God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain reappeared back at the edge of the Island where he had left Hunter, David, and Blaze. He was greeted with the site of all the males seated, and facing the ocean with relaxed expressions.

Their respective energies circulated them in a smooth unhindered manner, leading Cain to realize they were most likely going through some sort of upgrade, so he chose to stay quiet and observe.

30 minutes later...

Hunter was the first to open his eyes. He was greeted with the image of Cain who sat opposite them, starting without even a single change in expression.

"Creepy..." Hunter said with a disgusted expression on his face which immediately drew Cain's attention.

"I was just waiting for you..." Cain said with a slightly awkward smile as he pulled the {Broodmother's} core from his inventory...

"What is that?" Hunter's eyes widened a bit as he stared at the black orb in front of him.

"This is the orb of the {Broodmother}..." Cain said as he tossed it up and down before Hunter.

Hunter's eyes narrowed down dangerously, "How did you get your hands on it?" His tail which didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon wiggled violently as he spoke, causing Cain not to be able to see him in a serious light anymore.

Seeing that Cain's attention was completely stolen by his wagging tail, a violent blush appeared on Hunter's

face as he forcibly held the tail down.

"Pay attention!"

"Oh, yeah... I got it from Evangeline." Cain said.

"That traitor? I don't want anything from her. She stole my opportunity to battle with the {Broodmother}." Hunter's eyes turned cold even at the mention of Evangeline's name.

"Which is why I want to offer you a trade..." Cain said with a mysterious smile.

"Ho? What do you have in mind?" Hunter asked.

"Since this devil core is meant for you, how about I offer you another devil core that is also as strong as this one and might be extremely useful to you as well," Cain said.

"Let me guess, the core of the {Flame Devil}?" Despite trying his best to hide it, Hunter was unable to conceal his excitement...

"Yeah..."Taking another extremely powerful mana shard from his inventory, Cain slapped it into the ground before Hunter.

"So which would you prefer? Would you like to take this?" Cain said as he pointed toward the Broodmother's devil core with his index finger.

"Or this..." He said, his other index finger pointed at Forza's.

Hunter stared at the two for a while before placing his hands on both of them. After a few seconds, he removed the hands he placed on the two glowing orbs.

"I choose the flame orb..." Hunter said with a smirk.

"Although my affinity with the darkness element is just as high as the flame element, I'd prefer raising the power of my flames over whatever benefit this other one can provide me."

Cain nodded understandingly before placing the Broodmother's devil core into his inventory...

He had just stood up and turned around to leave when Hunter spoke out,

"How did you get so strong in such a short amount of time?" Hunter asked in a low voice. His glare was so fervently hot, it burned a hole straight through Cain's back.

Cain paused in his steps for a brief moment before continuing his walk,

"Luck, I guess..." Cain didn't know how to properly respond to Hunter's question. He had just dealt with every circumstance to the best of his ability as they came. Eventually, he found himself in the position he currently was in.

He hadn't done anything special. He was just moving according to the currents of fate, and if he didn't like the direction he was going, he used all his might to paddle the opposite way.

"Hmmm..."

Cain could feel Hunter's hot stare for a while longer before it finally disappeared a few seconds later.

'I guess that's that...'

Activating blink, his body was sucked into a spatial tear and phased out of existence

***

Cain vanished in the blink of an eye and reappeared at the site of his battle with the {Flame Devil}, Forza...

The heat emanating from the devil's corpse was still so intense, the ground beneath it was in the form of lava.

The blade of the dead devil stood before its head like a gravestone, a mark of the death of a being that possessed the ability to take part in the destruction of the planet.

Since the devil had met its end not too long ago, it was still mostly alive, besides being a little shriveled up from Cain using {Blood Regeneration} on it. Despite that, the malevolent creature still exuded a great deal of fierce power even in death.

Cain moved closer to the devil and stared down at it with a serene expression. His height being considerably above average human height, he was still only as big as the creature's head.

Its eye was glassy, with the signature dull grey of death. However, they contained a boundless rage that Cain was able to feel even through its lifeless eyes. A steady amount of fire elemental mana radiated from its body in the form of heat.

After looking at the devil for a few more seconds, Cain directed his gaze to the blade that stood impaled into the earth beside it. The blade had a massive length of forty meters, with a width of five meters as well. It was slightly curved, just like a saber, and was decorated in devilish runes.

