God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

He decided to bite the bullet.

His lungs contracted, then expanded as the dark golden glow in his eyes increased in intensity.

The world around him trembled as the mana flow patterns became unstable.

A deep, ocean blue flames rolled unto the surface of his body as he activated the Water Enchantment of {Burning Spirit}. The Water Enchantment increased his rate of mana regeneration, which would be useful for this spell.

As he began chanting and channelling the spell, he tore open the gates of the {Mana Vault}.

Along with the blue flames, vines of twisting lightning began to materialize around his person like dragons of light, twisting and coiling around him.

In the sky above, a multipatterned magic circle appeared, materialized from the ever present, ever chaotic mana within the clouds of god ash on high.

The dark clouds churned and boiled like a storm, bolds of lighting, crimson, violent and a deep azure crackling in their depths.

It was like the end of the world all over again.

Down below, it only seevesito fuel the flames of the war.

The sound of the lightning strikes drowned out so much noise, the Humans and the Devil were unable to hear the dying throes of their comrades, invigorating them all the more.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Abaloth glanced up.

His eyes widened.

On the other side, Cain had turned into a god of storms, his body wreathed with crackling whips of electricity and blue fire.

Finally, the spell unraveled and revealed itself.

An enormous pillar of lightning, unlike anything this world had ever witnessed, fell from the depths of the sky.

{Heavenly Blue Lightning} was not a spell Cain made use of frequently.

And it was for good reason.

It was simply too dangerous.

In fact, it was so dangerous, it could put his life in danger as well.

As the world-ending bolt of condensed magical lightning struck, Cain could already foresee it.

The layers of space cutting blades were being shattered one after the other, unable to withstand the force of lightning bolt.

The Devil didn't have enough time to construct a proper defense.

The bolt of lightning was moving as fast as light. Although the Devils was fast, it couldn't be as fast as light.

It was going to the struck and turned into a lump of crystalized coal.

Cain sucked in a breath as his eyes widened.

Something fell from the skies.

"Let's try this again, shall we?" Abaloth muttered coldly.

The world seemed to slow down.

Cain's eyes drifted to the Magic Wheel behind the Devil.

He hadn't noticed it before, but he suddenly realized that the wheel was about to make a full revolution with the next step.

Coincidentally, it made that step just at this moment.

"Monochrome Antithesis."

A lightless wave spread through reality with Abaloth at its center.

A pause.

Then the world began to turn black and white.

Before he never realized it, Cain found himself swallowed by this black and white prison, unable to move even an inch.

The wave continued to spread, sucking up all color from the world.

"You truly have no knowledge of the essence of the magic you wield, young Demon." Abaloth muttered, his words stretching. Reaching. Even to the furthermore corners of this stark world frozen in time he had created.

The only thing with color in this frozen, soundless world, was the Devil's eyes which were no longer a lightless swirling void.

Now, they were a ghastly, twisted green hue, painting the world like stars in the sky.

The lightless, soundless wave eventually stopped at the border of what had once been City Z.

Stillness.

Silence.

The battle below was frozen.

The sky above was frozen.

He was frozen.

But his mind was aware.

The ghastly green eyes of the Devil, Abaloth, turned to him.

"To think your mind. The mind of a Human, can remain unchanged, even in this, truly is a testament of your will. You have almost earned my admiration, young Demon."

Abaloth, standing lofty in the frozen black and white sky, stretched a hand forward.

"But..."

The frozen world broke.

Cain felt the shackles on his body disappear in an instant.

Color immediately returned to the world, although there was not much of it to begin with anyway.

However, with the unfreezing of the world, came pain.

Cain frowned and glanced down.

His entire torso had been split open.

His eyes slowly widened.

"Magic is mystical and its nature lies at the very brink of chaos." Abaloth muttered.

Cain coughed out a mouthful of blood as he began to fall from the sky.

'When?'

He asked himself.

But he had no idea how to answer that question.

'How?'

He was even more clueless.

He quickly inspected the damage.

All his internal organs had been sliced into ribbons. Even his heart had been torn into.

Then his stomach and chest has been cut through by some unseen blade.

There were deep cuts all over the exterior of his body as well.

They weren't wide. Only deep. Deep enough to scrape his bones.

His entire body screamed in pain, but he couldn't open his mouth to say a world as his lungs and throat were completely filled with blood.

If not for his incredible physique and regeneration, he would have been waking up on the Othershore ten times in a row.

However, that didn't change the fact that he had been reduced to a mess in an instant.

Even if he healed up now, the Devil could simply cast the spell again and focus on getting rid of his head this time around.

Or tearing up his entire body.

If that happened, he doubted he would be able to return to life.

What was the most disheartening, however, was what had happened to his spell.

Since he had been aware whilst the rest of the world was frozen, he had been there to witness Abaloth completely deconstruct his spell.

It wouldn't be an understatement to say that the {Heavenly Blue Lightning} spell was one of the two strongest spells in his arsenal.

And it truly was powerful.

But this Devil has huffed a breath and it has vanished.

Just like that.

As he fell, he couldn't help but chuckled bitterly through the blood gargling in his throat.

'How frustrating.'

Despite that, he felt a flame ignited within his torn chest.

He had felt it countless times before. It was a familiar heat.

In fact, he remembered, very vividly, the first time he had been graced with this feeling.

It was th first day of the apocalypse.

When he had stabbed that iron bar into the eye of his first kill.

A feeling of exhilaration.

Of finding a challenge and finally being rid of the rot and stagnancy that had plagued him since forever.

'This...'

Blood red wisps enveloped him, knitting at his wounds and healing them.

His mangled face stretched into a savage grin,

"This is fun."