God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

"Alright, we should stop here. We already have enough food for a thousand people to last for three months."

They had been outside the dome for roughly two weeks now. That was a lot of time from Cain's perspective, considering how most of the time, a lot seemed to happen so fast.

During this time, besides the one incident with the Blood Moon Sect, nothing too crazy happened, although it depended on who was telling the story.

For Cain, this was one of the most peaceful half-months he had experienced in a while. Simply getting to drain the blood of Devils and slaughter abominations every once in a while was relaxing in its own way.

Over the course of these two weeks, he had come to learn many new things.

For one, not all Mutant or Aether Beasts could be eaten.

Plenty of them had terrifying poisons and toxins in their bodies that made eating them possible, but very deadly.

At first, that seemed like common sense, but the he thought about it deeper. Most of the Mutant Creatures he had eaten in his time, he had done so without caring about all that.

The only reason he could think of, was that he was very lucky. There were many different types of Aether Beasts, and even the rarer Mutant Beasts in the City.

Although the Devils had gotten a huge majority of the Mutant Creatures, some of them had managed to survive and prosper, mostly because those types of Mutant Creatures didn't serve much purpose to the Devils, so they were left alone.

He had also learned more than a few more things about the Aether. Since it was like its own separate realm, it also had its own individual worlds, star systems, and such.

And on these worlds, there were creatures, intelligent and not, that populated this realm.

The first time he had encountered what was supposed to be an intelligent gang on Aether Beasts, he had learned the hard way that there was a difference between a beast and a smart beast

A beast was dangerous, a smart beast knew to hit where it hurt the most.

Meaning, they were especially hateful bastards!

Cain sighed, "Yeah, we've been out here for a while now, haven't we..."

Under the eternal glare of moonlight, which had started to become a bit annoying now, he stared at the broken series of roads before him.

After such a long time, Tier 1 creatures had already become rampant. Creature that could tell buildings with just a wave of their hands were hidden in every corner and crevice of the City.

Because of this, the danger levels in the City was at an all time high. However, where there exists risk, there also exists a corresponding bounty to be claimed.

His Level, while not the most important thing at the moment, was still extremely vital in his growth.

Slowly, the amount of experience points he had been raking in was pushing him towards greater levels. He had managed to get to Level 120 during the past few weeks.

But for some reason, it was getting harder to move forward. The Aether Beasts around these parts weren't bringing much exp for how tough they were to kill.

So perhaps this was a good time to head back and sort some other things out.

Boulder sat down on a nearby rock. Picking up a smaller piece of stone on the ground, he scribbled a few things down.

Khan, Lucia, and Gloria, as well as Cain gathered around while the others sat down to rest as well.

Cain stared at the scribbles and realized it was a vague outline of the path they had used to get to this place.

Boulder started, "We can use the normal path to get back the dome, but that is too dangerous. For one, we can't expect those bastards not to have laid any traps. Following the same route means we are more prone to ambushes."

Lucia nodded, but then frowned,

"Still, following another path doesn't necessarily mean it will be safer. The reason we always use this path is that its fltje shortest and safest route, far away from the true nests for the Aether Beasts."

Cain let out a sigh internally,

'Of course the Aether Beasts have their nests, that much os to be expected.'

Khan stared at him before chuckling,

"With how much you've heard and seen about the Aether Beasts, didn't you think it woild be weird of this was all they had to offer? The Celestials imprisoned them for a reason, you know...

Cain scratched his head, "I guess so."

Boulder cleared his throat, then continued,

"Anyway, it comes down to this; do we take a new route..." He said, drawing another line that branches off the main line he drew.

"...or do we continue forward regardless..."

Khan sighed, "I think we should stick to the main path. Its our best bet. If there's another ambush, this time, we'll be ready."

Cain nodded as well, "I agree. Humans are far easier to deal with than those things."

Cain shivered just at the thought. Having a beast stare you down with the intention to kill was always going to be more terrifying than having a human do the same. Still, once again, it depends on who's telling the story.

Boulder nodded, then spoke up,

"Alright, time to move."

Although he didn't talk much, Boulder commanded deep respect amongst all of them. He wasn't the type to use fearless, bold words, but was decisive in taking action instead.

As they walked down the path they had come from, they made the effort to be extra vigilant. Not the extra vigilant where they would be tense all the time, but the extra vigilant where they would be prepared enough to react to any upheavals that appeared up ahead.

Of course, they fought a lot of Aether Beasts on the road back.

Beasts ranging from small, insectoid creatures, to giant creatures that didn't look like they belonged on land, to terrifyingly intelligent bipedal beasts that almost took the lives of one or more of the entourage everytime they encountered them.

Just when Cain's frustration was almost reaching the zenith, they finally made it out of Aether Territory.

Something in the air seemed to change fundamentally as Cain let the battered land behind and moved into slightly more battered land.

They were in Devil territory once again.

The Devils were an organized bunch, but that only applied to areas within their domain they had firm grasp over.

The outskirts of their domain, just like where Cain and the others had chosen to make camp, fell on the outskirts of both Aether and Devils territory.

It was contested land, meaning it belonged to no one and both groups at the same time.

This meant it was the most dangerous, and the safest region for them to make camp.

Cain let out a sigh. Now that they had safely stepped out of Aether Beast controlled territory, it was time to delve back into Devilish territory.

This was probably where things were going to be more dangerous.

Thanks to that weird incident, they had managed to avoid a huge portion of their journey, even managing to skip crossing the border.

Now, unfortunately, they would have to face it head on.

What this meant, is that the level of mortality had risen tremendously.

The Devils were an organized bunch unlike the Aether Beasts, so just poking a corner of the nest was going to be troublesome, if not deadly.

"So that's mostly it... Like we did last time, do not engage unless absolutely necessary, life or death kind of thing." with that, Boulder concluded the rest of his speech, which was just him going through the motions.

Although no one wanted to show it, they were all anxious, afraid even.

The Devils were synonymous with dead and cold terror.

Cain thought about it for a while and decided that it would be best not to say anything for now. He could say whatever he wanted once they got back safe and sound.

Right now, he needed to focus on one thing, which was getting back alive, as well as keeping all this people alive as well.

It was strange...

Over the past two weeks, he had gotten to know all these people a bit closer. While they weren't very close, he still believed he would feel bad if any of them were yo meet their end of he could do something about it.

It was somewhat unusual for him, but he was familiar with the feeling.

'Whatever. No point in thinking about it too much.'

The dull chatter surrounding him gradually died down as one by Inez they all fell asleep.'

While he didn't need sleep that much, these people did. What made him desire less sleep than others was his inhumane constitution and stats. For these people who had less than average physical stats compared to him, at most, they could endure two to three weeks without any sleep.

However, it would get to a point where they had no other choice but to let the sandman do his thing.

Even he needed sleep once in a while. Sadly, he wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

Cain let out a tired sigh as he stared at Lucia,

"So... What do you want now?"

The beautiful lady, dressed in dirty black leather armor pursed her lips as she stared right back, albeit a bit awkwardly.

"I don't it is necessary, but I'd like to apologize, for lashing out at you back then and calling you a spy."

Cain raised a brow, "Don't worry about it. Now's too late to be apologizing, no?"

She bowed her head lightly.

Seeing this, Cain couldn't help but smile.

He chuckled lightly, "Don't worry about it. We are way past all that. There's no need to apologize."

Lucia sighed. Now that he was staring at her, with the dim light of the moon streaking down from the sky, he noticed she had dark circles around her eyes.

She stared blankly into the distance. Then, suddenly, she asked;

"You... What were you before all this?"

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