God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain felt a surge within his mind as he was returned to reality...

Cain looked around a bit disoriented for a bit before he was able to regain his bearings.

The chaos around him hadn't dwindled even a little bit. Its tempo had been raised by a few notches. The exchange of spells had gotten more heated as time went by.

Although the devils didn't have a lot of spell casters, every single one of them was a source of danger in their own right...

The devils specialized in attack spells and debuffs that were on another level compared to what Cain and the others were used to. The {Miasma Devils} were a special case, but the {Hulking Behemoths} could utilize all sorts of spells based on their evolutionary path as devils.

They dished out large-scale spells that would work against a large army onto their small party of less than ten, making it seem like overkill. However, it was so incredibly effective.

Out of the 100 {Hulking Behemoths}, only 20 engaged in the dishing out of spells. The rest just stood back and watched Cain and the others with evil and malicious expressions.

The others, on the other hand, were struggling to keep up, especially with the combined attacks of thousands of devils alongside the terrifying spells from the {Hulking Behemoths}.

'I need to hurry...' Cain realized that he needed to make haste, as the melee devils would soon enter close range.

'Just like Ashur said, ignore perfection, and focus on the uniqueness of the spell... What makes the {Fireball} spell so unique, is its ability to control a volatile element such as the flame element, and turn it into something tangible, yet destructive.'

Cain took Ashur's words to heart...

He realized that subconsciously or not, he tried to make a spell he thought could be perfect when he had little to no experience in the field of spell crafting when all he had done on the subject was read a couple of pages in a single book...

'A simple spell like the {Fireball} spell should stick to the basics. Rather than removing the limiter, I can just bend the rules a bit and make it resemble that of {Burst Step}, rather than scraping it out completely...'

Cain immediately immersed himself in his thoughts, tweaking at the spell as the inspirations poured in like a waterfall...

"Hm?!" Steve watched in shock as the magic circles began appearing all around Cain like planets around the sun...

'What are those?! Aren't they the magic circles of the {Fireball} spell?! Wait... It isn't that simple!' Steve stared wide eyes at Cain as he activated his {Devil Eye} skill...

'This!' The expression on Steve's face turned even more ludicrous as he began to understand what Cain was doing...

"Cain?! What are you doing?!" Jenny, who was standing a little bit away said in shock when she saw what was happening around Cain.

All she got in response was silence...

'What the hell is this?!' She stared in amazement as the fire elemental mana in the air stirred up violently. In the blink of an eye, numerous magic circles bloomed all around him, turning into a mysterious array, before breaking down into their individual magic circles again. Only this time, they looked even more complex than before.

"Don't disturb him... Let him do what he needs to do." Susan said with a cold face as she kept attacking without end. Since the battle began, she never stopped attacking, her arms reloading arrow after arrow, her mana pool seemingly endless.

"Eh? What's going on?" Vincent exclaimed as the mana in the air stirred even more violently than it had been just a few moments ago. The air around them instantly turned scorching hot as the magic circles began to revolve slowly.

"Phew..."

Cain released a breath of hot air as his eyes snapped open...

"Took a while, but I'm finally done." He said in a quiet voice, almost as though he was speaking his inner thoughts to himself.

His eyes turned to look at everyone who was staring at him in shock. Seeing the bewilderment on their faces, he simply let out a chuckle.

'This spell doesn't need a chant, but the attack does need a bit of time to gather mana...' Cain thought to himself.

Meanwhile, the devil army had noticed the change in the mana flow in the air...

"Lord J'orntz, that human is trying to stir something. If it is another ultimate spell like the ones they've used, we have nothing to worry about, do we?" Jamiel said as he looked at the {Phantasma}.

Instead of an answer, the Soul Devil simply ignored it and began a chant...

"Lord J'orntz?" The other {Hulking Behemoths} stood in shock as they watched their leader prepare an attack.

"My Lord, if you attack right now, the other devils might get caught up in the attack. You are a true devil, so the power of your attacks will surely be-"

"Shut it..." A black, murky aura seeped out of the {Phantasma} as it continued its spell.

'I wanted to save the main dish for late, but since it is so eager, I'll kill it now!' J'orntz thought as it looked directly at Cain. It noticed the drastic change in the flowing mana and quickly traced it back to Cain.

When it saw that, the anger it had tried to suppress immediately broke out. If Cain had kept a lower profile, it wouldn't have tried to attack him, but now that Cain was making himself more noticeable, it decided to end Cain's life early...

