God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Eyes burning with rage, expressions gnarled and twisted in fear and confusion.

Both the infected and not rushed at them from all angles.

Cain slowly filled his lungs with air.

{Eidwyrm} drew an arc in the air as he cut down the first human that lunged at him with nasty aggression.

However the next moment, his body became like a soft willow, bending under the attacks of the two behind him. His other hand moved like a snake striking the back of their necks and knocking them out clean.

'I see. Kill the nasties, knock the normals out. That really is quite effective.' Vincent thought to himself as he ducked behind a large boulder and rolled into position.

Without giving it much thought, he positioned his magic rifle properly and began firing rounds into the crowd. Of course, his bullets turned the heads or torsos of whoever they met into bloody mist, so he had to be especially careful.

Click. Crack.

The rifle recoiled again and again in his hands, its runes glowing a violent blue with each squeeze of the trigger.

Someone in the crowd screamed.

Of course, the humans in the crowd didn't know he was only targeting the infected.

With enraged cries, bullets, arrows, and spells began flying in their direction.

A firebolt hissed past Vincent's cheek and exploded behind him.

"Bloody hell," he spat.

With a sharp puff of breath, Manny shot into the crowd, his blade drawn.

Vincent's posture faltered for a moment as he yelled at him,

"Remember, don't just kill people randomly!"

"I'm not an idiot, you know..." Manny muttered with pursed lips.

In fact, his senses were quite sharp so he didn't even need to see the infected to know they were.

He could smell very conveniently, the lingering scent of rot and decay about them. A strange musk, earthy and old, like wet leaves left to rot in a pit.

He didn't summon his devilish appendages this time.

Instead, his two human arms gripped his bastard swords tightly as he turned into a streak of blurring lights.

He wove through the panicked formation of humans with fluid momentum, a dance both beastly brutality and beauty.

His eyes widened as he quickly flipped through the air, narrowly avoiding having his head sent flying. The humans in the crowd weren't pushovers at all.

The months of chaos and death after the apocalypse had turned those still living into battle hardened warriors for the most part.

Not only were their martial skills hardened, but their mental state was flexible, allowing them to quickly adjust to complex situations.

If this was not the case, then they would have all long since become {Zombies} or Devil food.

A man wearing a horned helmet and wielding a spiked mace grunted roughly as he charged at him,

"These people have been possessed by the Devils. Apprehend them at once!"

Manny's eyes narrowed as he leapt back again. The mace crashed into the ground, turning it into dust.

The man moved with great agility, smashing his mace at Manny's head again.

With a swift parry, Manny deflected the blow and slid his sword across the man's wrist.

The man retreated with a pained groan. Not relenting, Manny smashed his shoulder into his solar plexus, sending him down to the ground foaming at the mouth.

"All in a days work." He muttered as he twirled his blades and rushed forward with a savage gleam in his eyes.

With his fingers twitching, Calio wove his special mana threads.

Those unfortunate enough to be tangled by them were either bound tightly or ripped to shreds if they were no longer human.

Despite this, the four of them were being slowly pushed back. Although they brutally killed the thralls, they could only try their best to incapacitate the normal humans.

"Damn it! Cain! This is bad."

Cain wore a grimace as he smashed the pommel of his sword into the back of a flailing man's head, knocking him out like a light.

"Anytime now..." He muttered to himself.

Perhaps it was because they had suffered too many losses, but the thralls finally began to show their true colors.

A thick black mist suddenly exploded, completely enveloping the camp.

Cain's eyes narrowed.

With the {Beholder's Eye}, the mist did nothing to dampening his vision. However, the other humans were not so fortunate.

There in the sticky darkness, strange, nightmarish forms shuddered and rose.

Screams and cries of fear and confusion spread.

A terrible slaughter quickly ensued as the thralls took advantage of the dark mist to wreak death and havoc.

Cain's eyes widened as he turned into a harrowing blitz.

Inky black tendrils shot out towards him as a dozen Devil Corrupted thralls launched themselves at him.

He snarled as {Eidwyrm} cut through the air, cutting one at the waist. Black ichor stretched into the air in bloody blossoms. More tendrils wrapped around his arms and legs, trying to restrict his movement.

A screeching maw lunged at his face, emitting a foul, putrid stench that could knock even a dragon out.

His eyes burning with a wicked chill, Cain ignored the tendrils latched onto his and stretched his arm out and grabbed the lunging monster right by the neck.

It coughed and scratched at him but its claws failed to draw blood.

With a furious roar, Cain smashed it into the ground.

The thrall splattered across the ground in rotting pieces.

The tendrils around his limbs weakened and fell to the ground.

Sucking in a deep breath, his neck snapped around,

"Who's next?"

The rest of the thralls froze.

Then they began to slowly inch away.

Vince stared at Cain through the dark mist, his eyes narrowed.

For some reason, Cain seemed much more terrifying than the Devils themselves.

Sucking in a deep breath, Cain muttered under his breath,

"Seal."

The dark mist faded away instantly.

The nightmarish forms of the thralls were revealed.

"These are the monsters you are trying to protect." Cain said coldly.

A few humans had already fallen victim to the thralls under the dark mist, their bodies laying lifeless on the ground now revealed.

"I'm not mad enough to start killing my own for no reason. These things managed to infect so many and no one was none the wiser." He continued coldly as he walked forward.

"Should they have made it to their destination successful, the demise and damnation of the human race would fall upon all your heads because of your negligence."

The silence was visceral. The people flinched, their weapons trembling as they heard his words, their gazes flickering between him and the terrifying, hulking creatures that had been walking amongst them wearing human skin just a month ago.

"No. Aldo! There's no way my Aldo could be a monster!" A woman suddenly rushed out of the crowd.

Her eyes were wide as she threw her weapons away,

"Aldo, it's me! Don't worry, I'll make sure they don't harm you! Don't worry! You aren't a monster! Get a hold of your—"

"Stay back!" Calio yelled, but it was already too late.

The woman's wide eyes went blank and her body slacked as she fell to the ground. The thrall she had believed was her husband, who had been with her even through all the horror and sorrow after the apocalypse, stabbed her through the torsk, crushing up all her organs to paste.

A single tears slid down her cheek as her eyes closed forever.

Cain's eyes twitched.

"Kill them all!" Cain roared as he dashed forward.

There was a brief pause.

"Die, you monsters!" A man wielding a spear rushed forward with a furious yell, tears streaking down his face.

Although they were confused and terrified, their rage burned.

The scene from earlier cemented the realization that whoever these things had been...

Was already long dead.

Their bodies had become hosts to foul, destructive madness and chaos in the form of the {Soulfiend Parasytes}.

The thralls screeched as their rushed at the furious mob.

A furious slaughter quickly ensued.

The Devil thralls possessed the strength of actual Devils. They were truly insidious things, their tentacles powerful enough to crush cars into ten inch balls.

Still...

As mighty as they were, the humans were enveloped in burning fury, their eyes enveloped in madness.

Black ichor sprayed into the sky as their bodies were torn apart.

Standing from his crouch, Vincent watched the madness with a bitter, dark expression.

It was a horrid thing to witness.

Their bodies drenched in dark blood, the humans continued to hack at the bodies until everything had turned into bloody mulch.

"This is the reality of what our lives have come too, isn't it?" Calio muttered softly, his face pale.

Vincent clicked his tongue,

"Don't say anything. You'll make it more depressing."

The entourage had shrunk a bit with this incident.

There were over two hundred dead, including those that had been Devil Corrupted thralls.

Calio's lips trembled,

"May the gods have mercy on all our souls."