God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain had never imagined this situation was what would play out. In his mind, he always thought that events concerning him could only play out in two directions. Either he had his way without spilling blood, or red rivers ran...

'Am I still so immature that I thought things would play out smoothly?'

Just before he heard the bang, Cain was able to get a good picture of the things happening within the room.

To the side, Steve and Blaze were fighting a hard battle against Sue and Stan. Blaze and Stan clashed in an intense melee battle, their weapons barely leaving afterimages behind.

The golden engravings on Stan's wide-framed blade glowed with a sharp metallic luster creating sparks with each collision with Blaze's spear.

A silver coating of metal enveloped his entire body like a suit of armor. That way, he was able to stand against the intense heat of the flames created by Blaze.

Meanwhile, Blaze was like wildfire, his attacks unquenchable and terrifying, although he managed to restrain them in order not to affect the building.

If Blaze was like a great flame, Stan was like a steady mountain. The vibrations of their clashes caused loose cement and dust to fall from the walls and ceiling.

David stood with his back to Blaze behind a translucent crimson shield, tanking the numerous fireballs Sue flung his way.

"Just what the hell is going on? Can't we all just work it out?!" David couldn't help but lament.

Sue let out a disdainful chuckle, "Anyone who associates with someone who dares to insult sister Jenny deserves a beating." Although this was coming from a very cute girl, her terrifying expression as she threw concentrated balls of flames at the older man could only belong in nightmares.

Meanwhile, Jenny stood directly before the door, with the muzzle of her deadly-looking rifle pointing straight forward. Her eyes flashed with a chilling purple light that caused Cain to feel extremely sluggish in his movement.

So sluggish, that he was sure he wouldn't be able to dodge the attack even if he tried his hardest.

'Devil eyes? Are devil eyes really that common?' Cain couldn't help but wonder. Apart from himself, he had seen Steve, and now, Jenny possesses the ability to use these strange optic magical abilities.

Cain could see the guy, Li, who was supposed to go get the rest of the people still in the safe room. He ran towards Cain from the side, his fists drawn back as though to prepare a devastating strike. A violent green aura spread from his fists like squalls.

He moved so fast, Cain was sure he wouldn't be able to block his incoming attack, much less dodge it all thanks to the strange {Devil Eyes} that Jenny possessed.

Now, Cain was caught in a pincer attack. Never had he thought that things would have gone so far south...

He had been under the impression that regardless of their first impressions, since he had demonstrated his power, then they would automatically back down and listen to him obediently.

However, once again, he had failed to understand just how complex and volatile the human mind was. Sometimes, humans did things that didn't follow logic based on something called emotions.

They didn't need any valid reasons, nor did they need to think about it so deeply, as if they did, they would be able to see the flaws behind their actions.

This situation was one of them...

Although this wasn't according to the original script, Cain couldn't care less. The fact remained that he was being attacked due to his negligence. He had given the enemy an advantage by letting them have more time to prepare.

He wasn't even that angry at them anymore. The person he was infuriated with the most himself.

When his thoughts began to spiral in this direction, he could feel himself losing control of his emotions.

This wasn't something that happened frequently, but with the right amount of stimuli, especially when the recent attack of the Phantasma had made his emotions fluctuate rapidly, he was prone to extremely violent... outbursts...

***

BANG!

'This will take him out!'

When Cain had released his aura earlier, Jenny had been a bit apprehensive, but there wasn't a single ounce of fear in her eyes. This was because she had killed a mutant beast with an aura just as strong as his.

Therefore, she was vigilant, but not afraid...

'Although this won't kill him, it will certainly leave him severely injured. However, he only has himself to blame for crossing me!'

Jenny, like any other person, had her sense of pride, but hers was a little bit more intense than others. She had grown up in a wealthy and powerful household, where she could have anything and everything she wanted with just a wave of her hand.

Despite this, she still maintained a friendly facade to outsiders but didn't care about them. She protected the weak not out of care, but out of a sense of duty and compassion, or maybe to stroke her ego...

The only ones she truly cared about were those close to her. Her family...

And if those who were dear to her were put in even a modicum of danger by an unfortunate soul, she would never let the culprit go, and make sure that person paid a hefty price!

