God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain heaved heavily.

Clutching into his stomach, he stiffled a curse as he tried to fight through the dizziness.

As he had expected, the battle with Kaelin had not been a one sided beat down at all.

In fact, for most of the battle, he was the one receiving the beating. Kaelin's mastery of combat and his weapon were just slightly greater than his.

Yet, that was more than enough for him to receive a few extra cuts and bleed just a bit more than his opponent.

And yet, somehow, his opponent was in a far worse state than he was.

It came down to one thing;

Resilience...

Cain could see clearly that Kaelin's agility, mana and control stats were extraordinarily high, his strength and perception stat were just okay, while the rest were just below average.

Cain on the other hand was more balanced. Every one of his stats were extremely robust.

Because of this fact, he found himself on the winning side, despite having suffered more injuries. Coupled with the Metal Enchantment of {Burning Spirit}, and the {Falling Stars of Orion} shields, even the Black Sands of Death weren't enough to claim his life anymore.

Cain grinned viciously.

Kaelin's face was very ugly as he clutched a huge gash on his arm that was leaving blood profusely.

The balance was delicate.

The scales could be tipped in any direction with the slightest breeze.

'Mentally, I've reached by breaking point. I've been using my mana up constantly since we began. I'm almost out.'

It had not been easy, but Cain finally knew how deep his well of mana ran.

Luckily for him, his opponent didn't know that. He also had no doubts that the black sand he summoned consumed a lot of mana as well, so he should also be facing the same problems he was.

He was banking all his hopes that his opponent would get desperate before he did.

And when that happened, he would make his move to end the battle once and for all.

In the moment, they both stared each other down, neither of them reasy to make a move yet.

The battle had been dragged out long enough. Their men were dying with each second that passed. A winner had to be decided.

Cain sucked in a deep breath to clear his mind.

Even in this situation, he retained his mind's clarity. He calmly watched his opponent. Each muscle twitch, each micro movement, each moment of slightly hesitation and withdrawal.

Very quickly Cain came to the conclusion that his opponent was just as cautious as he was. If he wanted to win, he needed to take the risk.

However, should his gamble fail, he would be killed.

The runes in his eyes shimmered and blossom. With the {Eye of Clairvoyance}, he could see all around him.

They were well on the path of mutual destruction.

The battle had to end with them.

'No choice, huh...' Cain thought to himself.

He smiled slightly.

He had made his decision.

With a grunt, he deactivated the Metal Enchantment of {Burning Spirit}.

Kaelin's eyes widened, but he didn't take a single step forward. Cain could clearly see the apprehension in his eyes.

Kaelin spoke after a brief pause,

"You've finally decided to discard your shell?"

Cain nodded. He gripped the hilt of the {Lonely Dragon} Warblade and swung it. The blade ripped through the air, causing it to crackle and pop violently.

Cain smiled,

"Isn't it better this way? Your attacks will finally be able to reach me." .net

Kaelin snorted coldly and swung his scythe,

A torrent of black sand floated off from the ground and swarmed around him. He stared right at Cain with his dark eyes,

"In that case, I'll have to make sure you die, don't I..."

His eyes darkened even further and he let out a loud roar.

The black sand gathered around him suddenly exploded in volume, turning from just a swarm, into a tidal wave.

It surrounding Kaelin like a sandstorm and stirred up a huge wind. The battles happening in their immediate area stopped for a moment as both sides watched in horror.

Some even threw down their weapons and ran for dear life.

On the other side, Cain stared at this with a bleak expression.

He had figured Kaelin was hiding one last card up his sleeve. He never knew the card would be this much of a death machine.

With something like this, he would have been able to blow through all of his shields at once without difficulty.

However, he has waited patiently, for the moment when Cain would abandon his defenses to make sure he would kill him.

Without the shields and the Metal Enchantment of {Burning Spirit}, it was a guaranteed death.

From the eye of the dark cyclone, a voice came one with the howling wind and screeching sands.

It was dark and permeated the world this the cold stench of death.

"This ends now. A fair opponent, you were. Perhaps if we had met under different circumstances, and our fates were different, we might not have been enemies, and I would not have had to take your life."

"However, this is our fate."

With in the sandstorm of black, Kaelin gently closed his eyes and sighed,

"The God of these Sands, once wronged by the boundless golden dragon that eats the sky. The blood of vengeance has been claimed."

