God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 172: The Road, the Sky, and the Sea...

Cain stared at the system prompt with a bitter gaze...

***

{Warning: A curse has been cast on the host by the Battle goddess of Frost, Lyros...}

{Due to unforeseen events, the host has acquired A Curse of Perpetual Frost from the passive emotions of a goddess...}

{Curse of Perpetual Frost}:

Description: Due to the overflowing emotions of Lyros the Frost goddess, your body has now been oversaturated with incredibly volatile frost mana. As a result of this, your body runs cold but will run even colder if you are touched by a female with romantic feelings toward you.

Should the host be touched by a female with romantic feelings towards him, he will be turned into an ice sculpture for 10 seconds. This curse comes with a few added skills...

Skill 1: Frozen Paths (passive).

Skill 2: Frost Temple (active).

{Frozen Paths}: Allows the host to freeze the surface of any body of water beneath his feet, ensuring he never plunges into the icy depths.

{Frost Temple} lvl 1: The power of frost has reached the point of over-saturation within the host's body, and now leaks out to affect both the physical and spiritual planes. Upon activation, a 50m radius freezing domain is created. Within this domain, any other creature apart from the host will be subjected to extreme debuffs as long as the domain is active.

Movement and attack speed and reduces by 5% and +1% for every minute that creature spends within the domain. Mana flow is also hindered, causing the activation of skills to become more difficult. Spell and skill mana cost for enemy skills increases by 30%.

Cost: 10,000MP.

To get {Frost Temple} to the next level, the host must absorb Frost mana twice his current capacity...

***

"She cursed me! And not any simple curse!"

Although the curse wouldn't affect him in battle, it would put a damper on every other thing. With this curse, his non-existent love life was as good as dead...

Although he had no plans to start any romantic folly at the moment, he was also a young man with great dreams about the future. It was only natural he would want to eventually get into relationships. However, this curse was not going to make that happen any time soon, or at least until he found a way to break the curse...

"This is just..." Cain let out a sigh but realized he couldn't do much about it for now. Besides, he was more excited about his gains than anything else.

"Frozen Paths and Frost Temple..." Cain stared at the skills with a smile.

He reasoned that he would gain from the encounter, but he never realized he would gain this much. Although the skills looked simple, they were just as useful as his other skills, if not more useful, especially the {Frost Temple} skill.

If he had someone trapped within the {Frost Temple} for an hour, said person's attack and movement speed would be reduced by 65%. A reduction of 65% was the difference between heaven and hell but would show its use if he was fighting against a much stronger opponent.

However, should he encounter an opponent that he would need its speed reduced by 50% to 60%, he wouldn't be able to last an hour in the first place...

Cain let out a breath of extremely chilly air. He started at his hands and realized they had turned extremely white, as white as a corpse's. His body also felt chilly, but not uncomfortably so.

Cain stared at Old Man Ling who had an odd expression on his face with a frown,

"Old man, tell me how I look..."

"Err..." Old Man Ling scratched his head with a weird expression on his face.

"Talk..." Cain said with a cold expression that let off a visible chill.

"W-well, your skin is as white as snow, and your hair... Well, your hair is changing colors..." The Old man said shakily.

Cain's face turned ugly as he took a deep breath...

"Doesn't matter... Let's get going. We have work to do..." Cain said as he grabbed the old man by the collar and activated {Spatial Jump}.

***

Cain stared at the grand ocean before him with a sharp expression on his face. Ignoring the odd looks he was getting from everyone around, he signaled at Steve who nodded while sporting a strange smile.

Steve began changing a spell as he stood at the edge of the cliff...

Because of the changes that had occurred to the school, the way the Island was structured was also changed. At the end, was a beach, while at the other end, facing the other Islands, was a cliff. This cliff was created with the separation of the various regions of the school.

For them to be able to get from one Island to the other conveniently, they would need to be able to get from the cliff, safely onto the bridge...

Cain turned to Old Man Ling who stood beside him with a generous expression...

"Alright, Old man. Work your magic..."

The Old man gave an unsteady nod as he stretched his arm out and activated his magic...

For magic circles popped up around his arm instantaneously, and began to slowly rotate. The runes within them formed several complex configurations as an icy mist flowed from the old man's body into the ocean surface that was more than a few feet before them.

CRACKLE!

The surface of the ocean began to slowly freeze over until a platform of solid ice appeared beneath them on the edge of the cliff. At this time, Steve's chant had also stopped and his spell had begun to take shape.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Susan, who stood a few inches away from Cain said to him with a frown.

