God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

BANG!

"That's the last of them..." Jenny said as the last {Devil Fighter} had its brains blown out by a bullet from her.

Looking around, all that could be seen were bodies upon bodies. Some of the devils had their eyes opened staring at the sky with glassy eyes, as though searching for some sort of pardon for their eternal damnation.

Most of them had their maws stretched out in a never-ending scream that seemed to echo out even after their deaths.

"I'm so exhausted... and hungry," Vincent said with a sad face as he collapsed to the ground in a tired heap.

"You've done your best. Leave the rest to us." David said with a thankful expression.

"You haven't had a moment of rest as well, Mr. David," Susan said with a soft smile. Even though she had been active throughout the battle she didn't look even a bit tired.

"Light of Rejuvenation..." Susan cast a spell on the entire group, allowing those who had lost stamina to recover.

"We managed to deal with the small fry. The real battle is about to begin..." Cain said as he stared at the group of 100 {Hulking Behemoths} who had yet to move from the spot since the beginning of the battle.

"What do you think their motives are? Was their plan to wear us out before swooping in for the kill?" Manny asked as he scraped the tips of his blades against the black soil on the forest floor.

"As I said, the devils actually do benefit from the deaths of their kin..." Steve said as the expression on his face turned a bit more serious than usual.

"That is true. The real threats here aren't the dead ones..." Jenny reiterated. Although she had been involved in the battle, she didn't expend as much energy as the others. Not only that, but she seemed to have an understanding of what Steve was talking about.

Cain lowered his head in silence before speaking up, "The devil race is a violent race that don't even spare one another. They consume anything in their path and leave only desolation and emptiness. I believe they have a way of gathering the power of the dead devils and using it to increase the power of their current forces."

"If you knew this, then why didn't you say so sooner!" Li asked in a loud voice.

"Because we have no other choice. If we don't attack the weaker spawn devils, then we will simply be overrun by them. The devils planned this all along. They used us as borrowed hands to help them do their dirty work..." Hunter spat in disgust.

"I don't think we had much of a choice. We can only live with it and face what's to come." Dan said in support of Hunter.

"Are the people you want to save in a safe place?" Cain whispered to Jenny.

"Yes... Stan and Sue are taking care of them..." Jenny replied in a hushed tone as well.

"Good... I will definitely keep my promise. If push comes to shove and our chances look grim, then break away from us and try to get them out of the forest, well what's left of it..." Cain said.

As soon as he was done, Jenny looked up to him in shock...

"Are you being serious?" Jenny couldn't believe her ears.

"I'm dead serious... Although they might not seem useful now, those people might very well be the backbone we rebuild our civilization upon. It depends on how you want to look at it. So they might not necessarily be a liability, but an asset. Besides, that is only in the eventually that things don't look good here." Cain said in one breath.

"Why do you seem... different?" Jenny gazed into Cain's eyes and found something she hadn't seen just a few hours ago. Something human...

"I don't know what you mean, but different is good, no?" Cain let out a radiant smile that seemed to outshine the faint glow of the sun in the distance.

Jenny couldn't help but be captivated by it...

"Jenny!" Li called out. Realizing that she had nearly let herself go, Jenny shook her head a couple of times before facing the devil army once again.

"This fight has been going on for more than three hours. We've burnt through a decent chunk of our supplies, stamina, and mana, but the {Hulking Behemoths} haven't even engaged in battle." David said even as he kept his shield up in case of any surprise attacks.

"What we need to do now is to reposition. Since they are much fewer, we can loosen the formation a bit. We also need to guard the rear and the sides, as they might try to encircle us. Previously, they couldn't do so successfully because of their large numbers and limited space, but nothing is stopping them from doing so now-" David began strategizing, however, he was cut short by Manny.

"Ha... Do this, do that... think this, think that... Don't you think this a waste of time?" Manny said, as he restlessly kept digging up the coal black dead plant residue from the forest ground.

"Manny, it is important to plan for-"

"Where has planning gotten us so far?! Nowhere except resulting in doing what needs to be done! Rather than waiting for them to come to attack us like sitting ducks, let us take the fight to them. My blades are hungry for devil blood!" Manny yelled as he stopped dragging the tip of his blade across the ground, and began striking the edges of his blades together creating a sonorous ring every second.

