God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Luke stared at the apocalyptic scene before him.

"Good God..." The words fell out of his mouth before he even knew what he was saying.

Winfred's face was pale, "T-the mana flow here has gone haywire. If he go any further, I won't be able to activate any spells!"

Cain's act of activating {Frost Temple} and {Infernal Celestial Art: Supernova} had not only changed the oceanscape. It had also caused the mana and mana flow patterns in the surrounding area to go haywire.

It was like throwing a huge glacier into an active volcano on the verge of eruption. Activating a spell here would be akin to trying to see through the steam such an exothermic reaction would have created.

"What could have caused this? Didn't you say this is where the fight is?!" Reginald turned to Winfred and asked frantically.

Winfred's brows furrowed, "I'm... I'm not so sure anymore. Perhaps an underwater volcano just erupted?"

"That won't explain the freaking iceberg, would it?!" Reginald yelled.

Winifred winced covering his ears, "Don't yell, you brute!"

"Unbelievable..." One of the men that followed them exclaimed.

Another squinted, "I... I think there's someone there!"

Luke and Winifred exchanged glances.

"Let's go!" Luke said, his voice grim.

Winifred sighed. His will went forward and along with it, a stream of steadily freezing water, turning to a glacial platform.

***

Cain stared at the group of people approaching him.

"Hm? Isn't that... What was his name again?" Cain said to himself as he silently watched Luke and his entourage approached.

Seated on Ruby's back, he let out a sigh and retrieved a weapon from the {Armament Armory}.

Once they were close enough, Luke finally saw Cain's face clearly,

"You..."

However, that was not where his focus was. Instead, it was on the weapon in Cain's hands, or to be precise, Guy's weapon, {12th Regent's Bloody Battle-axe}.

Before he had left the scene of the battle, Cain had the chance to retrieve the weapon, which had surprisingly been completely scratch free despite the fact that Guy had used the weapon to try stopping {Supernova}.

It was a weapon with a Celestial's Blessing, so it was bound to be powerful.

***

{12th Divine Regent's Bloody Battle-axe}:

Attack Power: 150.

Attack Speed: 2.0.

Durability: N/A.

Description: The Bloody God's territory is ruled by his regents. Agents of chaos that expand his domain to all reaches of the universe. Of the thousands of regents, the ones who hold the most power, are the divine Twelve. This axe once belonged to the twelfth regent, but was abandoned for some reason.

Skills: Unbreakable, Blood Coalesce, Wicked Ki Aura.

{Unbreakable}: Due to a Divine Enchantment, this weapon is very difficult to damage.

{Blood Coalesce}: Imbued with the power of Blood Origins, this weapon siphons blood elemental energy from the host to boost the weapon's attack power and speed.

{Wicked Ki Aura}: Leaks out a Ki strain that intimidates those with weaker bearings than the host.

***

It was even better than the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} in terms of stats. Its skill, {Unbreakable} was what gave it its incredible durability. With that, it could even endure a devastating attack like {Supernova}.

{Blood Coalesce} had been used numerous times by Guy during their battle. However, Cain could tell that the third skill, hadn't activated.

'Does that mean my will is just as strong as his was, perhaps even greater?'

Cain stared at the weapon for a while, then stared at Luke who glared at him with a strange expression.

"You..."

Cain frowned, "What are you lot doing here?"

Reginald took a step forward, his eyes blazing with flames,

"Did... you killed him?"

Cain understood immediately. He nodded,

"I did."

Cain's words hammered shock into their heads.

"He... he what?!"

"I can't believe it. Just like that..."

"Lies... It has to be a lie!"

Cain grew even more confused,

'What's going on with these fools?'

What was the big deal? He had just gotten rid of a scumbag. If he recalled, the leader of this group staring him down seemed to have some type of grudge against Guy.

'Coild it be they are upset I stole their kill?' Cain could only speculate.

"Luke..." Winifred turned to stare at Luke, who's face was as white as a sheet of paper.

