God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 326: Power that Splits the Sky Open (2).

Cain recalled his consciousness from the {Elemental Vault} and back into his body.

"Are you done with your preparations?" Evangeline asked with a straight face.

Cain nodded, "Yeah."

Cain paused for a second before continuing,

"I need your help. I need to get as close as possible to the camp without being noticed.

Evangeline shrugged, "Is that all?"

Cain scratched his scratched his cheek in embarrassment,

"Yeah..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Cain felt the familiar sensation of his body moving through shadows.

Evangeline's shadow manipulation skill was just as unique as his {Metal Creation} skill, which later evolved into the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy}. However, he also realized it wasn't as advanced as his skill. Its potential was still extraordinarily high, but it didn't offer her the same liberties as Cain's skill did.

They traveled through the shadows for a while until they arrived at a relatively open area. Evangeline activated a spell that concealed them from the senses of the {Earth Beetles} and {Savage Tigers}.

Cain nodded to her, "You'll know the signal once you see it."

Evangeline nodded to show she understood, then vanished into the shadows.

'Now then... Let's kill some birds.'

Cain activated {Lightning Thief} and began absorbing the lightning elemental energy in the air. Although the elemental energy wasn't dense, Cain didn't mind waiting for a bit.

Flashes of lightning rumbled deep within the clouds, the signs of a storm approaching. This was abnormal, as there were no storms in this strange, fragmented land...

Cain's mind was devoid of thoughts as he focused on absorbing as much lightning elemental energy as he possibly could using {Lightning Thief}. The heads of more than a few {Savage Tigers} were raised to the sky, their eyes showing signs of confusion and distress.

Cain paid no mind to this and continued absorbing as much energy as he could.

{Lightning Thief} was a very special skill. It gave him the power to simply absorb lightning elemental energy and use it for whatever purpose he desired. In a way, it was quite similar to {Metal Manipulation}.

The only issue was controlling it. By nature, Lightning was a very violent type of energy. A single lightning bolt could contain thousands of volts of electricity. That much electricity could incinerate most normal life in the blink of an eye.

Cain was now going to have to find a way to make sure he didn't die when he absorbed this energy. If it had been any other person, using this skill would result in an early grave.

But Cain was different. He had the {Elemental Vault}. The Absorption effect of the Vault made it so that as he was gathering the energy, said energy was being tired in the vault rather than in his body.

His consciousness was already within the Vault as he watched the pool of lightning grow wider.

'It's too slow...' Cain thought to himself. Although {Lightning Thief} was a godly skill, it could only shine in areas with high concentrations of lightning elemental mana.

The fact of the matter was that the lightning elemental energy concentration was just too poor where he was.

What do I do? How do I increase it?...

These were the sorts of thoughts running through Cain's head as he continued gathering the energy. He wanted the energy to reach roughly the same amount as the wind elemental energy had been before he had activated {Wind Weaver} and used it all up.

Cain's mind was completely absorbed in collecting elemental energy. That was why he didn't notice his heart. Not his physical heart, but his {Mana Heart}. It thumped within his chest heavily, like a drum fitted with animal hide.

Streams of wild untapped magic flowed around his body as his mind was occupied with the events occurring in the {Elemental Vault}.

Around Cain's body, something strange was occurring. Flashes of electricity zapped all around him chaotically. Far above his head, it the clouds above, lightning danced in the clouds like a brewing tempest.

To those who were around, it was a bizarre experience. The three groups of aether beasts had never witnessed something like this before. The {Dusk Canaries} cases restlessly from the sky, some of them flying restlessly.

The {Savage Tigers} growled and roared at the sky, their claws bared. Some {Earth Beetles} even tried running away, but were stopped by their leader.

Do a moment, they seemed to have forgotten why they had gathered together. The army camp instantly devolved into pandemonium.

The worst thing about it all was that they were unable to notice Cain was the culprit thanks to Evangeline's concealment.

The mastermind behind this chaos was unaware of his misdeeds. Instead, his mind was a bit flustered as he watched the speed of the lightning pool rise at an astonishing rate.

