God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain slowly walked towards the fallent outpost...

With all the sand having gone to who knows where, the gorge had disappeared, and the outpost, or rather, what remained of it, was scattered across the ground, its remnants left destitute just like most of what the world had become.

With most of the sand clearing away, Cain was really able to appreciate the devastation that had come to the City.

The paved roads were cracked and the buildings that still remained intact were in terrible condition, some of them on the verge of toppling over.

Since the region encased by the dome of sands was closer to the center of the City, there were a lot of high rise remnants, vestitudes of upscale buildings, and leisure places of the wealthy and influencing.

Now, everything was rubble, barely distinguishable from what it used to be.

However, as luck would have it, hope was a resource not yet used up.

Walking forward, Cain took it all in. Soldiers dressed in their Duskkin Armor clearing up the debris, as well as trying to lead people with tears and despair on their faces into prepared shelters.

In this new age, the powerless, those who didn't have access to the system, or simply those with inferior blessings from their patron Deity, were the ones to suffer the most.

They had no way to control their fates, and as such, the course of their lives going forward was determined by those with power.

Fortunately, not everything was all bad.

Because despite the smoldering darkness encroaching on all sides, the light of hope seemed to burn.

It certainly wasn't bright, but it was still there. Flickering, but unyielding.

As the Duskkin Armor clad soldiers turned their heads towards him, their eyes lit up.

"I-its him!"

"He isn't dead?!"

"Impossible!"

The whispers were clear as day to him. They contained a bit of hesitancy and fear. Plenty of them had watched the battle, and so, they knew exactly what he was capable of.

The fear came not only from the obvious physical changes that had come over him, but also from the fact that they had indeed abandoned him and his men to die in their battle, for their own cause.

Was he here for vengeance? To deliver retribution?

Or was it something else...

With the drastic stat increases he had recently experienced, Cain would here a fly's sneeze from a hundred meters of he wanted to.

His eyes were sharper than that of a predatory bird. Although he couldn't use {Eye of Clairvoyance}, it didn't stop him from finding what, or rather who he was looking for.

A frown appeared on his face.

He took a step forward...

And vanished. Right before the eyes of so many people, leaving them bewildered.

"Quickly, make a report. Tell Khan he has come just as expected." A man with bristle-like hairs on his chin whispered to a woman soldier with dubious snake eyes, a look of fear and mirth in his eyes.

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Meanwhile, Cain hadn't employed some mystical movement spell or skill. Rather, he had simply moved so fast and with such control over his body, no eyes had been able to track his departure.

The entire layout of the Military camp had changed quite a bit.

For one, the sands that formerly engulfed everything were gone, leading to the roads and streets being revealed.

This meant that a number of buildings that were previously inaccessible due to sand blocking their entrances, or them simply being filled with sand, were now available for use.

In one of these buildings, Cain suddenly appeared.

Bound by chains in a corner of the room, was Boulder. Cain recognized those chains as the same runic chains that Leah and Roselle had used to bind Hunter under the enchantments of Stingè.

Cain was more that surprised.

Boulder didn't seem to notice him arrive, so he gently called out,

"Boulder..."

Boulder stirred slightly and looked up. His eyes were hollow and devoid of warmth,

"Cain?"

Cain's frown deepened,

"Boulder, what the hell happened here? What's going on?"

Upon stepping foot into the Military camp once again, Cain had taken notice of several important things. But the most important one of them, was she absence of General Arltzwalt.

He had expected that the moment he stepped foot in here, the first person to appear in front of him would have been the General.

Boulder remained silent, his head dropping down. Then he muttered something.

Because of his extraordinary senses, however, Cain was able to hear it clearly.

His words were, "It's Khan."

Cain was even more confused,

"Khan? What's wrong with him?"

His expression turned dark,

"Is he dead? Did the General kill him? Where is Lucia?"

Boulder suddenly raised his head. His eyes flashed crimson with rage,

"No! He isn't dead, although I really damn wish he was!"

Cain took a step back, surprised by the raw amount of bloodlust and malice rolling off of Boulder.

He was usually very composed.

'Something terrible must have happened.' Cain thought to himself.

And he couldn't have been more right.

To his horror, Cain watched hot tears roll down Boulder's face as he struggled to get the words out.