Luke took in a deep breath,

"You did it by yourself?"

Cain turned down to stare at Ruby. Then turned back to Luke,

"Of course not. The bear helped me."

Luke finally noticed Ruby for the first time.

"I see..."

He had accumulated power, killed numerous Mutant Beasts for one reason alone...

To put Guy down himself. Now that was just a fleeting dream.

"Still... To think you would go ahead and do this. I thought you said you weren't interested in all this fighting?"

Cain shook his head, "Indeed, I wasn't. However, the bastard messed with me, so I put him down."

Cain's words sent a shiver down their spines. Although he didn't look particularly ferocious, the aura radiating from the crimson axe in his hand filled them with a hint of dread. Rather than an axe, it appeared more like a grim reaper's scythe.

"This..."

'Just like that...'

"This is bullshit! We came all the way here for nothing!"

"Relax. We've gotten what we came for. Now that the place is unguarded, this would be the best time to go and rescue the others." Winifred said, adjusting his glasses with a slight push up his nose.

"But!"

"That's enough, Reggie. Cain, was it?" Luke shut Reginald up, then directed his gaze at Cain.

Staring into his eyes, Cain could sense all his conflicting emotions. However, they had nothing to do with him,

"Let's not waste any time. If you think you can take me, bring it on. Although that bastard was a work out, I can assure you there's a lot more where that came from."

That was a slight bluff...

Although he could still activate {Golden Devil Wyrm: Aura}, he would rather not do that. The last time he did in his battle against Lord Crimson, his mind has been almost consumed by the skill. It had been a rather harrowing experience, and he would rather not go through it again if there was a choice.

And while he did have a bit of mana and Ki left, he could tell that it would not be enough against this group as they had a few extraordinary characters.

As such, he could only bluff his way out of a rather troublesome situation.

"We don't intend on doing that. However, there's still a few things I'd like to ask you."

Cain sighed and waved his hand dismissively,

"Sure, but that can wait, can't it?"

Luke, a bit taken aback, nodded.

"I have a few things to take care of, so we will talk later."

"Wait!"

Cain, a bit annoyed now, turned around,

"What is it this time?"

"You want to go back to the island, right? Let's go back together."

Cain paused for a bit, then nodded. He saw no reason to refuse as he couldn't sense any ill will towards him from any member of this entourage.

"Luke..." Reginald seemed a bit apprehensive, but Winifred merely attend his hand.

"Let's go back, men. There's nothing left for us to do here."

With that, they all turned around and began making their way back towards the island.

If it had been a few months earlier, seeing a huge black bear running across ice that seemed to appear from nowhere would have raised more than a few eyebrows.

However, no one seemed to care too much. Instead, they were more fascinated with Ruby's size and thick black coat.

Cain let the cold wind stream across his face as Ruby ran through the water.

"How strong was he?"

Cain turned and stared at Luke who stared back fearlessly.

'He isn't affected by the axe's aura.'

Cain was silent for a few seconds before replying,

"Very. It could have honestly gone either way, but I ended up with the upper hand after a stroke of luck."

Luke wanted to call bullshit, but refrained from doing so.

He was convinced that the scene they had seen was solely Cain's handiwork.

"Then... How do you think we would have done against him?" Luke asked honestly.

Cain stared at him with raised brows,

"How would I know? I've never seen you fight, no?"

Luke looked a bit embarrassed, "Ah... That's true."

Cain shook his head. From what he could see, if Luke and his entourage fought Guy, there was a good chance they would come out on top.

However, that would be at the steep cost of most of their lives. Cain truly believed that the fight would have gone either way against Guy if he hadn't used {Elemental Vault}.

However, since the Vault was a part of his strength, he still considered it his win.

Eventually, they had traveled far enough to see the shoreline of the island.

The entire place was a true battle zone with the roars of the Mutant Beasts rising to the sky.

Cain's eyes quickly scanned through the place and his eyes fell upon a scene that filled him with a biting cold.