God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

With a groan, Cain gradually stirred from the bed.

"That was so uncomfortable..."

The Demon knew how to do many things, bit making comfortable living arrangements was not one of them.

He gently rubbed his sore neck, silently muttering a string of curses.

Then he paused;

'The pain is gone.'

The dull pain that had plagued him for the better part of three days was no more.

Rather, he felt better than ever. He felt stronger than an ox even.

However, that still wasn't enough to brighten his mood.

Because that day, not long after he had left Azazel's presence, he had made several terrifying discoveries.

He winced as he reached for his head, touching the horn that jutted out of his temple,

"You really won't go away, huh..."

Indeed...

Some of the draconic features had remained with him even after all.

He wanted to curse, but didn't really have the strength to.

Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a canteen of water.

He poured the cool liquid down his throat and sighed in relief.

He had now been on Prometheus for almost three days.

Once the three days were over, he would leave.

He sighed once again...

He slowly got up the bed and walked out of the room.

Since they were underground, all the lighting came from mana lanterns that hung from the coarse walls.

'How does he even get fresh air down here? Does he even need fresh air?'

Cain's thoughts spiralled as he continued to walk through the dimly lit cavernous halls.

Over the past three days, when he was not resting, Cain had the time to explore the demon's secret underground base.

It was quite something...

There were many different sections that were off limits to him, but the few places he could explore, were the library, the forge, and the demon's storage room, although this place in particular was more of a junkyard.

Right now though, Cain was not interested in adventuring through the demon's collections.

Right now, he was looking for the demon himself.

Cain muttered through gritted teeth,

"Just where the hell is he?!"

Suddenly, he heard a crash.

Cain spun on his heels and dashed towards the direction of the sound.

Soon, he arrived in front of a large metal door, its hinges attached into the cavernous walls. With a frown, Cain pushed the doors open.

'Shit! So heavy!'

After some time, he finally managed to push open a small crack.

Squeezing through the gap, he made his way through. What he saw nearly caused him to pop a vein.

Azazel hurriedly turned to cover his exposed behind,

"Cain! Didn't nobody ever teach you to knock?!"

Cain's face turned dark as he reached into his inventory and pulled the {Lonely Dragon} Warblade out. The blade screeched as it was pulled from its scabbard, as though it was ready to drink blood.

"Oi, cut this shit out. Now!"

Azazel sighed. Looking up at the steam covered ceiling, a sad smile made its way to his face,

"I guess bath time's over."

He snapped his fingers.

Cain watched at the bathroom, fully equipped with a fully functional hot bath and other amenities for maximum comfort, was wiped away fron reality, replaced with a dimly lit office room, the same one he had had that conversation with the demon in.

Azazel calmly motioned for Cain to have a seat, which he did.

However, his darker expression remained.

Azazel gave him a brief glance,

"Calm it, would you? I'm not going to go back on my word."

Cain clicked his tongue, then dismissed his weapon.

Azazel sighed,

"Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time I gave you a few things before you be on your way."

Without waiting for Cain to answer, the demon pulled something out of thin air and tossed it to him.

With a frown, Cain caught it. His face paled when he realized it was far heavier than he had expected,

"A hammer?"

Azazel rolled his eyes, "Not just any hammer, you simpleton."

Cain glanced at the hammer in his hand. Indeed, it didn't look like any simple hammer. Its surface, which seemed to be made from some strange material he couldn't quite relate to anything he had ever seen before, was covered in strange geometric patterns, and there was a single rune etched into all four sides of the hammer.

He had no idea what the rune was as well, meaning it was something far above what he could comprehend.

Cain's dark expression faded away and was replaced with burning curiosity,

"What is this?"

Azazel snorted, "The reason your smithing isn't progressing properly is your reliance on your metal manipulation ability."

Cain frowned, "Really? I think my ability makes me even better at smithing."

Azazel shook his head with a sigh,

"In terms of the outcome? Sure. But your pieces lack soul."

