God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain stared at the belly of the fish with wide eyes...

'Such thick mana...'

Cain could feel mana fluctuations the likes he had never experienced before emanating from the underbelly of the aquatic creature. What made him so shocked was how pure the mana fluctuations were!

Without wasting any time, Cain called on the power of metal and activated his {Seven Golden Stars}, turning the gigantic fish into sushi.

Once he had the fish opened up, an object with a peculiar glow instantly caught Cain's attention. The object gave off an icy aura with a slightly golden undertone. As soon as the object was exposed, Cain felt a chill so frightening, he feared he would die from hypothermia the very next moment.

'What is this?!' Cain stared at the object in bewilderment. An item that could cause him to feel such couldn't be ordinary after all.

His defense stat was already in the hundreds. And the thing that wanted to cause him to feel extreme heat or cold would have to freeze tens to a hundred humans over before it could affect him.

The object came in the form of a perfect icy

pearl. Despite how foreign the object was, Cain felt a hint of familiarity with it. A succession of system prompts broke him out of his reverie a few seconds later...

***

{Notice: The host has come in contact with the remnants of a god. It would do the host well to exercise caution...}

{Frost Goddess's Remnant}: Frost Pearl.

Description: Created from a minuscule amount of the power and essence of the Frost goddess, Lyros, condensed into physical form. Possesses the power of Frost, just like the dark, cold, and lightless ocean floor, a watery grave to all victims of ocean warfare, and can forcibly grant power to those seeking it, but at a cost...

Grants +50 to all physical stats...

{You have come into contact with a Frost Pearl, the Remnant of the Frost goddess of War, Lyros. Does the host wish to establish a contract?}

Cain raised an eyebrow at the odd system prompt...

'Remnant? Goddess? Contract?' Before Cain was able to completely process what he had just encountered, he felt a suction feeling quickly overwhelm his soul. This feeling was almost the same as the one he felt whenever he was summoned by Ashur.

***

Cain snapped his eyes open only to be greeted with a scene straight out of an apocalyptic frozen hell...

On a dark, nearly lightless ocean floor sat thousand upon thousands of corpses, big and small, young and old, beast and human, frozen together in an eternal frosty underwater hell.

Sitting on a throne made from skulls in this underwater purgatory, was a being that shouldn't exist in any mortal plane. A goddess in every sense of the word...

Despite being the ruler of this icy hell, she radiated a chilly, yet divine presence that spread through the dark waters around her. Huge icebergs were fixed all around her in a strange formation, that left Cain feeling perplexed when he tried to gaze too long at it.

Cain let his eyes settle back onto the figure of the still-icy goddess...

"Mortal, offer up your divinity in exchange for the power of the freezing depth-"

Silence...

Mid-sentence, the otherworldy ice goddess paused and sent a frosty glare that was a thousand degrees colder than the surrounding chunks of ice at Cain.

In a chilly voice that stirred up the surrounding waters, the goddess spat out a few words that sent terrible chills down Cain's spine,

"Strange Mortal, what are you doing in my kingdom?!"

'Crap!' Cain immediately knew he had gotten himself mixed with some unnecessary trouble...

"I Erh... Am... Well... You see..." Cain was immediately at a loss for words.

A deep blue light flashed within the goddess's eyes. Instantaneously, the mystical arrangement of icebergs around her gave off the same frightening blue glow. Cain felt the temperature of the surrounding ice drop again and again until he could no longer feel his limbs. Icy crystals began to form with incredible speed around him, causing Cain's eyes to widen in panic.

The changes were so abrupt and drastic, he wasn't even able to reason them out before he was trapped and bound with giant icy chains. With a flick of her wrists, the terrifying goddess had brought him before her...

"What are you, damned mortal?! Why do I feel... His presence around you?!" The previously frosty goddess had turned into a terrifying sea wraith. Looking at her up close, Cain was able to truly appreciate the beauty of this icy goddess despite taking his dying breaths.

'Damn it... So this is how I die?' Cain realized that the power of the goddess was so great, he was unable to do anything to resist. Such was the power of a divine Celestial being. A power that no moral being would ever be able to go against...

Cain had long since realized that his soul was the part of his existence that had to go through these strange encounters. He also knew how important his soul was...

Should anything bad happen to it, the best possible scenario was becoming a vegetable, never being able to have a comprehensive thought ever again in his life.

"Your soul gives off an aura of divinity, yet you certainly are but a mere mortal. Not only that... But all this should be impossible! There is no way my trace of HIM should remain in this plane of existence! He was destroyed by the Heavenly Golden Emperor!"

There was a hint of insanity within her eyes as the supposed divine being went on an unhinged ramble, completely forgetting about the dying Cain.

'SIGH...'

