God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The approaching Star of darkness was swiftly closing in. It would soon be upon them in all its splendor and dark glory.

The shield that was behind him dislodged itself from his back and floated into the air.

The hieroglyphs and sigils on the surface of the weapon glowed with power and might, faint streak of lightning dancing on its surface.

The shield immediately split into five parts, one floating towards the sky, and other floating towards the ground. Another to the east, and another to the west with the last one remaining dead center.

His eyes glowed for a moment,

"As the world comes to stillness, as the winds of the eternal desert grind to a halt..." He mumbled under his breath.

The dull golden lightning suddenly stretched out to all the parts of the shield, turning into a beautiful golden aegis shield.

"Shield of Divine Repose." Gilead chanted.

Then he turned back to Wulf,

"Pull yourself together, bastard!"

Rage filled his eyes,

'I'm not going to die for a bastard like you.'

He looked back at the men running and gritted his teeth,

'I might be able to save a few, but the rest might not be so lucky.'

"Don't screw with me!"

For some reason, Wulf exploded into.a toreade of profanities,

"Fuck! Fuck you! How! How does he control the black flame as well?! This is impossible! I'll kill him! Now!"

Raising his lantern, the Keeper of the Black Flame stirred his power once more.

At the same time, the star of darkness that had been thrown their way made contact with Gilead's {Shield of Divine Repose}.

Then it exploded.

The viscous black flames washed over the shield.

Surprisingly, the flames weren't able to burn through the shield. They licked at its edge, but we're not able to burn through it.

However, the shield wasn't omnipotent. The flames managed to wash over it, hungry to consume life.

At the same time, Wulf was done with his preparations.

He drew a sigil in the air over his lantern.

The black flame burning in the depths of the lantern grew even darker, consuming whatever little light poured into their surroundings.

As the darkness grew, the black flames that poured out of the star of darkness were consumed until finally, nothing was left.

Gilead let out a sigh and dismissed his shield. The five different parts fused back together and fell back into his arms.

He turned to Wulf and growled angrily,

"What the hell were you doing? If all our men die, we are next!"

Wulf Strungman snorted. The black flame burning in his lantern seemed to have lost a lot of its earlier dark radiance.

He gritted his teeth,

"It's all thanks to that bastard!"

He turned around,

"We have permission from the Champion of our god."

Although he couldn't see his face, Gilead had no doubt the Keeper of the Black Flame was smoldering with rage and malice.

He sighed to himself, then frowned,

"Damn your stupid pride for now, Wulf."

"Huh?! What did you say?" Wulf growled.

Gilead replied calmly,

"My job here is to defeat the enemy and prevent as many of my men from dying, so that is what I'll do. Thanks to your idiocy, we almost lost all our men, so that must not happen again. We will attack. But we will attack my way now."

Wulf wanted to say something, but Gilead cut him off,

"Make no mistake, Wulf. From a distance, you might give me a hard time..."

He took a step forward, his hand already at his waist, on the decorated hilt of his sword.

"But at this distance, I'll take your head off before you can take your last breathe. So watch yourself."

Wulf took a step back, "You..."

"Me. Yes, me." Gilead said, his voice low and menacing.

He turned around and stared into the gorge, his eyes cold behind the mask.

Whatever of the Aether Beasts and the men he had sent down there that had not been killed by the flood of black flames that had rushed down the gorge were being cut down by the enemy.

He jolt of anger rushed down his spine. Not for the people cutting his men down, but for himself, and the idiot that had given the order.

"From now, we do it my way."

Wulf spoke through clenched teeth, his shoulders slumped,

"Fine. My lantern is low on mana right now, so I'd rather not over work myself. Do what you like."

Gilead chuckled darkly,

"Are you dumb, or you didn't understand my words earlier. We were given an order, so you can't have out just because you said so. You are responsible for our ranged fighters. If you run, I'll abandon the enemies and chase you down till I take your head."

Wulf shivered, then nodded.

With a snort, Gilead turned around and recalled his men who had not run too far.

Afterwards, he reorganized them.

The ranged fighters; those who could use mana to launch ranged attacks, those who could use fire arms, bows and arrows, and othe forms of projectile weapons were left on top of the slope while the melee fighters and shield bearers ran down the slope with Gilead taking the lead at the head of the spearhead.

Standing over the gorge, Wulf gritted his teeth then stretched a hand forward. Despite being a terrible human being, he was also incredibly powerful. Not only that, he was also crafty, despicable, and conniving.

Like a hideous wolf...

His voice was cold and sinister from behind the mask,

"Fire at intervals! Let there be no pattern! Target their edges and rear lines more!" He barked out his orders and the men listened.

Blots of concentrated mana, all sorts of skills, bullets, arrows...

They flew through the air, towards the sky for a moment, then descended, falling towards Cain and the others.

Cain took it all in at once.

However, after what had just happened, he was a bit low on mana. He let out a heated breath of air.

Just as he was about to urge Ruby to charge forward, a human body blocked his path.

He looked down.

"Leave this one to us. Recover as much as you can. For now, we'll take care of these ones."

"Blaze..." Cain muttered.

He had seen him dive down the slope with him, but because of the chaos of the battlefield, he hadn't seen him after that.

His armor was chipped in some places and he was covered in blood and soot. Besides that, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with him.

Even the blood he was drenched in didn't seem to belong to him.

Cain sighed then nodded with a grin expression.

"Relax. I'm not going in alone." He grinned and nudged his head towards the side.

Li, Stan and Sue appeared, all covered in blood, but in okay shape.

A barrier appeared above their heads as the first wave of projectiles fell from the skies.

"That mage with the black flames; I'll handle him." Steve said, a grin on his face.

Blaze nodded, "I'm counting on you."

Cain got down from Ruby,

"Take her with you. Hunter, Dan, follow Steve to take their mage out. Have Sue and Jenny support you from afar. Take out their ranged support!"

Steve chuckled as he climbed onto Ruby's back alongside Sue.

Jenny appeared from the crowd and gave Cain one look,

"Are you sure you are going to be fine?"

Cain waved his hand, "Just a bit of mana exhaustion. I took too much too fast back there."

Jenny nodded. Although she was concerned, she figured now wasn't the time to show it.

A large, wolf-shaped shadow soared into the air and galloped forward. Ruby followed closely behind with Steve, Sue, and Jenny on her back.

"Well, that's my cue." Blaze said with a grin. He nodded towards Li and Stan, and they, alongside a portion of the main army broke off, launching themselves at the approaching tikde of Valestorm Pilgrim warriors.

They came like a tide of death. Their robes billowing in the wind, their sharp sabers pointed at their necks.

Blaze felt his heart reverberate with fervor as fiery blood raged within him.

He quickly located the enemy commander.

At the same time, Gilead immediately set his sights on the three individuals at the head of the enemy frontlines.

'They are strong.'

His eyes shifted and he noticed a shadow dashing up the slope at a different angle, bypassing him and his men. He quickly put it out of his mind.

"Windstorm Ward, Stone Ward... With me."

"Yes, sir!"

Of all his men, these two were amongst the strongest.

"Handle the others. Leave those three to me."

Although he didn't want to admit it, Gilead could feel his heart beating faster.

He was excited.

He could sense the strength of his enemies.

'Hopefully, they can make this worthwhile.'

With a loud roar, a torrent of flames exploded behind Blaze as he launched himself forward, his spear pointed at the chest of the enemy commander.

At the same time, Gilead placed his shield in front of him and slashed forward with his sword.

The third clash has begun...