God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 1143: This is not a Damn Trial. This is War! (1).

Chapter 1143: This is not a Damn Trial. This is War! (1).

The first spell formation of {Heavenly Blue Lightning} was an area-of-effect variant, designed to blanket an entire battlefield with electrical devastation.

The sky above the Graveyard of Stars was already a swirling mass of alien colors, but now it began to darken as storm clouds coalesced from nothing.

The {Centauri} raised its snout to the sky,

Then it bellowed something— an order to maintain formation, probably. Its eyes were sharp, able to witness the source of the magical changes. It frowned,

"What power could such a puny creature command?"

The sky had become a vortex of chaotic winds and mana.

Cain chuckled and released the spell.

Lightning tore through the sky with apocalyptic fury.

Not a single bolt, but hundreds of them, each one splitting and branching as it descended. The electrical discharge formed a web of destruction that covered the entire front half of the mercenary formation. The sound was indescribable—a continuous roar of thunder that shook the ground and made the floating rocks overhead tremble.

The first wave of mercenaries simply ceased to exist.

One moment they were advancing in disciplined ranks. The next, they were gone—reduced to ash and scattered atoms by the sheer intensity of the electrical discharge. The creatures with natural armor fared slightly better, surviving long enough to scream before their internal organs were cooked and their bodies fell lifeless to the scorched earth.

The lightning continued for five full seconds, each one an eternity of destruction. When it finally stopped, the silence that followed was somehow louder than the thunder had been.

A hundred mercenaries were dead. Just like that.

The Centauri stood amid the carnage, its bronze skin smoking but otherwise intact.

But Cain wasn’t done.

He’d already begun weaving his next spell while the lightning was still falling. {Falling Stars of Orion}, powered by the metal star from his vault.

The multicolored sky above responded to his will, and points of golden began to appear within the alien atmosphere before blossoming into petal like blades.

Then they began to fall.

The mercenaries who’d survived the lightning looked up just in time to see their doom descending. Dozens of golden projectiles, each one trailing and screaming through the air like miniature stars. They struck the battlefield with devastating precision, each one violently skewering through enormous beasts on the ground and sky, turning them into pin cushions.

More mercenaries died. Bodies were flung through the air. Screams of pain and fear filled the strange atmosphere of this alien world.

And still, Cain continued casting. {Flame Orbs} and {Imploding Stars}, even as another {Supernova} enhanced by the {Flame of Darkness} was taking form.

The ground itself began to burn despite the lack of proper atmosphere. The strange energy that permeated this universe seemed to feed the flames, making them spread in impossible patterns that defied natural physics.

Behind Cain, his own forces watched in stunned silence. Even those who’d fought beside him before, who’d seen his magical capabilities firsthand, were struggling to process the sheer scale of destruction being unleashed.

Susan found herself gripping her weapon hard enough that her knuckles turned white. "By the gods," she breathed.

Hunter stood beside her. His gaze fell on Nero who now seemed less human and more like a strange, divine being. Glowing runes floated across his skin and around him, the flow of mana around him sti enigmatic and volatile, it seemed one step away from catastrophic.

He trembled lightly.

’So this is what he is truly capable of?’

None of them had even gotten the chance to draw a single blade and more than half of the enemies were gone.

It was true. Cain stood at the center of the maelstrom of magic, completely calm. His expression was focused but not strained. The mana draw from {Mana Vault} was significant, but his reserves were so deep that it barely registered as a drain.

This was what he’d prepared for. This was what being a glass cannon meant.

He couldn’t survive a direct hit from a competent fighter. A single arrow to the chest would probably kill him. But at range, with time to cast and enemies who couldn’t close the distance?

He was unstoppable.

The eyes of the {Centauri} were red with rage.

In less than a minute, half of its army was gone. The massive creature let out a roar that somehow cut through the chaos of battle, and the mercenary force began to reorganize. The flyers took to the air, spreading out to avoid being clustered targets. The ranged fighters found cover among the rocky terrain and began launching their own attacks—arrows, spells, thrown weapons.

It was the right tactical decision. Cain’s magic was devastating at range, but he was vulnerable up close. If they could reach him, if they could force him into melee combat, the battle would shift dramatically in their favor.

Cain grinned then waved his hand.

The army behind him stirred to life and roared, charging forward with unparalleled vigor.

Their leader was like a god, turning tides of terrible beings they had never seen before into seas of ashes.

