God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain stared in amazement as the power of light seeped into his body and influenced his stats...

{You have been affected by the spell, Blessing of light...}

{For the next three hours, all magic stats have been doubled}.

All elements had their special attributes, and for the light element, it was the ability to grant blessings and illuminate what the ordinary eye could not see...

However, because Cain didn't have a single connection to this element, he may never come to know these things.

Once the blessing had been cast, Susan waved her hand again and glanced at Cain who was still watching the devil army before them with a strong look on her face.

"Light Manipulation: Fifth order, Rays of Rejuvenation."

Another magic circle expanded, this time beneath their feet, causing them to feel a breath of fresh air fill their lungs. Rays of light burst out of the magic circle as it disintegrated just like the former...

{You have been affected by the spell, Rays of Rejuvenation...}

{For the next three hours, all Regenerative properties of the host are multiplied by two...}

"Wow! What an awesome spell!"

"With this, I will be able to use my skills more often and for less the mana cost."

"Hahaha! Now I can fight to my heart's content!"

"Hmph! This is the strongest buff spell I have, and it has a cooldown of six hours, so don't expect it again anytime soon." Susan said with a smug expression.

Cain said nothing as he stared at the results of the two buff spells...

'With these spells, our battle power has been multiplied by two. Why didn't she use them when we fought against the mutant beasts, or when we tried to stop the missile? Could it be that she didn't have the skills then?' Cain thought to himself as he contemplated.

"So here's the plan. Since the devils are so organized, we can't take them out the same way we did for the mutant beasts. Since the forest is gone, guerrilla warfare is out of the question. Hence, we can only take them head on..." Cain said as he began to unfold his plan.

"David and Dan as the main defense take front. Long-range attackers and mages take back, while those who want to do melee move to the sides. If you have long or mid-range attacks but still want to do melee, you can attack from your position, but whatever we do, we cannot allow them to overpower us and break us apart."

"I agree... We can fight however, but they must not break through our defenses, and that means protecting our defenders with everything we've got." Hunter said.

"Leave that to me... Bulwark Protection, Aegis, Unending Stamina." Steve said as he cast various buff spells on Dan and David.

Various colored magic circles appeared around them as the spells took effect. Dan and David took their place to stand in front of everyone else as they waited for the devils to make their move...

As soon as this happened, Cain saw the eyes of the {Phantasma} shine with a deathly green light.

"Charge." In a voice that seemed to be a whisper, yet somehow, was able to reach every single ear on the battlefield, the {Phantasma} began the battle.

ROAR!!!

A deafening roar akin to rolling thunder seemed to streak across the battlefield as the devils charged across the grounds of the green-forest-turned-black plains...

Cain watched the devil army approach, but his mind was already occupied with various things. He had already made up his mind to attack the devils with his ranged attacks first before moving to melee when they had gotten close enough...

'The best long-range attack to use will be {Fireball}. Not only is the mana cost extremely efficient, cooldown, reload speed, and carrying capacity, but damage, as well as my mana regeneration rate have also all increased thanks to the action of the spells Susan cast. It is also the only one I can use freely...'

'Hence, casting a low-cost, high-performance spell like {Fireball would be ideal. Besides, most of my blade attacks are short to mid-range attacks.'

Upon arriving at this conclusion, Cain immediately began his plans. The devil army had already rushed into the long attack range by the time he was ready.

"Now!"

At that moment, hell was unleashed...

Arrows of light and fire, bullets crafted from elemental energy, bolts of concentrated mana, and destructive spells all flew like angels of death, slamming directly into the front lines of the devils' army.

Ciain activated the {Fireball} spells, causing not three, but six magic circles to appear floating behind him. The magic circles glowed brighter and stronger than the last time he had used them. This change was attributed to the sudden spike in magical power due to Susan's spell.

The magic circles instantly turned into blazing hot balls of flames. Once they were created, Cain willed them to fly and slam into the devils.

BOOM!

Upon impact, the fireballs would explode into seas of fire upon contact with the devils. Cain fired all six Fireballs into the crowd.

However, there was a change that left Cain in complete disbelief, and with a frown on his face was the effect his {Fireball} spell had on the approaching devils.

And it wasn't just him who had a problem...

"What the-?!" Someone exclaimed when they saw the effects all their spells and skills had on the approaching devils.

Since Cain's magic damage was based on his magic stat, his magic stat had doubled so his magic damage should also double as well.

However, for some unknown reason, his spells seemed to have a lesser effect on the devils that were approaching. A single fireball was able to take out three low leveled devils, so doubling that should increase the damage to be able to take out six low-level devils. And yet, each of his fireballs was only able to take out five {Bladeless Devil Imps} and three {Blade Devils} each...

"It's the spell that Should Devil cast before they started their charge. It increased their resistance to magic attacks." Susan said as she stared coldly. Despite the obvious reduction, she never for once stopped firing arrow after arrow from her bow, sending it flying straight into the devil army.

'I have to up the tempo!'

Seeing that regular fireballs weren't going to cut it, Cain decided to do something about it. He was going to find a way to increase the power of the spell.

One of the conditions for evolving his {Elemental Body} skill included evolving the skills he had acquired, so it was something he would eventually get to do.

Cain manipulated the complex mana flows around him. The key to the activation of a spell was the magic circle that was created when it was in use.

Magic circles are links or catalysts that are automatically created when a connection between the physical and spiritual planes is achieved. Just like runes, magic circles have to be drawn, or rather, pictured mentally before the skill can be executed. Although it sounds complex, it is a fairly automatic process that is executed with the assistance of the system.

However, editing a spell is a whole different ball game entirely that can happen only when certain conditions are met, a few being high magic, spirit, and control stats, could a spell be reconstructed and transformed.

Fortunately, Cain was not lacking in any of these...

'Create a mental picture...'

The first step in rune creation was to visualize the spell. The same was for skills, as visualizing was the best way to create a magic circle intermediate. Verbally calling out the name of the skills or spells also helped in the visualization of the spells, which was why it was used frequently.

Although it wasn't necessary, it still helped in creating a clear picture of the spell being executed, increasing its effects.

Cain visualized the magic circle of the {Fireball} spell, which was a rhombus enclosed in a circle. Within the rhombus was a rune that resembled a burning star. Connecting the rune to the rhombus and circle were numerous intricate lines forged from mana. The center rune was also created with these lines.

Manipulating the rune involved the manipulation of these lines, be it bending, breaking, twisting, or even increasing the number of lines that made up the runes.

To do all these, one needed a great deal of magic, as well as control over it...

Cain took a deep breath as he got to work. The only thing he needed was an increase in attack power. This meant he needed to remove the limiting factor on the spell. The limiting factor was a series of rune lines that influenced the amount of mana that could be put into the said spell.

Because of this, a spell user could never overdraft their mana for a spell, but at the same time, the amount of power the spell could bring out would forever be limited...

What Cain was about to do would render the spell completely useless because spells needed this set of rune lines to function. It acted as a circuit that controlled the amount of current, or in this case, mana that could flow through it at a particular period in time.

However, Cain wouldn't have done this if he didn't have a plan in mind...

In the {Records of Akasha}, he had read the basics of runecrafting and spell formation. This included various parts of a magic circle and rune, the working mechanics of spells, the nature of magic and mana, and their relationship to the elements and paraelementals.

Needless to say, he had created a thesis in his mind that could shake the foundations of all runecrafters and magic users in the universe.

'What if I create a spell that doesn't have a limit...'