It was created with a pitch-black metal that wasn't as lustrous as steel or iron but gave off an even menacing aura.

Cain lay his hand on the surface of the cold blade, causing a system prompt to pop up before him.

***

{Scale of the Abyssal Flame}: [Weapon]

Description: Standard weapon of the abyssal army created from Fiend Steel treated with the sacred flame of a dying Nightmare dragon. This blade has absorbed a special foreign energy that has greatly mutated its properties. It is of the flame and darkness element and can currently only be used by devils.

Current state: Extremely Damaged (Temporarily unusable).

***

Cain stared at the pop-up for a while before he willed it away.

'Metal Manipulation can only be used on true metals...' Cain thought to himself before activating {Metal Manipulation}.

Metal elements in the air stirred violently as Cain poured in more and more mana into the skill. There were few cracking sounds on the surface of the blade, but other than that, it was mostly unchanged.

This only served to motivate him further as Cain tripled his mana output. The creaking gradually turned into groaning, until all the external parts of the blade had been torn apart, and the real blade was revealed.

BOOM!

Prices of rubble fell continuously to the ground to reveal a huge glossy black blade hidden beneath its dull black exterior. It was just as long and wide as the original blade, only the external coating had been removed to reveal a blade that radiated extreme power according to Cain's standards.

"So this is what this devil swung around like a toy? The devil race sure is built differently..." The physiques of the devil's made them capable of extraordinary feats that beat most of what the other races in the universe were capable of. Because of the limitations they faced, the devils weren't able to access their full potential.

This also included activating the full power of their artillery and weapons. In the void, a random swing from a blade like the one Forza held onto would be enough to wipe a land mass as large as the Northern Island Cain and the others were on away from existence.

Cain stared at the blade for a while before stretching his hand once again to touch it. As soon as his fingers made contact with the surface of the blade, the gigantic blade immediately shrunk down to the size of a regular sword and was sucked into his inventory before he could even blink.

All that was left behind in the area before him was the giant gash the blade left behind.

'System, what happened?' Instinctually, Cain was certain the system would have an answer for him.

{Replying to host: It appears that the weapon the host has come in contact with has a bit of sentience. It will only become useful when it has acknowledged you as its master. Because its old user tried to use brute force to activate its powers it was damaged and forced into hibernation...}

Cain opened up his inventory to stare at the black blade that was radiating a baleful aura unlike any he had ever seen before. The aura it gave off was slightly similar to the aura of devils, but the majority of it screamed something that was far more sinister and powerful.

The blade was covered in beautiful dark purple inscriptions that pulsed ever so often and radiated a sinister light.

Excitement instantly filled Cain's heart...

'A new weapon!'

The only weapons Cain had ever used were the {Bloody Katana} and the {Devil's Broken Claw}. Although there was a lot of mystery behind it, Cain was still very excited with his gains.

'Now for the devil core...'

Cain sat down on the ground cross-legged before Forza's corpse and brought the Broodmother's devil core out of his inventory.

He placed it in his palm and applied a bit of pressure, smashing it into pieces.

Deep dark energy oozed out of his palm immediately after the orb was crushed. Rather than flowing down, the energy flowed straight into his body. Thick black veins began to appear all over his body alongside an itchy feeling and discomfort.

A system prompt appeared before him...

***

{Your body has been infiltrated by the corrupting power of devil essence...}

***

Cain suddenly felt his two hearts begin to beat extremely violently, causing his blood and mana to circulate extremely fast.

Another system prompt appeared before him once again...

***

{Due to the Host's unique physique, the devil's essence has failed to corrupt the host's body and is being integrated into the body of the host...}

***

The itchy feeling on Cain's body continued to grow, alongside the impulse to commit wanton murder and destroy everything around him.

'Crap... I need to get this out of my system!' Cain could feel it rise drastically into his head, arms, legs, and every other region of his body like tidal waves.

Quickly, his two weapons fell out of his inventory and into the ground beside him.

He grabbed them from the ground, and immediately, the violent energy within him began to circulate very violently between his body and the blades.

A thick black flame immediately erupted from both weapons, causing the space around them to quake violently.

Suddenly, a strange thing occurred...

The Ki and Mana within his body also joined the thick devil essence and flowed into the blades.

The three energies mixed within his body and the weapons, however, they didn't react violently. Instead, they began to push against one another such that all the devil essnse in one blade was being pushed out and into the other blade...