'Why did it increase all of a sudden?' He was floored.

Events always worked under the principles of cause and effect. If an effect was produced, there had to be a cause. Cain had no idea what the cause of this effect was.

Still, it was not an unwelcome change...

'If this speed keeps increasing, I'll have enough to start in a few minutes.'

The speed of the lightning pool's growth continued to increase rapidly. Cain became a bit worried. Since this was his first time using {Lightning Thief}, he had no idea what its limits were. To say he was going in blind would be an understatement.

Still, this process wasn't something he could stop mid-way...

He watched as the violent flashes of electricity around the pool continued to increase in magnitude. The pool itself became very restless and volatile, causing Cain's concerns to grow with each passing second.

'Okay... This should be enough.' Cain thought to himself. He was ready to shut the {Lightning Thief} down.

As his consciousness returned to his body, he was but with a wave of danger signals that sent his mind reeling. His eyes snapped open and he looked around.

Chaos...

Absolute chaos...

Cain watched the camp of Aether beasts descend into chaos. Lightning bolts flashed in the skies, and the air felt incredibly humid. Worst of all, it had begun to rain...

However, this rain wasn't normal. It was something far more peculiar...

The clouds in this fragmented land were very high up. The distance between the 'sky' and the ground was far greater than what Cain was used to. Since Cain arrived, he had also never seen it rain here. He had even concluded that the clouds up above were not real at the time. However, the rain that but his cheeks told him otherwise.

Cain's eyes widened, 'This isn't water...'

Cain was right. The rain wasn't water. Instead, it was god ash. However, it was not regular god ash. Instead, it was god ash so concentrated, it had turned into a liquid. When he thought about it, his surprise wanned.

As he was coming to this realization, the second surprise hit him like a freight train. He clutched his chest in surprise. Much to his shock, his heart was beating rather rapidly in his chest. Not his normal heart, but the heart that had been created on that faithful night when the remnants of the gods long dead fell...

'What is going on?!'

He couldn't explain why this was happening. Regardless, he didn't feel any pain. In fact, he felt a bit rejuvenated. Streams of mana poured into the space surrounding him.

Arcs of lightning flashed around his body, as his moderately long hair stood on ends. The danger he felt came from the fact that the world around him seemed infuriated at his presence. The rain of god ash was a direct result of this. Humans naturally couldn't absorb god ash. Even mutant beasts and aether beasts had their limits. This rain of god ash was dangerously close to that limit.

Lightning roared furiously in the clouds, some of them descending towards Cain like they were trying to extinguish his life. The world had even darkened, increasing the eerieness and danger of it all.

Cain immediately tried deactivating {Lightning Thief}. Even after he had stopped the skill's activation, the bolts of lightning continuously swam at him. A frown appeared on his face...

'Is this a consequence of activating {Lightning Thief}?'

Cain had pondered for a while why the skill was called {Lightning Thief}, and not {Lightning Control} or {Lightning Manipulation}. Now, he got a glimpse of why it was named so...

A thief stole things, but it was only natural for the owner of what was stolen to be absolutely furious. Cain had stolen something that belonged to the world and as such, earned its ire.

Cain could feel the danger from his bones. If he didn't do something, the power of the lightning strikes would continue to rise until he was struck dead.

He quickly began the process of activating a spell. This spell required a rather long time to be cast due to its long chant time. Hence, he didn't use it in battle regularly. However, it made up for this deficiency in pure power.

Soon, he spoke the last words of the chant, signaling the arrival of a cataclysmic spell,

"Heavenly Blue Lightning!"

The expansion of a magic circle was always rather quick. This one was no different. The magic circle appeared in the clouds high above and expanded until it was almost as big as the entirety of the camp of Aether beasts, its circumference encapsulating it.

All the lightning that was brewing in the clouds fell toward the magic circle. The components within the magic circle rotated once before a thick pillar of concentrated lightning fell from the sky.

The world was enveloped in a bright flash...

The sky was split open...

Heavenly judgment fell onto the earth...

A thunderous crackle rocked the world to its foundations...