God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 858: The Runaway Puppet.

Cain tensed up.

Although he couldn't sense any killing intent coming from above, he could tell whatever it was coming after them had no intentions to talk.

'Still... It isn't a Devil, or is it a mutant creature, or even an Aether Beast. This is rather peculiar.'

A moment later, the ceiling to the underground shelter was pulled right off, revealing the rest of the house.

It was dark.

There was nothing there.

Cain felt his heart speed up.

An eerie air settled around them.

There was definitely something up there.

But it refused to show itself.

Instead, it was just lurking.

Quietly.

There was not even the sound of breathing.

A bead of sweat rolled down his face. His grip tightened and his muscles tensed up.

Then he felt it.

"Move!"

Shoving Julio to the side, he brought his sword up just in time to block a thick golden whip of chains.

'Hm?'

Cain was shocked to realize he had suddenly lost all feeling his arm as his body shot back like a cannonball, crashing into the wall behind him.

The force of the blow was too great and the entire underground shelter collapsed immediately.

Dust rose to the air, floating through the crimson moonlight like clouds.

"Damn it!" A hand broke through the rubble, followed by two heads.

"What the hell was that?!" Julio said between coughs.

Cain grimaced.

With no shelter to protect them from the crimson moonlight, he immediately was subjected to the uncomfortable feeling of having his energy siphoned away.

However, that was not all.

Feeling danger wash over him again, he grit his teeth and glanced up.

Overhead, an entire yarn of golden chains was being woven together.

Cain's eyes widened as he slowly exclaimed,

"Damn it! That's my freaking magic!"

He was unable to say anything afterwards and was forced to frantically pick Julio up, running for dear life as in the next moment, the yarn of golden chains unraveled violently, tearing the world apart.

In a split second, the ruins surrounding them was torn to shreds, completely unrecognizable from before.

Cain didn't bother turning back to look. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

The numbing sensation coming from his hand has told him immediately he was not supposed to engage this thing. Especially in these circumstances.

But a man could not run away from his battles.

In some cases, said battles could even chase the man.

A rather terrifying dilemma indeed...

Cain utilized {Beholder's Eye} to actively dodge the golden chains.

His mind was in disarray.

'What is going on?! How can this be possible?!'

Suddenly, a thought appeared in his head.

His eyes widened,

"No. It couldn't be."

Julio frantically turned his head to him,

"You have another idea?!"

Cain shook his head grimly,

"I... I might know what this thing is?!"

Julio roared, "What?!"

Cain's expression turned even uglier,

"And I really might be the cause of all this."

"You son of a—"

An enormous chain whip came crashing down right in front of them, tearing the ground into pieces.

Cain's eyes lit up.

The air beneath his feet seemed to ignite as they touched the flying rubble.

As nimble as a leaf riding the winds, Cain took full advantage of the destruction, stepping on the broken pieces of rock to propel them away.

Stepping on solid air, Cain flipped his body dodging more chains mid air.

The mana around him thrummed wildly, like a mad pianist under divine revelation.

The golden chains stopped, frozen mid air.

'I can control it. Good.' Cain thought to himself as he landed on the ground.

Dropping Julio, he dismissed his sword,

"We fight."

"Fight?!" Julio exclaimed as he rubbed his sore behind.

Cain grimaced, "We don't have a choice. This thing will keep bothering us."

He spread his senses out then let out a sigh of relief,

"There doesn't seem to be any Devils nearby so everything should be alright if we can end this quickly."

Julio sighed as he got up,

"You say that, but..."

He pointed at the sky,

"How do you expect us to fight that thing?!"

Julio trembled, his eye wide open in fascination, awe and fear simultaneously,

"That thing. I have no idea what it is. But I can tell you one thing; its magic readings should not exist."

Cain frowned.

He couldn't have agreed more.

It was an anomaly.

A monster.

But it was beautiful.

In a strange, horror creature, bone-crushing, soul-rending fiend way...

Like a golden Sun complimenting the crimson moon.

"If that thing is really what I think it is, then I can only laugh at my misfortune."

