God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The door cracked open and Susan walked in.

Her spending radiance was dulled by the darkness of Evernight that surrounded her, but that didn't take away from her beauty. Instead, it only served to highlight it even further.

As she approached him, Cain could see the obvious displeasure on her face.

"What's wrong?"

Susan pursed her lips,then shook her head,

"It's nothing. Eva said everything is set in place."

Cain raiseds a brow. She was definitely bothered by something, but it didn't seem too important, so he decided not to pry.

He nodded,

"Okay. Give me a moment."

Dismissing the stack of paper into his inventory, he took a moment to left out a deep breath before smiling at Susan.

"Alright. Let's go."

Before Susan could react, the space around her twisted and they were no longer in the dark room.

Instead, they were under the moonlight sky of Evernight.

Her eyes fluttering, Susan took a few seconds to assimilate to the sudden change before glaring at Cain.

Cain chuckled then walked forward. With a tired sigh, she followed.

They were currently on what could be described as the outskirts of the military camp.

Although there were no obvious borders or demarcations, it wasn't hard to distinguish where it started and where it began.

Evangeline and Jenny were standing side-by-side, discussing something in hushed tones.

The conversation ended abruptly when Cainade his presence known.

Evangeline flashed him a brief smile,

"Staying cooped up all day is bad for you, you know..."

Cain shrugged, "Don't worry about it."

Then he turned to face the reason they had gathered.

"So, any ideas?"

Evangeline hummed,

"I believe we can take a page out of Valestorm's book. Reconstruction can take a lot of time, but with magic, we can cut that duration down to a tenth, perhaps even lower if necessary."

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Cain nodded, "You are right. But Valestorm could only do all that reconstruction because of Balangol's presence. Getting the resources necessary for rebuilding won't be so easy now."

Jenny nodded in agreement,

"He's right. Besides the material cost, there's also a lot of labor and resources that would go into it. I suggest abandoning the idea."

Cain agreed with Jenny. The Memoir of Xer'al he had recently experienced further cemented the idea.

In the flash of memories he had witnessed, he had witnessed many things. One of them being the way the people of his home planet had gone about rebuilding their world.

In short, they didn't. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that they couldn't.

With every attack from the Devils, whatever reconstruction they did was torn apart in the battles, regardless of whether they won or lost.

However, that didn't mean were always left homeless and destitute.

Instead, they had acquired the Fortresses; marvelous edifices that could withstand the brunt of battle and need only minor repairs afterwards.

The first of the Fortresses was a gift from the patron diety to whom Xer'al had become a champion after the inception of god ash.

From there, the people hd learned how to reverse engineering the technology that went into making it, creating their own versions of the Fortresses, some of whuch even possessed the ability to move around.

Cain could not even begin to fathom how useful they would be.

But for now, he had no access to such resources. Even still, he believed trying to rebuild this broken place was not only a waste of time, but also a bad idea.

Evangeline shrugged, "I guess you are right. Then, what do you suggest?" She said, glancing at Cain.

Cain was silent for a moment.

Then he smiled,

"Simple. We'll go to Valestorm."

Evangeline raised a brow and Jenny's eyes widened,

"You... You want to start a fight again?!" Jenny asked anxiously.

Cain shook his head,

"Of course not."

"Then what did you mean by that?" Evangeline asked.

Cain smiled, "I don't think we should rebuild on our own. This place has no foundation. The buildings are rotting, and it is too close to the edge of the barrier. In case of a bridge, it will fall rather quickly. Valestorm on the other hand..."

Cain cleared his throat,

"Assuming all goes well, there won't be any reason to clash swords again. Didn't I tell you? I'm going to give them a proposal they absolutely cannot refuse."

Susan and Jenny were silent.

They both seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Susan was the first to speak,

"What's your plan? Spill everything."

Jenny nodded in agreement,

"We can't have you leaving us out of the loop again."

Cain chuckled wryly,

"Well, if we can't start rebuilding from where, the only obvious choice is to go to Valestorm."

