God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The room was dimly lit.

The air coming in from the ajar windows was cold, nearly frigid.

Located at the very first floor of a high-rise located in a somewhat abandoned part of Valestorm was one of the many buildings the Temple of Sands had given to the Golden Asura.

Dividing up territory was not an easy or simple task.

For one, although there was a blanket sense of unity amongst everyone in Valestorm, which included the Beastkin that had recently come, that only held true so long as all parties involved could protect their interests.

The Iron Beetle, independent merchants, craftsmen, and hunters all sought their portion of this destroyed world. A place they could call home beneath the grey skies of this dark world.

The nature of this system of 'governance' was a bit strange.

Mostly, the people had already fallen into a routine, and breaking it would be more of a hassle. Instead, they chose to leave it as it was, even in the absence of the reigning Deity.

Although, it was impossible for there to be no voices of dissent.

Making her way up from one of the lower floors, Susan had a serious expression on her face.

Her eyes were fixed to her toes as she gently climbed up the stairs. Despite that, she was moving quite quickly.

Calio, a few steps ahead of her felt incredibly awkward by this silence.

'Damn. I recognize this chick. Isn't she the daughter of some rich dude that used to have some sort of large business in the City proper?'

Before the apocalypse, they all had lives and stories.

However, it all seemed so insignificant now.

Desperate to break the tense air, Calio cleared his throat,

"So, what's up with you and our leader?"

Susan raised her head, her delicate brows furrowed,

"What do you mean by that?" She said, her voice a bit cold.

A cold sweat broke out of his forehead,

"N–no! I mean... What is your relationship with him? Are you two dating? Because there seem to be rumors floating around."

Susan went silent.

Her mind drifted to the events of the past.

If that lonely night in the trial they had spent.

Her face turned a bit dark.

She could understand his hesitancy, and she knew that their current circumstances were not the best to experience any form of romance or joyous, love filled adventures.

But still...

Even then...

"No, we have no relationship like that. Those are just rumors." She eventually said, her tone curt and direct.

Cursing himself for not keeping his mouth shut, Calio quickly tried changing the topic.

"Oh right! I haven't given you the details."

Susan shook her head,

"There's no need. I am already aware."

Calio's brows shot up,

"Oh?"

"Eva came to see me some time ago and gave me a briefing. The situation is quite serious, it seems."

Calio nodded seriously,

"I'd advice you not to stare too closely at that thing. Those nasty fuckers are quite the hard look." Calio said with a tired groan.

"I will keep that in mind."

The rest of their walk continued in the same awkward silence until they eventually reached the top floor.

Almost sighing in relief, Calio quickly pushed the door open.

"And now, we can finally—"

Hunter's gaze shifted to the now ajar door,

"Oh? You're back." He said casually.

Calio's face was pale, and his white lips trembled,

"You... This... What..."

Hunter sighed. He turned to the other person who had just entered the room, a confused expreyin her face.

His mind churned quickly as he thought of a way to explain the current scene.

Fortunately, Steve beat him to the punch.

"Susan. You have arrived. I am sure what you are seeing might confuse you. Startle you even... But there is a good and logical explanation for what all this is." Steve said with a face wearing a wide smile that looked more like a face holding tears back than anything else.

Susan shook her head,

"While I do admit all this is strange, and off-putting, I don't think I should be worried yet."

Her eyes scanned the room again.

Seeing that she indeed was not lacking sleep, she couldn't help but ask,

"Where is Cain?"

Hunter and Steve exchanged glances.

Seeing this, Susan became even more suspicious,

"What is going on here? What are you two trying to hide?"

Blaze let out a sigh. Leaning against a broken column, he pointed at the floor,

"That's him right there."

Susan frowned, her gaze following the direction he pointed in.

Then she sighed,

"Is this some kind of elaborate prank?"

Her expression worsened as she stared at what Blaze was pointing at,

"That... Doesn't look anything like in the pictures. Unless this is some sort of mutated variant." She said, her expression dark.

The had seen the three unfamiliar people laid down side-by-side on the ground.

The other two seemed relatively okay, but the last one lay on its chest.

His entire back had been cut open; skin and flesh, revealing his spine, as well as a strange, pulsating mass of sinewy black flesh and tendrils across its entire length, leading into its brain.

However, that was not all.

The tendrils, thousands of them, were also stretched out of the man's back and we're wrapped around something.

Due to the constantly pulsating fleshy tendrils, she couldn't quite make up the shape of nature of whatever it was that was wrapped by the abomination.

She frowned and muttered in a voice that could be heard by everyone in the room,

"He's not dead, it seems. Those tendrils are keeping him alive." Susan said as she slowly stooped down to inspect the strange infestation.

"Don't go near it!" Steve yelled frantically.

Susan froze.

Her eyes shot up, now glaring at Steve.

"Now I know something is fishy. Tell me exactly what's going on here."

Steve sighed tiredly,

"Well, you see... In order to figure out how to combat these strange Devil parasites, Cain decided to become infected himself. The moment he tried that, something out of our expectations occurred. That thing you see over there. That's Cain. Well, not really. Because he's inside it."

Susan felt her heart drop into her stomach.

Her face flushed red, "This damned idiot! I keep telling him to stop pulling off these reckless stints, and he goes ahead and does this?!"

Steven let Susan swear off a bit more of her anger before gently speaking up again,

"You shouoworry too much. Although something unexpected did happen, I feel like it is still under control. The Parasyte's usual targets don't include creatures with large mana pools. Cain's mana pool is incredible, so it shouldn't be able to take over him that easily. At least I hope so."

No matter how hard he tried to convince himself, Steve couldn't help but be worried.

Not only for Cain's wellbeing, but for their safety as well.

Staring at the huge mass of pulsating fleshy tentacles protruding off the Pilgrim's spine, Steve couldn't suppress the extreme unease he felt.

This thing did not look natural whatsoever. It was a profane abomination. Something that should not exist, his mind told him.

A deep sense of wrongness filled him everytime it even caught his gaze.

Susan ttook a deep breath to calm herself down.

Then she took a step away from the giant mass of squirming inky muscles and tendrils.

"So now what do we do?" She asked Steve.

"It's best to wait and see. Getting close to that thing might trigger another change. I'd rather that not happen."

She pursed her lips, her face looking grim,

"So what, we can't do anything about this? We should just sit back and watch?"

Blaze shrugged, "There's nothing we can do, is there? He chose this oath himself. I believe he expects us to trust that he can walk it too."

Hearing this, Susan had nothing to say.

So she let out a sigh and plopped down to the ground, earnestly staring at the pulsating mass of dark flesh.

Steve wiped the sweat off his brows, "That was close." He muttered.

Hunter grimaced.

His arms folded, he looked down at the abomination as well. Recall the terrifying set of occurrences that had led to this sent a shiver down his spine.

What Steve had failed to tell Susan, or rather, intentionally left out, was the way things had come to be this way.

He let out a sigh. Then he turned to Susan,

"Can you place a warding spell over this place?"

Susan turned up to long at him with a frown,

"A warding spell? Against what?"

"Against spying spells or magic items, the Hadalspawn, and potential ambushes. Knives hidden in the shadows are often the most deadly. It is best to exercise caution."

Susan was silent for a moment. Then she began muttering under her breath.

A pulse of energy filled the room.

A moment later, there was nothing.

It all felt exactly the same.

But those sensitive to magic would know that something had definitely changed.

Hunter let out a sigh, this one more tired than all the others,

"Now, we wait."