God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

If there was one good thing about having a metal body, it would be the perpetual lack of sensation compared to that of real, biological, nervously stimulated flesh.

'This is... interesting.'

With no need to breathe air thanks to a lack of lungs, Cain realized he could run like this forever, and never get tired for as long as he had mana.

Somehow, in a very strange turn of events, his plan had managed to work.

Right now, his real body and the rest of Boulder's squad were making their way through the jungle of buildings and large patches of bare wasteland towards the Dome of Sands.

Most of the Devils were busy chasing after this false body of his.

To make it even more plausible, he had installed a single magic circle in the abdominal region of the puppet that would release a ball of flames towards an attacker.

While it wasn't very powerful, the Devils chasing after him didn't know that, and were under the false impression that this was a human's natural response to being attacked from all angles.

He couldn't help but chuckle inwardly,

'For intelligent beings, they don't seem very smart, do they...'

Controlling two bodies at once was hard, but with his mental capacities, it was doable.

The hard part came in decided the amount of mental capacity he was to assign to each body. Although his main body was safer, that didn't mean there wasn't danger.

For one, the City was huge. Just because they could sense a single human didn't mean all the Devils in the City would congregate towards a single area.

It just meant the population of Devils in the immediate vicinity would thin out, giving them more room to move around.

It would also serve as a way for them to throw the Devils off their trail, even for a moment.

As long as the {Iron Flesh Puppet} was able to buy them some time, it would have served its purpose.

The Iron Puppet was fast...

Very fast...

It could operate at a range of about five kilometers away from Cain with ease.

If it left this range, his control would slip away until finally, he would lose control.

This was where the danger of Blood Sorcery came; he had no idea what would happen should he lose control.

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The more logical conclusion would be for the puppet to lose its power and turn back into energy particles that drift on to the pearly blankets.

However, what he had done, mixing his blood, as well as even more blood elemental mana with a spell, was similar to trying to create new life.

There was a reason why blood sorcery is considered heretical in most parts of the cosmos.

However, Cain didn't want to think about all that right now.

Instead he wanted to see the full capabilities of the {Iron Flesh Puppet}.

The puppet's lithe body jumped onto a nearby wall, digging its fingers into the cement and scaling it like a lizard.

Behind it, more than ten {Blade Devils} and {Hunter Devils} were doing the same.

Two {Sky Devils} swooped in from the sky, their sharp spears pointed at its neck.

With a burst of speed, it managed to dodge both attacks, just before they could connect.

By making use of the terrain, Cain would be able to buy more time for himself.

Just when he believed he had escaped immediate danger, a shadow was cast over him from above.

'Crap!'

A third {Sky Devil} had gone over the building and was now diving down to catch him off guard.

With no other choice to make, Cain made use of the puppet's heavy body to forcibly break through a window, dodging the third Devil just in time.

However, this was just sealing his fate, as the Devils now had him surrounded in here.

The only possible way to escape now, would be to out maneuver every single one of them. However, the puppet's individual strength wasn't much. Even the metal he had created wasn't strong enough to withstand whatever punishment it would have to go through to survive this.

'What to do...'

Since a piece of his mind was within the puppet, he could use certain spells with the puppet as a reference point, such as {Eye of Clairvoyance}. This was how he was able to observe the puppet's surroundings so accurately.

Then, it finally hit him.

Most buildings in the City were made, predominantly of two major materials;

Reinforced concrete, and Refined Carbon Steel alloys.

The {Divine Essence of Metallurgy} skill granted him the ability to Lord over all forms of metal, including those created without magical essence.

Compared to metals with magical essence, regular steel and iron were far weaker.

However, all metal contained metal essence, even though it was in lesser quantities in normal metal.

A grin spread across Cain's face, although since his face was jow made of metal, that was impossible. It was more of a mental grin if anything else...

Just like how he could use {Eye of Clairvoyance} through the {Iron Flesh Puppet}, he could also use {Divine Essence of Metallurgy}, although it was far weaker compared to the extent of his main body.

With that in mind, he plunged his hands into the floor. The metal beams and rods that made up the support system of the building began to tremble violently.

