God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Death...

A phenomenon that was nearly inescapable for mortal beings. Those that had seen death couldn't tell the living what it looked like because they all followed right behind it, leaving the living behind to worry about what death was.

Cain stared death right in the face. He had actually committed suicide in an attempt to save his life. Blood flowed through the gaps in the hand holding his real heart. Since he was now mostly bones and organs with just a few pieces of meat and a pool of blood surrounding his broken body, he couldn't even cough out the blood.

It poured straight out of him, like a broken dam...

His mana heart, on the other hand, turned into a suction device as all the mana in his body was completely gone, causing his body to be filled with Ki. All the mana congregated into his mana heart and turned the semi-crystalline mana heart into a full crystal object that still beat like a regular heart.

Because of all these factors, the conditions for rejuvenation were perfect...

His body was filled with Ki, and nothing was fighting and opposing it, causing it to destroy his body parts. Since Ki was vital energy if all went according to plan,

the Ki should heal him up quickly.

However, just like every other thing in the world, fate always had other things in store...

A few seconds later, Cain, or what was left of him was still on the ground, dead...

His crushed heart hadn't healed, but his mana heart was even more vibrant than before.

"Cain?" Susan came up to sit beside Cain, whose bones had not begun to turn cold...

Seeing him not answering and laying on the ground, Susan gently picked up his body and embraced it.

"Fight..."

***

To an outside observer, the fight against Forza, the {Flame Devil} would be nothing short of cataclysmic. Every single attack from the {Flame Devil} was like a world-shattering strike that threatened to destroy all in its path.

The only reason they were able to keep up was because of Hunter's transformed state taking on most of the attacks, as well as Blaze who was mostly immune to the devil's flames. As a huge flaming wolf that was almost as huge as the {Flame Devil} itself, Hunter was able to hold his own against the {Flame Devil} without dying after a couple of strikes.

Jenny and Vincent ran around the huge creature, firing their ranged attacks while Hunter tanked the attacks of the creature with his huge body. While Blaze wasn't being harmed a lot by the flames of the {Flame Devil} he couldn't deal as much damage to the devil as well due to the power of his flames being cut down by more than half.

The other melee fighters on the other hand tried their best to fight against it, but all in all, they were unable to do much aside from by time.

And that time was quickly running out...

One of Forza's passive skills, {Burn}, was a debuff-type skill that reduced the stamina and HP of any hostile living creature around it during a battle. As a result, every one of them had their power drained out of them the longer they fought. And since they had no healers or support aside from Dan who was useless in this high-temperature environment, the fight only because more and more unbearable.

The only one that could face the devil directly was Hunter, and he even was having a tough time despite the assistance from everyone else.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The fight was a high-speed battle that would instantly claim the lives of those who didn't have an agility stat higher than 300 points.

Forza had an unchanging expression as it smashed its blade down onto Hunter's claws repeatedly. Bright sparks were created and the sea of flames surrounding them increased its height and might. However, the two enormous beings didn't seem to mind as they danced around in the sea of flames creating tremors and leaving craters filled with boiling magna in their wake.

Since Hunter was in a frenzy, he completely ignored all the damage being done to him by the {Flame Devil} and pressed on hard with his attacks. Despite all this, he was unable to lay a single claw on the {Flame Devil}...

This was because not only was the {Flame Devil} extremely fast, but it was also very skilled. Its huge blade was like a leaf drifting in the wind as it tore patches of fur and flesh off of Hunter's body.

"Damn it! He's over-exerting himself. If we don't do something, he'll tire out very soon!" Vincent yelled as he fired off bullets of mana at the carapace of the gigantic devil, but all his attacks amounted to naught as even though they had the incredible penetrative ability, they still weren't able to penetrate through the extremely thick carapace.

"Let's try attacking the legs. Focus all your attacks on its left leg!" Jenny called out as she stopped kiting the {Flame Devil} all of a sudden and pointed the gun straight at the ankle joint of the {Flame Devil}. Her eyes glowed a bright and rich purple as she let loose a devastating bolt of concentrated mana.

Manny's left eye shone with the light of understanding as he jumped across the flaming sea of molten earth. Gliding on the air for a while, he kicked against the air and let gravity do the rest as he plunged downwards toward the Flame Devil's left leg.

"Blade Paradox!"

