God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain's boots ground against the stone floor as he landed, his heel scraping back half a foot before stabilizing. The pressure of impact had left a series of thin cracks beneath his feet, a reminder that just the projectiles this thing shot were enough to rattle him.

He absolutely couldn't afford to take his eyes off the thing.

'To think it is also just a Tier 2 creature.'

Although the {Blackfist Ape} haf been a tricky opponent to deal with, this one was simply just overbearing.

The body of the {Mecurion Manabeast} had not stopped shifting. The eye in its center was still locked onto him, unblinking and constantly spasming like it was on the edge of madness, while the rest of the body moved like a slobbery amalgamation of fluid metallic parts, constantly contorting and scraping itself into shape.

It kept forming structures and constructs that were unnatural and odd. One his simple human brain struggled to interpret.

He let out a slow breath.

'The eye's are fixed onto me while the rest of its body attacks. That means it certainly does have some central system controlling it. It should be inside its body.'

If he could destroy it, certainly, the beast would die, or alternatively, become unresponsive.

But that was not his goal. His goal was to observe the creature.

Regardless of how strange and terrifying it looked, he wss certain it wouldn't be able to kill him or harm him seriously. It was dangerous, by all means, it was.

But he was something far more harrowing than an unholy twisting mass of liquid metal essence.

He dashed behind a pillar. A split second later, the pillar exploded into fine powder.

He clicked his tongue.

His body tensed up as he flipped into the air and bounced off a nearby pillar. Several sharp metal spikes shot out of the ground, mained at his soft underbelly a split second later.

Luckily for him, he had moved out of the way fast enough.

'The way it moves... There's no mistaking it now.'

It confirmed what he suspected. The eye wasn't some kind of sensor; it was in fact, the control node that controlled the strange ferrous apparition. Some kind of central intelligence.

He could also finally tell that no part of the create was organic. There absolutely was not even a single drop of life being emitted from the damned thing.

That was a good sign.

'But, for it to act this way...'

Although he suspected that Balangol's presence could have created such a thing, at the same time, he wasn't very sure.

The special creatures that had been created by, or drawn to the Dome of Sands by Balangol's presence were often beings associated with death.

Of course, this was not the same for all of them, but there certainly has to be some sort of connection.

'Or perhaps it might have come from a Rift.' A thought appeared in his mind, but he quickly drove it away.

That didn't make any sense whatsoever, after all.

The things that could come from a Rift were Aether Creatures or Abyssal Creatures. What were the chances an elemental could come out of one? And what were the chances that a Rift would appear this far down?

Even worse, the {Demon's Eye} which was particularly good at picking up energy signatures couldn't detect any evidence that a Rift could be nearby.

Rolling back, he dodged another terrifying branch of jagged metal teeth. The terrible rain of projectiles continued to pour down upon him violently, tearing the entire place apart.

Despite that, there were not a lot of sounds being created, if there was any at all.

So all the chaos just unfolded in relative silent.

'It is certainly strange...'

After observing the creature a while longer, Cain finally got all the information he could considering the current circumstances.

'I would have loved to capture this thing while it is still moving. But unfortunately...'

Indeed, it was far too dangerous. He had already tried making use of the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy}, and just like in the case with Enoch, it had not only failed, but the damned thing directly are his own constructs for a power boost.

Still, there were plenty ways to take it down, especially since it had exposed its weak point already.

Granted, its weak point was not really exposed, but rather, heavily guarded by what could only be described as a death trap of grinding metal gears and saw blades...

Since making use of weapons was also risky, he decided not to use any of his regular weapons.

With its instincts and reaction speed, projectile weapons were also not very useful.

That meant he would either have to get up close and personal, or he would handle it with long range magic.

Taking another look at the {Mecurion Manabeast}, Cain once again mentally confirmed he would rather not.

Plus, burning through all his oxygen in a high-octane battle was not really the best idea in these circumstances.

'So long range barrage it is. But what exactly would be effective against this thing?'

He thought about it for a moment as he kept dodging and creating space.

The {Mecurion Manabeast} had the reflexes of a beast, and a body of metal.

Its body was strong and durable; resistant to slashes and blunt force.

Metallic projectiles would be absorbed without issues as well.

The only thing it didn't have high resistance to, was magic.

Specifically, other forms of elemental magic.

'Then...'

According to what he knew, making use of ice and fire attribute magic wouldn't do a lot of structural damage that would necessarily cause the chamber to cave in on itself and bury him alive.

And so...

The ambient temperature instantly began to drop drastically.

Frost that could trap everything in a frozen Hell.

An apparition of an enormous {Frost Temple} appeared behind him alongside an enormous magic circle.

Since there was no air in the chamber, the Frost energy seemed to travel even faster, spreading to every wall and corner in a fraction of a second.

A thin layer of frost began to materialize on the surface of the {Mecurion Manabeast}. Cain watched with cold eyes as the enormous form of the creature began to strain and groan.

His eyes narrowed, 'It's freezing up.'

He cast a quick chant in his mind.

Very swiftly, another magic circle, this one emitting the power of raw, powerful flames, appeared behind him.

All the Frost energy around him began to vanish as a ball of rolling flames began to gather on his fingertip.

The ball of flames continued to balloon and burn despite there being no flames in the chamber; the flames fed directly on his mana and the ambient mana in the atmosphere, allowing it to burn brighter and hotter with every passing second.

And then finally...

'Bang.'

A soundless explosion of heat and light.