God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

\'A bit far from the forest. We can make it there in a few days if we walk. Three days max if we increase our speed a bit.\' Cain thought to himself as he gazed into the distance.

The Evil Mountain and the Forest of Self-Reflection were truly far away. The only reason he had arrived so quickly was thanks to the spell Og-solath had activated that had him delivered right to the foot of the mountain. If not, he would have had to walk for quite some time before he arrived.

Now that it was time to return, he would have to stretch his legs...

Before that, he decided he needed to find shelter first. Since the valley stretched all the way from the entrance of the forest of Self-Reflection to the Evil Mountains, he was technically still in the valley, as that was the only way for him to get back to the forest.

The mountains and the surrounding valley were ruled by the Chaos Creatures. However, as they moved further away, they would come across more and more types of creatures with differing natures. One thing that they all had in common, was their lust for battle and their insatiable hunger...

Finding shelter wasn\'t going to be easy. There were no caves to hide in, nor were there any trees to provide cover. Instead, there was a layer of surface foliage, as well as a few bushes and shrubbery that covered the ground.

Hence, he had to get creative. Luckily for him, this wasn\'t his first rodeo...

With a snap of his fingers, the metal elements in the air became alive. Two drills made entirely of metal manifested in the air and began digging I\'m through the solid earth beneath them. Very quickly, a rather deep hole had been created. However, that wasn\'t enough for Cain.

His mind became active as the drills began to dig horizontally, eventually creating a rather large underground space.

\'Much better...\'

Without wasting any more time, Cain jumped in. He created a huge metal door around the surface of the hole, then created a few metal hands that swept the dirt he had dug up to, cover the hole, concealing it from the untrained eye.

Within the dark hole, Cain\'s face was motionless as he began to call upon the metal element again. Soon, the ground beneath his feet was encased in metal. The walls were also encased in metal as well.

\'This should do for now.\'

Cain had done this once before, right after he had defeated Forza, a Flame Devil. He had stayed alive within the metal pod for some time, so he knew they were relatively safe here in the meantime. Although he was constantly pouring mana into the metallic creations, it wasn\'t too big of a deal.

The interior of his makeshift underground base was dark, but since both he and Evangeline could see, he didn\'t care to provide any lighting.

He commanded the {Dark Soul} to ascend above the ground and be on the lookout. Then he turned his attention to Evangeline. She was still unconscious even after all this time. It had already been hours since they left the Evil Mountains, and she was still unresponsive.

Since the system had told him not to do anything, he decided to do just that and just wait...

***

Cain had gone out of the underground bunker to go and hunt for some fresh meat. When he got back, Evangeline was still not awake.

\'Wake up, you damned lunatic! Just how long do you plan to sleep here?!\'

However, as soon as he got the fire ready and was roasting the meat above the fire, a pair of ruby eyes began to stare at him through the darkness.

Cain rolled his eyes, \'I can see you, you know...\'

Still, he decided not to say anything and pretend like he didn\'t notice. Soon, the sweet sounds of fat being rendered off the meat and falling onto the hot coals rang out within the mostly silent space.

Cain was beyond famished. He had reached the point where he could no longer hold back. As soon as he brought the best off the fire, he had already sunk his teeth into it.

Hearing a deep rumbling sound from the darkness, he was reminded of Evangeline\'s existence. Sir pressing his greed and ginger, he called out into the darkness,

"If you don\'t come out now, I\'ll eat everything, you know..."

Cain didn\'t have to say anything more, as almost immediately, Evangeline stretched her white, long arms out of the darkness and grasped a large chunk of meat that was still sizzling above the flames without any hesitation.

Cain was about to warn her that it was hot but remembered that neither he, nor she were normal humans anymore.

Soon, all that could be heard within the darkness was the terrifying sound of two creatures biting and tearing into succulent flesh, as well as the sizzling coming from the fire.

After some time, they managed to finish an Aether beast that was larger than a cow. Cain burped with satisfaction as he felt the energy stored within the flesh of the creature seep into his body.

