God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Behind the Dome of Blood, the Celestial Territory carved out of City Z by the Goddess of the Blood Moon herself, there lived at least fifty thousand humans, a decent chunk of them without special blessings or access to the system.

There was a lot of space behind the divine aegis that painted the horizon a faint crimson. More than enough for the fifty thousand at least.

The twelve Elders acted as the twelve pillars of the sect, with everything else revolving around them.

Each pillar seemed to handle a facet of life behind the dome's crimson walls.

There was Myrhh, the Blooming Hollow, who worked together with her legion of 'Flowers' to cultivate edible produce that that filled the markets. Without these plants, those behind the Dome would have surely starved to death before long.

There was also Frejlorr the Frost-Hand and Drvok the Saint of a Thousand Chains, who together with their own disciples, aided in the building of hundreds of structures within the neutral districts to house the mundane people.

There was even Plague, the Withering Pestilence, who despite the name given to him, led an ensemble of healer-esqu mages who cured the regular people of the aliments that often plagued them.

And so on...

Truly, such a life was not bad at all.

However, over the past few weeks, things had begun to change.

The dark skies seemed darker than usual for some reason.

Blood slowly dripped onto the black stones.

Somewhere in a dark alley, hidden away from lurking eyes, a body fell to the ground.

There was not a single mark on the corpse. However, the face of the dead man was twisted in agony. He worse a loose-fitting white robe with the image of a six-tailed fox imprinted onto the chest area; a clear indicator that he belonged to the White Fox Pillar of the Blood Moon Sect.

Standing over the corpse, was a man with pale, sickly features. He was dressed in a dark green robe, with the image of a wilting corpse flower branded into it; he was a member of the Wilded Blossoms.

Wiping the blood off the seven inch needle-thin dagger in his hand, the man in the dark green robes prepared to slink back into the shadows to complete the assassination successfully.

However, before he could do so...

BANG!

The sound of a sharp collision filled his ears, and in the next second, a heavy force slammed into him.

Lifting up his arm to block in the last second, this assassin of the Withering Pestilence slid back and drew his weapon once again.

"You want to leave so soon? Why not stay for a bit? Hell, I'll even invite you over for a chat."

The voice that called out to him made him grimace.

'Damn it.'

Stepping out of the shadows was a lady dressed in a rather flattering robe. It was white, with blood red accents embroidered into its hem and sleeves.

In her chest was branded the image of a glorious Valkyrie. She more two silver gauntlets around her arm, and her hair flowed behind her like motes of fire.

She seemed to exude at atmosphere of both extreme elegance and unbridled violence at the same time, making for quite the contrast.

The man in the dark green robes clicked his tongue as his eyes began darting around.

He was searching for an escape route.

The Maiden of Battle seemed to notice this.

The grin on her face stretched into something rather terrifying,

"You want to escape even after my generous offer? That's a bit rude, isn't it?"

The man in the dark green robes straightened his posture,

"What could you possibly want with me?"

The Maiden of Battle chuckled,

"I was asked by my Lady to deliver a message to your witch doctor."

The man raised a brow. He bought out another stiletto and twirled both daggers between his fingertips...

"What is the message?"

"Submit to me, or die." She pronounced every single word like it was a death sentence.

A sneer appeared on the robed man,

"That sounds rather ominous, doesn't it? Why would I be the bearer of such bad news?"

The Maiden of Battle chuckled,

"If you refuse, I'll simply carve the words into your flesh and hang you dry in the market square until your leader notices it."

The robed man huffed.

Then his body turned into a blue as he shot forward in a blitz of blinding speed.

The daggers in his hands danced as they cut through the wind, aimed at the throat of the woman before him.

The wild grin on her face twisted in delight as she let out a roar and punched forward.

The eyes of the robed man widened as he quickly altered the path of his dash. With practiced movement, his wrist twisted, scraping past her guard and stabbing towards the gap between her rib bones.

Should the hit connect, he wouldn't need to do anything more. The poison laced around the daggers tip and edge would be more than enough to do the trick.

That was only if the blade could land though.

A sneer replaced the grin on the Battle Maiden's face as she easily sidestepped the sideways stab before bringing a closed fist down.

The robed man was fast, so he was able to tilt his head to dodge the blow cleanly.

"Idiot."

His eyes widened as his body shot backwards.

His face scrunched up in pain as he placed a hand on his ear.

Or rather, where his ear had been.

"Hurts, doesn't it..." The Battle Maiden's words dripped with the pure, malicious intent to murder as she took step after step.

Vision swimming, the man tried to stabilize himself.

The fact that he could last this long against such a monster was rather impressive.

However, it looked like this was the end of the line for him.

Turning into a streak of light, the Battle Maiden threw a powerful blow forward.

The air before her knuckles compressed for a fraction of a second, before releasing all at once as a powerful shockwave.

The robed man's feet moved swiftly as he attempted to sidestep the attack.

Although he was successful, the Battle Maiden had not stood by idly.

With a sickening crunch, his head was slammed into a wall, leaving behind a spiderweb of cracks and a large splatter of blood.