'Besides, this guy is extremely dangerous. His aura is just too malevolent. It's better to clip his wings sooner rather than later.'

Jenny's magic rifle was just like Manny's, which converted pure mana directly into ammunition rounds. The only difference was that hers was a sniper rifle, while Manny's was more of an assault rifle.

He's specialized in firing very powerful shots with low low firing rates and long reload speeds, while Manny's was the direct opposite. The longer the buildup, and the more mana she poured into the gun, the more powerful the shot would be, and the longer the reload time.

She could also reduce the penetration effect of the shot while increasing its blast radius and vice versa...

With all these factors at play, she was extremely confident...

Hence, she fired an extremely powerful shot that flew true toward Cain's chest.

Li's intentions were never to obey Cain...

He had kept himself hidden with a concealment skill in the staircase that led to the safe room, quietly listening to the conversation he and Jenny were having.

He was the orchestrator of this vicious plan. He knew that Cain would never have expected to be ambushed so unexpectedly. He also knew that Cain didn't think they bore too much ill will towards him.

So planning an ambush was the best way to capitalize on this innocent misunderstanding...

'Although he is powerful, he lacks experience.' Li was able to feel the scary aura around Cain, but he wasn't fearful. His eyes gazed at Cain with a bit of pity...

'The guy at the back probably suspected this would happen but didn't say anything. Could it be that they have some internal conflict going on?' All these thoughts ran through Li's mind as he sped across the room, his {Roc Wing Gauntlets} jabbing forward.

Li's elemental attribute was the Wind element. The ability of the {Roc Wing Gauntlets} was to increase his movement speed by greatly reducing the air resistance in front of him and using the air behind him to create propulsion.

The gauntlets greatly boosted the power of his skill which gave him the ability to create devastatingly powerful attacks called {Air Cannons} by compressing a large volume of air and then releasing it.

These {Air Cannons} were so powerful, they could blow a level 30 normal-tier mutant beast into bloody bits in a single attack.

Not only that, he was very skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Jenny's mother was a certified martial arts instructor who had taught him, Jenny, Sue, and Stan since they were kids, so the art of fighting and self-defense had been ingrained into his muscles from a young age.

All these factors coupled with his extra skills made him a terrifying opponent. The lethality of his attacks coupled with the insane movement and attack speed granted by the wind element made him the only true threat to Cain at this moment.

Cain carefully made his observations as he activated {Eye of Clairvoyance}. He made it a habit to always activate it before every fight. That way, he would be able to determine the nature, size, shape, and any other qualities of his opponent's impending attack.

He was able to grasp all these in only a split second. In the next second, Li was already attacking him with, the power of wind revolving around him like a tornado. Meanwhile, Jenny had already released the extremely powerful shot from its chambers.

Cain could see all this with picture-perfect clarity. This was another effect of his {Eye of Clairvoyance} that gave him the ability to see the world around him with extreme clarity.

'Since it has come to this, I might as well stretch my legs a bit...'

Previously, Cain had no intentions of engaging in battle with other humans. If he could, he would only want to fight against mutant beasts and devils, but it seemed as though fate had other plans...

'Stopping both of them at the same time would be quite troublesome if I want to guard or defend against their attacks. Not only would it consume too much mana, but it would also most likely make me expend more stamina as well.

Therefore, instead of stopping just them, why don't I just crash the party?!'

As Li approached Cain, a terrible feeling suddenly overwhelmed his heart. Li had a special skill, {Danger Sense}, that allowed him to use the mysterious flow of mana to predict just how much danger he was in at a point in time. This skill was so that he would be able to avoid said danger in real-time.

That skill had activated itself the instant he had come closer to Cain. His face was instantly drained of all its blood, and his eyes widened like saucers.

He gazed into the pitch-black abyss of Cain's eyes, and therein, he was unable to find any emotions. The only thing he saw, was a terrifying, almost robot-like calculation. An odd sort of gaze that shouldn't appear within the eyes of a human.

Because he was already so close, there was no way for him to stop his charge. Hence, the feeling {Danger Sense} gave him became stronger and stronger until it completely suffocated him.

For the first time in a while, Li could taste what it meant to experience fear...

"Wai-!"

Before he could even say a word, Cain's booming voice echoed within the room.

"Seal."