Cain who desperately held onto the last threads of his life before they slipped away was shocked to hear a deep sigh emanate from the depths of his soul...

"SEEMS LIKE ALL THIS DRAMA CAN'T BE AVOIDED FOR LONG, HUH..." Cain recognized the voice, quickly linking it back to its owner...

The Golden Dragon, Ashur!

At that moment, Cain suddenly went blank, losing nearly all his senses. For a moment, he thought he had finally given up the ghost and the grim reaper was about to come take him away...

Luckily or unluckily for him, his journey wasn't about to end so easily...

Just as he had accepted his fate, Cain noticed that all his senses had returned to normal. Looking around, he noticed that the icy hell around him had returned to its original state. The ice chains that had him bound were also nowhere to be seen...

"Eh? I'm not dead?" Cain muttered in a semi-dazed state.

"Yet..." Lyros, the War goddess of Frost said as she looked down at Cain from her throne of skulls.

"You aren't dead, yet... Depending on how well you can convince me to let your pitiful mortal soul exist any longer. Even though I am dead, have the power to wipe your soul out without leaving any traces..." Lyros said cruelly.

'Just what did I do to deserve such treatment from this goddess?' Cain could on loom y lament internally as he searched deeply for what he had done wrong.

"Err... May I ask the great goddess Lyros, what grave sin have I committed that is so deserving of such a fate?" Cain said in the most reasonable voice he could muster.

He really couldn't remember what grave mistake he had made since he had encountered the strange goddess. One moment he had thought he discovered a beautiful treasure, the next, he was about to be frozen to death by the frosty goddess...

"If I, the great Lyros, say you have sinned, then you have sinned. There is no need for you to do more than that..." Lyros said coldly, her cold gaze never leaving Cain.

"In that case... Come at me!" Cain with switching eyebrows as he took on a defensive posture.

'Damn it! Looks like I really will end up dead today.' Cain let out a sigh as he prepared for his death.

Silence...

Cain suddenly felt the terrible cold around him reduce by a few degrees, causing him to let out a sigh of relief. Cain stared in perplexity at the strange goddess who had just attempted to take his life just a moment ago.

"In all the eons of existence, never has it been recorded that an entity could survive a battle with the Golden Emperor. You truly are an anomaly, Dragon..." The previously cold glare of the icy goddess had been replaced by a warm stare that spooked Cain even more than her usual look...

"Hmm... I can't give you much as I have a limited amount of divinity, but perhaps this will be enough for you to remember me by. Perhaps one day, when my cycle of reincarnation is completed and you are still living, maybe, just maybe..." The Frost goddess said in a dreamy voice that made Cain even more confused than he already was.

'Just who is she talking to? This is getting crazier by the second...' Cain felt his mind about to explode from the sheer overload it was being put through...

However, before he was able to sort through what he had been dealt, he was hit with a full deck, right in the jaw!

His body was already incredibly close to the goddess, so what followed next happened so swiftly, Cain had no way of resisting...

A pair of soft lips, cold lips pressed down on his gently, causing Cain's mind to turn blank instantly. His body followed soon after. The goddess carefully pushed a breath of deep blue mist into Cain's mouth and his lungs and feet...

The kiss was brief, only lasting a few seconds, but it was enough to leave Cain deeply disoriented for a while.

Releasing him from her powerful hold, the unblemished won't skin of the goddess had taken on a shade of pink as she tried to hide her embarrassment by clearing her throat.

"I-I hope that will be enough... Besides, I have gathered a lot of divinity over the millennia, so just this bit wouldn't affect me too much. Consider this a debt you owe me..." Lyros said bashfully.

'W-What's this all about?!' Cain could feel all the things he termed as reason fade away.

Cain was shocked when he had nearly been brutally murdered by this insane goddess, but he was even more shocked when the same goddess that had tried taking his life just moments ago had forced herself onto him.

Although he couldn't deny he wasn't too unhappy with the last part...

"Young Dragon, you should know what awaits you as you have chosen this path... I certainly do hope you live long enough for us to reunite in the future..."

A sad smile hung from the lips of the peerlessly beautiful Frost goddess, causing Cain to feel a deep urge to comfort her. However, before he could succumb to that urge, he was forcibly dragged away by the same suction force that had brought him to the Frost goddess.

Cain could feel all sorts of emotions as he was dragged away...

'Who is that strange goddess? What is this all about? Why did all this happen? Who was she talking to? Was this a coincidence?' He had so many questions to ask, but no one to answer them...

Or so he thought...

Cain snapped his eyes open again, only to be greeted with a scene he was all too familiar with...

"LONG TIME NO SEE..."

The huge and majestic figure of Ashur stared Cain down into the gloaming void he had visited several times already...