God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

"What do you think you are doing?" Evangeline turned her face to Cain who walked quietly at her side and asked in a voice as cold as ice. The gaze she gave him was completely different from the one she usually gave him. This time, her eyes looked human...

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Cain answered with a shrug.

She scrunched up her brows a lot in annoyance, "I made it very clear that I would be the one doing this."

From the first day he had seen her, she had always acted a bit weird. She either had on an emotionless and cold face, or she just stared at him like a creep. Now, he was finally able to get a somewhat human response from her, so he chose to keep up the indifferent act to see where it took him.

"Well, I fail to see how that's any of my concern." Cain made sure to draw his words out, even finishing the sentence with a yawn to provoke a reaction from her.

However, Cain was disappointed to see that apart from a brief frown that disappeared as quickly as it came onto her face, he got no other response.

"Fine... Do what you want. Just don't interfere." She said before increasing her walking speed.

'No luck, huh?' Although he didn't make much progress, Cain wasn't discouraged in the slightest.

'I will get to the bottom of this enigma. I just need to figure out what her deal is so I can break that layer of ice.'

Normally, Cain wouldn't concern himself with such a mundane matter, but for some reason, he felt inclined to.

He couldn't explain it...

It was a weird feeling that poked at his mind every time he saw her staring at him...

He wanted to know more about this beautiful, yet enigmatic girl. It wasn't that he was attracted to her looks. It was mainly due to the aura she gave off. However, it was very subtle, so he wasn't sure if it was there.

He had always been very curious at heart, so when he saw something that interested him, he subconsciously began looking for a way to get under her skin...

'Ha... Now's not the time to dwell on such things.'

Cain turned his focus back to the huge intertwined network of abominations. His eyelids couldn't help but twitch a little bit when he got closer. Turns out the grotesque entity before he was even more disgusting up close.

Numerous outgrowths were popping out from various sections, spewing out that sap-like fluid, coating the entire thing in a layer of the fluid. The huge vines still roamed around the former battlefield picking up numerous corpses at a time and bringing them closer for consumption.

'How the hell did no one notice this until now?' Cain realized that this sort of thing couldn't have grown overnight. It most likely had been growing for some time now, but he hadn't noticed it when he had gone into the forest to confront the {Devil-eyed White Primate}.

'Destroying this thing is going to be fairly easy though. All I need to do is use {Bloodthirsty} with {Devil's Broken Claw} to drain that blood. That might work...

If it doesn't, I'll just destroy it.' When Cain saw Evangeline volunteer to destroy the thing, he knew it had something to do with that blood-like substance that had splattered from it when Manny had attacked.

He knew she had skills that had something to do with the blood element, so whatever that fluid was, he also wanted to see its effects on her.

'If the {Devil's Broken Claw} doesn't do anything, I'll just wait and see what happens.'

As they drew closer, the monster began its attack on them. With great dexterity, they simply dodged all the whip-like branches and vines whilst inching closer. Cain watched as Evangeline made graceful movements in dodging effortlessly.

Even Cain had to admit that he wasn't as good as her when it came to how cleanly all the attacks were evaded. It was as though she had total control over her body.

'She's strong. She has had some training.' Cain's eyes narrowed down to slits as he watched.

"Blaze, Hunter, please, if things go awry, I need you guys to try to burn that thing down," said David to Hunter and Blaze who stood on the side.

"You've got it," Blaze replied almost immediately before glaring at Hunter with an inquisitive stare.

Hunter let out an internal sigh, 'What a hassle.'

He gave a curt reply, "Sure."

"Hmph!" Blaze let out a snort but didn't say anything.

Meanwhile, Cain and Evangeline had already arrived before the monster.

"Blood Manipulation: Essence!"

With a flash, Evangeline moved through the air and placed her hands on the gnarly roots. Numerous crimson-colored magic circles burst out from beneath her hands. The material beneath her hands immediately began withering, as though all the blood-like substance within them was being sucked away.

The monster began thrashing its roots, branches, and vines all around, trying to hit Evangeline.

"Blood Shields." Sanguine-colored energy leaked out of her body to form numerous rotating shields that completely blocked all the attacks.

Meanwhile, Cain looked a bit shocked at this revelation.

'Blood manipulation...'

Cain realized why Evangeline was so adamant about being the one to attack the monster. She had most likely known that the blood of that monster would be beneficial to her in one way or the other. Hence, she decided to go in without any hesitation.

She probably didn't have any qualms with him being there because she would most likely reap more benefits than he could thanks to her {Blood Manipulation} skill.

Evangeline looked at Cain who was still evading the vines and branches without having done anything.

'Turns out he can't do anything after all. Maybe I was wrong?' she thought, a frown making its way into her porcelain-like face.

Cain on the other hand had completely misunderstood her intentions, but even if he knew, he probably wouldn't care less. To him, gaining more power for himself took priority. Everything else would come second.

If she thought he would just sit back when such a pleasant opportunity appeared before his eyes, she was gravely mistaken.

The monster seeing that it couldn't do anything to stop Evangeline increased the rate at which it was pulling and devouring the carcasses of the dead mutants. Tens of mutant beast carcasses were being turned into hollow shells in seconds.

The damage Evangeline was doing to it was quickly offset by this change.

Once Cain saw this, he knew it was time for him to make a move...

He drew the {Devil's Broken Claw} from his inventory and stabbed forward. The eye on the hilt began to emit a deep and sinister darkness. The surrounding area dimmer just as quickly as Cain had stabbed.

The thrashing of the monster became even more pronounced as the necrosis of the intertwined roots and vegetation sped up rapidly.

Evangeline looked on in shock. She had not expected what had happened at all, so she was a bit thrown off guard. However, the surprise disappeared almost instantaneously, as a look of competition flashed across her eyes.

Her eyes flashed ruby red as she increased the amount of mana she poured into her skill. The magic circle expanded even further once she did this.

Meanwhile, Cain was extremely shocked as he saw the information pouring into his mind from his status screen.

{+1% attack power...}

{+0.1 to {Fear}....}

{The weight of your weapon, {Devil's Broken Claw}, has increased by 10kg}.

***

...

His string of information kept repeating itself. To protect himself, he had to activate {Golden Halo} and use his {Golden Armor} spell since his hands were occupied.

The monster drew in more carcasses until there were no more corpses within its reach. The monster tried its hardest, but the combined efforts of Cain and Evangeline were too much for it to bear.

After a while, the monster stopped trashing. All the sap-like ooze on it had completely dried up, and the former squiggling roots had become static. Cain pulled his blade out from it, only to stagger when he realized that the blade was many times heavier than it had been.

The roots and branches began to rot very quickly. However, Cain noticed something was up. Usually, when he had successfully killed something, a prompt would show up indicating his success. However, this time around, nothing happened.

'Isn't it dead? What's going on?' Cain had a puzzled look on his face.

{Replying to host: Negative... As was mentioned earlier, this entity isn't a creature. Now that I have gathered more information, I know what it is}.

'And that is?'

{Replying to host: It is just a small part of an even larger organism...}

'What? How is that even possible?' Cain was a bit confused.

{Replying to host: The huge organism it is a part of... is this entire forest}...

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