God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The feeling of being ran through by a blade was all too familiar to Cain.

But this feeling was rather different.

The blade of the Devil's scythe was halfway embedded into his side. The sharp blade had cut right through his armor and hard skin, tearing his flesh apart.

Blood streaked down the side, drenching his legs completely.

The situation of the Devil was not any better.

The enormous blade of {Eidwyrm} had pierced through its chest and exited from its back.

He had impaled it right through.

The Devil's eyes were wide in disbelief. However, a nasty grin soon appeared on its face,

"You are fucked, aren't you?"

Cain wanted to speak, but all that came out of his mouth was a mouthful of blood.

His sight began to spin.

He had reacted in time, stopping the blade's momentum by grabbing unto the shaft of the scythe. If he hadn't, he would probably have been cut right down the middle, his organs spilling from both halves of him.

He couldn't help but chuckle bitterly.

He was indeed fucked.

He glanced at the Devil. Around the blade of {Eidwyrm}, golden and red flames burned, worsening the wound, completely inhibiting the Devil's healing.

It was also fucked.

For the first time, the human and the Devil seemed to have something in common.

There was a temporary lull in the heat of their battle.

The world around seems to fade away into obsoletion.

In this new world, there was only man, monster, and the inches between them.

In one hand, their gripped their blades tight, each trying his best to drive it in deeper into the other. In the other hand, each held on to the other's blade, trying to keep himself from being impaled any further.

They struggled like that for a while.

Bloody spittle dripping from his mouth, Cain grit his teeth as he momentarily let go of the Devil's scythe handle.

Ignoring the pain for a moment, he left his hand fly, fitting the Devil in the jaw.

Left dazed, the Devil's grip weakened for a second.

Cain used that split moment to dislodge himself and his sword from the Devil.

He stumbled back and fell to the ground at the same time as the Devil.

A long silence stretched out.

Cain glanced down at his side.

The terrible gash refused to close up.

'I'm losing blood quickly.'

He sighed and turned his gaze back to the sky.

It had turned a deep crimson, no longer the deep darkness of Evernight.

The same as his bleeding side.

He groaned as he struggled to his feet.

Regardless of everything, the battle was not over yet.

As he rose, he noticed the Devil doing the same.

He couldn't help but curse silently.

{Eidwyrm} thrummed in his grip, thirsty for blood.

"Humans truly are unpredictable." Inixth said with a chuckle as he staggered to his feet.

"Any creature becomes unpredictable enough when pushed against a wall this hard."

Inixth reached up and wiped the blood off his face twisted in a gnarly grin,

"How naive. You truly have not seen the ends of despair yet. This is just the beginning."

Cain huffed and sighed,

"I'll be the judge of that. Besides, don't you think you are being a bit too arrogant?"

Then again, what did he expect.

Inixth raised a brow then waved his scythe at Cain,

"Well, I can admit you are a worthy opponent. I truly have no words on how troublesome it is to kill you. It certainly is harder than the last time. But..."

Cain grimaced, 'But?'

At the moment, they were both on their last legs, ha ing expended most of what they had in store.

A 'But' meant this Devil was still hiding a trump card under its sleeve.

He groaned as he stabbed his sword into the ground and leaned his weight on it.

It was becoming difficult for him to stand straight.

He was losing blood by the gallon.

If not for his terrifying vitality and endurance, he would have been a dead man three times over already.

Beneath him, a frightening pool of blood had already gathered.

He looked down at his body, torn and tattered.

He sighed.

A calm expression made itself way into his face.

' I still have enough juice for one more.'

One more strike that he would pour everything he had into.

He glanced ahead.

The body of the {Chaos Reaper Imp} had become

Gun to change.

Its exoskeletal armor crackled and broke apart as itself body expanded, revealing an even more terrifying look under.

It let out a feral growl as its body grew larger.

The scythe in Inixth's hand grew, doubling in size.

Its handle blackened with Devil Essence and the blade dropped with a violent, concentrated crimson energy.

Now, it looked fitting for a reaper.

The ground trembled and the red sky darkened a tint.

