God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

{You are under the effects of the spell, Bone-Crushing...}

{Movement and attack speed reduced by 40%...}

Cain and the others felt as though a mountain's worth of weight had fallen unto their backs all of a sudden, making their movements and attacks slower than ever.

"Hmph! Dispelling light." Susan yelled out loudly as a stream of light poured out of her hands straight into the sky, smashing into the huge magic circle. The spell was instantly smashed into pieces, causing Cain and the others to be released from its effects. However, the damage had already been done...

The devil army had once again marched closer. They were almost in mid-range, where the {Miasma Devils} could attack comfortably...

"Tch! They've come closer..." Hunter had a frown on his face as he continued his attacks without stopping.

"If w-we don't find a way to stop these devils, we'll be overrun very soon!" Dan said as he struggled to keep his frost barrier up even as it was peppered with attacks from the {Hulking Behemoth} that showered him with very terrifying flame attacks.

David was standing behind Dan, his shield emitting a strong crimson light that spread into a huge dome. The devil's that were at the forefront had already come close enough to engage in a melee, so they were obstructed by the existence of the {Crimson Dome}. But as David's energy wasn't infinite, so it could only endure so much of a beating before he gave out...

"Muahahaha! My charge is complete! Let's make these devils eat death!" Vincent yelled out in a loud voice. The cannon gun was now covered in glowing purple and blue patterns that seemed to increase in intensity as time went by.

"Hahaha! Let me show you guys what real power is! A spell that isn't from this world!"

"Scourge of the sea, rise out of the bottomless pit and consume with the power of the sea and storm. Death by water and lightning, Leviathan's Roar!" The tip of the gun seemed to turn into a star as it lit up half the battlefield in an instant...

Before anyone could register what was going on, the phantom image of a huge sea creature appeared in the sky above the fatty, creating a visage that made him look more heroic than he was.

The wind seemed to pick up at that moment, as the devils attacking them were instantly swept into the attack.

"Get out of the way!" Vincent yelled at the top of his lungs as he pointed his gun straight at the attacking devils, his eyes filled with homicidal mania.

'Damn! This guy is crazy!' was the thought running through all their heads as they made way...

A column of highly pressurized water elemental mana and lightning gushed out of the muzzle of the gun like a jet.

The attack broke past the barrier Dan had erected but went right through David's barrier without causing it any harm.

The devastating attack passed through the devil army like a hot knife through butter. The Leviathan's Roar created a crippling noise that caused everyone to clench their ears. Once the noise died down, they looked up to see the wasteland created by the attack.

Unlike the aftereffect of Hunter and Steve's attack, Vincent's attack didn't even stir up dust or smoke. All it did was destroy the bodies of a large number of the devils. All the devils that had been standing in that direction were completely wiped off the face of Urbus.

"Haha! Although that completely bottomed why mana pool, it was worth it..." Vincent said with a satisfied smile.

'All these spells are so powerful!' Cain thought to himself as he watched the exchange of extremely powerful spells.

He watched as Susan, Steve, Hunter and even Vincent unleashed devastating skills that destroyed large portions of the devil army in a short amount of time and granted them extra power.

Yet he noticed a single flaw in all of them...

As soon as the spell was released, they would not be able to use the spell anymore. This could have various reasons such as an extremely long cooldown, or overuse of mana. But the common factor was that they would be unable to use the spell again for the entire duration of the battle.

Cain wanted a spell that transcended these limitations...

Before, he just wanted to make the {Fireball} spell more powerful. Now, he wanted to make it an ultimate spell. A spell so powerful, he would be able to use it to kill a single enemy, as well as an entire army.

'The main issue with the {Fireball} spell is the problem of its cooldown as well as the amount of damage it can produce due to the quantity of mana it will consume. What I need to do is... add a rune to it that lets me use it without the limitations of a cooldown...'

Cain thought hard about this... He had a lot of skills that could be used without cooldown, but this is because they were passive skills. He had no idea if the runes of a passive skill would work on an active one.

'I need an active skill with no cooldown.'

A moment of realization later, Cain instantly located the skill he needed. It was the first movement skill he had created, the {Burst Step} skill.

This was a skill he had improved upon, removing the cooldown in a moment of desperation in a deadly fight. It was an active skill that didn't need any time at all to reload, hence, the perfect choice for Cain...