Cain's eyes gleamed with excitement,

'Fall, damnit!'

The metal bars and beams folded and creaked. He was like one giant magnet, trying to pull the magnetic skeletal frame of the building right out of its body, then watch it crumble to pieces.

The Devils were already pouring in from every entrance.

The metal essence began pouring in. Slowly, the body of the {Iron Flesh Puppet} began to change, becoming slightly bigger and more pronounced.

The sliver shine on it became fuller, but in return, it was replaced with a strange sense of strength and substance it has lacked before.

'This is incredible!' While he couldn't feel it physically, Cain could tell very clearly that the metal within the internal structure of the building was slowly being melded into the Iron Puppet.

It didn't matter what metal it was. Slowly but surely, it was being refined at a staggering pace to fit into the body of the puppet.

While all this was happening though, he would have to make sure the puppet remained in one piece.

The serated forelimb blade of a {Blade Devil} came crashing down from above, planning on separating the head of the puppet from its shoulders.

Having seen the Devil before it acted, Cain had plenty time to react accordingly.

'Let's try something out!'

Using the power of his will, Cain let the mana within the puppet surge like a gushing river.

Its hand instantly morphed into a wicked looking scythe that parried the blade of the descending Devil.

A loud bang resulted, cracking the ground beneath them into rubble.

With a growl, the Devil retreated briefly, but it quickly closed in once again, this time, with two more of its kin.

Cain held his breath.

This was just like playing a game. He was witnessing the events in the first person, but they didn't affect him directly. So he was at a disadvantage. However, that disadvantage was also an advantage in a strange, twisted sense.

Blows landed from all corners, bruising and breaking the metal flesh of the Iron Puppet. But despite all this, its body was being healed at a staggering rate.

Worse of all, Cain hadn't stopped firing the {Fireballs} all this time. Meaning soon, the entire building would be engulfed in a sea of flames if it didn't collapse right down to its foundation first.

Normally, Cain wouldn't be able to pull of this kind of stunt. However, this wasn't his real body. He could do whatever he wanted this way with minimal repercussions.

Using his metal controlling abilities, he managed to find off the Devils for a long time. During this time, he managed to absorb most of the metal within the building. Since the metal was to preserve the structural integrity of the building, by taking it away, this conclusion was to be reached from the start.

The noise was deafening as the entire building came crashing down. For some reason, the flames spread like wildfire through the collapsing building, dragging a lot of the Devils within it to the Othershore.

It was chaos unprecedented...

Even though the Devils had no regard for their lives, as well as the lives of other creatures, no living being would want to lose its life intentionally.

As such, most of them were able to escape the building before it collapsed.

Meanwhile, Cain and the others used this valuable time to reach the Dome of Sands, arriving safely within its borders.

They managed to do this without a single encounter with the Devils.

Cain let out a tired sigh. He was completely unharmed, but the same couldn't be said about the Iron Puppet.

Because it was still within the building, it was buried in the rubble during its collapse as well. He had no way of knowing its state as well, as at the moment of the collapse, he had lost his connection with it.

It was safe to say the Metallic Marauder had met its end, buried in a grave of stone ajd flames. It was a fitting end indeed.

With a final sigh, Cain turned around and walked forward, already putting the entire ordeal out of his mind.

***

Meanwhile...

The Devil stared at the burning ruins with a blank expression. It's expression slowly morphed into a frown.

"So it wasn't a human. Perhaps an automaton? To be used as a diversion it seems..."

It turned to the slightest smaller Devils behind it,

"We've been fooled."

The smaller Devil's eyes widened. This was the {Blade Devil} that had sent the signal back to the hive. Before it could say anything, its head was separated from its neck and was sent flying, leaving a bloody fountain behind.

Clicking its tongue, the bigger {Blade Devil} waved its hand, dispersing all the flames with a single motion before walking away, wrath burning in its Devilish eyes.

All the other Devils slowly returned to where they came from.

This was why they weren't able to see the slightest of movements that came from beneath the smoldering rocks as a silvery, humanoid arm broke through, the glorious moonlight revealing its tattered glory.