God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 136: The Battle has Just Begun (2).

"Shadow World..."

True to her words, the world around them was turned into a murky pool of shadows. Shadows that greatly inhibited hearing, vision, smell, and even feeling.

Because of the state in which their bodies were, Cain and the others couldn't fight the effects of the skill. However, within this shadow world, all they were able to see were incredibly bright flashes of blood-red light.

Since his devil eyes were still activated, Cain was still able to get faint glimpses of what went on in the darkness...

There, dancing within the shadows, was Evangeline. Cain watched as she soared into the sky, a thick trail of red energy following behind her. Her eyes also glowed a brilliant crimson, the same as the blood-red short swords in her hands.

'What is she up to?' Despite his exhaustion, Cain was unable to fight the curiosity building up within.

Cain was shocked to see Evanveking sticking her blades into the pitch-black carapace of the Broodmother.

What followed after, was a shrill scream that shook the souls of every single individual present...

'How dare you?!' The Broodmother yelled in anger. Although it was a powerful devil, its main powers were focused mainly on elemental and soul control, as well as the replenishing of the devil race.

"Shut up!" Evangeline said with a frown on her face as she twisted her blade and made her way away from the Broodmother. Before she could go in for another attack, another angry scream filled the ears of everyone

"It is MINE!" Hunter yelled in pure rage as a senseless fury took over him.

"Hunter!" Dan let out a yell of panic and despair, but it was too late. Although he was able to faintly hear Hunter, because he lacked devil eyes, he was unable to see what was going on in the darkness. And even if he had, it was unlikely that it would be as powerful as the ones Cain possessed.

A small burning sun the size of a watermelon illuminated the darkness surrounding them and appeared above Hunter's head. His eyes didn't have any signs of reason as he transformed back into his giant flaming wolf form.

He stared straight at Evangeline who was atop the {Flame Devil} alongside the Broodmother. In a thick voice filled with malice, he spoke out,

"It is mine..."

However, Evangeline promptly ignored him without even sparing a glance as she faded into the shadows and reappeared immediately above the Broodmother. Like a red rose petal drifting in the wind, she fell onto the devil's back and stabbed her crimson blades deep into it again.

'You humans are insufferable! Although that J'orntz was useless, he did manage to fulfill his one true purpose. Forza, you have gathered enough energy. Awaken and turn these humans to ash...' In its feminine, yet malicious voice, the Broodmother swung its deadly-looking stinger at Evangeline. Because of how fast it was, she wasn't able to dodge it and was forced to block it with her other blade.

BANG!

A loud bang was heard in the thick pool of darkness as Evangeline was nearly thrown off the Broodmother due to the extreme force. Just because it was a physically weak devil didn't mean humans at their levels could compare to her strength.

However, she was able to hang on with her other blade. The runic inscriptions on the blade glowed brightly in the dark shadowy world. Evangeline had a cold expressionless look on her face as she activated a skill that almost sent her reeling backward due to the amount of power flowing through her body.

"Blood Manipulation: Blood Steal..."

While the Broodmother might not be considered a physically powerful devil, it had an incredible amount of vitality.

To Evangeline, that vitality was like a sweet and ripe fruit just waiting for her to pluck. However, this delicious and plump fruit was surrounded by prickly thorns she couldn't be bothered to deal with.

Hence, she had come up with the brilliant idea to wait for Cain and the others to kill off the entire devil army while she waited in the shadows like a predator. Once all the thorns were cleared out, she would simply go over and take it for herself.

Such was the ruthlessness of one who had been born into a family of killers trained from birth to be high-ranking assassins and murder experts for high-profile politicians and denizens of the underworld.

She would gladly use the lives of others to serve her purpose without any hesitation. Now that the fruit she had watched for so long was finally in her hands, why would she let it go?

Not only did the Broodmother have a lot of vitality, but it also had something Evangeline craved the most.

Devil Essence...

Devil essence was a very precious material found only in high-ranking devils that would boost the power of skills and spells permanently and by a huge amount at that...

However, this huge benefit came with a very pricey cost...

Should she attain it, she would become even more powerful than she already was...

Hunter, who was able to see all this thanks to his devil eyes roared out in rage. The Broodmother had infiltrated his mind just like J'orntz did with Cain when he was scouting the forest a while back. This caused him to bear a resentment so huge, he wanted to be the one to claim its life at all costs.

Even if that meant giving up his humanity...

It was a simple reaction of his soul that occurred when it was affected by a foreign entity that bore ill will against it...

The small sun above his head was still there it had been hanging above his head for some time with the same vibrancy as before. Hunter gazed up at it and kicked against the ground.

As he floated upwards, he began to speak, flames pouring out of his mouth in the process. The words that came out of his mouth didn't seem to be the language they all knew, but they all seemed to be able to understand every single word of it.

"I forsake my mortal coil, and embrace the new one granted to me..."

The flames rolling out of his mouth quickly engulfed his body, turning him into a truly flaming wolf. The flaming wolf raced into the area above Hunter's head with an open maw. The blazing sun was instantly devoured by the flaming wolf...

"Skoll, the star devourer, grant me your legacy..."

At that moment, the presence of a god fell upon the world.

The {Shadow World} skill of Evageline was immediately dispelled by the shockwave that was produced by Hunter as he quickly underwent a drastic transformation.

His body reduced in size to just a little bit bigger than what it originally was. However, his muscles had become more compact and powerful. His eyes looked like blazing suns and his hair was no longer a dull blonde, but a dull red with streaks of black instead.

