God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The blow shook the world.

At the same time, the black dome shattered into a million pieces, dispelling its shroud.

The City was huge, and while the black dome was big, it didn't even cover three percent of the entire City.

Still, that didn't mean the strange events happening there were overlooked.

Thousands of Devils were already rushing towards the area by the time the barrier broke, revealing what had been going down behind the veil.

"Crap! Where the hell is Cain?!" Floki yelled, bashing the head of a bat-like {Sky Devil} in.

Hunter jumped, landing on the side of a toppled building. He squinted, his gaze directed towards the distance,

"I think I might know where he is, but going there right now might lead to all of us dying."

"Damn it-" Like cursed, but as the words came out of his mouth, a blazing explosion rocked the world.

Rollo frowned, trying to stay on his feet,

"What was that?"

Hunter shook his head, his eyes sparkling with magical light,

"I have no idea. The dust is too thick to see through, even with magic enhanced eyes."

"Well, this is a freaking terrible situation." Floki said, slowly moving backwards.

Just a few seconds later, the black dome covering them shattered into a million pieces.

Hunter sighed, then sheathed his blades. He turned to the rest,

"Fuck it. Run for your lives!"

Without even explaining where to, Hunter spun on his heels and sprinted right for the center, right where the terrible explosion had originated from just a few seconds ago.

"Hunter, you bastard! You just said we'll die if we go there?!" Luke cursed.

Hunter shrugged as he ran,

"Cain might still be alive. Of he is, we might be able to get out of here alive. But if we stay here..."

Luke gulped down a lump stuck in his throat. Glancing back just briefly, he thought he saw the entire host of hell snapping at his heels.

The Devils seemed uncountable, rushing at them from all directions. There was no way to fight something like that. They'd be crushed in mere seconds.

"Fuck. This is terrible." Manny said, barely breaking a sweat even with all the running.

Hunter raised a brow at him, clearly surprised.

Manny sighed, "Why are we running?! Don't you think this is our prime chance to make a heroic last stand. One, two... Five! Five men against five thousand Devils! Even though we do not make it out alive, our story will live on for eons to come!"

Luke pushed the words through gritted teeth,

"There'll be no one to tell our story if we all died, idiot!"

Manny shrugged, "That's just a minor setback."

Hunter sighed, his eyes turning a bit cold,

"Forget about commiting suicide, there's a good chance we might actually die here. He prepared for anything."

Up ahead was a huge cloud of dust, thicker than the hazy darkness covering the sky, unbreakable by the silver sheen of the moon.

Coming to an abrupt halt, all five young men scanned the area briefly.

"You're right. I can't see anything here." Rollo said coldly.

Hunter closed his eyes and muttered a few words in a strange tongue.

A magic circle appeared on the ground, and a huge, white wolf with unblemished fur and an eye embedded in its forehead appeared.

"Go."

Hunter's eyes were a disturbing shade of white the moment the wolf was summoned. Wasting no time, the white wolf dashed into the thick smoke and dust cloud.

"Follow me. Don't go too far."

With that, they all plunged into the cloud of dust and smoke.

***

Pain is a universal language...

All beings born with a breath feel pain in one way or the other. Because it is vital.

It serves as a warning for the body to stop a certain action, or in some cases prevent a certain action from influencing it.

A burn, for example, is so painful, that a human reflexively runs from flames when faced with it.

A splinter grants enough pain for a human to proceed with caution when engaging in woodwork.

Some pain can be managed, others fought against and resisted. Others, on the other hand, could be very overwhelming. So much, that the being experiencing such pain wishes for death instead.

Whatever blade Inixth used was incredibly sharp, and had pierced clean through his lungs, also damaging his liver as well.

Feeling his life drain from his body alongside blood, Cain wanted to laugh, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a wheezing sound, followed by a bloody coughing fit.

'Fuck. Not again.'

Hw could feel it. Death was swiftly approaching for him.

However, he didn't fear it.

Because he knew death wasn't the end for him.

Rather, what made him scared, was she fate the others would face when he died. What would happen to them? Would they meet the same fate as he did? Or would the escape?

He knew not everyone could be as fortunate, or rather unfortunate as him, rising up from the dead like a zombie.

Either way, he couldn't avoid this fate...

The smoke and dust mixed together to create a temporary cloud of smog that was very hard to dispell for the moment.

