God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

A very thin line separates life and death...

It is so thin, and can be broken so easily. Hence, mortals think of ways to protect that line.

The build shields, invent walls, create medicine and drugs to combat diseases.

They do all in their power to try and suppress their mortality.

However, death always comes.

It is the natural conclusion to every mortal being's journey. Even the self-proclaimed immortal Celestials meet death eventually.

The end of the line...

The final destination.

To put it bluntly; the death of a being, is not a state of nothingness, but rather, a conclusion.

Still, that didn't mean it was all over.

Kaelin's thoughts were linear.

He could hear the whispers, after all. The souls of the dead as the were ripped off their mortal bodies and sent on their respective ways.

A being was made of three main parts; body, soul, and spirit.

The body of a creature, the manifestation of said being in the physical realm. Their spirit on the other hand, is a manifestation of them in the Spiritual Realm, where mana originates from.

So then, where does the soul reside?

Saying it resides in the physical body wouldn't be very accurate, and saying it resides in the Spirit would also not be quite right.

Spreading his legs apart, Kaelin swung his scythe once again.

The black sands of the Kalistik coiled around him like serpents.

The black sands he created by infusing the power of the Kalistik into ordinary sand was a rather terrifying thing.

The sand itself wasn't anything incredible. It was that rotting blackness that oozed out of the scythe that made it so harrowing.

The main ability of the Kalistik was to sever the connection between body, soul, and spirit, to bring about a true, complete, death.

The moment the blackness of the Kalistik came into contact with a living being, the body and spirit were immediately destroyed. As such, the soul would be unbound from both the physical and spiritual realms.

In a more natural circumstance, the soul would be led back into a river of rebirth to be reborn with a different body and spirit in another part of the universe.

However, because of the power of the Kalistik, the weapon of a god, that soul will be collected by the harrowing god weapon, further increasing its power.

The more lives were taken my the Kalistik, the more powerful it would become, until it could conjure entire worlds worth of black sand.

Such was the nature of this insidious, deathly weapon.

As Kaelin swung his scythe, he reaped lives from all directions. The opponent in front of him was far too stunned to do anything.

'Even if he wanted to, he can't. After all, the power of death cannot be stopped. It is an inevitability.'

Kaelin smiled to himself.

In a moment like this, he was indeed filled with joy.

Grasping true death in his hand, he could feel it.

He had power.

Not faje power, but the real deal. The reason most of his men stayed loyal to him was not just because of their reverence to Balangol. It was also out of fear.

'I can see it. I can smell it even. Their fear is palatable, like sweet nectar. Fear is, after all one of the children of death.'

His eyes narrowed,

'I even smell it on you, Champion of Ashur. You fear me.'

A wide grin spread across his face.

'Let even more of your fear bleed out. You cannot contain it! In the face of death, even the strongest of souls waver. Even gods tremble and hide!'

He continued to attack viciously. The battle arts he had spent countless hours practicing and perfecting on the beasts of the otherworld were coming in quite handily.

With them, he managed to not just suppress his opponent, he was gaining the upper hand little by little.

He sneered,

"So this is all you could muster? After that brilliant show you put on earlier on, seems like you have run out of gas."

A shower of sparks cascaded through their flowing, long black hairs as they clashed their weapons together.

Cain gritted his teeth as he tried to disengage quickly. However Kaelin laughed wildly as a torrent of black sand exploded from his scythe.

'Crap!'

The distance was too little, and he couldn't dodge it.

Left with no other option, Cain decided to face it head on.

A colourless flame enveloped him before taking in a golden hue.

At the same time, a loud bang came from his sword, and the deep crimson hue of the metal changed into a deep golden.

"Golden Halo!"

"Infernal Wings!"

Golden plated shields blossomed into existence around him, and a pair of infernal wings of fiery feather manifested into existence.

The deluge of black sand rammed into his defenses with incredible force.

The shields shattered and broke.

However, the power of the black sand was greatly reduced.

Kaelin clicked his tongue in annoyance as he took a step back.

Cain let out an internal sigh of relief. He was glad his gamble had paid off.

'It's powerful, but it can be stopped. Still, focusing only on defense will force him to just go after the others.'

He forced his mental gears to spin faster.

'The only reason my shields held up was because of the boost from the Metal enchanted {Burning Spirit}. However, it drastically decreases my movement speed. So if I want–'

Suddenly, Cain realized something.

He had been looking at this all wrong.

His eyes widened.

Kaelin stared at him for a while, then grinned,

"If you are just going to stand there all day, then I'll go look for action elsewhere."

He swung his scythe once again. As they had battled, he had managed to collect a sizeable amount of black sand. The power of the Kalistik has also grown after collecting that many souls.

A razor thin black line whipped off he surface of the scythe's blade, aimed for a group of unsuspecting Beastmen fighting back a group of rather large and odd looking Aether Beasts.

Cain finally reacted.

This time, he didn't move from the spot.

Instead, he mumbled out a chant in a low voice,

"Falling Stars of Orion."

Magic boiled in the air as the mana flow patterns changed.

Swords of golden majesty blossomed into existence from the magic circles that manifested around him.

With a wave of his hand, Cain willed his blades forward.

A property of the metal enchantment was that it increased his defenses drastically.

However, where did his defenses end and where did they begin? Was it just limited to his body? Or his armor? Or the immediate area around him?

Cain had come to realize that wasn't the case.

The defensive properties of the metal enchantment could also extend to spells.

The {Falling Stars of Orion} was an attack spell.

However, its nature could be changed.

In the middle of this impossible situation, Cain experienced an epiphany. One that usually came to him in the thick of battle.

An opportunity to improve his abilities.

'It can work. No... It will work. The logic remains the same even if the magic circles are tweaked a bit.'

And so, before even thinking about it, he combined the effects of {Golden Halo} and the {Falling Stars of Orion}.

As the dozens of swords flew, their shapes quickly changed to that of compact kite shields. Their bodies were engraved in arcane runes and magic circles.

Their cut through the air fast, just in time to block the thin blade of dark sand.

The black sand rapidly cut through a few. However, it was stopped after it broke through a dozen of them.

The sound of a system notification rang in his ear, but Cain didn't bother to check it.

The Champion of Valestorm stood there, silently staring at him.

Cain grinned,

"Let's see you try the same trick again."

Kaelin frowned,

'Hid magic is powerful. He also has a lot of mana, so I don't doubt he can keep this up for a long time. In that case...'

Kaelin's expression turned sinister,

"Try me."

Putting one foot in front of the other, his muscles bulged as he began to swing his scythe wildly.
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Sharp blades of black sand shot out in all directions. There was no reason or rhythm to his attacks.

Cain sucked in a deep breath. More and more magic circles manifested behind him, and more and more golden shields poured out, blocking all the blades of darkness.

From the outside, it looked as though thousands of shining golden stars were being shot down from the sky by streaks of darkness.

Their battle progressed at such high speeds, it was almost impossible to make out the details.

'H-He's trying to see who will last longer?'

Although his mana pool was rather deep, Cain didn't want to test how long he could keep this going.

Worse, it seemed Kaelin wouldn't just let him either.

He noticed the mana flow patterns surrounding him begin to change.

'He's about to cast a spell.'

Cain's expression turned ugly,

'And it definitely doesn't sound pretty.'

No matter what, he had to stop that spell from manifesting into existence, as it could very well spell the end for him.