slap, the blade was obliterated and he turned to the corner of the Sub-space where he noticed the spatial ripples.

Cain tried to get up to his feet, but failed to do so. The pain made it even difficult to breathe. His body was trying to heal, but the mysteries energy of Lord Crimson didn't allow it.

'Come on...' His thoughts were groggy, but he knew he had to heal up. If he didn't, he would die.

He tried forcibly circulating his Ki, but much to his dismay, he found out that some of hsi blpod vessels had been damaged when he activated {Red Shift}. Although they were healing up rapidly, it would take some time before it healed up.

"Give it up, Cain. You are not going to win."

Lord Crimson's voice echoed like the will of the universe, hammering into his brain.

Fury raged in his soul, 'Shut up...'

"You lack conviction. You lack the desire to use your strength for a purpose."

"S-shut u-up."

"What is it you desire? Why do you seek strength? What is your purpose?!"

"SHUT UP!"

Blood poured from all his orifices as he stood to his feet. Right now, he ignored the pain. All he could think, all he could see...

What the annoying bastard standing before him.

He stretched his hand out, and the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} trembled before rocketing into his grasps. The moment he held the blade, it became a beacon of crimson fire and darkness in a world filled with sterling light.

"ARGHHHH!"

He dashed forward like a deranged beast, swing his blade at Lord Crimson with wild abandon.

Lord Crimson calmly responded with an attack of his own, parrying his attack and stabbing forward. Ignoring the attack and allowing it to bite into his chest, Cain swing his sword again. This time, at close quarters, there was almost no way for Lord Crimson to avoid the biting edge of the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame}.

'Is he looking for mutual destruction?'

Lord Crimson remained calm as he ducked before the swinging blade. Leaving his blade stuck in Cain's chest, he dropped to the ground. With his arms on the ground, he lifted his legs and delivered a nasty kick to Cain's abdoment.

Cain flew upwards, but was forced to stop as Lord Crimson appeared right above him and sent a blow onto his head, nearly breaking through his skull and driving him into yej ground again.

This time, Cain remained motionless...

The battle had come to an end. Despite his finally struggle, Cain had ultimately been defeated.

Seeing this, Lord Crimson paid him no more attention. Pulling his sword out of Cain's chest, he raised it towards the sky.

A deluge of power unlike anything poured out of his body and into the blade. More and more power continued to pour out of he weapon, forming an ethereal blade as large as a pillar holding up the sky.

There was no doubt. Should the Sword pillar fall, this fake world would follow right behind.

Observing the events ongoing within the Sub-space from the outside, the three old mages had various expressions on their faces. The other two looked incredibly panicked.

"Ian... You old goat! Look! The boy is dead now because of you!" Marcus said with a pale face.

"If Richard escapes, we are going to bear the same fate."

The old man smiled, "Relax, you old rags. I've come to know the boy. He isn't going to lose so easily."

Just as the words came out of his mouth, something changed within the Sub-space again.

***

Cain felt as though he was swimming through pitch black mire. He couldn't see, hear smell, or taste anything. He just felt suffocated from all sides. The darkness was heavy...

'Am I dead again?'

He doubted it. This place didn't look anything like Reol.

That was when he saw it. A strange object... No, creature in the darkness. The creature stared at him, and he at it.

Looking closely, Cain noticed that the creature reselmbled a human. Only, it was very small, and seemed to be created from the darkness. Its body was covered in scales and it had a pair of horns jutting from the sides of its head.

There was something strange about it. It gave off golden light as well. The darkness around it also seemed to radiate a crimson hue as flashes of crimson lightning flashed around it. Thick red veins flowed within the darkness as well. They were interconnected in a mysterious way.

So mysterious, it appeleared to form a strange magic circle hat he couldn't make heads or tails of, far more arcane than any other magic circle or rune he had ever seen.

Cain came to a realization that this thing... was him.

Well, not him, but a physical, or mental manifestation of his powers. He stared deeper at the creature before realizing that the red veins were the Nirvanic Circle veins given to him by Lyx.

He watched as the golden hue increased the more the red stuff in the veins flowed a certain way.

As the golden hue continued to increase it began to permeate the darkness more and more. Not banishing it, but rather, absorbing it until finally, after an unknown period of time, the being of darkness glowed with this mysterious golden energy.

It's body was covered completely with strange runes, but the one that stood out the most, was the one on its forehead. Cain could understand this rune because it was a rather simple rune.

Runic language was just an arcane language practiced since the beginning of time. Each one had a meaning, and although one could see all of themz understanding what they meant was as hard as a frog trying to fly up a volcano.

But this particular rune was simple...

If one was to interpret it literally...

Its meaning, was 'Fate'.