Although cooking the meat, as well as drawing its blood reduced the total Ki content, he didn\'t care. There was no way he was going to eat raw flesh and drink blood because of a few extra points of Ki.

The entire meal managed to increase his Ki by a fair amount, so he couldn\'t complain...

After some time, he turned to Evangeline, his face completely stoic,

"What happened?"

Almost as if she could sense it coming, Evangeline let out a heavy sigh,

"I\'m sorry..."

Cain shook his head, his face turning sour,

"As I thought."

Evangeline threw him a gaze. Shadows were cast on his face from the embers of the fire. However, she could see no signs of him being angry at her,

"Aren\'t you angry with me?"

Cain seemed genuinely shocked at this,

"What? Why would I be?"

Evangeline didn\'t seem to understand,

"I mean, I just ruined your entire mission, didn\'t I? If you don\'t bring the heart of the Primordial Devil of Chaos to the Primordial Devil of Madness, the rest of your team will die, right?"

Cain shrugged, "Yeah, but I can\'t blame you for something that isn\'t your fault. Who would have thought it would fuse with you like that."

Then, Cain\'s eyes narrowed dangerously,

"However, don\'t go jumping into conclusions like that. We don\'t know for sure if we can retrieve it or not..."

Sensing the strange shift in Cain\'s demeanor, her expression changed ever so slightly,

"And what does that mean?"

Cain rolled his eyes, "Relax, would you? I don\'t plan on cutting you open in your sleep. Although I care about my other teammates, you are my comrade as well. There\'s no way I will sacrifice you for their sake. That doesn\'t mean I have given up. We will work something out, I guess..."

Evangeline stared at Cain for a while, making him feel a bit uncomfortable. He had no choice but to shift his gaze after a long time of direct eye contact.

"Like I said, you don\'t have to worry about it. What we need to do now is to find a way out of this mess. We still have to rescue Huhter after all this is settled. Honestly, I should have left that bastard alone to fend for himself. I barely got back from that hell, and I threw myself straight into another one..."

As he lamented, Evangeline\'s face began to contort. Before he could realize what was going on, she had exploded into a fit of laughter.

"Oi, it really isn\'t funny." Despite his words, Cain couldn\'t help smiling as he watched the tension that had been present initially dissipate into nothingness. He saw that the Evangeline that had a constantly chilling face was not the real Evangeline. Rather, she was merely a front...

The real Evangeline was a person with real human emotions and thought processes. She could laugh and frown just like any other person could. What he wasn\'t very sure about, was if this Evangeline he was seeing was also a front. Maybe the real her was a lunatic who loved putting herself and her enemies in dangerous situations.

\'Crafty...\'

After some time, Evangeline wiped the tears forming at the corners of her eyes and faced Cain again,

"Thank you. For saving my life."

Cain shrugged, "I guess now we are even."

Evangeline smiled but didn\'t say anything more on the matter. Instead, she got serious,

"Now that you have assured me that you have no plans to take the heart from my chest, what do you suggest we do?" She asked.

Cain didn\'t respond for a while,

"I don\'t know."

He truthfully didn\'t know where to go from here. On one hand, he didn\'t want to put his teammates through any more danger. On the other hand, he couldn\'t sacrifice Evangeline. He hadn\'t even asked her what she had gained or lost from the heart\'s invasion of her body. And he didn\'t want to ask as well.

He let out a sigh, "I\'ll figure out something eventually. Let\'s just get some rest for now. We will continue this conversation later..."

"You are right. It can wait." Upon saying that, Evangeline let out a yawn and turned away from him, collapsing onto the cold floor.

With that, Cain extinguished the embers of the flame with a snap of his fingers and turned away from Evangeline.

He was too exhausted to continue with the conversation. His mind was simply not in the right place to be making decisions yet. Hence, he decided it was time to have some rest and recover.

The moment his head met the ground, he fell into a deep slumber...