God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

A cloud of red steam escaped from Cain's slightly opened mouth as he held his blade parallel to the ground. The blood pouring from the {Flame Devil's} severed arm bathed him, turning his golden body red. The {Devil's Broken Claws} in his hands glowed with their abyssal black light as they absorbed the power within the blood of the {Flame Devil}.

"RAGHHHH!"

A roar filled with pain escaped from the {Flame Devil's} mouth as it fell to one knee while gripping onto its armless stump.

"Curse you, Human!" Fury ignited within the eyes of Forza as the flames around its body doubled in size and might. Cain simply walked through the river of flames unfazed. The heat simply rolled off his body due to his now extremely disgusting defense.

BANG!

Without saying a single word, Cain charged at Forza again. A bright light shone on the body of the devil as it let out an angry roar. It picked its blade with its other hand and charged straight at Cain.

Cain kicked against the ground and smashed the blade of Forza with his own, directing it to the ground. He ran on the flat of the blade like he was running on the ground before kicking against the edge like it was a ledge and jumping onto the devil's shoulder.

He buried his blades into its flesh, inciting an angry and panicked yell from the devil. However, Cain wasn't done yet. The eerie black around the {Devil's Broken Claws} combusted into black flames as {Bloodthirsty} was automatically activated.

The blades absorbed the power within the blood of the devil, turning heavier, yet more powerful. Despite the increase in weight, Cain still swung the blades like they were sheets of paper.

Cain dug deep and dragged the blade from Forza's shoulder to its back. Blood gushed out like a fountain and wetted the dark forest soil.

Forza tried its best to bring Cain down, even going as far as to fall onto the ground and roll over like a dog. However, it was unable to do a single thing...

Racing across its body, Cain jumped up again, this time reaching so high, his head was nearly brushing against the clouds.

The wind blowing against his cheeks and extremely long hair seemed to bring him back to reality for a bit as his eyes gained a bit of clarity for a moment.

A puff of hot air escaped from his slightly opened mouth as he let gravity carry him back down to the ground. Like a meteor descending toward the ground, Cain blazed a path down.

The oxygen in the air surrounding him began heating up the closer he got to the ground.

Forza who had all sorts of wounds covering its body gazed up at the sky in exhaustion. Despite how brief the battle had been, Forza had not only lost a lot of blood, it had also suffered a lot of damage and was incredibly wounded. Cain on the other hand, hadn't received a single attack from Forza since the start of their short encounter.

With its only hand gripping onto the hilt of its blade, Forza stared at Cain who was approaching with only rage and discontent in its eyes. Never would it have imagined that Cain, a human who was supposed to be weak, would defeat him.

"Flaming Sword of Hell!"

A pillar of flames burst out of the Flame Devil's body, then extended to the very top of his blade which he pointed to the fats approaching Cain.

Cain, who seemed to have finally regained his senses had an abnormally cold look in his eyes. A look so cold and dark, it was able to cause Forza to freeze up.

Devils are creatures of maniacal violence and slaughter. That is their base nature and something they live with and die for. For a devil, there is no better way to die than on the battlefield with the warm corpse of their last enemy still at their feet.

Because to them, fighting and slaughter was a way of life... They were never scared of the confrontation of their enemies. However, right now, all of that was being questioned because as Forza stared into Cain's eyes, an indescribable fear, the likes of which it had never experienced seeped into his heart.

Just like how a small predator would burst out with all its potential, energy, speed, and strength when coming to face with a predator that had a 99% chance of taking its life, Forza managed to bring out every single ounce of power within its body.

In a split second, with fear as the flames and its very life source as the fuel, Forza brought out tremendous power to fight against the predator approaching him from above.

Cain gazed at the resistance with solemn eyes that would see no change even if the world was about to be engulfed in flames.

Susan who was watching the fight was able to see that something was off about Cain.

"It's like his body has been possessed with a soul that isn't his." She had a solemn expression on her face as she reasoned aloud.

Cain crossed his blades once again...

The black energy was even stronger this time, as the blades in his hands had absorbed even more blood and were providing him with even more attack power. He exhaled a breath of red again as he exerted more power. Even more crimson cracks appeared on his body, causing his boiling blood to escape from his body as steam.

The golden sheen on his body increased in brightness...

The crimson steam and the black flames from the blades mingled together causing a unique phenomenon to appear.

The sky behind him was filled with the mixed energy that painted it with a scene straight out of a fairytale.

As the Ki within him rumbled, a faint sound escaped from Cain's mouth,

"Abyssal Crimson Slash..."

BOOM!

The clash made space rumble...

Ripples in space spread out from the epicenter like a nuclear explosion, forcing those who were even farther away from the battle to fall flat on their faces.