He left a streak of green flames burning the air behind him as he shot down to the ground with his blades crossed.

The joint attacks of Manny and Jenny were sure to give Forza something to think about. However, they seemed to forget that not only was the {Flame Devil} very intelligent, but it was also extremely malicious...

Before Hunter could complete his landing, Forza had already spun its left leg around, whipping his right leg straight at the falling Manny.

"Crap!" Manny changed the course of his blades midflight as quickly as possible, blocking the gigantic, yet extremely quick kick from the {Flame Devil}.

In the eyes of the {Flame Devil}, humans like Manny were just very strong bugs. To Forza, Manny possessed some power but was still a bug nonetheless.

BANG!

The impact instantaneously broke the sound barrier, and Manny was launched away at speeds over Mach 1, breaking the sound barrier many times over.

Manny's eyes popped out as he threw up more than a mouthful of blood. In the blink of an eye, he had flown to an unknown location, his life, and death unknown...

Just like that, one of their stronger fighters hand been excluded from the fight...

"You worthless humans do not comprehend how to gauge power and know when there is no hope... I possess power far beyond your wildest imaginations."

In a deep guttural voice, the devil spoke, trying to incite despair in their hearts.

The devil loomed over them like the sky itself. In the darkness of the night, the light from its devil core and the sea of flames around it were the brightest sources of illumination around.

Sure enough, the fight immediately became even tougher. They were unable to do even the slightest bit of damage to the {Flame Devil}, while their stamina and HP dropped. They also suffered all sorts of injuries from attacks from Forza. Despite all these, they kept their attacks up, not even faltering despite the terrifying words of Forza.

They all had steely expressions as they increased the ferocity of their attacks.

Blaze had his spear horizontal to the ground across his shoulders. A terrifying scorching heat began gathering at the tip but he dismissed it before it could form completely.

"Aim for the eyes, face, and other vulnerable parts. Attacking its limbs isn't efficient." Blaze said as he took a deep breath.

'My flames can't hurt it, but physical attacks clearly can...'

Like a missile, rather than for the flames to erupt from the tip of the spear, it erupted at the very bottom, causing the spear to be launched at the eyes of the {Flame Devil} at supersonic speed. The air around the spear was broken, and shockwaves spread from the tip of the spear as it approached the {Flame Devil}.

The power behind the attack was noteworthy, and the {Flame Devil} was forced to block it with the flat of its blade which provided some room for Hunter to rush in quickly and press an attack.

With a loud howl, Hunter, who was now an extremely large wolf lunged at Forza with flames dripping from his body like it was a fluid.

BANG!

Hunter sank his extremely large teeth into the flesh of the {Flame Devil} and bit down as hard as he could.

"Hmph! Flimsy half-hearted attacks can do nothing to me. With a powerful wave of his sword, everyone apart from Hunter was blown away. Before Hunter was able to snap his jaws shut, Forza had already grabbed him by the jaws and ripped him from its body with its bare hands.

It smashed Hunter to the ground in the next moment and reached for its blade which was impaled into the ground.

"Hunter!" A burst of icy air erupted from Dan as he raced back to the site of the battle in hopes of providing extra protection from the {Flame Devil}. However, a single fire attack from Forza was enough to melt all the layers of ice he surrounded himself with and burn him black.

Dan crumpled to other ground unconscious, while Forza buried its flaming blade straight through Hunter's chest.

PUSHI!

HOWL!

Blood erupted like a fountain while Hunter let out a loud, despair-filled howl. One would be able to tell that despite all his aggressiveness, he was already slowing down and getting tired. They had all fought against the devil army and they were on the brink of falling to their exhaustion.

They hadn't had a single moment of rest in so many hours, and now, they had to fight against the incredibly powerful Forza.

"I might be a weakling in the grand expanse of my race, but against puny humans like you, I am a god. .. A god that has come to claim all your lives for the enrichment of my power."

The sea of flames surrounding them increased even further and came to a stop only after it covered them, including the protective spells Susan was using farther away.

Suddenly, there was a thick wave of energy that passed over the entire battlefield, causing even Firza to pause. The wave of energy was so powerful, it completely extinguished the sea of flames around the {Flame Devil}.

"Golden Blood..."

The words were like the declaration of the heavens as a wave of violent power rushed out into the sky...