God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 864: The Human Condition (3).

BANG!

BANG!

Clicking his tongue, Cain quickly reloaded his guns with fresh magazines.

He had decided to preserve his mana as much as he possibly could.

He, Julio and Enoch, the Steel Herald, had taken into the Stone Forest south of the Dome of Fire.

He knew the Devils would chase him in. But they had done so in a way he had not expected.

Instead of sending hordes of flesh-hungry, manhunting Devils after them, they had chosen to smoke them out using aerial bombardment.

Hundreds of {Sentinel Drones} and {Sky Devils} flew above the stone forest, creating a net that was impenetrable.

The moment they noticed even the smallest signs of life, that portion of the stone forest was blown to oblivion mercilessly by spells.

Slowly, thick devilish miasma was spreading through the stone forest. Very soon, it would become dangerous for more normal humans like Julio.

Cain clicked his tongue as he ran as fast as he could.

The senses of the {Sentinel Drones} was also top notch. They could sense the smallest vibrations in the air and earth. Their eyes could detect even the smallest movements too and they were incredibly sensitive to mana.

In other words, if not for the {Soul Deity of Darkness}< he might as well have been standing naked right in front of them.

Still, that didn't mean it was all good and well.

The effectiveness of his spell had dropped significantly due to all this, so he had to take extra cautious steps.

The rocky terrain of the stone forest didn't make moving east. And since the forest was surrounded on all sides, leaving was not currently advisable.

He turned to his side, staring at Enoch with a strange gaze.

The Steel Herald ran beside him, Julio on his shoulder.

Julio held two magic guns he continually fired into the air. Although he appeared cowardly sometimes, Cain couldn't deny that Julio was a rather good shot. Far better than he was even.

It was no exaggeration to say he could hit a fly from a hundred yards away with ease.

Together, their strange trio darted about the enormous maze of the stone forest. But the Devils were hot on their tails, constantly trading blows with them from a distance.

Having taken a hit from a {Sky Devil} to the back a while ago, Cain fired every bullet with a subtle anger, emptying every magazine with a light fury.

This caused him to go through his supply of bullets quicker than he would have liked.

He sighed to himself.

Because the Stone Forest was so huge, it didn't take long for them to get lost.

To make matters worse, for some reason, perhaps due to the strange arrangement of the towering stone pillars, his senses were all scrambled.

He noticed the the devils pursuing them were suffering through the same thing.

Within the strange stone forest, the directions of north, east, west and south seemed to constantly be in limbo.

Facing this difficulty, it sometimes felt like they were going in circles.

"Let's stop here. We've killed all the ones

chasing for now." Cain finally stopped at the foot of a rather huge stone pillar.

Julio let out a groan as Enoch threw him to the ground.

"Damned tin bucket!"

Retrieving a flask of water from his inventory, Cain gulped down itself contents greedily. Then he threw it over to Julio who also gulped the refreshing water down frantically.

Separating his lips from the mouth of the bottle, Julio let out a long, satisfied sigh,

"That's the good stuff."

Then he threw the flask back at Cain who quickly stored it back into his inventory.

They went silent, taking a moment to catch their breaths.

Eventually, Cain sighed and pulled a huge chunk of roasted meat out of his inventory.

Seeing Julio's twisted expression, he couldn't help but chuckle.

Then he tore the huge chunk into two smaller pieces. Throwing one over to Julio who caught it with a dark expression, he remarked,

"If you don't eat, you'll drag us down."

"This again? Don't you have anything besides this... thing? I promise I won't complain as long as I don't get to eat meats anymore." Julio pleaded.

Cain pointed at one of the Stone trees,

"You could try getting fruits out of these trees, although I don't think that will be possible."

Julio grimaced,

"At least keep some rice, or bread, or something... Why eat meat all the time? It's not even that nutritional..."

Ignoring Julio's ramblings, Cain quickly downed his own portion.

Then he closed his eyes.

Circulating his Ki Plundering Technique, he took steady breaths to fall into a rhythm.

Whilst he did that, he also cultivated Sunfire using the Sunflame Body Tempering Technique.

'So far, we've managed to stay alive, but I wonder how long that will last. The worst part about being stuck in here is we have become sitting ducks."

He suspected the edges of the stone forest were crawling with Devils already.

'Still, it is a bit strange. Not even a single {Blade Devil} came after us. While I can understand the desire to keep distance, it still doesn't make complete sense.'

His brows trembled,

'Could they be avoiding something in here?'

If that was the case, they might as well have jumped from the pot to the flame.

But what choice did they have.

Should they have stood their ground and fought to the death?

Of course not!

He opened his eyes slowly.

The winds created eerie whistles as they passed through the stone forest, making the darkness nestled in every corner seem even more terrifying.

He glanced up, staring at the crimson moon. It's once faint light seemed much brighter now.

He dropped his head and closed his eyes.

Then he continued circulating his Ki.

All this time, he had made sure never to neglect circulating his Ki Plundering Technique.

Currently, his Ki was not only robust, but he also had a lot of it. Because of this, his physique and vitality were far above what would expect from a human, although he wasn't quite at the level of a beast.

He felt as though he just needed a small push.

Like there was the thinnest of barriers between him and achieving a body of steel and bones of wrought iron.

He sucked in a deep breath.

He had absorbed a lot of Nexus of Ki too. According to the system, doing so would not just increase the purity of his own Ki, it would also increase the amount.

So far, he had noticed substantial changes in both, but even then, it had not been enough for him to take his Ki Plundering Technique to the next level.

He sighed. Slowly opening his eyes, he exhaled sharply. His breath cut through the air life a knife.

He clenched his fists.

They were filled with power. He had also recovered a ton of stamina.

He glanced to the side. Julio lay on the ground, snoring softly.

Then he noticed Enoch. It felt as though the Steel Herald had been staring at him all this time.

"How long has it been?"

"Five hours, twenty minutes and foury-five seconds as of this moment."

Cain nodded,

"I see..."

He looked up and stretched his senses out,

'It doesn't look like there's anything nearby. Still, I have to make sure.'

He turned to the Steel Herald,

"Stay here with him. I'll be back."

The Steel Herald said nothing, simply staring at him.

Or not.

Because it didn't have any eyes, it was rather difficult to tell what exactly it was staring at.

Or if it was staring at anything at all.

Cain sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Without saying anything, he wrapped himself in a close of magical darkness and vanished.

Left alone, Enoch stared at Julio's sleeping countenance.

The Steel Herald stared at him for a few minutes.

Then it tore its gaze away, blankly looking at at the stone tree in front of them.

***

Stopping in front of an inconspicuous stone hedge, Cain paused for a moment.

Reaching out with his hand, a small golden dagger appeared between his fingers.

He sliced into the stone, leaving a very deep mark.

Nodding in satisfaction, he walked for a bit then did the same thing.

And just like that, every few minutes, he would mark something around him.

This was to prevent himself from getting lost.

Currently, he was searching for a safe route to the edge of the stone forest.

He had walked only for about twenty minutes when he felt something was off.

He looked glanced around carefully without breaking his pace.

The stone forest was suffused with darkness despite the crimson moonlight. In those areas where the influence of the crimson moonlight didn't reach, he lacked the confidence to go there as well, trying his best to steer far away from them.

The strange feeling he was experiencing, came from such a spot. A corner nestled between a tall, leaning stone pillar and a shorter, but much more stumpy one.

He clicked his tongue.

It had only been a few hours since they stepped foot into the stone forest. But he had yet to meet any of its inhabitants.

Unfortunately, and much to his dismay, that was about to change very quickly...