A streak of black and red was left across the sky as Cain smashed into the pillar of flames. The pillar of flames in turn exploded into a billion fiery sparks. The blade of Forza followed soon after as it was broken from the tip to the hilt. At the center of Forza's chest was a huge gaping hole. Its fire elemental mana shard was also missing alongside a majority of its chest and internal organs...

***

{Congratulations to host, you have created the skill, Abyssal Crimson Slash, with the mysterious power flowing within you...}

{Abyssal Crimson Slash}: Concentrate the life power of Ki and the dark power of the devils into a devastating strike that can split the heavens apart. The strength of the attack is dependent on the amount of Ki the host pours in. This skill doesn't have a cooldown, and is only limited by the host's endurance and body strength.

{+3,000 to Ki stat...}

{Congratulations to host... You have slain the Flame Devil, Forza...}

{Your skill, {Blade Mastery} has reached the third level and has surpassed the realm of mortals... Due to the development of the skill, {Abyssal Crimson Slash}, {Blade Mastery} has evolved to the skill, {Abyssal Dragon Blade Mastery}... }

{Abyssal Dragon Blade Mastery}(Tier 1): Incite the power of the abyss and pour it into the soul of your blade-form to produce unmatched techniques with the potential to break realities and split worlds asunder.

{+50 points to all stats...}.

{You have gained the new title, Devil Hunter...}

{Devil Hunter}: You are the first being on your home planet to have killed a devil at the {Half-god} tier granting you a slight advantage over the devils that have invaded your home planet. Devils you come across have an instinctual feeling of apprehension to you.

+20% physical and magical attack power and speed when fighting against Tier 0 devils and +10% when fighting against Tier 1 and above devils.

***

The {Flame Devil} stared straight at the grey skies as its life slowly drained out of its body. Disbelief filled its eyes and its mouth was left agape in shock. Even in death, he was unable to believe that he had been defeated.

Cain had his blade buried in the chest of the devil as he used the {Devil's Broken Claws} to drain all the blood from the gigantic devil. He gazed straight into the eyes of his dying victim as he claimed the spoils of his victory.

The devil orb of Forza had long since entered his hands. Once he had drained all of Forza's blood, he jumped back to the ground with a bang and sheathed blades, then returned them to his inventory.

Slowly, the now emancipated body of Forza fell to the ground...

BOOM!

There was a loud bang as it collided with the ground, a storm of black dust stirred up as well. Cain on the other hand stared at the devil orb in his hand for a while before returning and placing it into his inventory.

He immediately deactivated {Golden Body}...

The entire right had taken less than ten seconds, so he was still safe. Had it taken any longer, he would have been the dead one. Not only did the {Golden Body} skill run on Ki, but it also ran on his life force. However, since he could use his mana once again, his passive regenerative skills had begun their work once again.

Life force was dependent on HP, so using it to activate a skill was like asking for death...

Despite all these things, he had managed to defeat his greatest obstacle yet...

Cain let out a tired sigh as he fell to the ground...

His HP, Ki, as well stamina had been completely drained. Using {Blood Regeneration}, he sucked all the blood he had yet to drain from the {Flame Devil} into his body, recovering his HP and stamina.

He gripped his chest and found that his heart, which he had destroyed, was still beating. And beside it, he could feel a new force. It was the subtle pulse of his mana heart. Closing his eyes, he projected his spirit inwards and found that it was also intact, but had undergone a few changes.

It had become more crystalline than before and was pulsing even faster than when he had first activated {Golden Body}.

"Are you okay?"

Cain's ears were suddenly filled with a voice that to him, was as calming as the songs of angels. Despite not knowing this himself, Cain unconsciously relaxed his tense mind and body.

"No... But I'll live." Saying this, Cain flashed a brief smile, closed his eyes, and lost consciousness.

"Are you sure he's alright?" David who had awoken said with a raised brow as he gazed at Cain's extremely battered body.

"You are in an even more terrible state!" Susan glanced at him from the side and said exasperated.

Although David had healed a bit, he was still missing a hand which was miles worse than Cain's condition.

"I'll live..." David said with a resolute smile.

"En... You better do." Susan responded with a smile of her own.

"Ruby!" Susan suddenly yelled to the bear that still lay on the ground. The bear let out a groan before standing onto her paws with wobbly steps.

If Cain was conscious, he would be shocked by the sheer amount of profanities running through the supposedly innocent bear's mind.

She slowly walked to Cain, and with immense care lifted his body onto her back and began strutting into the distance without even waiting for Susan and David, causing them to let out a few chuckles.

"So what's next?" David asked in an uncertain tone.

"Now? We wait for that guy to wake up..."