God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 1134: I’m a Glass Cannon!

The battlefield had grown quieter.

Cain surveyed the carnage with a strange sense of detachment.

Hundreds of {Firesand Naga} corpses littered the scorched earth, their metal scales still glowing faintly from residual heat. The artificial volcano had been reduced to a crater, molten rock pooling at its base. The vortex overhead was beginning to dissipate, though occasional flashes of lightning still illuminated the ash-choked sky.

His contracted beasts had regrouped around him. Ruby’s fur was matted with blood—most of it not her own.

Lyos coiled in the air above, periodic hissing and low calls from the sky serpent an indicator that it wasn’t satisfied yet.

Ignis stood a few meters away, her skin gradually returning to its normal tone as the flames around her fists guttered out.

But Cain’s attention wasn’t on the aftermath.

It was on his hands.

’The power output... is incredible.’

He’d been casting several high output spells continuously for nearly twenty minutes. By all rights, his mana reserves should have taken a significant hit. But when he checked his status, he found that he had barely even scratched the surface. And to make it worse, the mana he had burned through had already completed recovered!

The sheer amount of attribute points he had poured into his magic and spirit stats was the main cause of that. Beyond that, there was also his advancement from Beginner Mage to Warlock.

More concerning was the sheer destructive potential each spell had demonstrated. {Imploding Star} had obliterated a Tier 2 naga that should have survived at least one direct hit. Even basic {Flame Orbs} had been detonating with explosive force far beyond their normal parameters.

This was exponential growth.

His body had become a liability. He was now fragile, weak and barely able to support its own weight.

But his magic...

His magic had become monstrous.

A low rumble interrupted his thoughts.

The ground beneath them began to shake. Not the violent tremors from before, but something deeper from the very bowels of Urbus.

Ignis tensed immediately. "Cain..."

"I know." His eyes were fixed on the crater where the nest had been. "There’s still one left."

The molten pool at the crater’s base began to churn. Bubbles rose to the surface, each one releasing gouts of superheated steam. The temperature spiked noticeably, making the air shimmer with heat distortion.

Then it emerged.

The Tier 3 {Firesand Naga} rose from the molten depths like a god of flame and metal. It dwarfed even the three titans from before—easily fifty feet long, with a body so heavily armored it looked more like a moving fortress than a living creature. It was as large as a {Longhorn Mare}.

Its scales weren’t just metal-plated; they were actual of enchanted metal, forged and tempered by temperatures that would melt diamonds.

The creature’s eyes burned with wicked intelligence that was almost human in its clarity. When it looked at Cain, he felt the weight of recognition.

This was no mere beast.

This was a truly predatory being.

One that understood exactly what had destroyed its nest.

And it was furious.

The Tier 3 Naga opened its maw and released a roar that made the previous ones sound like barely audible whispers. The shockwave alone was enough to knock smaller debris into the air. Heat rolled off its body in visible waves, distorting everything within a hundred-meter radius.

Ruby snarled and took a protective stance in front of Cain. Lyos descended lower, its body coiling around Cain in the air. Cain carefully caressed its stunning silver scales. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Ignis cracked her knuckles, flames already reigniting around her fists.

"That thing’s a lot bigger than I expected."

Cain’s mind was already racing through spell combinations. The Tier 3 naga was substantially stronger than the {Anchor Sovereign Beast} he’d faced before. That creature had nearly killed him in pure physical combat. This one would be even worse if it got close.

But he didn’t need to fight it physically anymore.

"Make sure you hit it as hard. Or it’ll be dead faster than you can blink." he said, his voice carrying across the battlefield. "

Ignis grinned, "I’ll take your word for it," and launched herself forward in a burst of scalding flames.

Ruby roared and followed a heartbeat later, her massive frame eating up the distance with surprising speed. Lyos took to the air, circling for an optimal angle of attack.

The Tier 3 Naga met them with devastating force.

Its tail whipped around in a wide arc, catching Ruby mid-charge and sending her tumbling across the ground. Ignis managed to duck under the strike, but the naga’s maw descended toward her like a collapsing mountain. She threw herself sideways, flames erupting from her feet to propel her out of danger.