Cain brought out the information of {Burst Step} to his head, and he found what he was looking for in an instant. In a section of the central rune, was a small attachment of rune lines that wouldn't be noticeable to the untrained eye.

Even Cain had only noticed it because he knew what he was looking for. He had learned about the basic types of rune lines in the [Records of Akasha] under the spell and runecraft sections.

It was a set of lines that looked extremely complicated, yet easy to duplicate. He quickly remembered the patterns and dispelled the mental image, bringing the mental image he had of the {Fireball} spell to mind immediately after.

'Relax...' Cain said to himself as he took a deep breath and began his work. The drawing of runes was a very difficult thing that required total concentration. Although the runes of a magic circle and the rune of an attachment rune were completely different, the magic circle rune being hundreds of times easier, it was still extremely difficult in its own right.

Cain began tracing the lines he had pictured in his head onto the central rune of the spell. A second of soft stroke that turned hard when needed. A never-ending line that wouldn't stop until you wanted it to, and the infinity symbol. Combine these, and the cooldown aspect of a spell would be rendered null.

Since the rune wasn't complicated, Cain was able to finish it fairly quickly even though he didn't have any prior experience. He also made use of his mind or spirit, so it was easier than drawing it with his own hands.

'What's next is to remove the limiter on the spell and replace it with something else. The limiter is a vital piece of the spell, and removing it without filling the void would make the spell unusable.'

Cain watched as everyone attacked with all their might. Although the devils weren't close enough for a melee, they were already in the mid-range, which meant the attacks of the {Miasma Devils} had already begun.

***

{You have been affected by the skill, Poison Clouds...}

{Movement speed reduced by 10%...}

{You have been affected by the skill, Devil Bog Toxin...}

{Defence reduced by 5%...}

{You have been affected by the skill..... }

{Stamina reduces by extra 2 points every minute...}

{You have been affected by the skill, Devil's Breath...}

{100HP are lost every minute...}

***

In the blink of an eye, a multitude of debuffs had fallen upon all of them like raindrops in a storm. Cain watched as the panic in everyone grew by a few notches every second that passed.

Just because they had acquired a lot of power didn't mean they were invincible. They realized that once the devils entered melee range, the ranged attackers would be useless, and they would become the burden of the melee fighters who would have to do their all to protect both the ranged attackers that couldn't fight again, and themselves...

Just a few days ago, they were all students with different lives, different paths, and different dreams...

Now, they had to put their lives on the line to survive...

"These devils are getting stronger!" Vincent said as he unleashed his never-ending stream of bullets into the sea of devils. Anyone with working eyes could tell that even though he was still attacking even after so long, he was starting to get exhausted. They had been fighting at full power for more than an hour, and their stamina and mana pools were already getting bottomed out.

"Worst comes to worst, it will end up as a fistfight! I haven't killed a single devil for an entire day, so I'm itching for some action!" Manny said as he stared at the approaching devils with hunger in his eyes.

"Ha..." Steve sighed as he continued pouring spell after spell into the devil army.

'If we let this fall into a melee without killing off a majority of their numbers, we will be overrun in no time. These devils aren't mutant beasts. They know what organization is, and know the best way to wear us down. Besides, I have a feeling the real battle will start as soon as the weaker ones are killed.' Steve thought, his face turning darker as he realized their situation.

"Hm?!" A sudden surge in the mana in the environment took him by surprise, causing him to turn his attention to its source.

There, he watched in shock, bewilderment, amazement, and fear, as scorching red magic circles revolved around Cain like the planets around the sun...

***

'A spell that removes all limits. Azure Burst would be a good choice...'

Cain pictured the magic circle of the {Azure Burst} skill in his head as he began deconstructing it. Since identifying the working parts of a rune wasn't a difficult thing to do, he was able to finish it pretty quickly, mostly because he knew what he was looking for.

He did the same thing he had down for the {Burst Step} skill, instantly capturing the set of rune lines that were even more complex than the one he needed from {Burst Step}

Before he added the rune, he needed to remove the limiter. As soon as he found the limiter, he erased it from the central rune. As soon as this was done, it was as though the entire rune was about to come undone, like pulling at the seams of a fabric.

Cain quickly began restructuring the rune with the rune lines he had acquired from the {Azure Burst} skill as the base. It took a while, but he was able to succeed in a single trial.

As soon as the rune had been completed, Cain felt himself fall into a sleep-like state, the same one he experienced when he was about to meet Ashur...

A moment later, he lost consciousness...