God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain found a quiet, secluded area within the large dilapidated building.

Sitting down cross-legged, he pulled a deep breath into his lungs. Then he reached out with his mind.

Hundreds of miles away, Hunter frowned and glanced down at the Three-Eyed White Wolf standing at his side.

Then his eyes widened,

'Cain? Is that you?'

Cain smiled, 'Yes. It's me.'

Hunter sighed in relief,

'I was worried for a moment there.'

Cain raised a brow and chuckled,

'You? Worried about me?'

Hunter snorted coldly,

'Of course I was. There's no way in hell you are allowed to die first.'

Cain's face fell. He clicked his tongue,

'As heartless as ever, I see. Well, it's good to see you aren't dead too.'

Hunter chuckled. Then he went silent for a moment.

Cain sighed,

'How have things been going?'

'Not good. The Devils get stronger everyday. They don't seem to be affected too much by the crimson moonlight.'

Cain frowned. Just as he was about to say something, Hunter continued,

'Luckily for us, Steve found a way to reduce the effect of the crimson moon as well. Thanks to that, things haven't been so terrible.'

Cain's eyes widened. He couldn't help but think to himself how capable Steve was.

He chuckled,

'Then the situation should have improved, or at least stayed the same...'

Hunter was silent for a moment,

'Well...'

He quickly explained, giving him the details of their current situation.

Cain hummed,

'I see. So they took the bait, huh...'

He had under discussed it with Steve before they had left, even giving him all the magic explosively with him to pull it off.

However, he never expected it would happen so soon. He had hoped he would have finished his mission before it happened.

'We managed to take down a whole lot of them, even exceeding what we initially thought. But...'

Hunter's expression darkened,

'But the pressure at the warfront didn't die down at all. If anything, it only got worse. To make matters worse, there have been even more variants of Devils appearing, each one more dangerous than the next.'

Cain grimaced, 'Is that all?'

Hunter grunted, 'That's the gist of it. What about on your end?'

Cain chuckled wryly,

'All the fighters are dead. But we did manage to rescue everyone else.'

Hunter went silent.

'It's bad, isn't it?' Cain couldn't help but say with a fake chuckle.

Hunter sighed,

'Which reminds me, we have another problem on hand.'

Cain raised a brow,

'Which is?'

'As you might have already guessed, the culprits behind the blood moon, are the worshipers of the moon goddess.'

Cain nodded, 'Have they decided to join in on the fight?'

Hunter hesitated for a second before replying,

'Well, it is a bit complicated.'

He paused,

'They aren't just fighting the Devils. They are fighting us too.'

Cain frowned, 'What is that supposed to mean?'

'Two days ago, random messages appeared everywhere. They read; "Submit to the Blood Moon, or die."'

Cain shook his head,

'They are poaching our fighters?'

Hunter grimaced, 'Yes. And it is working. Several squads have already been wiped out by them. Now, not only do we have to fight the Devils, we also have to deal with these damned bastards. Everyone is on edge and afraid.'

'I see...'

After hearing the gist of it, Cain had already come to a decision in his mind.

'At this rate, we will get slowly beaten back by these things. The moon goddess's followers, I believe their aim is to bring all the humans within the City under the rulership of their goddess. Once that happens, they might possess the power to eradicate all the Devils, and possibly bring the Devil Tower down.'

But them doing so would be at the cost of countless humans lives.

Cain's expression was dark.

Things just seemed to be getting worse and worse everyday.

He sighed,

'For now, tell Steve I'm back if he doesn't know already. Tell him to send calvary. There are a lot of people that need ferrying over to Valestorm.'

'What about you?' Hunter asked.

Cain laughed,

'Me? I'm going to join you all on the frontlines. I have a bone to pick with a certain Devil.'

He could not forget. Not until he tore that damned Devil's wings off its back.

He doubted the {Supernova} was enough to bring that Devil down. Although he had failed to kill it this time, he prayed they met again on the battlefield.