Lyos dove from above, blue flames washing over the naga’s back. The creature barely seemed to notice, its metal scales glowing brighter but showing no sign of damage.

Cain raised both hands and began casting.

{Heavenly Blue Lightning} tore through the sky for the second time. The vortex—which had been dispersing—suddenly reformed with violent intensity. The bolt struck the Tier 3 naga dead center, and for a moment the entire battlefield was painted in brilliant blue light.

The creature roared in pain and fury. Actual pain. Its scales had cracked under the assault, revealing the flesh beneath. The beast, surprisingly, shrugged off the blow and continued its charge.

The Naga moved with shocking speed for something so massive. The ground exploded beneath its feet as it launched itself across the battlefield, covering the distance to Cain’s position in seconds.

Ruby intercepted it mid-charge, her claws raking across its exposed underbelly. The naga twisted mid-air, its tail smashing into the bear and sending her flying again. But the distraction had been enough.

Cain had finished weaving his next spell in just a few seconds.

{Supernova}.

Suddenly, the heat in the world didn’t seem so much.

A blaze.

A dark blaze.

One so immense it broke the world.

One so powerful it defied the limits of what the word "flame" could describe.

A star manifested between his fingers. Not an orb or a sphere, but an actual miniature star. It blazed with light so intense and yet to dark, tainted by the {Flames of Darkness}, it hurt to look at, even through closed eyelids.

But that was not where the true danger lay.

Because in the sky above him, an even greater star was created.

The world seemed to have ended for a moment.

Cain sucked in a deep breath.

Then he released it.

The star fell from the firmament, crashing into the world.

Then it exploded.

The supernova detonation was beyond anything Cain had expected. A sphere of pure annihilation expanded outward, consuming everything in its path. The Tier 3 naga’s roar was swallowed by the explosion, its massive body lifted off the ground and hurled backward. The shockwave flattened what little remained of the nest, sending debris flying in all directions...

Ignis recoiled in shock, her body blasted away by the residual shockwaves. Even Lyos was shot from the sky with a pained shriek.

"Good heavens." Cain muttered under his breath as he erected multiple layers of barriers to protect his frail form from the aftermath of his own hubris.

When the light and ebbing flames finally faded, the Naga was still alive, albeit barely.

Its natural armor was shattered, great chunks of metal scales hanging loose or missing entirely. One of its front limbs was twisted at an unnatural angle. Its breathing was labored, each exhale releasing gouts of smoke and embers.

Cain raised a brow and waved his fingers.

From the sky, an enormous golden blade took form.

Then it fell towards the head of the enormous beast, severing it in a clean stroke.

The head of the beast rolled to the side, viscous burning blood spewing forth from its neck like a fountain of flames.

Tier 3 Naga was dead.

Silence fell over the battlefield.

Cain stood on his rocky outcrop, staring at the fallen nightmare.

His breathing was steady, his mana reserves still comfortably full. Even after using {Supernova}, he had used just a little over one percent of his total reserves.

That was frightening.

’The {Anchor Sovereign Beast} was tougher to beat.’

This fight on the other hand? This had been almost easy.

His brows furrowed.

Not because the Tier 3 Firesand Naga was weaker. No, it was quite the opposite.

It was substantially more powerful than the {Anchor Sovereign Beast}. More durable, arguably less intelligent, but still far more dangerous in every measurable way.

But Cain hadn’t needed to get close to it. Hadn’t needed to rely on his physical abilities at all.

He’d simply stood back and bombarded it with spells until it died.

The realization crystallized in his mind with perfect, terrible clarity.

His body was useless—a fragile shell that could barely support its own weight. A single well-placed hit would shatter him to dust and then oblivion. A moment of carelessness would be fatal.

But his magic...

His magic had become something far more extraordinary than it had once been. Powerful enough to reshape battlefields. Precise enough to target weak points from a distance. Efficient enough to sustain prolonged combat without depleting his reserves.

He’d become a weapon of pure destruction with no armor to protect it.

An embodiment of the Warlock class...

Cain looked down at his hands again, at the grey robes hanging loose on his diminished frame.

A bitter laugh escaped his lips.

"I’ve become a glass cannon."