The sands of death surged forward.

Just a single one would be enough.

A single grain of black sand hitting him would be enough.

And there was an entire ocean of it headed his way.

He remembered the words of Lyx, the Primordial Devil of Death had said to him.

If his body was destroyed beyond reparation, he would be unable to come back to life. It was game over.

He had seen what the black sands of death could do to people, so he didn't want to test his luck.

He couldn't die to this thing. No, he wouldn't.

He looked up as the torrent closed in on him.

For what felt like the thousandth time, he sucked in a deep breath of air. It was arid and carried the smell of death and blood.

But for some reason, it was also invigorating.

He calmly let all his energy flow into the {Lonely Dragon} Warblade.

He had eaten through most of his mana, but he still had a decent portion of Ki and Demon Matter from his {Fiend Counter} left. He activated the {Demon Dragon} state of the blade. It's nature changed, and the silver luster disappeared, replaced with a menacing darkness and crimson, a weapon befitting of a demon.

The two energies quickly flowed into his blade, turning it into a mass of scorching chaos.

Thisb was nothing he had never done before. It was a straightforward attack. A slash containing a lethal dose of sword Ki, and a much more overwhelming amount of devastating energy.

Against someone with the power over death itself, however, this would not be sufficient.

So Cain decided to use another one of the trump cards he had held up to this moment.

"Open."

The gates of the {Elemental Vault} were torn open.

Within the vault,there were different clusters of elemental energy. At least there was supposed to be.

However, most of this energy has been consumed in the battle and in his fight with Kaelin. That was just how intense their battle had been.

However, there was still one star that shine brightly within the void of the vault.

A lone star, its stark, white radiance filled with an immeasurable amount of vitality was just waiting to burst forth.

It was that same star that had been at the Nexus of his {Elemental Vault} for the longest of times now.

For some reason, he believed it would work.

Life and death, two sides of the same coin, one the antithesis to the other...

Cain called on the power of his spirit and tugged on the star with all the might he could muster.

And it heard him.

The start buried within his being heard his call.

And it shot out.

BOOM!

A blinding radiance shot into the sky, lighting up the entire desert.

It dwarfed the light of the moon. It was so pristine and glorious, filling the world itself with an abundance of life that also seemed too good to be true.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Cain felt his heart rate speed up.

The white radiance seemed into every cell of his body, bringing him an unholy amount of pain, so much, he involuntarily screamed in agony.

'D-damn it! It feels like I am being burned alive!'

However, with the scalding pain came an odd soothing feeling. The same one would get after a hot bath.

It was pleasant, making the pain just a bit more bearable.

At the same time, Cain noticed his output of Ki and Demon Matter suddenly spike.

Alongside the pillar of light that had just appeared and shot into the sky, a sword of tenebrous darkness enveloped in flickering crimson flames and sparks of red lightning appeared.

The tremendous black sandstorm of death had not stopped for even a moment.

A feeling of serenity filled Cain's mind and body.

He then acted.

No hesitation, no pulling back, he cut the world before him.

And cut, it did...

The sword of black and red, like an abyssal dragon of chaos, cut right into the heart of the sandstorm with a loud bang, while the pillar of white consumed the black sand in its entirety.

A moment later, the pillar of white radiance exploded into sparkling motes of light before fading away, leaving Cain on his knees, battered and bruised, but victorious.

A deep sense of weakness that came from his very bones washed over him.

However, his heart was filled with satisfaction.

He had done it. He won.

He looked up.

Kaelin's body lay in the sand, cut in twain. He stared into the sky, his glassy lifeless eyes filled with confusion even to the last moment.

'It is never over until it is over.' Cain thought to himself with a sigh. He had fought good, but ultimately, he was never destined to triumph over him.

Then it happened...

A sigh came from Kaelin's torn corpse.

Cain's eyes shot wide open.

Just as he had thought, it was not over until it was over.

In that moment, Cain realized that something was terribly wrong. He could feel it down to his very cells.

It was like there was something deep within him telling him to abandon everything and run like a bat out of hell whilst screaming like a banshee.

He looked closely and saw that the corpse he had just cut in half was now seated up right and staring right at him with glassy eyes.

Only one thought filled his mind,

"Fuck!"