God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

After Kaelin, who had become Balangol and Cain were whisked away by the mysterious entity, the battle had not lasted very long.

After some time, the Pilgrims of Valestorm were slowly pushed back until they were forced to retreat.

Both their Champion and the Lord of the Head Priests had gone missing. Their enemies were also very powerful, so there was no way they could continue the fight.

Leaving behind the corpses of their falling brethren, Gilead commanded their forces to make a hasty retreat back to Valestorm.

However, the battle was far from over.

Rather than let them run, Evangeline and Hunter instead gave chase through the Sea of Sands towards Valestorm where another siege was taking place.

Only, this time, the defenders were the Pilgrims of Valestorm.

Normally, this would have been a foolhardy thing to do, as the entire Sea of Sands was the domain of the Pilgrims...

And yet, for some reason, the Pilgrims continued to flee, never even turning back once to stage a resistance till they arrived back at Valestorm.

Staring at the distant wall of slowly flowing sand, Evangeline could tell just how pitiful this excuse of a defensive line was.

Because Valestorm didn't have any walls, the defenders had no vantage point to stage a defense.

And so, they had used the power of the flowing sands to make one.

However, this sand wall didn't seem powerful at all. It was incredibly pitiful, only about a few meters tall too.

Despite that, she hadn't made a move yet and was instead patiently waiting on the outskirts of the City.

The status quo had remained the same for about a few hours now.

There were a few reasons for her decision, but chief amongst them was what was going on over at the Military camp at the moment.

She turned to Hunter who had a grim look on his face, his lips up turned into a frown,

"You finally have an idea what's going on over there?"

Hunter nodded, then spoke carefully,

"Some Pilgrims managed to get in there. No, they were always there to begin with. They've got the entire place under their control. Many have been killed, and the General has been captured."

Evangeline let out a breath of cold air.

She looked up.

The desert that surrounded them was slowly drifting away.

It seemed strange and supernatural, for such a rapid reversal of desertification to occur.

But it was happening right before her eyes. The sands were shifting, pulled back by whatever power had summoned them here in the first place.

As the pale white sands shifted over, the grey remnants of the old world was slowly being revealed.

"So in other words, we are surrounded in both sides." Evangeline said casually.

Hunter gave her a glance,

"Yes. But we aren't in a bad position."

"Hmm..." Evangeline hummed slightly. Hunter was right after all.

While it was true that the Pilgrims now held control over both the Military camp and Valestorm, they were also facing quite a dilemma.

As the sands were drawn away, so was the power of their god.

The Divine power that came from the presence of Balangol and his champion had slowly dwindled over the past two days until there was almost nothing left of it.

This meant that the boons the Pilgrims of the Sands enjoyed were slowly being stripped away.

Meaning they would be in even more of a disadvantage should things devolve to not a fight again.

However, both sides didn't really want to fight again.

The last battle had seen both sides incur massive losses of life.

Beastmen, Lightslayers, Pilgrims... It didn't matter.

Death had come to all of them.

This, no one was eager to continue. Instead, they were simply licking their wounds, waiting for something to happen.

Evangeline never showed her thoughts on her face, making it hard for Hunter to decipher what exactly was going on in her head.

But that didn't matter much. Dan had snuck into the Military camp and was providing him with information on what was going on.

The coup staged had been swift and heavy.

A few high ranked members of the Military camp had turned traitor and were swift in their betrayal, killing many of the Military heads before quickly capturing the General. Although the other soldiers could have fought back, the risk was far too great for it to be worth it, as plenty of them still had families.

Powerless families that although weren't living the best, were living at the very least.

Any more infighting could see the regular people being dragged into the conflict, leading to even more deaths and devastation.

Right now, everyone was playing it passive, waiting for something to happen.

'What a shitty day this is...' Hunter thought to himself.

It had been a while since he had slept, or had a bath.

His body was still covered in blood, and although the scent of fresh blood didn't bother him at all, dried clots were not as appealing.

He turned to Steve who was seated behind them, casually jotting something into a leather bound notebook.

"Do you have any idea what happened?"

Steve paused for a moment and without looking up,

"If you are talking about what fate has befallen our beloved Cain, then I do have a few theories, the first and possibly most accurate one, is an alien abduction!"

Seeing Hunter's grim, blank look, Steve cleared his throat and answered more serious,

"I have no idea. There were huge flunctuations in the mana flow patterns around that area, so it was difficult for me to tell. But I am certain Spatial Transfer magic was used. But on a scale I can't even begin to fathom."

Evangeline suddenly spoke,

"In that case, then we don't have to worry. This isn't the first time he has been spirited away, is it?"

Hunter turned around and sighed.

Looking back, he could see hundreds of people licking their wounds, preparing meals of roasted mutant beast meat with campfires under the glow of Evernight.