"All of this just seems unnecessary..." Jenny said as well.

"I'm sure of it. It might seem unnecessary now, but we will have an unprecedented advantage that will become clear once we set out to sea..." Cain said confidently.

Susan and Jenny both stared at Cain with curious expressions on their faces but chose not to say anything about his most recent physical transformation, causing Cain to let out a sigh of gratitude...

The others on the other hand weren't so lenient...

Cain ignored the chuckles and snide comments and focused on what Steve was doing...

To level the cliff to make it possible for everyone, which included those who didn't have the power to jump from such a height without sustaining any injuries, a spell was needed. And the only person with such a spell in his arsenal was Steve.

A magic circle appeared beneath their feet, just above the cliff, causing everyone to look down.

"It will do you all good if you stepped out of this magic circle's range..." Steve said with a smile.

Sensing the ominousness in his words, everyone scurried backward with haste. Just as the last person made it out of the magic circle's area of effect, the entire cliff crumbled like a stack of cookies, turning into a slope they could easily climb down on.

"Good job..." Cain said as he ignored Steve's hard work and simply jumped down onto the ice platform. He jumped down on it because he wanted to test the integrity of the ice and how well it could fare against impact and pressure.

He was pleased when he saw that despite his tremendous weight, the Ice platform didn't give way in the slightest. Although it let off slight crackling noises, it held out well.

"Hey... If you're going to tell me good job, at least appreciate my work as well..." Steve said with a sad expression.

"Nice work..." Hunter said as he jumped down exactly like Cain had done.

"Sigh..."

"You did great..."

"Such an amazing skill..."

"It is so efficient. Things are easier with you around..."

Cain and almost the entire group made their way down without even bothering to use the slope Steve had made, causing him to fall into a depressed state.

Since the people who had taken the Sea god's remnants were too weak to make such a jump without sustaining injuries, they all made their way down via the slope, bringing some life to Steve's face once again...

"Do we have everything we need?" Cain said to Steve who made his way down the slope.

"Potions? Check... Supplies we could forage? Check..." Steve said with a thumbs up.

"In that case, let's get going..." Manny said with a wild grin.

"Old man... On this mission, we will rely on you. Don't let us down..." Cain whispered into Old Man Ling's ear, causing the latter to gulp down a mouthful of saliva.

"I'll try my best not to disappoint."

"Sigh... I just hope the rest of this damned world is faring better than this lump of coal." Vincent said as he kicked against the edge of the cliff.

"What of the people approaching the Island? Do we wait for them, or do we make contact on the way?" Hunter turned to Cain and asked.

"We make contact with them along the way," Cain said without hesitation.

"Don't you think that would be too risky?" Hunter asked again.

A smile began forming on Cain's face, "Where's the fun without the risk?"

"You are insane..." Hunter simply shook his head. However, a smile was also tugging at the corners of his lips, giving him away completely.

"Boss, we need to start moving." Old Man Ling said as he maintained the magic circles. The look on his face made it obvious the skill was eating into his mana reserves rapidly.

Although the skill was useful, it also drained his mana relatively fast. Without MP potions, he wouldn't be able to get them anywhere...

"Dan, can you carry him forward? Here are some potions..." Hunter said to Dan who had activated his {Ice Assasin} form.

"Roger that..." Dan swooped Old Man Ling off his feet, grabbed 500 MP regen potions, and zoomed off. In his {Ice Assasin} form, he was not only faster, but he also gained the ability to move like a bolt of lightning on ice.

Just like that, they all watched as a road made of Ice that sat on top of the dark watery abyss was created before their very eyes...

Cain let out a breath of cold air as he stared to his sides...

"Kekeke... Let the journey begin..."

All around him, those he had known before and after the apocalypse, now headed back to civilization atop a bridge of ice. He had even fought against some of them, but now, here they all stood, ready to face whatever was before them together.

Cain stared at the long road before him with a complicated look in his eyes. The skies were still grey, and the waters were even darker, but his heart was one thing that had changed...

He was no longer the same person he was a few weeks ago...

He had once longed for something to quench the fire that burned in him. He had finally found it, but rather than quenching the fire, it only served to make it burn even brighter.

He carried the dreams and aspirations of another, but he didn't have any lofty goals or ambitions, nor was he thinking too far into the future.

He was a blank slate...

All he saw was the Road, the Sky, and the Sea...