'Now, that I have come, we can confront the Devila rmy directly.'

Hunter was silent for a moment,

'You sound rather confident.'

Cain nodded,

'There's new gear coming. Also, you could say I acquired a weapon or two during this mission. It should suffice.'

The {Golden Steel Herald} and {Black Warrior}. Although there was still a lot of mystery behind the two, Cain had high hopes for these seeds to bear interesting fruit.

For now, the best he could do was keep nurturing them.

His connection with Hunter was cut soon after.

Remaining seated, Cain slowly sucked in a deep breath.

He began gathering Ki using his Ki Plundering Technique whilst simultaneously making use of the

{SunFlame Body Tempering Technique}.

If he wanted to make good use of {Black Warrior}, his best bet would be to artificially increase the might of his physique.

What better way to do that than to increase his Ki capacity and improve his physical using the Eternal Sunflame.

'I'll worry about that guy later.' He thought to himself.

Then, there was the issue with his mana depletion.

Overusing maa to the point of nearly damaging his mana pool had a lot of spiritual consequences. Luckily, he had {Spirit Weaver}. In at most a day, all the damage he had suffered would be healed and he would be able to recover quickly afterwards.

'For now, I can't do much about it.'

He had only recovered a little bit of mana since, not even enough for another {Spatial Jump}.

He sighed and emptied his mind, focusing of absorbing the energy of the heavens and earth.

Ki was the essence of vitality. The force of life within every living being.

It was like blood, but not quite. Like mana, but not quite.

A creature with a lot of it would possess incredible fleshy might. Their bones would be more dense, their muscles fibers would be tough and resilient to tear, even their blood would be thick and rich.

Augmenting the body with Ki cause even greater increases. With a single punch, a beast of flesh and blood would be able to level a mountain or redirect a river.

Feats that should have been capable only through the reality warping powers of magic...

And that was not the only thing utilizing Ki could do.

Substantial increase in perception and sense, the ability to enhance weapons and physical damage, and perhaps even elemental properties, depending on the nature of the Ki Plundering Technique.

With every breath he took in, Cain felt his Ki condense more and more.

Although his body's regenerative properties were incredible, it was impossible for it to be a hundred percent effective.

He had sustained all sorts of damage, but the constant wear from the crimson moonlight meant his regeneration was not as effective as it should have been.

He couldn't help but wonder if the red moon played a part in Legarde's death. For one, when trying to heal, he found out that most of the blood elemental mana kept dispersing. What was worse, the old man's vitality had been constantly draining.

His eyes were dark as he kept absorbing the vital energy, filling up every nook and cranny of his body.

Moments later, he exhaled sharply.

When he opened his eyes, there was a sharp glint in his gaze.

The runes on his body lit up with a subtle power. Then it faded deep into his body.

He clenched his fists.

'Did I just level it up?' he thought to himself.

'The system didn't bring up any prompts, so maybe it's just my imagination.'

He frowned.

His body felt slimy and dirty. This was as a result of using the {Black Dragon of Crimson Sky} Ki Plundering Technique to get rid of the impurities created due to constantly repairing his body.

Although he wanted to take a bath, there was barely enough water for the normal humans to drink. Him having a bath would be wasteful.

Plus, using a mana shard just to produce more water could be seen as even more wasteful.

He sighed and pulled a towel out of his inventory. Wetting it with some water,the quickly wiped himself down until he had become relatively clean.

Putting in his clothes again, he quickly began using the {Sunflame Body Tempering Technique} to further cement the foundations of his physique.

While the {Black Dragon of Crimson Sky} absorbed fleshy energy into his body, the {Sunflame Body Tempering Technique} refined this vital energy, suffusing every cell in his body with power as well as a wisp of Sunflame.

Since Sunflame itself could not be thought of as regular flame, the effects were not noticable immediately.

Once he felt like it was enough, Cain stopped.

Flexing his arms, he noticed that his body had undergone rather strange changes.

But most importantly...

"I'm hungry."