God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

'W-what is this?!' Cain struggled to keep holding onto the hilt of the blade.

'If I fall here, all this would be for naught!'

The voices from the past were like devils trying to drag his soul back to hell. He had tried so hard to leave his past behind, but it was all coming back to him.

'I won't let that happen!'

Suddenly, he could hear a faint roar coming from the depths of his soul. Within his eyes, the image of a gigantic golden dragon swam through the dark murky oceans of doubt, uncertainty, and fear.

Dark chains created from the waters of the murky ocean were wrapped around the golden dragon, keeping it from soaring into the skies...

But the eyes of the golden dragon were lit with an unquenchable flame. With a roar, it unceasingly struggled to break free from its shackles.

'ROAR!'

Cain felt the urge to let it all out, so he did...

Although the golden dragon was bound by those chains, it began to fly away. The chains pulled taut, trying to keep it down, but this time, it proved to be futile.

BANG!

All the chains snapped like flimsy threads...

Cain suddenly heard a shrill shriek from the depths of his mind. He could feel a foreign entity that he had been unaware of leaving his mind. Cain felt his heart speed up a little, but he decided to leave it until he had dealt with the issue at hand.

Cain pulled on the blade with all his might. The blade was gradually pulled away from the ground.

{+1 to Ki stat}.

Unknown to him, his entire body had begun to shine with a soft golden light that had a slight hue of crimson at its edges. Looking at him, one would think he had become a flame.

Finally, he was able to dislodge the blade and lift it a few inches from the ground. He quickly placed the blade back into his inventory. Having been freed from his burden, he collapsed heavily unto the ground with a thud.

"Ha... ha... ha..." He let out deep and long breaths as his sweat created a pool beneath his back.

'I did it.'

{Congratulations to the host... You have acquired a mysterious Ki plundering technique... Dragon's Gate}.

{+20 to Ki stat}

{+50,000 system points}.

{Dragon's Gate Ki plundering technique}:

Rank: Celestial

Tier: 0. (29/10,000) Ki points to the next Tier.

Description: An ancient magic has been discovered by the system within your soul, and has been forced out into the light. Use this mystic power to devour the essence of heaven and earth, and turn it into world-destroying fleshy might. When in use, 20 Ki points are plundered per hour.

Requirements: Can only be used when the host is not in battle mode. 200+ points in Magic, Strength, and Agility stats.

Costs: Consumes 10MP and 1 stamina point per minute.

***

Cain looked at the ability he had just attained with weary eyes. Despite his gains, his heart was still heavy.

'System, what was that just now?'

Although Cain knew he had yet to completely deal with the devils he had left behind in the past, he was sure he had hidden them deep within his heart, so deep, that he was sure they wouldn't come out unless they had been triggered by something to do so.

{Replying to host: The host was the victim of a devil attack}.

'Devil?!'

{Replying to host: Yes... Devil. A soul devil to be precise. Soul devils or phantasma are unique types of devils that can only be created by a brood mother.

The specialty of these devil's, are spiritual, or mental attacks}.

'So are you saying that this devil attempted to invade my mind?'

{Replying to host: Affirmative... And it almost succeeded. As your spirit stat isn't very high, it was almost successful in taking control of your mind.

Its ability is similar to that of the {Miasma Devil} you fought earlier, only the {Miasma Devil} makes use of a toxin to destroy the nervous system and brain of its target, Turing them into a flesh-eating ghoul that only acts in instinct.

The {Phantasma} makes use of Spirit attacks to infiltrate the soul of its target, taking control of their minds from within, without causing much physical damage...}

{Fortunately for the host, despite your weakness, your soul seems to be incredibly strong. So strong in fact, that the devil ended up harming itself in the process of trying to take over your soul}.

'It sure does have a lot of nerves to do that!' Cain was extremely pissed at this point. He had been forced to recall certain things he didn't want to remember, and that had ruined his mood completely.

'So where is it now?' Cain's vision was completely covered in red from the rage that seethed within him. He truly wanted to kill that devil instantly.

{Replying to host: Unfortunately, it escaped... {Phantasma's} have very strong souls, and although you did do it some damage, it was still able to survive and escape}.

'Damn it!' Cain cursed.

{Replying to host: However, since it was unsuccessful in its attack, it made its escape rather sloppily. Should the host be within its vicinity, the system will be able to pinpoint its location and provide it to the host for a fee in system points}.

'Sure...' Cain wasn't even in the mood to berate the system's greediness. He was ready to pay as much as was required to destroy whoever thought it was a good idea to attack him.

'Once I catch that bastard, I'll kill him!'

Sparks of golden and crimson flames flashed on his body as he clenched his fist, rage bubbling within his bowels.

