God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

\'Hungry...\'

That was the first thought that came to his mind as he sat up. His mind was still a bit blurred, but apart from the hunger, his body felt as good as new, perhaps even better than before.

Cain turned to look at the only source of light within the dark cave.

There, seated by the burning embers with her teeth sunk into a huge slab of meat was Evangeline.

Cain blinked his eyes before the events of what had happened before he collapsed in exhaustion hit him.

"So it wasn\'t a dream, huh..."

Hearing his words, Evangeline turned to face him, a questioning look in her eyes as she chomped down aggressively.

Cain winced as his stomach grumbled from watching her eat.

\'Damn this useless skill. All it ever does is make me hungry...\' Cain grumbled internally.

While he knew it was all for his good, he still couldn\'t help but feel bitter every time the familiar sensation of hunger crept upon him.

Swallowing down the chunk of meat in her mouth and licking the juice dripping down her fingers, Evangeline stared at him with a blank face,

"I\'m not giving you any..."

Cain thought he didn\'t hear her right, "Pardon?"

Seeing her stoic expression and expecting her words, Cain was tempted to burst out laughing. Of course, he didn\'t...

"It\'s alright. I have some with me. Thanks..." He said with a bit of sarcasm.

Evangeline simply shrugged, "Don\'t expect too much from me. I already saved you once. I\'m not going to take care of you anymore."

Cain felt bitterness rise in his heart when he heard this. Although he didn\'t want to think about it, the reality was that he had been rescued by her. She saved his life when he had almost been killed. Expecting more from her was quite unreasonable.

Clearing his throat, Cain threw her a hard stare, "Thank you for saving me. I will remember this."

"Hm... Don\'t mention it. We were teammates once, weren\'t we?" Evangeline said with a blank stare.

\'Teammates, huh...\'

Cain thought about the events that had occurred back in the Northern part of the school. after defeating the small devil army, they had been forced to make a choice

To stay on the island, or to leave and search for whatever was left of humanity.

Cain and the others had chosen to leave. As for Evangeline, well... Cain had no idea what she had done after that. They had parted ways rather amicably, so to find her suddenly coming to his rescue in a foreign plane such as this was quite the shock.

"How did you find this place? Did you really not come here to...?"

Evangeline shook her head, causing Cain to dismiss those thoughts,

"For people sensitive to energy changes like me, the opening of such a thing would have been quite easy to sense. I would assume you should have also sensed this, right?"

Cain was immediately confused, "What thing? What should I have sensed?"

This time, it was Evangeline\'s turn to stare at him in confusion,

"You do know that we are currently on another plane, right? Well, calling it another plane would be too much of a stretch. More like we are in a place between realms. Yes... That\'s more accurate..."

Cain massaged his temples, "Hold on... That\'s not the question, is it?"

Evangeline stared at the meat in her hands, her brows furrowing, "Hat shouldn\'t be possible. You should have most definitely sensed it."

Seeing that something was wrong, Cain took a step back and tried to understand what she was talking about.

\'Is she talking about the entrance to this place? Well, that would make a lot of sense. However, why does she assume I would have sensed it?\'

Then, suddenly, it clicked...

"Hey..."

"Hm?" Evangeline turned to stare at him, her ruby eyes reflecting the glowing radiance of the embers in the fire pit.

"If I am not mistaken, then the opening you are referring to is the opening of the entrance to this place. When exactly did you sense it?"

Evangeline paused for a while, "That would be about two days before I entered here. Why?"

Perhaps because she didn\'t have the full story, Evangeline failed to piece the puzzle together.

"I see..." Cain rubbed his brows.

A frown appeared on her face, "Tell me everything you know..."

A smile appeared on Cain\'s face, "Sure. But I need to get something to eat first..."

Without wasting time, Cain pulled an enormous slab of meat out of his inventory and began making preparations to start a fire.

***

Perhaps it was because the flames were created through magical means, but the meat he cooked above it was always done in a few minutes. The firewood came from the branches of the trees in the Garden of Self-Reflection, which grew from the body of a Primordial devil.

The fire was created by reducing the scale of a {Flame Orb} to a minuscule degree. Hence, although the flames were too weak to coalesce into a spinning ball of concentrated flames, the fire was hot enough to ignite the dry wood.

