God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Once they were all gathered, David was the first to speak.

"Before we do anything else, we need to clean up," said David in a grave voice.

A large number of dead mutant creatures covered the entire courtyard of the building, up to the outskirts of the forest.

"Can't we just leave them here? I don't want to do anything else. I'm still sore from all that fighting. I'm also very hungry..." Vincent rolled his shoulders and rubbed his stomach with a pout.

"Quit being so lazy!" Manny said with an eye roll.

Vincent's eyes twitched in anger, "Get off my case, would you?!"

"That's enough, you guys. This is serious." Seeing the expression on David's face turn even more serious, they quickly behaved, their faces turning serious. From the tension in the air, they could sense that something was up.

Turning to the others, David pointed at the dead mutants lying on the ground, "If we leave them here, they will begin to decompose. And once that happens, not only will the smell be unbeatable, but there is also the risk of deadly diseases being spread.

Hence, I suggest we grab whatever we think is valuable from their corpses and think of a way to dispose of them properly."

"I think I will be able to help with that. My flames are effective when it comes to burning things up." Blaze said all too seriously.

"I think I might be able to help as well." Cain butted in. He offered his help not because his intentions were pure, but because those mutant beast corpses were somewhat valuable to him.

Technically, not the corpses, but their blood...

He figured that everyone would have gotten all the mana shards from the mutants they had killed, so the only thing of true importance to him would be the beast's blood. He needed it mainly for {Blood Ingestion Regeneration} and the {Bloodlust} skill of the {Devil's Broken Claw}.

The skills had a lot of potential, but that potential could only be fulfilled with the right resources. The mutants he had killed were barely enough to satiate the hunger of the {Devil's Broken Claw}.

"That's good," David said with a troubled smile.

"That won't be necessary..."

Before the conversation could progress any further, they were all interrupted by Hunter who had a very grave face. Beside him was Dan, who had an even graver face on.

"What do you mean by that? And this better not be another one of your nasty plans to cause division!" Blaze lashed at Hunter. He was still sore over his previous defeat, so he was a bit salty toward Hunter.

However, Hunter paid him no attention at all. Instead, his face was a shade darker than it usually was.

Cain quickly put on a frown. If there was anything he disliked, it was being uninformed...

Cain walked up to Hunter and Dan, "Spill it. What is going on."

He didn't say anything, but apparently, Dan knew what he was on about.

"I think you all should see for yourselves."

***

Cain and the rest stood in shock as they gazed at the extremely grotesque and abominable thing they were looking at.

"No freaking way!" Vincent took a few steps back in disgust, while the others simply stared at it with disgusted faces. They all gave the grotesque entity before them a very wide berth.

"What the hell is this?!" Manny couldn't help but exclaim out loud.

Even Cain had an expression on his face that was halfway disgusted and halfway curious.

'What the hell is this thing?' Cain knew what he was seeing, but he didn't know how to explain it.

A whole section of the forest before their eyes had turned into a gigantic membrane of twisted gnarly trees covered in some sort of sticky sap-like fluid that was eating the corpses of the nearby mutants.

The dead mutants on the ground were being dragged by slowly slithering vines and branches into the thick membrane where they were latched onto by huge thorns.

These huge thorns that were attached to the membrane of trees sucked all the nutrients from the corpses, turning them into dried husks in a matter of seconds.

With each passing second, the huge veiny branches pulled in more and more corpses from the surroundings. And the most frightening part of this was that the huge grotesque structure of trees was growing at a visible rate.

'System, what the hell am I looking at?'

{Replying to host: The creature you are looking at is an anomaly...}

'Creature? That thing is a living being?'

{Replying to host: Negative... This creature is an extension of an even larger creature. As for the reason for its existence, that cannot be concluded, as there is too little information being provided at the moment}.

'What is all this about needing information?'

{Replying to host: The system can only give the host feedback based on the information that is already preexisting, or information attained by the host, or even both simultaneously.

However, the system cannot work with an added element of mystery or uncertainty. In this case, too many options exist Ann at once to be able to draw a reasonable conclusion without more information being provided}.

