God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Making a fire in the dark, damp underground had been surprisingly easy.

They all say around the campfire, munching on their rations of dried meat as they contemplated the earlier events.

Sue had been a bit scared by the scene she had witnessed, and had thrown up a few times already.

Cain gave her a brief glance,

'She seems to be doing fine now, although her face is still a bit pale.'

Then again, he wasn't one to say anything.

After all, he wasn't in a better mood either. Find your next adventure on empire

The feeling of having his mind toyed with like that had put him on edge.

What was real and what was not didn't seem so clear anymore.

Even Steve didn't seem to have much of his earlier composure anymore. However, he didn't seem too bothered either.

Cain frowned. Before he could say anything however, Steve turned to him and asked,

"That thing, did you get any information on it?"

Cain hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly.

And it was exactly because he did that he was so apprehensive.

Just before the thing that had been the author of their nightmares had fled, he had managed to use the system to catch a glimpse of its details.

***

{Darkhum Blossom}: Level 181 (Deadly, Tier 1)

Strength: 2000.

Agility: 100,000.

Defense: 1000.

HP: 500,000/500,000.

MP: 890,000/800,000.

Skills: Darkness Fever, Terror Whisper, Enthrall, Nightmare Scape.

***

This creature's strength and defense were horrid. It was so weak, it wouldn't be able to put up a fight with a simple blessed human without access to the system.

Surprisingly, it had a rather large health and Mana pool. It's agility was also on par with a creature of its caliber.

What was most terrifying about this creature, though, were its skills.

Cain quickly shared this information with the rest of them.

Lukas grimaced,

"The first thing we have to encounter down here is a freaking nightmare spawn? How cute."

Li shrugged, "Hey, the fact that we are still alive is a good sign. That means that thing cannot kill us all on its own."

Floki, who had been silent for a rather long time, suddenly spoke, his deep voice laced with a frigid edge that froze everyone,

"That, or it has a use for us..."

He turned to Cain,

"You saw how that thing acted. It is probably very intelligent. If we fight this thing, losing our lives changes from a mere abstract probability to a fifty-fifty. Those odds aren't pretty."

Cain hummed, "While I couldn't agree with you more, unfortunately, that is the reason why we have to make this thing our number one priority..."

His expression turned dark,

"Imagine if we hadn't found this place, and yet this thing somehow managed to get out of here. And once it did, it made its way towards human civilization..."

Such a thing would be disastrous to say the least.

Humans were slowly losing ground compared to the mutant creatures and the Devils.

"Things like this freak are left alone for long enough, and they will become calamities, should they be unleashes into our world." Cain said, his voice low and dark.

Susan frowned, "This illusions, if you can call them that... What ability of the beast was that, and how did we break away from it?"

All eyes turned to Steve and he sighed as he explained,

"That should be the {Darkness Fever} ability. Perhaps it wanted to test our defenses first. As for how we broke out, perhaps the first step, was realizing that it was an illusion? I am not too sure."

Cain chimed in, "That is right. I noticed that there was no sounds of water. That was the key to my realization. However, the illusion didn't end immediately there. Instead, I had to spread my perception beyond what the creature could influence, there by, breaking its spell."

Steve grinned, "There you have it. So that's one way to counter than ability..."

Cain stared at the fire,

'Darkness Fever. A fever makes you delirious, but this one, this one is something else. Something far more sinister and evil.'

He even suspected for a moment that the creature didn't know what Devils were.

Instead the vile thing was just inherently evil and malevolent in nature.

Of course, all these were just assumptions.

Suddenly, the fire went out, plunging them into darkness.

Cain didn't have to say anything as everyone jumped to their feet and drew their weapons with lightning speed.

Cain calmly retrieved the {Lonely Dragon} Warblade from the armament armory. He swung it a few times for good measure.

The underground of the cove was also legendary, with a tall ceiling. The descending stream continued into the depths of the darkness as well.

And it was from these depths that the gust of wind that had taken their fire down had come from.

Eyes filled with glowing red madness slowly revealed themselves.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Cain's eyes narrowed,

'New company has arrived. Thankfully, they don't seem anywhere near as dangerous as that thing.'

The creatures in the darkness let out strange bellows, shrieks and roars as they lunged at them.

Moving with experienced steps, Floki moved forward to intercept them whilst Li, Stan, and Lukas followed closely behind.

Vincent summoned his rifle and Cain gently balanced his guns in his palms.

The rest of them began preparing their spells and magic.

In the blink of an eyes the savage things were eupon them.

Cain wasn't surprised.

'A bit of land, a bit of sea, and a healthy mixing of both.'

As the beasts rushed forward, they eventually made contact with Floki.

With a grunt, Floki managed to stop them in their tracks, although his legs skidded back a few meters.

With a loud roar, Stan thrust his saber forward, cutting through the outstretched claw of a giant beast. Blood sprayed all over Floki's shield, but the big man didn't min, taking an abrupt step back, and slamming his shield right into the face of the assaulter.

Its head was reduced to one fourth a scrambled mess of blood and mangled flesh.

At the same time, Vincent's first bullet found its mark, killing instantaneously

Blood flowed into the stream, and a loud cacophony of blazing guns, descending magic and battling warriors filled the damp air.