God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 1086: Blood Rising (2).

The terrain beyond Valestorm was broken and fragmented.

Weeds sprouted from cracks and broken corners with dangerous things lurking in the shadows.

More than six months had gone by since the battle that had completely torn this place apart.

The wind was nice and cool, gently kissing Cain across the cheek.

He was seated on the back of a {Longhorn Mare} alongside a few others— Lukas, Gilead, Beorstone, and Alvis.

Cain glanced at the older man with a strange look.

Despite not being a combatant, he had insisted on coming along with them. Since he could be considered a major benefactor, Cain saw no reason to refuse him and had agreed.

The bulk of this small army consisted of the most powerful fighters of the Golden Asura with the Lightslayers and the Pilgrims making up the rest.

Half of the combatants had all been decked out in equipment custom made by the {Black-Hearth Dwarves} that was, to Cain’s surprise, of a higher quality than what the system generally gave for the most part.

The other half wore armor and carried equipment made by the children of Mljorra, which was roughly on the same level as the stuff made by the Dwarves.

"We are moving smoothly." Cain’s lazy thoughts was interrupted all of a sudden.

He glanced at Gilead. Gilead stared at the wasteland the city had become with creased brows.

Sensing the melancholy in his words, Cain said nothing.

Because he was feeling the same way.

This place has once been a bustling world full of life.

In such a short time, they had gotten to witness its downfall first hand. It was truly a damn shame.

However, there was a touch of beauty in the desolation. It showed a touch of fragility— how even what seemed like the greatest. Things that felt unbreakable, would turn to dust eventually, so long as the wheel of time kept spinning.

Cain sighed.

The length of his gaze could cut right through the horizon.

The city was not just desolate, it was also filled to the brim with all sorts of dangers.

New dangers.

Dangers that had not existed a few months ago due to the Devils. However, their existence was properly anchored on the devilish occupation.

The nature of Devils was to pillage and transform. The same was true for Devil Essence. Even after so much time, the effects of the land were not yet completely gone.

The world had been permanently changed as the darkness embedded in this fabric was not easy to wash away.

All around the city, there were smoldering pools of darkness that gave birth to twisted creatures. These things were abhorrent Devil Mutants— beings that had wandered into the city and had ended up being polluted by the remnant miasma.

They ranged from disgusting looking rodents and insects with twisted features like rows of teeth of their back and dozens of slimy black limbs...

To actual abominations that were rather large and powerful, teetering in the very edge of too powerful.

Originally, he was thought that no same being would want to approach this area even after a hundred years do to the Devil Essence Miasma.

But he had severely underestimated the allure of seemingly endless strength in a certain strain of evolution.

Within the "Black: On the Roots of the Profane."

codex he had obtained a few moons ago, he had come to notice a certain strain of Devil corrupted, particularly, a strain of creatures that became so by directly ingesting concentrated amounts of Devil Essence.

Such a thing was rather rare, because not only could most creatures not stomach high dosages of the foul energy, it was rather rare to find something like that that was still edible.

The most common source of this concentrated Devil Essence that could be eaten, though, was of course, the flesh of a Devil.

The reason if was rather difficult to obtain naturally, was because devils made a habit of recovering the corpses of their brethren after a battle. It was because the corpse of a devil naturally contained a ton of energy which could be used to feed the Broodmothers again, or raise up a new batch of hatchlings.

In any case, it was very nasty stuff...

The beings that could devour and harness the Devil Essence within the flesh were, of course, not separated by strength. Rather, it was a classification of affinity.

The more affinity they had to the profane darkness of the Devil Miasma, the more they could naturally attune themselves to it.

That meant these creatures were the most vile of the vile— beings that were a danger to everything z including themselves.

These characteristics were then amplified by the Devil Essence.

Of course, these things, regardless of how dangerous they were, could do nothing against this procession of powerful humans.

Each one of them was at least Tier 2, with most of them being at the very zenith to soon take the advancement trial to the next Tier.

And although these new dangers did pose a threat, it was only minor when considering the true danger ahead.

They were on their way to appropriately confront the Blood Moon Sect.

And of course, such a large scale movement would not escape the eyes of their foes, Cain thought to himself.

’As there is a traitor in our midst, even better. They’ll get to know faster.’

Currently, the Blood Moon Sect were meant to believe that their Matriach was captured and in their hands. This meant they had to have some sort of advantage over them.

Both over those that wanted her to return and those that wanted her dead.

Since the Blood Moon Sect has decided to make a move, it was only right they did so as well.

Unlike the situation with the Redscale Colony, Cain was not particularly fond of the Blood Moon Sect.

Not only were their methods ruthless, they also seemed undisturbed by disregarding human lives in exchange for increasing their own power.