The Demon casually stood up from his seat. He took a step and disappeared from Cain's sight, leaving him befuddled.

"Cain... Every single thing with sentience in all of existence has soul, although some have more than others."

Cain raised a brow and turned towards the direction of the voice.

The Demon had reappeared close to the bookshelf in the room and was casually flipping through a tome.

"But weapons don't possess sentience, right?"

Azazel nodded, "Yes, they do not. However, their wielder does. This in turn, makes the weapon sentient by default. So the correct answer to that is no. But it is also yes. Does that make sense?"

Cain shook his head, "No. No it does not."

Azazel grinned, "Good. It's not supposed to."

He turned around and tossed the tome to Cain,

"If you want to improve on your smithing, the I suggest you use the hammer. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't use your ability. In fact, I encourage its use. But remember this. Only by feeling every reverberation through the metal with every strike can you make a piece you will be satisfied with. And I suggest you try it by fixing up your sword. It also took quite a beating in your last battle."

Cain remained silent, his expression strange and a bit complicated.

Seeing this, Azazel nodded in approval then continued,

"Next thing I have for you is that book right there."

Storing the hammer into his inventory, Cain picked the book up.

"Seems familiar..."

"Of course it is. This is one of the most coveted pieces of literature in all of existence."

Cain's eyes widened a bit when he saw the title etched into the tome.

"[Records of Akasha XXX]."

Azazel wore a smug grin,

"I am sure you have come in contact with one of these before."

Cain nodded absentmindedly.

Azazel continued,

"The story behind these tomes is something else. Every single one of them was written by the Nomad."

Cain glanced up,

"The Nomad? As in the Creator of this universe?"

Azazel nodded, "The one and only. There are only nine hundred and ninety nine volumes in existence, and this one right here is marked number thirty."

The Demon raised all ten of his fingers,

"Hidden within these tomes, are truths about this reality. Valuable information that people of power would kill to get their hands on. However, all volumes are scattered around the universe, most of them, their location unknown."

"The ones that aren't lost are either being kept in undisclosed locations, or they are still within the tower."

Unable to stem his curiosity, Cain asked,

"What tower?"

Azazel grinned, "The Tower of Babel. But that should be a story for another day. Instead, why don't we talk on the contents of that book."

Cain glanced back down at the book.

The familiar leather in his hands, the yellowish pages...

There was no doubt about it.

'I wonder what is in here.'

Seeing that he had grasped his audience's attention quite well, Azazel seemed rather pleased with himself.

He snapped his fingers, causing Cain's chair to swivel.

Caught off guard, Cain was almost thrown to the ground.

"Within those pages lies plenty of the answers you will be seeking from now on. The first ten volumes contain a lot of useless information in my opinion. Things start getting interesting from Volume twenty!" The demon said with a chuckle.

Then he paused for a moment, then muttered,

"Although, depending on your abilities, you might not learn a single thing."

Cain placed the tome into his inventory. Although he really wanted to do nothing but flip through the pages of that tome, he managed to put his curiosity in hold.

Azazel raised a brow, clearly surprised by his self control.

Then he chuckled, "Impressive."

Cain shrugged, "There's something you are forgetting..."

Azazel's smile turned bitter.

"Ugh! Must you remind me?"

Being the victim of Cain's unrelenting stare, he finally gave in.

He stretched his palm wide open. There, a single ring laid.

Although he was skeptical, Cain reached out and took the ring.

Azazel sighed, a look of pain in his eyes,

"Touch it with your spirit. The link will be automatic."

Cain nodded, then used {Spirit Sense} to reach into the ring.

The moment he did, he found his mind transported into a different space.

'Incredible!'

The experience was surreal. He knew his body was still in that room, staring at the now weeping Demon.

However, his mind was also in another space. A large white space with nothing much besides a big pile of glittering gems he could recognize very well.

A grin made its way onto Cain's face as he muttered,

"Jackpot."