God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Once the gates of the {Elemental Vault} were opened, the element tapped into must run its course to completion.

Cain had broken the hold the vault had on the elemental star of metal trapped within the vault. Contained within this miniature star was a frightening amount of power. More than the sun of all the mana within his mortal body.

A Spirit's worth of mana...

Cain stared up at the sky, his eyes a bit glazed. The black dome created by him was already covered in cracks, courtesy of Obegrin, the {Sky Devils}.

Any moment from now, it was going to be destroyed.

But before then, Cain decided he was going to wreck the maximum amount of damage possible.

And so, he called upon the element of metal.

Cain was intimately familiar with this element. Although the metal he created appeared to be gold, it wasn't. Its lustre was golden, but it didn't have the same properties as gold.

It was many times harder, more malleable, and former the sharpest of blades.

In fact, it wasn't exactly a metal. It was more of metallic essence. A material that granted metals their nature. Or perhaps, not so much a material, but rather a strain of mana.

Cain's eyes were filled with magnificent golden light as the sky overhead was suddenly radiated with a golden sheen coming from a magic circle as wide as the hemispherical dome.

The golden arms holding Inixth were shattered as the Devil rose back to its feet...

"Well, isn't this something?" The Devil muttered in amazement as it stared at the magic circle unfolding in the sky.

He then stared at Cain,

"To think a human such as yourself can summon this sort of magic. A spell? No, something more than that."

His eyes glowed with Devilish light. A grin spread across the Devil's face,

"Isn't this something? A direct link to the Realm of Spirits? In a human? To think I'd see something like this one day..."

"However..."

A mysterious glow suddenly poured from Inixth's body, drenching the world around him in black light.

"Just because you can summon magic of this scale doesn't mean you can use it. Quantity and quality aren't the same. This power is better suited in the hands of a Tier 2 being capable of wielding it, not a brat."

Inixth chuckled, "Or perhaps in a being that will soon become a god."

Staring at his clawed fingers, Inixth balled his fist. He stared at Cain,

"Human, I am about to show you what true power looks like."

Cain spoke through gritted teeth,

"The name's Cain, you damned bastard!"

Unable to hold it in anymore, Cain unleashed the calamity he had summoned.

He roared,

"Divine Essence of Metallurgy: Golden Firmament!"

And this, the sky became gold...

The world was diffused with metallic light, as a seemingly uncountable number of golden swords, as tall and wide as a man, fell from the top of the black dome like rain drops.

The {Divine Essence of Metallurgy} skill, much like Evangeline's {Shadow World} skill was a very unique skill.

To call it a skill was not very accurate, as it was more of a guide for mana application than anything else.

Within {Shadow World}, all sorts of other skills and spells deceived using {Shadow World} as its base could be used.

It was the same for {Divine Essence of Metallurgy}. Except for grossly modified skills and spells, any of his abilities, skills, or spells connected with the metal element was simply a sub skill of the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy}.

Staring at the sky of gold, Inixth put on a serious expression.

The aura of darkness, tainted with speckles of green gushed out of his body like a locust plague, penetrating the world and filling it with a vile madness.

His Devilish features expanded; fangs elongated, claws extended, scales became more pronounced, and horns protruding from his temples.

With a loud roar, the Devil stomped against the ground, creating a wide crater. Its malevolence power gushed out of its body and onto its scythe.

The faint image of a collosal being manifested behind the Devil. An insane amount of mana was released from its body, before exploding forth in a single direction.

The sky of golden swords concentrated into a single stream, rushing towards Inixth.

At the same time, the tsunami of dark, wicked power rushed at the storm of blades.

Almost immediately, the wave of darkness was crushed, with little no changes within the sky of gold.

However, Inixth's wide grin showed that things weren't over just yet.

Because another wave of black crashed into the sky of gold a moment later. Then another. And another, and another and another and another...

Reality seemed to break under the constrains of Inixth's speed as the Devils swung its giant scythe hundreds of times in the span of seconds.

The ground beneath him shattered again as the tsunami of dark waves became an entire ocean.

The Sky of Gold against the Sea of Darkness.

Cain gritted his teeth, 'I know where my energy is from. Where exactly is his coming from?!'

Inixth's speed continued to rise as he whittled the Sky of Gold away from existence.

Much to Cain's dismay, he found, that for the first time ever, the power within his Vault had failed to kill a target.

This event caused him to change the way he viewed Devils. As it would turn out, the reason he had been having a field trip killing these Devils was because they were the fodder.

The real powerhouses were still sitting back, enjoying the show for now. Cain could only wonder just how Devils of higher ranks would be. To crown it all off, the higher their Tier was, the more deadly they would become.

Still, although Inixth was impressive, and his power was definitely awe-inspiring, he didn't exactly have what it took to stall an entire sky's worth of golden blades.

Using the power of metallic control, Cain broke off a portion of the golden sky and brought it towards the ground again.

With only one weapon in hand, Inixth couldn't fend off the second stream. He was forced to disengage in order to preserve his life.

Leaping backwards, Inixth watched as the ground was scourged by the tempest of golden blades.

Buildings were trimmed down by the dozens, and multiple craters were being created by the second due to the descending blades.

A cloud of dust was quickly raised into the sky.

Some of them chased after the retreating Devil, giving Cain the time he needed to recover himself.

Falling to his knees, his sweat dripped down his forehead.

'Damn it. Even that wasn't enough?'

Knowing that the Devil wouldn't leave him be, he decided it was about time things rounded up.

Just as he was about to reach out to Hunter, a sinister feeling enveloped his body.

It was the feeling of death.

He had experienced it once before, so it was more like an old for than an unfamiliar friend.

Cain slowly shifted his gaze to a certain area within the haze of dust.

There, something shine as bright as a star.

"Fuck me."

BOOM!

The heavens and the earth shook.

A beam of fiery death was shot at Cain.

'Block it!'

That was the first thought that passed through his mind.

However, he quickly threw that plan away. There was no way he was going to block this thing, even if the ability was augmented by the power within his Vault.

It was fundamentally on a whole other level. It would be like trying to stop a tsunami with a brick wall.

And so, he did what any normal human would have done.

He attempted to dodge. With whatever power was left in him, he jumped to the side.

The beam struck the black dome that covered the earth and the sky behind him, puncturing a hole in it.

Although he had just escaped from the beam, Cain felt the cool fingers of death wrapping around his neck still.

His eyes widened.

And then, he felt it.

The feeling of a blade sliding in between his ribs, puncturing a vital organ.

'Damn it.'

While he was still in the air, dodging the beam of fiery death, Inixth had taken advantage of the prime opportunity to sneak behind him and attempt a fatal strike.

The blade was cold, and the pain didn't come all at once.

Cain gathered whatever strength was left in his body.

Ignoring whatever consequences there may be, he activated the Flame Enchantment of {Burning Spirit}.

Blood spurted out of his nose and mouth as he reached behind him, tightly grabbing Inixth by the arm.

{Gihenai} manifested into existence, wrapping themselves around his arms. The ever-scourging flames poured from them, wrapped within the terrible fire of a burning soul.

Inixth had taken advantage of this prime opportunity to sink his teeth into his prey.

However, this prey also had teeth, and could bite back.

With a roar, Cain turned around, and smashed his fist into the Devil's face.