God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Sheathing his blade, Cain stared at the slowly smoldering corpse.

Wrinkling his nose in disgust, he turned around.

The fight was swiftly reaching its conclusion. With no one to command them, the horde of zombies was already breaking down into aess of chaos. Of course, their common enemy still remained, but they no longer possessed the same level of organization they had under the command of the Devil.

Cain sighed, 'Something is off.'

For some reason, the fight had felt too easy. And too quick.

Was it that he had gotten too strong? Or were there far more sinister forces at play here?

Whatever it was, he couldn't help but feel distasteful about it.

Wiping the tar-like blood off his face with a rag, Hunter approached with a dark expression,

"The rest have been killed. All that's left is the clean up."

Cain nodded. Without saying anything else, he looked into his inventory.

Surprisingly, he had gotten a decent amount of loot from the previous battle.

He frowned, 'Could it be that killing zombies and Devils is more profitable than hunting Mutant Creatures?'

Sitting in his inventory right now, were two different runes, a special grade weapon, and a bottle of HP regen potion.

Compared to what he usually receives during battles, this outcome was impressive to say the least.

He sighed again, "Let's move as fast as possible. No more stops."

He stared at his shadow,

"Eva..."

From the shaded darkness, Evangeline crept forward. Her face was impassive as she wiped black blood off her dagger,

"What is it?"

Cain forced a frown back, 'Where was she during this fight? I didn't even catch a glimpse of her at all.'

Shaking his head, he spoke a second later,

"Can you scout forward? If there are any horses ahead, warm us in advance so we can avoid them?"

Evangeline paused, "And why is that?"

Cain crossed his hands,

"We need to make it to city as soon as possible. The best way to do this, is to avoid engaging as frequently as possible."

Evangeline nodded, "Alright."

With that, she stepped right back into the shadows.

Hunter suddenly gave him a strange glance.

Cain frowned, "What?"

Hunter hesitated for a second,

"You... Did you piss her off?"

Cain's eyes widened, "And where did you get that idea?"

Hunter shrugged, "I don't know. It just felt that way."

Cain sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day,

"I don't think so, at least to my knowledge."

Shaking his head, he continued,

"That can wait though. In the meantime, we have to hurry."

They soon both joined the others in harvesting the mana shards clean off the corpses of the zombies.

Once they were done, they embarked on their journey once again.

This time, they didn't encounter as many zombies as before thanks to Evangeline.

Cain seriously considered the fight between himself and the Devil, Greotes.

It had been shockingly brief, but it had revealed to him a lot of things he didn't know, or had been confused about.

For one, the Devils, or at least the one he had come in contact with was not as strong as he had expected.

It also seemed to be more human-like compared to the previous generation of Devils, although that was also a stretch, as human-like was still subjective.

For Devils, their strongest suit, is adaptability. For some reason, the human form and body was one they seemed to gravitate towards as being the most optimal in their circumstances.

Perhaps it was even the opposite way around, as Devils had been around for far longer than humans.

In any case, they had shed a lot of their initial monstrosity, and had taken on a more delicate form.

Thinking about the battle again, Cain shook his head.

'No... Not weak. But perhaps ill suited.'

Fighting against him, the Devil didn't really possess any advantage. Be it range, ability, diversity of skills, and even physicality; they were either equal, or the he had the upper hand.

This was excluding stats...

However, his broad range of physique boosting spells, skills, and abilities made it so that this stat advantage was rendered useless.

The situation was the same for the Mutant Beasts as well. Despite their robust stats, most of them didn't have abilities that boosted their physiques, and even if they did, it usually wasn't a prominent increase; usually a boost in speed, defense, or strength.

However, just {Azure Burst} alone increased Cain's base speed by four times. Coupled with {Burning Spirit} and things would start looking wicked for his foes.

Staring at the endless dark sky and the large moon that swallowed a portion of it, Cain forced his mind to get back on track.

So whatever advantage the Devil might have had was extinguished just like that.

This didn't mean all future cases would be the same. For all he knew, the Devils are just as diverse as humans. Meaning their skills, save for a few constants, would differ greatly.

