God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain's eyes fluttered open.

Then he winced.

A flash of near blinding radiance instantly hit him the moment his eyelids slid open.

He wanted to curse, but suppressed the feeling.

Mostly because he was mentally drained from all the grueling work he had just done.

The sweet sound of victory chimed in his ears...n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

***

{Congratulations to Host... You have acquired the internal passive skill, Spirit Weaver}.

***

It was an amazing accomplishment. One that he knew he could be proud of.

Unfortunately, those gathered around him didn't know any of this.

Cain was immediately hit with a comforting fragrance followed by a harsh biting pain across his face.

Cain's groggy self instantly became alert. His eyes shot wide open,

"What the hell-"

Before he could get all the words out, the wet feeling on his face brought him back to reality.

"T-thank... goodness. You're alive."

Cain was at a loss for words.

He stared at the crying Susan, unsure of what to do.

Then he sighed and drew her in closer.

"It's alright. I'm alright."

He pursed his lips, "Better than alright in fact." Find adventures at empire

Steve sighed, "What the hell was that, man?"

Cain glanced at him and shrugged, pulling Susan in closer, enjoying the warmth of her embrace,

"The boy has potential. It would be a waste to see you barbarians kill him off."

"Oi, wasn't that your idea?!" Li yelled angrily.

Cain shrugged, burying his face into Susan's chest.

The unsuspecting Susan blushed a deep shade of red,

"C-Cain! What are you doing?!"

Cain greedily sucked in them smiled,

"What... Can I not do this?"

The shade of red her face had become turned an even brighter shade of crimson as she pushed on his head,

"No, stop it. How embarrassing..."

Once he had his fill, Cain got up.

He flexed his arm then smiled.

There was no pain.

He breathed in and out.

His heart... His hearts began pumping erratically, each pulse filling him with raw power.

His body was pumped full with Ki, while his spirit was pumped full with Mana.

He could now freely activate his skills and spells thanks to his new skill, {Spirit Weaver}.

He narrowed his eyes,

'No, the changes are more significant than that.'

He had a hunch, one he wasn't inclined to doubt.

Towards the end of the process, his rune, had changed form, into something he couldn't quite understand anymore.

That change had been more sophisticated than he thought, but if he had to guess, then he could only believe that the core aspects of the rune had been improved upon.

In that case,

'What does an excess of spirit threads mean for me?'

It was simple...

His spirit would be able to grow faster than normal.

Meaning the vessel for his mana would continue to grow faster than normal.

Meaning...

Cain quickly put the idea to the test.

Sure enough, the counter gauge for his mana pool, passively increased by a single point the moment he stared at it.

Cain grinned.

Not the counter that signified his passive mana regeneration, no.

It was a permanent increase in his Mana pool by a single unit.

Cain felt giddy with excitement.

But the surprises weren't over yet. Exceeding his expectations, his magic stat count suddenly increased by one as well.

Cain furrowed his brows,

'Both magic and MP, huh... Well, I guess that makes sense, seeing as both are intimately tired together.'

However, it wasn't until after a while before he observed another increase.

Cain nodded.

It was to be expected. After all, he didn't expect to grow an infinite mana pool overnight. Perhaps it would take a bit of time, but time was one thing he had in quite the volume on his hands.

Not necessarily, but still...

Cain turned towards the others, who were staring at him like he was some sort of demon.

Lukas frowned,

"You... What happened to you?"

Cain raised a brow.

Stan nodded and placed a finger on his chin,

"I see it too. Did you have an epiphany before death and come back as a different person? Or are you really not Cain and are simply another soul that has transmigrated into his body?!"

Cain shrugged, "Slow down there, pal."

"Whatever it is, you can figure it out later. I'd like to leave this place." Susan said, her voice cold and firm.

Feeling the urgency in her tone, Cain felt he had no right to delay any more.

"In that case, shall we make the journey back to Valestorm?"

***

Along the way back, they didn't encounter any more mutant creatures.

This was because they had killed most of them on their way down. All that was left, were the stragglers and those that were rather hard to spot.

Fortunately, with the elimination of most of competitors for food and resources, those in hiding came out by the dozen, allowing Cain and the others to easily clear them out.

Finally, after a few hours of a return journey and another shot of Cain's poison resistant 'blood', they finally made.it out of the cove entrance.

Staring at the dark entrance that seemed more like an abyssal maw waiting to swallow those who dared enter, Cain sighed.

'In the end, I still didn't catch that thing, whatever it was...'

He then turned to Steve,

"Do you think no other mutant creatures would appear here again?"

Steve glanced at the cove entrance and shook his head,

"That is not the nature of beasts. Where there is plunder to be had, they will naturally gravitate towards. As for how the population of this hell would rise again? I have no clue. Maybe migration? Maybe a few broods and eggs we have missed will repopulate this damp hellhole. Maybe creatures from within the depths we dare not enter might rise to the surface to repopulate the place. One thing if for certain though..."

Cain calmly breathed out a plume of white, foggy air.

The moon hung in the sky over head. Radiant and lacking in mercy, but graceful nonetheless, like the backdrop of a beautiful painting...

"We have conquer this place. And so, it is only fitting to give it a name..."

Cain smiled lightly,

"Of course. The Cove of Darkness would be a fitting name, no?"

Li turned around and burst out laughing,

"Cove of Darkness? That is all you could come up with?! Hahaha!"

Cain frowned, then snorted,

"What, it's a good name, isn't it?"

He looked around for approval but found none.

He sighed, the turned away from the cove,

"Alright, let's get out of here."

The world had truly changed, and they along with it.

Their old families and acquaintances, their old ways of life, the things they did for leisure, their responsibilities, their burdens, their joys, their sorrows...

Everything had changed with the world.

Aa they walked on the barren rocks, Cain reached out with his mind.

He felt the presence of five beings...

A humanoid creature of earth and fire, a mutant beast of blood, a dark shadow with eldritch origins, a tunneling creature that had been stolen from the Aether realm, and of course, a sikver worm that dreamt of one day becoming a dragon.

Cain exerted his will and pulled in three of the five into a space he could instinctively feel.

Far off in the distance, Ruby, who had been busy hunting down a rather swift mutant beast in the shape of a six meter tall spider suddenly dissolved into a stream of glowing lights which shot up into the air and traveled at an incomprehensible speed.

It arrived before Cain and dove into his chest before anyone could even notice anything, including Cain himself.

The same happened with Pudding who had been digging tunnels underground, and the dark diver who had been busy scouting the terrain ahead of the rapidly traveling group.

Four different radiant tattoos and a dim one were now on his body.

A clawed paw print on his upper chest, the imprint of a cocoon wrapped around a creature with three eyes, three horns, and three arms on his lower chest and parts of his abdomen, the image of a dark eerie eye located on his solar plexus, and lastly, a tattoo of a spiraling, coiling winged serpent on hos left arm.

The last tattoo he had was that of a star burning below a mountain. This one represented Ignis, but because he had decided not to use the effects of {Beastmaster} on her, it remained dull.

And judging from her current expression...

'She's clueless...'

He furrowed his brows, 'Then I'd better tell her about it soon.'

With a thought, he released the dark diver.

The Eldritch shadow seemed a bit out of sorts, but it quickly collected itself after a moment.

Cain nodded, quite pleased.

With the help of the {Dark Soul}, they were able to arrive at Gwendolyn in record time.

Walking onto the deck of the ship and seeing that not much had changed filled Cain with relief and a bit of dissatisfaction.