God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

After spending some time in the dark silence, Cain heard a knock come from the door, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He raised a brow, wondering who it could be.

"Cain. Are you up?"

His eyes widened in surprise,

"I am. The door's open."

In walked Susan, a magic lamp in her hand,

From where he was seated, Cain could see she was dressed in casual night wear; a loose-fitting white dress.

Her hair was draped over her chest and shoulders, still wet from a bath.

Cain felt his heart skip a beat.

'Such a scene is...'

Rather tempting.

Susan gave him a strange stare,

"You've been out for two days. Where did you go?"

Cain shook his head,

"Well, I left for Redscale to see Steve. There was a whole lot of things to... resolve over there."

Susan walked further into the room and closed the door behind her.

"Is that so..."

Cain nodded slowly,

"Then, why are you here this late?"

Susan averted her eyes,

"Well..."

Cain frowned, "Is something wrong?"

Besides Evangeline, no one else came to disturb his sleep. If Susan had come so late at night, there was a chance it was something very important.

Seeing Cain's concerned expression, Susan let out a sigh and smiled,

"No. I just needed your help with something."

Cain slowly stood up from behind the table separating them,

"Help? With what?"

In his mind, he was skeptical.

The darkness was briefly torn apart by a radiant spark.

Cain looked down.

In her hands, an item had appeared. With just a single glance, Cain could tell it was not no regular item.

The aura of divinity was practically oozing off of it in waves. So much so, it was a bit terrifying to see. It was a small comb made from pearly white jade and emeralds, giving it a mystical feel.

Like the surface of a lake reflecting the glorious night sky.

His expression changed,

"This... Where did you find this?"

Susan hummed,

"It was a reward I received recently. A mysterious item that once belonged to a god."

'That much is obvious...' Cain thought to himself as he leaned in to further inspect.

"What does it do? What God did it belong to?" Cain asked curiously.

Susan's expression turned awkward again,

"Well, I have no idea."

Cain blinked then looked at her.

"You don't know?"

She nodded, "The system has no idea as well. According to the system, more information will be revealed only if I put it on."

Cain frowned.

He immediately activated the {Eye of General Observation}.

What he got was shocking.

***

{??????,???}.

***

'No information?'

Without pause, he activated {Beholder's Eye}. What he saw nearly caused his eyes to bleed.

He groaned and stumbled back.

Susan reached out to hold him up,

"Are you okay?"

He brushed her off and nodded,

"Yeah, I'm okay."

If he had looked a second longer, he most likely wouldn't be though.

The dull pain traveled through his optical nerves and into his brain, filling him with agony.

"This thing is peculiar indeed."

Susan nodded, "You think so too, huh. I am a bit hesitant to put it on."

Cain groaned as he rubbed his eyes and shook his head,

"No. I think it will be fine. I couldn't sense anything dangerous about it."

"But..." Susan muttered with a frown.

Cain sighed and gave her a small smile,

"You don't need to worry. It's fine. Probably."

"Probably?"

"Anyway, try it on."

What he had seen had assuaged his worries. Despite the thing seemingly saturated in divinity, there was no trace of divine presence within it. That meant there would be no instances of divine possession happening tonight.

He shivered when he thought of something like that happening.

Although she still seemed suspicious, Susan steeled her nerves.

Although her hair was still a bit moist, she slipped the comb through her hair.

Cain took a step back to appreciate the scene in front of him.

He couldn't help but sigh,

"Damn. What a wonderful sight."

Susan's checks flushed red,

"Hey! What are you saying, idiot?!"

Cain cleared up his throat. Then he leaned in closer,

"So? What does it say?"

Susan sucked in a deep breath then stared blankly into the space ahead.

Cain could only guess she was reading the system prompt.

From a relatively calm expression, Cain watched as her expression soured, then darkened, then paled, before coming back full circle.

Cain's expression changed,

"W-what's wrong?"

She remained silent.

He frowned and tried to reach out.

Her eyes suddenly widened and she darted to the other side of the room so fast, he wondered if she had suddenly awoken affinity with the wind element.

'No, something is definitely up.'

"D-don't come any closer!" She said in a shaky voice.

Cain frowned, but nodded,

"I understand. But you have to explain to me what's going on."

He would feel guilty if something bad happened, especially because he was the one that urged her to put in on.

Susan quickly shook her head,

"No, don't worry about it. I should take my leave now."

Cain's eyes narrowed.

Besides being guilty, he was also extremely curious.

He had never seen such an item before. In practically dripping with divinity. Yet, it had no trace of divine presence like an actual remnant would have.

As Susan made her way to leave through the door, he reflexively reached out and grabbed her arm.

He had no idea why he did.

Susan turned to him, eyes widened in horror.

In a panic, he opened his mouth to apologize and tried to let go of her.

However, before he could, the ceremonial comb Susan had in her hair exploded into a blinding rain of light that enveloped them both.

Instantly, Cain felt his soul being ripped away from his body.

It was a deeply jarring experience. Once he would never want to experience again in his life.

His torn soul seemed to be tossed and jolted through terrible currents. Seeing the world around him a mess of colors and random motion, Cain wondered if something had finally killed him.

Eventually, it stopped and the world returned to order.

At least, that was how it seemed.

He tried to take a deep breath, but realized he couldn't.

Unfortunately, that was also the least of his worries, as when he looked around, he realized he was no longer in his room.