At the end of the day, it didn't matter...

All he had to do was make sure he was prepared for anything.

***

At the sight of the last battle, the air was stagnant, and the rot oozing from the bodies of the dead undead was overpowering to say the least.

The body of the {Miasma Devil} lay still on the cold, coarse ground, untouched and unmoving...

...until it finally did.

At first, it was just a twitch. But if was followed by a series of full blown spasms.

The rot pervading the air swam into its body. The rotting bodies of the many zombies shriveled up, slowly turning into dry, white bones; much like the one of the bovine skeleton.

After a while, nothing was left but dried, hollow bones...

Even in their undeath, they were destined to be pilfered of the very last vestiges of life they possessed.

Eyes snapping open, Greotes shot up into a sitting position with a gasp. Sweat gathered on his forehead as he let out a hoarse scream, clutching at his neck.

Eventually, he finally calmed down.

He lived, not because of some strange divine intervention, but because of one of his abilities; {Heart Revival}.

A terrifyingly harrowing ability that defies the laws of life and death themselves.

By consuming the life, or in this case, the lack thereof, from the bodies of other living beings, the {Miasma Devil} is capable of rising back from the grave.

A truly supernatural ability, possessed only by ths Devils with above average potential.

Thinking back to the events leading to his death, Greotes remained calm for a few moments before getting up to his feet and brushing off the dust settled om his body.

Staring in the direction Cain and the others had left, a strange expression appeared on his face.

"So that's where they are headed."

The sound of wings flapping suddenly filled the air.

Turning his head, Greotes stared at the sky.

A large, winged creature descended, stirring a large amount of dust up.

Squinting, Greotes spoke through gritted teeth,

"I just fucking died, Dyrog. The least you can do is be careful."

A Devil with the face of a handsome human, but the body of a terrifying beast; magnificent leathery wings at its back, a body covered with reptilian scales, and blades forearms, with each blade extending almost a meter past its wrist.

To put it simply; a truly nightmarish abomination.

Staring at Greotes, Dyrog, the {Sky Devil} snorted,

"You got out into the ground by a human? Why should I show you any compassion? I should rip your freaking skull out of your head where you stand."

Greotes shook his head, "Now is not the time to exchange pleasantries, Dyrog."

Excitement burned within Greotes' eyes,

"That human... No. We can't call him human. Whatever he is. I can smell the stench of an ancestor on him. Not only that, but he might as well be trying to put his primordial bloodline on display for all to see."

Dyrog frowned, "So that was why you told me not to interfere?"

Greotes nodded, "Let us go back to the nest. Taking control of the humans on his planet will be easy, but who knows what sort of treasures we might unearth along the way."

Dyrog's frown deepened, "The stench of Devil blood on him is also thick. Perhaps this is what you perceive?"

Greotes chuckled as he rose to his feet. The many tentacles that had been destroyed were slowly regenerating, but it would likely take a lot of time.

In a raspy voice that wouldn't belong to a human, the Devil, Greotes spoke,

"Regardless of what it may be, I am curious to see how things will develop. As Devils, we are born with a drive; a hunger and passion for not just blood, but strength as well. This means we can employ any means to achieve it."

His eyes burned furiously with a deep cunning,

"We can cheat, backstab, dupe, and kill our way through. For as long as a Devil draws breath, the end goal is to obtain as much power as possible."

For Devils, while thekr grade could change, it remained stagnant for the most part.

The grade of a Devil or Mutant Beast greatly influences its rate of growth and potential. The higher the grade, the faster the creature acquires power.

However, for most creatures, grade drops after every ascension to the next Tier. This was only true for regular beings. Creatures of the Celestial grade do not see any drop at all as their ascend into their divine state of being.

Dyrog stared at the {Miasma Devil} before him. One with a mind and soul as poisonous as its body.

Perhaps if Cain had seen this, he would have been able to guess at what it was that had disturbed him greatly.

However, he would not come to know for a time, because as of now, he had officially arrived at City Z.

Or rather, what was left of it...