A dark shadow erratically flitted across the sky. It created a disturbing buzzing noise as it darted across the sky. Beside it were three relatively small creatures the size of a large bowl. These creatures left a steady stream of darkness elemental mana in their wake.

If one looked at the sky, one would barely be able to register the figures of these creatures, apart from seeing just a very faint dark shadow.

The creature that raced across the sky was the Phantasma that had attacked Cain, while the smaller creatures were devils called {Sentinel Drones}.

They had dark shadowy eyes with red centers covering their entire body structure as well as thin tendrils of fleshy material dangling from underneath them. These tendrils moved through the air like tentacles, while their eyes moved erratically, scanning their surroundings constantly.

The {Phantasma} on the other hand looked even weirder. It possessed a head full of droopy hair strands, and a gem sitting at the center of its forehead. Its entire body was grey colored, as opposed to the usual pitch-black color of the devils.

Shockingly, it wasn't as ugly as the other devils but the aura of madness and savagery within its eyes was impossible to hide.

Dark red blood oozed from the corner of its lips, eyes, nose, and the gem on its forehead as it struggled to maintain its flight. The look of panic, fear, and hatred in its eyes was undeniable.

It gave a command in the devil tongue to the {Sentinel Drones} floating beside it.

Very quickly, they separated from its sides and floated away to other corners of the forest. Once they arrived at their destination, they quickly set out to carry out its commands.

They stopped at those odd-looking membranes of sap-covered trees that Cain and the others had come across. These membranes were smaller than the ones Cain had destroyed, but they possessed their general features. Its thorn-covered branches and vines had latched onto a very huge mutant wild cat.

This cat was covered in pitch-black fur, with numerous ocean-blue patterns etched across its surface.

Traces of water elemental energy poured out from its body, as it tried to activate skill after skill to escape. Yet, it was unable to do so, as the vines and branches kept contracting, breaking its incredibly tough bones and just suffocating it to death.

The thorns were hollow, and as soon as they found flesh to penetrate, they began sucking all the blood out from the struggling beast.

Despite its wails and cries, it continued to suffer undeserved agony until it finally gave up the ghost.

Several sickening crunches and loud slurping sounds were heard as the once enormous body frame was reduced to a corpse in an instant.

The dried-up husk fell to the forest floor as soon as the grotesque entity was done with sitssmeans sickly green light shone on the thorns, as its roots and trunk bulged as the blood of the mutant beast was stored and refined into an even purer form of blood elemental mana within it.

Once all that was done, the {Sentinel Drones} floated towards the entity and quickly latched onto the trunk of the entity with the tendrils of flesh floating beneath them. These tendrils easily pierced through the fleshy bark of mutated organic material.

The organism didn't make a move to attack them. It let them perch on its body as though it didn't even acknowledge their existence. Meanwhile, the {Sentinel Drones} were busy using their tendrils of flesh to suck out the nutritious fluid from within the tree trunk.

InAllround, there were numerous organic beings just like this one gathered together, and connected through the roots going through the ground.

They all had thousands of these {Sentinel Drones} and many other weird-looking devil species in cocoons, pods, and many other weird incubation structures attached to them.

Just looking at them was enough to force the contents of one's stomach to the ground. The sap-like fluid oozing out of them acted like a sort of adhesive for the creatures that was latched onto their bodies, making it easier for them to feed.

In the distance, numerous {Bladed Devils} and {Bladeless Devil Imps} were dragging corpses of mutant beasts of all shapes and sizes to be fed to these grotesque entities. There were even a few human corpses among the offerings being made.

Meanwhile, the Phantasma ignored all this and flew even deeper toward the center of the forest. The forest had grown even bigger. The trees had become taller and had begun expanding further and further away from its borders.

At the center of the forest, a nest crawling with various devils was being created. The nest was shaped like a hive, with the newly born devils breaking away from their silver silver-colored, and being ushered into a world of violence and destruction.

They were forced to fight amongst each other as soon as they were born, with the victor devouring the loser. That way, each devil that was born would only survive through endless bloodshed, increasing its violent nature.

Only the strongest devil would survive and be granted life...

The Phantasma ignored all this and flew deeper into the nest. Oddly enough, the center of the nest was quiet and was just a large patch of barren land.

Seated there directly in the center of the nest, was a huge behemoth of terror.

It was a creature that could only be found in the most perverse of nightmares and depths of hell...

The origin of life for most low-class devils, The broodmother...

The Phantasma landed directly before the brood mother and fell flat onto the ground. Blood still flowed steadily from its orifices, but it forced itself to kneel as it prostrated towards the broodmother.

It spoke in the devil tongue with a hoarse deep voice,

"Mother... I found him."