From the form of the Devil before him, an unholy deluge of Devil Essence poured forth.

Cracks covered the ground as the world began to turn corrupted.

The Devil and the Humans fighting a distance away sensed the change even in the midst of their battle.

Steve grimaced, hso expression darkening as his face drifted towards a certain place.

"You have done well, Human." Inixth said, his voice manifesting in a terrifying, low rumble.

The power of a Devil.was determined from the moment of its birth.

Bloodline and potential.

Those who were unfit would be devoured by their kin, those with the blood of tyrants.

The more a Devil progressed on its path to eternity the more capable it became of chaos and death.

It would become something with an immense affinity with destruction.

A scourge of the universe.

A stain upon everything that ever was and would be.

It was a thing of pride.

Staring down at the strong human beneath him, Inixth couldn't help but think.

Although this human had Demon blood, which in turn gave him a portion of Devil's blood, it would never be able to possess his majestic form.

A form that seethes darkness into the world.

The epitome of corruption and despair.

The crimson glow in his eyes was filled with mad glee.

His body trembled with excitement.

He wanted to tear this human apart viciously and relish in his victorious glory with bathed in human blood.

He stared the human right in his defiant eyes,

"You have done well, but this is where your glory ends. The pitiful fate of a human such as you is the reality of this world."

Inixth stretched his hand,

"This accursed reality created by a cruel bastard! Because of this, I have been doomed to a cursed fate for all of eternity."

His eyes widened as he roared,

"But my blood yearns for freedom! And so I will become him! I will become the Devil Messiah!"

The darkness infusing into the world became thicker with every syllable uttered by the Devil.

"I will devour everything that cruel creator built. I will destroy his precious universe and restore it to its original state. I will destroy and consume all the so-called 'gods'. The age of darkness and nightmares has begun!"

Pride, arrogance, darkness, cruelty...

Those were the traits of a Devil.

Staring into the deep, wickedly crimson eyes of this abhorrent abomination, Cain couldn't help but feel complex emotions rise into his heart.

This shocked him.

Although he had come to hate these cruel monsters, the words this Devil spoke reminded him of what Lyx had said to him long ago.

The nature of the Devils, their origins...

As it spoke those cruel, terrifying words, Cain sensed something else. Something hidden under all the darkness.

Was it, perhaps Despair?

Or sadness?

He had once been told by someone that Devils were incapable of feeling the emotions he could feel as a human.

Just how accurate was that?

Was it truly impossible for the creature before him to feel sadness and love?

Were its eyes truly clouded only by madness, cruelty and bloodlust?

He glanced up...

For the first time, he found himself in doubt.

A mutter floated off of his lips,

"Devil Wyrm: Asura."

The body of this human was suddenly enveloped by streaks of tenebrous darkness and splitting gold rays.

The world was enveloped in the strange glare.

The horns on his head grew. His claws and fangs sharpened.

The Scales of Antiquity on his chest extended to cover him, changing into a scaly armor.

His eyes became strange and their nature mysterious.

His body grew, forcing his armor to give way until he stood at the same height as the Devil.

{Eidwyrm} trembled in excitement. His transformation seemed to have some unseen changes on the blade.

It grew longer, wider and heavier, becoming almost as large as he was.

The runic motifs on the body of the blade changed as well, resembling the vicious image of a roaring dragon soaring to devour crimson skies.

And at its heart, there laying something strange.

A mystery layer of dark energy covered Cain's body.

It was not the same wicked darkness as that exuded by the Devil before him.

Rather, it was a Divine black.

A blackness that radiated strength and might.

It filled him up with even more power.

He gripped the hilt of his blade.

He could doubt as much as he wanted, but that wouldn't stop him from getting what needed to be done, done.

He had to kill this Devil, not just for himself, but for the fates of every other human.

The lives of the Fallen could not be in vain.

The Devil before him was a powerful one.

And from what he could see, it had gathered enough power to cut him down on the spot.

The air crackled with fire and electricity produced just from their clashing presences.

This was the true might of beings that had ascended to the second tier of existence.