The excessive amount of fur that came with the transformation was also lost and was replaced by very light skin with little to no pigmentation on it.

However, he had kept the wolf ears and tail, causing him to look more like a wolf-man if anything...

Despite his obvious transformation, Hunter didn't even waste a single breath as he burst forward like a missile toward the {Broodmother}.

Hunter's transformation caused Evangeline to raise a brow as he came crashing down to her with his fist.

"What a nuisance..."

She let out a sigh as she pulled the blade out of the struggling {Broodmother} and put the second one across it diagonally to block Hunter's attack.

The heat emanating from Hunter was enough to cause mini explosions as he flew through the air. In the blink of an eye, he was already before Evangeline and had smashed his fist against her blades. A scorching heat was released with his fist as the epicenter, bathing Evangeline and the {Broodmother} in its destructiveness.

BOOM!

Once the flames had cleared up, Evangeline and the {Broodmother} were nowhere to be seen. They had completely vanished, causing Hunter to pause in his steps. The look of confusion on his barely conscious face quickly morphed into one of pure fury as he let out a roar.

A pillar of flames rose to the skies from his body, burning the layer of devil flesh he was standing on, black...

Meanwhile, Cain who had been watching closely noticed that the arm of the {Flame Devil} who had been immobile began to move. The sounds of its bones cracking in their joints was like thunder, so it wasn't long before the others began to notice.

"It's awake..." Susan said in a voice that was almost as silent as a whisper.

The roar was unlike anything they had ever heard.

The ground beneath their feet was completely destroyed and flames hotter than the depths of hell erupted from the ground.

"Flame Hell..." In a voice akin to the rumbling before the eruption of a volcano that had seen dormancy for a thousand years and had accumulated enough lava to destroy a city, the {Flame Devil} spoke.

With the movements of the {Flame Devil}, Hunter was forced down from its body and fell to the ground.

"Hunter!" Dan yelled out as he stopped jumping away from the flames bursting out of the ground, then ran at full speed toward the falling Hunter.

Before Hunter reached the ground, he had already undergone another transformation. His wolfish body turned big once again, only this time, it didn't stop where it normally would for his previous transformation.

Instead, he kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, until he was just a few heads shorter than the {Flame Devil}.

By now, the {Flame Devil}, Forza, had completely awoken and was stretching its body. Despite its huge size, it moved with incredible fluidity and ease. Almost as though its huge size did not affect its speed and agility whatsoever.

A huge flaming blade was released from its spine, then fell and buried itself into the ground. It quickly created a pool of lava but was quickly removed by Forza who swung it around with the finesse of an artisan.

The wind around the blade turned into a literal sea of flames that fell to the ground like a waterfall. Everyone on Cain's team scurried away and found different ways to defend themselves from the terrifying flame.

"Death to all denizens of this world for I, Forza have awakened..." The gigantic devil said with its earthquake-inducing voice.

As soon as his transformation was complete, Hunter lunged at Forza and engaged it in a heated earth-shaking battle.

Cain watched as the flames from the sky and earth collided to create a cataclysmic event, but his mind was serene and focused unlike ever before.

"All of you, go and assist Hunter!" Cain yelled to the rest as he remained seated on the ground. He looked to his side and pulled out the only thing J'orntz left behind after death, its {Devil's Broken Claw}...

"We? I barely have 20% of my mana pool left! What do you expect us to do to that thing when we are so exhausted and spent up?!" Li said through gritted teeth. He had consumed a lot of his MP and HP because of his {Plasma Fist} skill. Because of that, despite his good control over his mana and body, he was still extremely spent.

"Buy me some time... All I need is five minutes." Cain said in a low voice. The look of conviction in his eyes was enough to silence Li.

"Let's go..." Jenny said with a smile.

"Jenny! He's asking us to die!" Li yelled out.

"Kekeke... If we don't fight, we will still die, idiot..." Manny let out a cackle as he burst forward towards the {Flame Devil} while avoiding the pillars of flames rising out of the ground.

"He's right..." Turning to Cain, Susan said in a soft voice, "Just five minutes?"

"Just five minutes..." Cain said as he closed his eyes...

"Okay... I believe in you." She said before casting spells that shielded herself, Cain, David, and Ruby, who lay on their ground unconscious from the flames.

Dan rushed toward the {Flame Devil} without any hesitation, while Blaze walked through the flames like he was walking through a field of flowers.

"Hahaha... To arms, brothers... Let us sacrifice our lives to save the world from the malevolent flames of that devil!" Vincent yelled, his cheeks gaining more and more acceleration with each word.

"I second that! Charge!!!" Steve and Vincent charged head-on into the sea of flames as well, leaving Jenny, Li, Susan, Cain, and the wounded and unconscious David and Ruby.

"I believe that you'll keep your end of the deal?" Jenny said with her back to Cain who sat on the ground cross-legged.

There was a brief period of silence before Cain spoke in a serene and calm voice, "I keep my word..."

"Good..." And just like that, she rushed into the flames towards the {Flame Devil} to put her life on the like to buy Cain some time.

"Ha... These people... " Li just let out a tired sigh as flames and wind swam on his hands, turning into extremely hot burning gas in the process.

He turned to stare at Cain with a profound look in his eyes,

"For some reason, she trusts you. Try not to fail her..." Without waiting for a reply he rushed into the flames as well.

A small smile made its way to Cain's face before it turned hard once again...