Susan frowned, "You sure you aren't leaving something very important out? Like the battle where we just killed each other? What makes you think anyone would agree to this?"

Cain shook his head, "Of course I'm not forgetting any of that. But in the face of greater danger, I believe no one would disagree. Take us all for example. We all were once on opposing sides."

At the very beginning of all this madness, Cain had started alone.

Then he had teamed up with Susan and the others. Then he acquired Evangeline's assistance. Then Jenny and the others.

Each time, it hadn't gone over smoothly. They had not been close right from the beginning, with some situations even starting with the threat of death from both sides.

Jenny cleared her throat in embarrassment,

"I... I see your point. But who knows if they will be as open minded as we are."

Cain waved dismissively,

"You don't need to worry about that."

He was this confident because he had an insider who was already helping him sow the seeds of discord. All he had to do was come at the right time, when they had matured.

Till then, he would have to keep waiting.

"For now, we wait. It should be any day now..."

Evangeline shook her head and glanced up,

"How much longer do you think the dome is going to hold up?"

Cain's expression turned a bit dark,

"I don't know. But I have a solution. And it is all hinged on our ability to access Valestorm."

If his guess was right, then the center of this place was where the energy source for the dome of sands would be.

If he could access that place, he would be able to keep the dome standing.

He would rather they not fight any devils in their current state.

They were low on manpower and had yet to recover from the previous battle. Any more fights would hurt severely.

"Still, that doesn't mean we should live in squalor." Cain suddenly added.

Evangeline nodded, "Hunter and his men will be bringing the food within the hour. Transporting water is a bit more tricky, so we'll have to wait a bit longer."

Because of their current situation, getting their hands on food and water from within the dome of sands was difficult if not outright impossible.

So Cain was making good use of his {Spatial Gate} to tackle that problem.

Hunter and those in Gwendolyn were in charge of hunting for food that would be send through the {Spatial Gate}, while Steve and those with him on Redscale Island were in charge of providing them with safe drinkable water, as well as a few other essentials.

From what he had learned from his insider, Valestorm had managed to last this long thanks to the reserves of resources in their vault. However, those resources weren't infinite, and was drying up rather quickly, especially with there being so many mouths to feed.

Because of this, Valestorm was growing restless.

And when the tipping point was reached, the time to act would have arrived.

They continued to discuss for a while before a thought flashed in his mind,

"By the way... Susan, how are those two?"

Susan smiled bitterly,

"Lucia has come far, but I can tell she is still struggling. Boulder on the other hand was more deeply affected. He's been training, refusing to eat and do anything else."

"I see..."

'Perhaps I should give them more time.'

He wouldn't want to rush them, especially after they had experienced such a devastating loss.

In the end, he didn't dwell on it for too long. There were more important things to attend to.

***

A certain darkness, far deeper than the Evernight, seemed to shroud the hearts of every living being within Valestorm.

Within the Temple of Sands, Gilead gently tapped his finger on the coarse stone table.

He was seated alongside many others in a wide room. And currently, a rather heated discussion he had no interest in was currently being held.

What was left of the Head Priests, alongside the surviving Vicars and Lectors were present.

They had gathered here several times over the past few weeks trying to come up with how to go forward. Yet, everytime, it ended fruitlessly.

Wulf banged his fist on the table, causing it to tremble,

"Compromise?! Are you foolish?! We should kill them all! Avenge our fallen brothers and sisters and make them pay for their transgressions in blood."

A certain woman in the crowd wearing a deep scarlet robe, as well as a matching mask that looked to be the gnarled, twisted root of some burned tree and a strange summoned creature seated by her leg spoke, her voice engimatic and charming,

"If that was possible, then we wouldn't have lost the previous battle, Wulf."

Wulf growled, rage simmering in his eyes,

"Address me with respect, you bitch! I am the Keeper of the Dark Flame!"

The Heart Ward, merely shrugged, "Sure."

Her voice suddenly dropped by several octaves,

"Although it makes me wonder if you deserve such respect after losing so disgracefully."