God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

As the blue flame cascaded down upon them, it licked the walls of the caves turning it into black glass.

The water on the surface of the pool evaporated and turned into steam.

Susan's eyes radiated a piercing glow as she mumbled rapidly under her breath.

A giant magic circle spawned before them, and a huge Light Guardian stepped out.

It was far bigger than the ones she could summon in the past, and it wielded a huge shield and mace, clothes in radiant armor that lit the entire cave up and drove the darkness away.

The Light Guardian poised itself and raised its shield. A second later, the blue flames fell.

Cain felt the hairs on his body singe. The air entering his lungs saw so hot, it brought sweat to his face and tears to his eyes.

Fortunately, the Light Guardian was able to block the blue flames, altogether it was crumbling to bits rather quick.

After a moment, the blue flames finally stopped, just before the Light Guardian could break apart and turn into tiny motes of radiant dust.

Heavy gasps and groans filled the cave as they all tried to recover from the aftermath of such a devastating attack. Cain gritted his teeth and looked up.

The {Argent Amphithere} was circling overhead, its wings now healed up. Its four serpentine eyes cut right through space and pierced him.

Cain grimaced but didn't back down, his glare fixed on the malignant creature.

The {Argent Amphithere} lightly shook its titanic body, shaking off the dust and pieces of rock on its silver scales.

It has just reminded them how fearsome it was...

With its ability to spit that blue flame, they would have to be wary with how they approached it.

Even the creature didn't seem to want to come in contact with its own flames despite how tough and heat resistant its scales were.

'If only I could use my skills...'

With his current inability to use his skills and spells, he was at a major disadvantage.

He also couldn't use the active skills attached to any of his equipment.

He frowned.

No, there was a skill he could use.

A lot of his skills had changed and evolved as he had progressed, while there were some that hadn't changed at all. However, there was one that had only changed once.

It had been when he was still learning the basics of magic, one of the first skills he had acquired without much aid from the system.

{Burst Step} had evolved from a skill that used an insignificant amount of his mana, to one that didn't use his mana at all.

Instead, it made use of mana in his surroundings. {Burst Step} was a rather simple, dual stage skill.

The first part of the skill involved accumulating mana, and the second part was releasing the mana in a specific direction to create thrust, or abruptly change directions during motion.

It was a useful skill, but he rarely used it in battle for many reasons.

And because of the skills nature, although he had to make use of his spirit, he didn't have to draw mana from within, making it currently the only skill he could use at the moment.

The cave rumbled as the {Argent Amphithere} prepared to make a move once again.

Cain thought to himself,

'Perhaps it is possible...'

His mind spun as he considered what he could do.

Improving {Burst Step} didn't seem like a tall task at the moment. However, the problem was improving it so much that it made a difference.

The skill had become rather obsolete to him at the moment, so it had to be a drastic movement.

Time seemed to slow as he retreated into his mind.

He arrived at the familiar place buried in his soul.

Here, he could think fast. Faster than what should have been possible.

A simple magic circle representing {Burst Step} appeared in front of the ethereal mass that represented his soul.

He lightly tapped his chin with his index finger,

"The {Argent Amphithere} has a string body and is agile. Even worse, it has a variety of abilities that makes pinning it down hard. It is resistant to heat and cold, and has attributes of water, wind, fire, and darkness. A rather threatening beast. So..."

He furrowed his nine existent brows,

"What variation of {Burst Step}, that won't consume any of my mana, will be useful in any way against that thing?"

His combat experience has been enriched after fighting in so many battles, so it didn't take long for him to birth an idea.

The magic circle floating before him broke apart, the individual runes hanging in the air.

"By keeping the magic circle whole and making sure not to put a limited, I can retain the ability to not draw on my own mana pool. This however, limits what I can do. But it does matter."

He had come a long way since he first created the skill. His understanding of mana and magic were at heights his old self would have never been able to comprehend.

As he deconstructed and reconstructed the magic circle, the premise of the new spell began to take shape in his mind more and more.

"A skill that will allow me to keep up with the beast's erratic movements. Something reckless and dangerous."

His heart beat loudly in his chest. Both of them...

The new magic circle was quickly out together.

***

{Congratulations to Host... Your skill, {Burst Step} has evolved into the skill, {Hell Step}.

***

{Hell Step}: The path a demon threads is wrought with peril and hellfire. The world remembers, and mana quakes with each step.

When the skill is in use, the mana around the host becomes excited and distorts. There is no mana cost for this skill.

***

Although the system has embellished its description a bit, that was basically what it was in its entirety.

Instead of focusing the effects of {Burst Step} only to his legs, he had made it so that it enveloped his entire body.

By exciting the mana in the air instead of just pushing it in one direction, he could engage in continuous motion.

However, this skill had now become incredibly dangerous for one reason.

The previous {Burst Step } had been rather simple in its application and while it didn't require a lot of mana, it had been safe because it also didn't require a huge amount of control.

By extending the surface area to allow more options for motion, he had essentially upped the difficulty of using the skill my more than ten times. The moment he made a single error, he could very well be sent flying into a wall, or even worse, turning his entire body inside out of the Mana flow patterns around him got too agitated.

And while it didn't use his own mana, but instead borrowed mana from the surrounding area, he couldn't use it too carelessly.

While he would be safe as he wasn't using mana from his own spirit, he was still going to be using his spirit to activate the skill.

It wasn't as harmful as using his mana, but it would still cause some strain on his soul. Hense, he had to use it cautiousl.

Despite that, the effect of the skill ought to have improved by leaps and bounds.

And so, he had to test it out.

Cain let his consciousness drift back into his body.

A little over a second had give by in the real world, and the silver beast was already lunging at them, its maw opened wide. Cain could even swear he saw a hint of a blue flame smoldering in the depths of its throat.

Ignis and Lukas had already lunged forward, prepared to meet it head on. They didn't have any other choice. After all, they were fighting on this thing's home turf.

While it was out of the water, it certainly didn't feel like it. It was almost as like the air was its water, its domain as well, so it didn't matter that it was beached.

Cain sucked in a lung full of air and activated {Hell Step}.

Almost immediately, he could feel the change. The mana flow patterns around him changed, and for some reason, his long hair began to flutter, as though influenced by some invincible wind.

And much to his shock, the {Bloodflame} in his veins seemed to be responding to this change.

He felt his pores heat up a bit of these flakes began leaking out of him, enveloping him in a slight crimson haze.

Cain felt his physical heart beat like a jackhammer was placed inside of it.

His face flushed, 'A side effect of the skill?'

Regardless, it was a well received one.

His pupils shrunk and his veins bulged.

"This feels awesome." His voice sounded a bit guttural, but he didn't care.

He took a step forward...

And flickered away from sight.

No one saw anything.

Not a shadow, nor a gust of wind.

Instead, he was there one moment, and the next, he was gone.

Everyone paused in their tracks.

There was a loud bang, and a loud hiss of anguish as the {Argent Amphithere} began to fall again, a large bleeding hole in its midsection.

With wide eyes, Susan saw Cain appear, his entire body covered in blood and a menacing grin on his face.

She shivered slightly. Although it looked like Cain, it also didn't...