God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

"Then you might end up dying."

Li's pupils contracted as he felt a heavy and dark aura ram into him like a bullet train. The aura extended from the blade of the young man who stood before him holding onto a very long pitch-black blade with an evil-looking eye on its hilt that seemed to be alive.

'What the hell is with this dude?!' Li felt extremely wary of him as soon he had set his eyes on Cain. His intuition told him that what appeared before him couldn't be a regular human.

Jenny on the other hand stared straight at Cain without budging. She kept her rifle pointed straight at Cain without moving, determined to keep her pride. She knew that whoever put their weapons down first would be at a disadvantage.

Hence, she even activated a skill that reduced her opponents' reaction speed and movement speed.

When she had seen the first two men, she wasn't bothered by them at all but as soon as she set her sights on Cain, a dangerous, almost beastly aura caused her to be subconsciously on her guard.

"I think you should be the one to lose your weapon," Jenny said in a calm voice. Despite the danger she felt, she also had faith in her strength.

She had complete confidence as she readied her attack...

'I'll just prepare a non-lethal attack that will put him out of commission for a while. It's not like I plan to ki-"

"Fine. Death it is..."

Suddenly, the aura that was just cold and dark transformed into something even more terrifying. If the previous aura could be compared to a waterfall, this aura was as encompassing as an entire ocean.

Jenny's eyes widened in shock as she saw her life flash before her eyes for an instant. She watched as a deep golden aura enveloped the entirety of Cain's body as he began swinging his sword slowly.

The ground beneath him creaked and groaned under the unbearable weight, and the air around him trembled from the pressure.

'W-what is this?!' Jenny realized too late that she was rendered immobilized by fear. She had a gut feeling, that if the blade in her opponent's hand completed its trajectory, she would certainly lose her life.

"STOP!"

Although Cain was completely outraged, he luckily hadn't lost it completely.

"Any last word before you go under?" he spat out in a menacing voice.

"Fine, we will lower our weapons," Jenny said, her bountiful chests bouncing up and down with every inhale and exhale. Beads of sweat had already begun to form on her forehead as well as she lowered her weapon, pointing the muzzle away from Cain.

The rest of them all had pale expressions on their faces as they gazed at Cain as though he was a monster.

Even Blaze and David stared at him, shock and fear flitting across their eyes, as they stared at him. They were completely in disbelief, as they didn't expect that he was capable of releasing such a terrifying aura and having such a scary expression on his face.

'Did I overreact?' Cain quickly reigned his aura in as much as he could when he saw that they had all put their weapons away.

There was another brief period of silence before it was broken by Cain once again.

With a slightly awkward smile on his face, he spoke up, "Good... Now, can we take it from the top?"

***

Standing around in a circle, the members of the two groups couldn't help but stare at each other in confusion.

"Where the hell did you find these guys?!" Steve whispered to Cain who was standing beside him.

"Ask those guys..." Cain retorted while staring at Blaze and David who had a mixture of apprehension and contemplation on their faces.

"They look like they've seen ghosts! There is no way they are in the right mental state to give me a coherent answer," said Steve, indecisive of which expression he had to put on his face at the moment.

Cain just ignored Steve and stared at the group of four who also stared back at them...

'Two males and two females... They also look familiar with one another, so I can tell they must have known one another even before the apocalypse.' Cain pondered to himself.

'They are certainly not weak either. Earlier...' When Cain thought about what had happened earlier, he couldn't help but frown a bit.

The main reason why he had reacted like that was because of the sheer amount of pressure he had felt as soon as the muzzle of the gun was pointed at him. It wasn't fear, but it was something very close, almost like all his danger signals went off instantly.

'That woman isn't simple...' Although he hadn't intended to kill any of them, he had let a bit of killing intent leak.

As soon as she felt that bit of overwhelming killing intent, she had given ground. This was what had attracted Cain's attention the most.

"Who are you guys?! How did you survive up until now?!" Sue, who had been silent for a while couldn't help but ask in a quiet but shy tone. Although she was ferocious to people she knew, she was very shy towards outsiders.

"Hm? What did you say?" Cain that had just come out from his thoughts didn't get what she said, so he wanted her to repeat it.

"Eeeeeeee!"

The only reply he got was a shrill shriek of fear as she scurried behind Jenny for safety.

'Damn! Was it that bad?! Now I've made a little kid scared of me!' his eyelids couldn't help but twitch when he saw the smaller girl's reaction.

"We could ask you guys the same question. How the hell did you guys survive up until now?!" Hunter who had been standing off to the side spoke up all of a sudden. Beside him was Dan who had an obvious blush on his face as he stared at the twin bunnies of Jenny.