"Soul Strike." The Soul Devil had a sadistic expression on its face as its eyes glowed a sinister green and it launched the first attack.

Cain, who was preparing his spell was completely blindsided by the attack.

BANG!

Cain felt as though he had taken a bullet to the head.

"Argh!" Cain yelled out in shock as a trickle of blood rolled down the side of his mouth.

'What was that?!' Cain felt his blood run cold as he searched for who attacked him. Before he was able to, another one of the invincible attacks slammed into him.

BANG!

"BLEGH!" This time, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, as the attack had caught him completely unawares again.

"Cain!" Because the attacks were not physical, no one had any ideas as to what was going on.

"I'm fine. Continue attacking..." Cain said in a raspy voice as he raised his bloodstained eyes and locked onto his target.

"No, you aren't fine there's blood all over your-" Susan yelled at him as tears began building up at the corners of her eyes.

"I said I'm fine!" Cain yelled as he tried to contain his anger. He turned to face her, his face covered in blood as he spoke once again, loud enough for everyone to hear,

"I'm being attacked by that {Phantasma}. If I don't attack back, then it will keep attacking until I'm dead..."

"But-"

"Leave him..." Hunter said as he shook his head even as he kept attacking. A devil that had managed to slip through their defenses had its body blasted into pieces the moment Hunter's fingers released the bowstring.

"There is nothing you can say to him right now. Let him release his anger..." Hunter said, his eyes also turning a shade of red as the flames surrounded his body.

"Ha... Quit talking and keep the pressure up. They will soon enter melee range. I doubt we will be able to fend off so many devils in close combat. It will be best to reduce their numbers greatly before they get close enough!" David let out a tired sigh as he bashed the head of another devil that had managed to evade all their attacks in with his axe.

***

'It's him again...' Cain's blood boiled in fury as stared at the {Phantasma} who now had a smug grin on its devilish face as it stared Cain straight in the eye without backing down.

The spell Cain was preparing had long since been disrupted, so not only was he angry, the frustration of having his hard work destroyed in a matter of seconds got to him...

BANG!

Another {Soul Strike} hit him again, but this time, since he was expecting it, the outcome wasn't as bad. Blood streaked down his eyes like tears. He felt as though his head was being pounded like a steel drum. The pain he felt was immense, but the anger was even more so...

'System, is there any way to guard against these attacks?'

{Replying to host: Negative... As long as the host doesn't have a spell, skill, or equipment that can guard against mental and soul attacks, the only thing the host can do is endure. Luckily, the host has a lot of spirit stats, so it will take more than a few attacks to kill you...}

'Good... That's all I needed to hear.' Cain said as he began creating his spell again, only this time, what drove him forward, was anger...

Just like anger, the fire element was extremely violent and very difficult to control. At that moment, Cain simply didn't want to control the flames gathered, but in doing so, he achieved the greatest control one could ever attain of an element...

The red of burning flames, and the red of blood...

Cain had his hands outstretched, with his fingertips curled inwards to form a claw-like gesture that grasped at the heavens. His anger turned into fuel for the flames that ignited in his hands.

BOOM!

Once again, the magic circles blossomed around him, only this time, there was a fundamental change in the runic symbols at the centers. The core rune had changed from a burning flame into the newborn core of a star...

The magic circles transformed into glowing orbs of contained flames that spun at high speeds.

The heat coming from them was so immense, his fingertips were burned just from the residual heat.

'So that's the key...' Cain had a brief moment of enlightenment. At this moment, he came to understand one of the principles behind the formation of spells. The new spell he had created was based on the {Fireball} spell that had been modified by the {Azure Burst} and {Burst Step} skills.

However, the last bit he was lacking that would have doomed the formation of the spell, was one simple thing that would never have come to him normally...

'Mentality... Mentality is the key!'

There was no true way to tame wild flames, except to become even wilder. He had turned his mind towards an emotion that was just as wild as a blazing flame...

In doing so, he was able to gain control over a spell that would have burned him to a crisp should he have executed it...

Taking a deep breath, Cain channeled all the rage and anger he felt into the spell. The flames spun and spun until they shrunk by at least a third and released so much heat, Cain's hand began to blacken. The others had to move away from him, as the heat from the flames was too much to bear.

{Congratulations to the host... You have created a new spell...}

{You have-}

Before the system even had the time to complete its sentence, Cain had already let loose...

"Art of Fire: First form, Flame Orbs..."

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