The atmosphere was anything but pleasant. There were some who had lost companions and even loved ones. Some had lost parts of themselves that possibly would never come back.

The rest were merely scarred from the brutality of war.

That was what it had been. A war.

One that was senseless and served mostly no purpose at all besides being a means of indoctrinating them into a world of cruelty and slaughter.

Hunter was used to seeing ugly things, but this was something else.

It made him feel sick and dirty.

He stared down at his hands. It has been thoroughly drenched in blood by the time the battle was over.

Evangeline's white hairs were like silver streaks of moonlight. She turned to him,

"It might be possible that we will have to fight soon. Although I would rather that not happen."

She pursed her lips for a moment, about to say something, when Hunter's eyes suddenly opened.

Noticing the change, her words died in her throat and her eyes narrowed,

"What happened?"

Hunter quickly composed himself,

"It's from Dan."

Steve raised a brow,

"What did he say to make you so jumpy?"

Hunter stood up and stared in the opposite direction of Valestorm,

"Cain is back."

***

Seated in a room with little ventilation and even less heating, General Arltzwalt calmly gazed down at the chains that bound him.

Turning his head up slightly, he looked up at the man seated on the chair just a few meters away.

A frown was plastered on his face,

"To think you of all people would be the traitor. I'll give you credit. I never expected a thing. I thought it would have been Boulder if anyone at all decided to betray me. I couldn't have been more wrong."

Khan shrugged. Picking up the plate in front of him, he forked up a piece of meat and brought it to his mouth.

A happy smile spread across his face as he savored the richness of the meat's juices.

After chewing a bit, he swallowed, then turned his attention back to General Arltzwalt,

"The most dangerous weapons are the ones you cannot see. I've heard you say that plenty times, General, but it seems you forgot your own piece of advice."

The General chuckled, "Perhaps I did."

He pulled lightly in the chains. Runes etched into the metal links glowed with a vibrant blue, but the chains didn't budge at all.

Khan gave them a casual glance. Then he chuckled.

General Arltzwalt spoke, his voice filled with concealed rage,

"So why? Why did you do it? I've known you for a long time, Khan. And yet, you decided to betray me."

Khan shrugged and picked up another cut of meat,

"Think about it this way; once a cup is broken, it can never be the same. The tides were already set in motion. My betrayal, all the deaths that happened. It was all bound to be. Fate, the everlasting unforgiving mistress she is.. "

Khan chuckled and a tear slid down his cheek,

"You ask me why I betrayed you, but my loyalty never lay with you in the first place, so there was nothing to betray."

Arltzwalt's expression changed. His eyes turned a little softer and his posture mellowed down. Even bound with chains and on his knees, he still cut an imposing figure.

However, right now, that figure seemed just a bit less intimidating,

"Khan, you can still change this. I can sense that Balangol's influence is waning rapidly. That means he is leaving up. You and I both know what that could mean."

Khan waved dismissively,

"I know exactly what that means. Kaelin is dead. But that'd doesn't matter. It really doesn't."

Arltzwalt's eyes twitched,

"Then what do you want?! I don't understand. Why did you do all this in the first place?!"

Khan chuckled, "You think I was under orders to do all this? Hahaha! How comedic."

Wiping another tear that had streaked down his cheek, Khan sighed,

"The only people that know if my existence, can be counted on one hand, and even they do not give me others. Besides the Lord and our god of course. However, with the title of the Fool, my nature is unpredictable, and my loyalties can shift at anytime."

Dropping the fork full of meat back to the plate, he got up and pulled his chair, dragging it until there was no space between the two of them.

"A secret is something that has to be shared between only two people. Once more people are in on it, it no longer becomes a secret. Instead, it becomes a joke. So do you want me to tell you a secret or a joke, General..." Khan said, his handome features twisting into a slightly deranged grin.

'I can kill him from this distance.' Was the first thought that appeared in Arltzwalt's mind. However, he chose not to do anything.

He didn't understand this character before him in the slightest.

He shook his head,

"What is your end goal? What do you want? Why are you doing this?"

Khan stood up from the seat and turned around,

"My initial mission was to covertly bring this place to heal while the others staged at attack from the front. However, things have gone awfully wrong, and our god has even abandoned us. So, I have to.... improvise."

Light flashed in his hands, and a white mask with two dark eye slits and anneven darker crescent shaped smiling mouth slit appeared in his hand..

Khan calmly placed the mask on his face,

"The inevitable cannot be avoided, and what is meant to be will be. All this was bound to happen. The future doesn't change."

His words were cryptic at best, making Arltzwalt seriously doubt if he still had all his marbles intact.

"You asked me what I want to do? It's quite simple, really.. "

He turned around, his face hidden behind the terrifying visage of the smiling mask,

"I plan on fulfilling my purpose."

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