Julio chuckled with teary eyes,

"There's no need to laugh. We are about to die."

All the golden chains shot forward simultaneously.

Sucking in a deep breath, Cain let his mana flow.

An enormous golden magic circle appeared behind him, bathing him and the world before and behind him in an aura of majesty.

The golden light was so sharp, it cut through space, leaving behind unnoticeable tears in spacetime.

Cain's eyes turned it o golden orbs of burning light.

Every single chain shooting at them suddenly stopped in its tracks.

Cain grit his teeth, 'Damn it!'

Although his magic was powerful, he was still being pushed back.

'I knew it. This is definitely my spell. So it's that guy. But how? And why?'

It didn't make any sense.

The Iron Flesh Puppet he had created that time was supposed to have been destroyed. He had even lost his connection with it after the explosion.

Was that not an indicator that it had been destroyed?

Either way, it didn't matter in the past.

Cain's eyes narrowed,

'In that case, where is the iron bastard?'

Besides the enormous golden yarn pushing against him, there was no one else around.

Cain groaned as he pushed hard.

The strain from trying to hold out against this thing was simply too much for him to handle, even with his incredible magic power.

Not just that, but there was also no way his mana pool would be able to endure.

'In that case...'

'Vaukt, Open!'

The gates to the definition of magic were tore open.

A deluge of golden mana poured out violently, filling his spirit to the brim.

Then it manifested in the physical realm.

The enormous magic circle behind Cain grew even bigger, the runes and smaller magic circles within it spinning like gears and wheels.

The golden chains shattered into pieces.

Cain sucked in a deep breath.

Then he snapped his fingers.

The crimson moonlight was immediately dimmed out, falling into the background, completely overshadowed by this golden light.

Thousands upon thousands of smaller magic circles appeared in the sky and behind Cain.

At the same time, the enormous yarn of golden chains shook.

The mana flow patterns around it fell into the chaos.

The chaos shot out, this time growing so long and huge, they covered a portion of the sky.

Watching this Julio felt his understanding of the world crumble to pieces.

He glanced at Cain— no. Whatever this thing was couldn't be Cain. The Cain he knew was a strange, laid-back, but oddly serious and passionate young man with a layer of dark humor about him.

Not this... divine apparition.

He immediately went weak in the legs, forced to simply observe the battle.

"I know you can hear me, you metal bastard!" Cain said coldly, glaring at the golden yarn.

A moment later, the golden threads unraveled to revealed something strange and eerie.

A strange humanoid being wrapped in the golden chains.

This creature was faceless, covered with strange swimming runes.

Cain recognized it immediately.

He sneered,

"Is this how you greet your father? How disrespectful."

Whilst he had not personally birthed this thing, its existence was entirely in him. It was his magic that had birthed it after all.

Besides its faceless head, its body was oddly human.

Since it had no face, Cain assumed it could not speak.

That was why he was shocked— terrified to hear words come from the Metallic Marauder.

"Source. Birth. Origin."

Its voice didn't sound human at all. It also didn't sound fully artificial.

However, Cain could sense that this thing didn't have a soul.

At least not yet...

He frowned,

"What are you?"

"Source. World. Defect."

Cain frowned. Although it spoke, he couldn't understand what it meant.

The Iron Flesh Puppet pointed at him with its thin golden fingers,

"Source. Destroy. Assimilate."

Cain spat out,

"Fuck you!"

The world shook.

It was the moment before chaos.

A clash between spells of unholy proportions.

Whatever caution and inhibitions Cain had were immediately torn to shreds.

He clenched his fist as he coldly declared,

"Golden Firmament."

The skies seemed to move under this command.

There was a rumble deep in the skies.

An enormous golden lightning swam through the sky.

Julio winced.

Feeling pain on his face, he put his fingers to his face. A bead of drop was smeared across his fingers.

He was cut by the randomly flowing streams of mana. If he didn't get out of here, he would be torn apart soon.

He cursed as he staggered to his feet, urgently looking for where to hide.

For a moment, there was silent.

Then the magic collided.