"When those devils began falling from the sky, we all were within the gymnasium. We fended them off while we made our retreat into this safe room alongside others who are still down there as we speak," said Jenny Ina calm voice. Amongst all of them, she was the calmest and most collected.

"How did you know where the safe room was and how to open it?" Hunter asked again.

"My mom is the head of the gym, so I know all there is to know about this place. She also told me where to find the keys should things ever go south and I need a place to hide."

Although Hunter was the one asking the questions, she stared straight at Cain as she answered, causing Hunter to look between the both of them with a frown.

"Others?! There are others still alive?!" David couldn't help but exclaim in shock when he heard this.

"How many more?" This time, it was Cain that asked the question.

"Sixteen..."

"Mmm..." Cain stared at them for a while before pointing at Saltan who was still holding onto his weapon, albeit not pointing it at anyone, "You, go call all the others who are still in hiding out here."

Although Cain didn't mean to speak in an authoritative tone, it somehow came out that way.

"Who the fuck are you to order me around like that?!" Stan let out a growl of anger as he almost charged out, but was held back by Li who could understand the situation very well. He whispered something into the ear of the furious Stan who calmed down by a few degrees afterward.

However, the blade in his hands remained where they were...

Although Cain could tell there was a misunderstanding between them, he didn't want to bother clearing it up.

"Seems like the big guy over there doesn't want to go..."

"I'll go. However, you must promise not to harm any of them. If not, then I'm not going anywhere even if you threaten me with death."

"Hey, hey... Do I look like a psychopath to you? I'm not killing anyone unless necessary." said Cain with a huff.

"That's good to hear. I'll be back." With that, Li bolted back to the backside of the gymnasium where the entrance to the secret room was located.

As they waited, Cain continued to stare at the lady who had caused his heart to speed up, and not in a good way.

She was the definition of an angelic beauty with a devilish body. Even Cain who normally wasn't interested in that type of stuff couldn't help but react to her as he stared her down.

Feeling his burning gaze, Jenny couldn't help but let out an internal sigh,

'He's just like the rest of them...'

"Name?" Cain said all of a sudden.

Jenny intuitively knew Cain was addressing her.

"Jenny... You?".

"Cain. I believe we got off the wrong foot here. We are all working for our survival, no?" This time, Cain was truly trying to diffuse the situation. He noticed that his earlier reaction had put all of them on guard.

His goal wasn't for them to be wary of him, but for them to trust him enough to get them to join their team so they could work together to leave.

'That means our group is about to become bigger by more than 60%. Our combat power will increase greatly as well. If that is the case, I'll need to adjust my plans a little.'

"Yes, we are. However, there is just one thing I'd like to ask..."

"Which is?"

"What do you plan to do with all those defenseless people?" Jenny asked.

"Defenseless? What do you mean by that? Is it that they don't have weapons yet? They can easily purchase some from the system store." Oblivious to what Jenny meant, Cain responded to her absentmindedly.

Jenny looked confused for a bit before a look of realization dawned on her after she pondered on it for a bit.

Clearing her throat, Jenny delivered to Cain his greatest and most bothersome shock of the day, "You don't understand. They don't have systems..."

"Hm?"

It took a while for Cain to process before he let out a chuckle,

"Are you trying to play games with me? There is no way they don't have systems.

"Sister Jenny isn't lying! It's the truth." Sue, who had been hiding behind Jenny for some time yelled at Cain, as she had finally found the courage to confront the horrible monster in human flesh who tried to insult her sister Jenny's integrity.

"Sue, it's okay..." Jenny said in a soothing voice before she turned her slender eyes back towards Cain.

"I'm not playing games. They don't have systems. This means they are so weak, we are the ones that have been providing them with meals, as the safe room wasn't stashed with enough to feed so many people."

"That's impossible." Cain refused to believe it. The system had once mentioned that alongside the soul, the system was one of the most common arcane anchors in all the universe. If that was so, then there couldn't be people without it.

"There is a simple way to know if I'm telling you a lie or not..." Jenny said calmly.

Although Cain was still skeptical, he decided to inquire about his system.

'System, is what she is saying true?'

{Replying to host: Affirmative... Only 30% of humans in the universe have all the right characteristics necessary to absorb and implement mana naturally. These are the only two conditions that need to be fulfilled for a human to use the system}.

Cain's eyes widened in shock as he began considering what had happened in the past,

'All those who had been killed by the {Miasma Devil} died because they lacked the bare minimum necessary to even defend themselves from these devils!'

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