'I see...' Cain felt his understanding of the system suddenly increases exponentially.

"I'm gonna try cutting it down!" Manny said, a bizarre light flashing through his eyes.

"Wait! Don't-" Before anyone could say anything, Manny had already dashed off faster than the wind.

He tore through the air like a beam of light, and in no time at all, he stood directly before the weird and disgusting membrane of trees.

Manny pulled his blades out from his inventory and slashed down in quick succession onto the gnarly roots.

PUSHI!

A fountain of blood sprayed out from the now-damaged roots. Before anyone could even take their next breath, the vines and branches that were carrying a whole buck of corpses rapidly got rid of their burdens and launched themselves at Manny faster than a bullet.

"This fool..." All the others could do was watch this unfold.

The thorny branches whipped at him with a vengeance, but with a smug grin, Manny dodged them all and then brought his blade up again, slicing at his attackers like the blades of a chainsaw.

"Tempest Blade!" The element of wind quickly circulated his blades as his attack speed spiked up drastically.

In a split second, all the attacking tree parts were torn to shreds, a thick and viscous blood-like substance splattering onto the ground from the severed stubs.

With a graceful twirl, Manny tuner around to face the others, an arrogant grin on his face.

"See? I told you there's nothing to worry about-" His mouth wasn't even done closing before a huge barrage of thorny tentacles swarmed at him.

"Shit!" Manny exclaimed in surprise. He retrieved his swords and began hacking at them. He was even more surprised to see that the vines he had cut down had begun to regenerate rapidly.

"Shouldn't we go help him?" Seeing the pitiful condition Manny was already in, she couldn't help but ask.

"Nope."

"He got what he deserved."

"Serves that brute right!"

Even those who didn't say anything all had a look of agreement on their faces.

BANG!

Manny was suddenly sent flying by one of the large tree branches. If he hadn't been guarded against the beginning, that strike would most likely have taken a few inches off his life.

"Damn! That hurt!" Manny said as he rubbed his sore butt from having fallen on it.

"Haha! Serves your right for just charging headfirst towards death like a mole." Vincent laughed heartily at the sight of Nanny's distress.

"Tch!"

"That's enough you two," David said while massaging his temple. "Do any of you guys have any suggestions now?"

'Looks like David's already fed up.' Cain couldn't help but think in his mind.

"I don't think my flames will be enough to take this thing down," Blaze said with a contemplated look on his face.

"My skills won't work against something like this," Hunter said gruffly.

"Mine neither," Dan said as well.

"My skills are all single target, so I doubt they can even harm whatever the hell this is," Susan said with scrunched-up brows.

"Leave it to me." A voice that no one expected to hear suddenly rang within their ears.

Without waiting for anyone's acknowledgment, she simply walked toward the weird creature.

"What the hell is she doing?" Vincent whispered.

"One of my skills is called {Blood Manipulation}. It allows me to control the blood of the living and unloving beings." Evangeline said without even turning around.

"Did the ice princess have a change of heart? Look at her, being so vocal..." Steve said in a somewhat bewildered tone.

'I wonder what she's getting at...'

Since the first day he noticed her, Cain had thought Evangeline was an enigma. Not only was she cold and distant towards everyone, but he had also caught her staring at him weirdly on more than one occasion, which he found to be disturbing.

All of a sudden, she had become incredibly vocal...

'I shouldn't dwell too much on this issue. I have bigger things to worry about.'

"Let me try something out," Cain said before he walked towards the weird plant creature as well.

"Boss! Don't tell me you've gone crazy as well!" Vincent cried out.

"Maybe I have, who knows..." Cain responded with a mysterious smile.

'Hahaha... As expected. This guy has more secrets than he's willing to share. I have a feeling that if I stick with him, I'll gain a lot more than expected.' Vincent let out a sinister chuckle as this thought ran through his head.

"Weirdo..." Manny took a step away from him while giving him the side eye.

"Bastard!"

They all stared with bated breath as Cain and Evangeline inched closer to the grotesque entity.