God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain slowly let his eyelids drift open.

He let out a groan as he turned to his side.

He glanced over his arm.

Lying right on the bed beside him, dressed in very little clothing, was Evangeline.

Her eyes were closed and her chest heaved slightly with every breath she took.

Cain stayed still for some time, simply enjoying the wonderful view in front of him.

"Have you had enough yet?"

He froze for a moment. Then he chuckled.

He turned to the other side and slowly stood up,

"Yeah, I have. I’m more than satisfied now."

Evangeline stretched and yet out a delicate yawn. The sight of her lithe body ignited the desires in Cain’s heart. Fortunately, he decided to listen to his brain this time and turned around.

’Last night was...’

It had been rather... eventful to say the least. Still, he was sure not much would change between them.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the entrance.

They both glanced at one another.

With a snap of his fingers, Cain changed into a set of casualties clothing he kept in his inventory; a black robe that wrapped around him comfortably.

Evangeline did the same, opting for a loose black robe that did nothing to hide her slender yet curvy physique.

Seeing her dressed so simply, Cain couldn’t help but think she exuded infinite allure.

He cleared his throat,

"Shall we?"

***

With a yawn, Cain stepped out of the now open chamber.

His surroundings had now turned back to normal. The decor had reassumed its terrifying nature. The purple runes glowing with sufficient mystery and such...

He turned to Traxillion who still towered over him.

"So? What happens next?"

The voice of Traxillion was human-like. However, there was a slight strangeness to it that would make a human certain the words were not created by a human’s vocal cords.

Cain suddenly remembered that since humans and Mutant Creatures could not possibly understand what the other was saying, it was the system that handled translating the intended meaning behind the spoken words and what not.

In fact, some creatures that couldn’t produce sounds cold still communicate this way.

A creature that was not mentally developed enough to actually form coherent speech wouldn’t suddenly need to develop this feature after all.

"Follow me." The Redscale General said this and turned around immediately.

Cain and Evangeline exchanged another look. Then they followed behind him again.

Passing through a maze of twisting corridors, they continued to head towards the Ant Queen, Anathe.

Sometimes, they headed down, other times, they headed up. Some corridors and vents they passed possessed thousands of {Redscale Ants} doing one thing or the other, most of them carrying items much larger than they were on their rumps.

Eventually, after walking around for a long time, they arrived at a very large entrance embedded in the depths of the earth.

By now, Cain could tell they were deep beneath the earth, judging by the relative lack of humidity and the subtle earthy taste of the air that came in through the vents.

Traxillion stretched open both arms and pushed against both sides of the entrance.

The spot where the Redscale General’s claws met the entrance glowed purple. With a thunderous groan, both sides of the entrance began to shift backward.

Cain’s eyes narrowed.

’This...’

There had probably been a ward that prevented him from sensing the numbers behind the entrance, as he was incredibly surprised to fee a massive hall filled with beings and creatures of all shapes and sizes standing around an incredible monolith.

Seated on the monolith, was Anathe, surrounded by a plethora of Ant Guards of different sizes.

However, Cain could tell that they were all equally dangerous, each just a bit weaker than Traxillion.

"What’s going on in here?" Cain asked.

Traxillion murmured,

"A gathering of the Leaders of all the Beasts."

’So everyone’s here, huh...’

If it was what he was thinking, then just the sheer variety and numbers of the creatures in this large hall told him that the numbers he had seen yesterday were just the tip of the iceberg.

And with just a glance, he could tell that these creatures, regardless of how monstrous they were, were not feral fiends or anything of that sort. Behind their eyes, was intelligence.

’How terrifying...’

"Why are they all gathered here?"

Traxillion was silent for a moment,

However, he didn’t need to say anything else as Anathe’s voice soon reached his ears,

"That is the human Cain, and his bride. He is the one sent to us by the mother goddess to stretch her hands out to the very edges of this world. He is the key to expanding the borders of the Redscale Empire."

Cain suddenly felt a terrible premonition when the entrances behind him shut with a loud boom.

’Well, shit.’

Loud chattering and murmurs spread through the hall as he suddenly felt thousands of eyes fall on him.

Even with there being minimal lighting dropping into the large hall only from the entrance above Anathe’s monolith throne and the runes on the obsidian colored walls, Cain could clearly see even the beings gathered on the walls.

There were warm-blooded and cold-blooded Mutant Creatures. There were insectoid, strange looking amalgams and chimeras, and even creatures that looked like part elementals.

They numbered already in the thousands.

The droning mumurs stretched far and wide, bouncing off the walls. He was sure he was the focus of all of them.

"What do you think she’s getting at?"

Evangeline chuckled, a strange glow in her blood-red eyes,

"If this isn’t another intimidation stunt, then I can only assume she wants to show off and convince you there are more benefits on her side than playing against her."

Cain’s brows furrowed.

That indeed did make sense.

On one hand, the sheer diversity in the large hall meant a seemingly very large pool of exploitable resources.

From what he could see, all the beings gathered here represented a very vast majority of the creatures gathered in the entirety of the forest of Redscale Island. It showed the sheer span of the Colony.

It also was the Queen’s way of showing him the very nature of her goals and what she wanted.

If allowed to expand into the main continent, her Colony would turn into an Empire and would practically only be rivaled by the devilish hordes.