They made it about thirty meters before the army of humans intercepted them.

Ruby materialized from her subspace with a roar that rivaled the Centauri’s, her massive form crashing into the front line of charging mercenaries. Her claws, enhanced by the metal enchantment Cain had applied, tore through armor and flesh with equal ease. The bear was a whirlwind of violence, each swipe sending broken bodies flying.

Lyos descended from above, his silver scales gleaming in the strange light. Blue flames erupted from his maw, not in a wide spray but in concentrated beams that burned through whatever they touched. The serpent moved with enhanced speed, weaving between attacks and striking with surgical precision.

And from the shadows cast by the rocky terrain, the Dark Diver emerged. Tendrils of living darkness shot out, wrapping around legs and necks and pulling mercenaries off balance or simply crushing them outright.

The charge faltered, then broke entirely as the contracted beasts created a barrier of violence that the mercenaries couldn’t push through.

Meanwhile, Cain had activated {Azure Burst}, applying the five-fold speed enhancement not to his beasts this time, but to Lukas and the Lightslayers.

The effect was immediate and dramatic.

Lukas became a blur of motion, his already impressive speed multiplied to the point where he left afterimages with every movement. His bastard sword sang through the air, each strike precise and devastating. He carved a path through the mercenary ranks like cutting through wheat, his blade finding gaps in armor and weak points in natural defenses with contemptuous ease.

The Lightslayers followed in his wake, moving with similar enhanced speed. They formed a wedge that drove deep into the enemy formation, sowing chaos and death wherever they went.

The Centauri stood at the center of the carnage, its bronze skin now visibly glowing with some kind of internal energy. The creature’s eyes had gone pure white, and its muscles were swelling, increasing its already impressive bulk.

"Hey..." Lukas called out, his voice carrying across the battlefield despite the chaos. "The big guy’s doing something."

Cain had already noticed. The Centauri was entering some kind of enraged state, burning through its life force to increase its physical capabilities. Its size was increasing too—what had been nine feet was now closer to twelve, and still growing.

More concerning was the earth beneath the Centauri’s hooves. It was beginning to rise, responding to the creature’s magic. Rocky platforms formed around it, creating cover and elevated positions. The ground itself seemed to obey the Centauri’s will, reshaping the battlefield to its advantage.

"Lukas," Cain called out, his voice calm despite the escalating situation. "He’s all yours. Try not to take too long."

Even from this distance, Cain could see the grin that spread across Lukas’s face.

Lukas’ expression changed. Then he snorted,

"Wouldn’t dream of it."

The leader of the Lightslayers changed direction mid-stride, his enhanced speed allowing him to weave between attacks and obstacles with fluid grace. He crossed the battlefield in seconds, leaving a trail of bisected enemies in his wake.

The Centauri saw him coming and stamped its hoof. The ground erupted, creating a wall of stone between them. But Lukas simply ran up the wall, using his momentum to launch himself over the top.

He came down sword-first, aiming for the Centauri’s skull.

The massive creature caught the blade between its hands, stopping the attack through sheer strength. For a moment, the two combatants were locked in place—Lukas suspended in mid-air, the Centauri holding his sword in an iron grip.

Then Lukas grinned and released the weapon.

He kicked off the Centauri’s chest, flipping backward through the air. Even as he moved, his hand went to his belt, drawing a knife that gleamed with enchanted light. The blade was smaller, faster, meant for precision rather than power.

The Centauri hurled Lukas’s bastard sword away and charged, each step making the ground tremble. Rocky protrusions erupted from the earth, trying to cage or impale the agile fighter.

But Lukas was already gone, his enhanced speed letting him dance between the attacks. He moved like water, flowing around obstacles and closing distance in bursts of impossible velocity. The enchanted knife flashed out, cutting shallow lines across the Centauri’s bronze skin.

The wounds were minor—little more than scratches on the creature’s enhanced hide. But they were adding up, and more importantly, they were making the Centauri angrier.

The enraged state intensified. The Centauri grew to fifteen feet, its muscles straining against its skin. The earth magic became more violent, less controlled. Entire sections of the battlefield tore themselves apart as the creature’s rage translated into raw elemental fury.

Lukas weathered it all with that same infuriating calm, his movements never quite where the Centauri expected them to be.

Meanwhile, Cain had turned his attention to the remaining mercenaries. Those who hadn’t fled or been killed were trying to regroup, attempting some kind of coordinated retreat. He couldn’t allow that.