Sinking his teeth into the tender flesh, Cain closed his eyes in ecstasy as he dug back a moan. The meat was delicious, tender, and soothed his crumbling stomach.

Not only that but as soon as it made its way into his stomach, it transformed into a stream of energy that disappeared into his body.

In this manner, Cain continued to stuff his face until he felt satiated. However, he began to regret eating so much as his meat supply had diminished greatly.

\'This won\'t be enough for another meal...\' Letting out a sigh, he turned to face Evangeline, who was glaring daggers at him.

When their eyes met, she didn\'t even attempt to lower her voice,

"Tch! So selfish..."

Cain nearly choked when he heard that,

"Ha? But you didn\'t share with me as well! Why do you expect me to-"

Before he could properly voice his complaints, he was shut down,

"That is different. Plus, I saved your life, so it is only fair you should treat me, no?"

When he was confronted with that, he became completely stumped and at a loss for words.

\'So shameless...\'

Massaging his temples, Cain decided to put it behind him forever,

"Anyways I feel like we have a lot to discuss."

Sensing the seriousness in his voice, the teasing light in her eyes disappeared almost immediately.

"Yes. There are quite several things I wish to discuss..."

Cain nodded. After thinking in silence for a little bit, he suddenly added, "However, I feel that I should go first."

This caused Evangeline to raise a brow, \'Why?"

Cain shrugged and said the first thing that came to his head, "For context, I guess."

Hearing this, Evangeline nodded, "Fine. I will allow it."

Ignoring her tone, Cain cleared his throat and began,

"Bear with me if I am not chronologically accurate, but if my calculations are correct, then. This all started about three days before I entered this place..."

***

Once he was done, Cain allowed her to sift through his story and digest it...

Although he would have been hesitant to reveal this much to a stranger or someone he didn\'t trust, for some reason, he felt like he could trust this girl. They weren\'t very close and had barely fought together, but he just had that feeling. And there was no particular reason to fight this feeling, so he just went with it.

He also knew how strong and intelligent she was. Seeing her kill the Three-headed {Chaos Troll} so easily made him certain he would gain from her just as much as she could potentially gain from him.

After waiting for a few seconds, Evangeline suddenly burst out laughing. While her laughter was not particularly pleasing to the ear, for some reason, he found it sounding genuine in his ears. It didn\'t sound fake or pretentious at all...

"Hahaha! You had quite the adventure, it seems..." She said, still chuckling.

Cain rolled his eyes as a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth,

"Adventure? More like hell. I suffered for those thirty days, I\'ll tell you. In fact, that old Demon mentioned something about that planet being located in the Hell realm."

Evangeline\'s eyes twitched, but she remained silent...

"Well, I also had a little adventure of my own, although it might not be as intense as yours. However, it might provide you with a bit more insight."

Hearing what she said made his heart skip a beat,

"What are you waiting for? Spill it..."

Seeing that he was already excited, a bitter smile appeared on the usually stone-like beautiful face of Evangeline,

"Well, while I didn\'t get ferried to another world, my journey was quite similar to yours."

Cain\'s expression changed, "Really? How so?"

"Well, it all began the day you all left the Northern part of the school, or at least what was left of it."

A cold light appeared in her eyes as she began recalling her experience,

"I decided it was time to explore the depths a bit. Sure, the creatures down there are terrible, but they were quite strong. After killing the {Broodmother}, I had obtained a very interesting skill, you see."

Shaking her head, her voice dropped an octave as she continued in her cold voice,

"However, what I see down there was not something I was ready for..."

Cain watched as the shadows that were cast on her face by the dancing flames suddenly seemed to come alive,

"There, within the dark depths, I came across an entity that can only be true evil..."

Cain could feel the temperature within the cave drop by a few degrees,

"That being, it didn\'t belong in our world. Although it lived in the oceans and possessed tremendous dominion over water, it still felt out of place. Wrong..."

Cain couldn\'t help but be shocked, \'Just what exactly did she see down there...\'

Cain did not doubt in his mind that Evangeline had descended to depths he had never reached before she encountered whatever it was she was referring to.

"What wasn\'t called?" Cain asked in a near whisper.

Evangeline had a deadpan expression, but her eyes were wrought with emotions, although very hard to detect.

"That thing was called a {Scylla\'s Spawn}..."