"He... He killed her. He killed them!"

Cain paused, unsure of what Boulder was trying to say.

"Calm down, Boulder—"

"Calm down?! I can't calm down!"

Fighting, struggling to break through the chains, Boulder cried out frantically,

"That traitor bastard killed them! And I couldn't do anything about it! I was too late! Why?! Why didn't he kill me instead?!"

Cursing and screaming with tears rolling down his face, Boulder managed to get out through gritted teeth, his red eyes bearing down on Cain in the darkness

"Get me out of these chains, Cain. I swear I'll kill him myself!"

Cain was silent.

His mind was surprisingly calm. Although he could feel something rising up in his chest, he didn't know how to express it. A tightness, which was quickly being replaced by a bold heat smoldering to the surface.

It was unbearable.

He didn't want to believe it.

Images flashed through his mind.

Then, ignoring the warning Azazel had given him, he activated {Eye of Clairvoyance}.

He was met with resistance. In order to stop further damage, his spirit was trying to stop the flow of mana through his Ley Lines.

'Piss off!'

That resistance might as well have been as thick as a sheet of paper as it was quickly torn through.

His senses spread through the entire Military Camp.

Very quickly, he found something familiar.

With a single spatial jump led him to the other end of the Military Camp, close to the curvature of Dome of Sands.

There was an outpost here, but it had crumbled to pieces, perhaps due to a battle.

There, laying within the rubble, was a body.

'Ah, I see...'

So that's what this feeling in his chest was.

'It stings...'

He had grown close with Lucia during his brief stay here. He had considered her a friend, and if they had had more times then they would certainly have become comrades.

Previously, Cain had had a habit of looking at others as resources, some more disposable than others. They had their uses, and each was useful in achieving various goals.

However, over time, that point of view was slowly broken down and replaced with something a bit more sentimental.

Indeed, they were still resources to him. But his comrades has become a bit more precious.

They had spilt blood and bit meat together.

Looking down at Lucia's beautiful face covered in dirt and blood, Cain felt disappointed.

He was disappointed in himself.

And that made him feel angry. The blow that had dealt the killing blow was a straight pierce through the heart.

This meant she had not suffered. Her face was at peace.

He gently leaned forward and picked her up.

Her body was cold.

He had never imagined this would happen. And because of that, as though to prove him wrong, the bitter hand of fate struck.

With a white flash, her body disappeared, leaving Cain's hands empty.

But his heart was filled. Filled with rage. Murderous rage...

The light markings of black scales all around his body lit up with dark light.

The space around him turned brittle and he broke through it again, reappearing in front of Boulder.

His tears had dried up and he had receeded back into the corner, mumbling to himself.

Cain's eyes flashed golden, and the chains shattered like brittle glass.

"Get up, Boulder."

Boulder looked up, untold sadness on his eyes. Cain looked right down at him and growled,

"I said get your sorry ass up! Let's go kill that bastard!"

Hesitating only for a moment, Boulder staggered to his feet. The rage in his eyes had dampened a bit, and was instead replaced with a biting cold thirst for blood.

A crisp sound, like that of glass shattering reached his ear. Cain turned around just in time to see Dan's body manifest from emptiness.

The temperature in the room fell by a few degrees due to his presence.

"Wait a moment, Cain..."

Cain raised a brow, "What are you doing here, Dan?"

"Hunter said I should keep an eye on the things going on here." Dan said coldly. Then he narrowed his eyes,

"Khan has Arltzwalt locked up. He also knew you'd be coming back, so he has prepared a trap for you. Don't be rash. You need to wait for the rest to get back here. I have already informed Hunter about—"

Cain shook his head and spoke, his voice calm and measured, but inexplicably cold,

"There will be no need for that. I will handle it myself. A trap, huh. It would be terrible if that much was not put in place. I wouldn't want all the satisfaction to be put out of it after all."

Cain was by no means someone to act as the better person. Right now, there was nothing on him mind besides getting answers, preferably with force.

He took a step forward and Boulder followed, their thoughts clearly aligned.

Watching them leave, Dan shrugged helplessly. There was not much else he could do really. He sensed that should he stand in their way, he very well could end on in a terrible dilemma.

'I'd rather not if possible...' he thought to himself, before activating his spill and disappearing once again.