One look at him was enough to confirm Cain's suspicions about Manny's sanity...

Before anything else could be said, the devils made their move.

A deep chant that reverberated in their minds like a rushing waterfall, or rolling thunder echoed from somewhere on the battlefield.

"What is that?!"

Hunter, who now had a dark expression on his face answered with malice in his voice, "That's the Broodmother. It seems the real battle is about to begin..."

The melee fighters all drew their weapons and got ready for what was to come. Cain summoned the {Devil's Broken Claw} from his inventory, then jumped onto Ruby's back.

'Ruby, we are charging in together...'

The mutant bear exhaled a large amount of steam and scratched her paws against the black earth as she prepared to charge.

Suddenly, all the {Hulking Behemoths} held their bladed arms to the center of their chests where their devil cores were located.

Once they did that, their devil cores began to glow with an unexplainable radiance. A light that somehow managed to darken their surroundings...

The corpses of thousands of spawn devils on the ground began to spontaneously combust, turning into the same black dust that had covered the forest floor, releasing a stream of extremely purified mana.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The explosions were repetitive and in quick succession. In less than a minute, all nearly ten thousand corpses had been completely destroyed, the only trace of their existence left being a coal-black residue that lacked any signs of life.

Above the battlefield, swirling like a tornado, were numerous specks of light. These specks of light were the concentrated form of the life energy and mana of the dead spawn devils gathered together.

A portion of the specks of light, about four thousand out of the nearly ten thousand, suddenly flew down and began surrounding the {Phantasma} and the {Hulking Behemoths} on the ground. A thousand specks of light rushed into the body of J'orntz, while the rest were equally divided between the {Hulking Behemoths}.

The remaining specks of light traveled all the way to the giant {Flame Devil} above them, their purpose unknown...

As soon as this happened, the devils began experiencing all sorts of obscene transfiguration. The {Hulking Behemoths} seemed to reduce in size, but their black exterior turned even more shiny and tough. Their previously terrifying expressions seemed to tone down a bit, making them look not as menacing as before.

Their bladed forelimbs grew even longer and sharper, and their muscles turned lean and explosive. However, despite the tremendous change in appearance, the look of savagery in their eyes seemed to multiply by ten folds.

"Lord J'orntz, I can't hold this hunger back anymore!" Jamiel said as its chakrams rose into the air and began spinning extremely fast.

"The Mother will tell us when to charge. Exercise patience." The one that went through the most change was the {Phantasma}. Not only did it look even more human now, an element of grace had been added to its previously feral presence. Its features had become humanoid, and the gem on its forehead had gotten bigger. The only thing that didn't change was its size and bladed forelimbs.

The army of 100 super-powered devils faced Cain's party of less than ten.

Meanwhile, the thousands of specks of light traveled through the air until they came to a stop just directly above the {Flame Devil}, Forza. On its shoulder, was the Broodmother attached to it by its stinger-like tailend.

'My children, it is time for you to serve a purpose greater than your existence. For the sake of our race, you shall serve as fuel.'

Forza the {Flame Devil} seemed to briefly awake, its eyes finally showing more life within them. The next moment its incredibly dark maw that seemed to be raised eternally towards the heavens in a scream of outrage began to exert a suction force.

In the blink of an eye, thousands upon thousands of these specks of light rushed into the abyssal darkness.

The light of life in its eyes grew stronger and stronger until eventually, the {Flame Devil} let out a sigh of contentment...

The air rumbled, and the very clouds seemed to part ways at that moment. All the way from where they were, Cain and the others were able to feel the fierce gust of wind created from a mere breath of the {Flame Devil}.

'How long will it take you to recover, Forza...' The Broodmother said to the {Flame Devil}.

'An hour...' Since this was a mental interaction, the contents of their discussion weren't known to any on the ground.

"Forza has awakened, and the Mother has given the signal. We shall begin the attack..." J'orntz said with a terrifying calm.

Unlike feral beasts, and like a true army, the devils all rushed towards Cain and the others. Before reaching them, they split off into groups of two, circling the group of humans, and trapping them at their center.

"Kill to your heart's content, but leave that one for me," J'orntz said, pointing at Cain.

"Couldn't have it any other way..." Cain said as he also rushed forward, ready to intercept the {Phantasma}...

THIS CHAPTER UPLOAD FIRST AT NOVELBIN.COM