Meaning if he was lucky, his final moments could be peaceful.

The faint sound of footsteps entered his ears as a faint feeling of exhaustion began to envelope him.

"Crap! He's dying!"

'Hm? Is that Lukas?' Cain thought.

"I can see that! Just shut up and stand back!"

'Hm? Eva is here as well? So they've finally come? However, it's too late. Perhaps if they had come a few seconds earlier...'

His body gradually turned cold. His soul was slowly departing.

Lukas stared at Cain's eyes coldly. Clicking his tongue, he turned to Evangeline, who knelt beside Cain's now frigid form.

"Well, looks like you've gotten what you wanted."

Evangeline remained silent, her face partially hidden by her fallen hair.

Lukas sighed, then shrugged,

"Well, that's one problem taken care of. He's dead. No amount of waiting will bring him back."

Although Lukas hasn't expected it, the reality wasn't something he couldn't expect.

Cain wasn't his friend, or someone close to him. Rather, they were more enemies than friends even, so he didn't feel anything upon his death, save for a little disappointment and exasperation.

'It's all because of her too.'

Lukas had no idea why she had waited this long to swoop in. Perhaps if they had gotten here earlier, then perhaps they would have been able to stop this.

Despite his words, Evangeline remained silent, her eyes carefully observing Cain.

Lukas sighed, his expression turning a bit uncomfortable,

"Look, he's dead. We have to go now."

Evangeline sighed. Without saying anything, she picked Cain's corpse up,

"Let's go."

Lukas stared at her incredulously,

"You plan on bringing his corpse with us?!"

Evangeline glared at him,

"He isn't dead."

Lukas nearly pulled out an entire handful of blond hair,

"What do you mean he isn't dead?! He's deader that dead! Look at him! Cold, pale skin, glassy eyes, punctured organs... I'd say that very well fits into the dead category."

Evangeline shook her head,

"You'll understand sooner or later. For now, we have to hurry. If we waste any more time, we might all truly die here."

With that, Evangeline began running.

Lukas stared at her receeding back blankly, unsure of what to do.

A few seconds later, he muttered a silent curse and followed behind.

Meeting up with Evangeline a few seconds later, he spoke up,

"So what's the plan?"

Evangeline spoke softly,

"We meet up with the others and I use {Shadow Gate} to transport everyone away from here."

Lukas nodded, "That seems like a solid plan. There's only one problem."

His eyes narrowed dangerously,

"The range of your {Shadow Gate}, or whatever probably doesn't extend beyond the City. So if we end up in another part of the City, isn't that just delaying the inevitable? Unless..."

Evangeline nodded,

"Me and Cain have already discussed it."

Lukas raised a brow, "When?"

Evangeline paused for a few seconds...

Lukas sighed, "Nevermind. So his plan was to die? That doesn't sound like a very good plan to me."

Evangeline ignored him, and continued running.

Until eventually...

The sound of metal clashing against metal rang in their ears.

Chains of shadows spring out of the ground, grasping the Devils surrounding the three girls.

Taking advantage of this, Roselle turned into a streak of light, separating the heads of the last of the Devils surrounding them from their heads in one fell swoop.

She fell to her knees simultaneously with the headless corpses of the Devils.

Evangeline walked up to them,

"Good to see you all in good health. Several things have come up, so we have to speed the plan up."

Susan, Jenny, and Roselle were covered in all sorts of injuries, ranging from bruises to deep lacerations. However, they all seemed unbothered by their wounds as they stared at the person in Evangeline's arms.

"He's..." Susan said with wide eyes.

Evangeline shrugged, "He's just sleeping. He exhausted his mana."

Lukas clicked his tongue internally, 'Liar.'

Susan sighed, then spoke firmly,

"In that case, we'll leave it to you."

Evangeline nodded,

"Follow me."

A few seconds later, them met up with Hunter and the rest.

Staring at Cain in Evangeline's arms, Hunter's face turned strange,

"Is he..."

Evangeline shrugged, "Sleeping? Yes."

Hunter obviously wasn't buying it, but he chose not to say anything in the meantime.

"Alright, we are all here. What's next?"

Evangeline gently put Cain to the ground,

"Now? We get out of here."

Then the dust died down, and the smoke cleared up, the only traces left by the humans were a few dried up bloodstains, and a few thousand angry Devils.