God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Ambrosia's expression suddenly changed.

Cain noticed the shift in her demeanor which caused him to frowned,

"What's wrong?" He asked carefully, his gaze narrowed as though trying to pinpoint the cause of her shifted mood.

Her gaze fell on him and he immediately felt her trembling gaze burn holes right through him.

"Those dogs are here." She said in a blaming tone.

Cain eyes widened,

"What? That should be impossible. No, in the first place, why would they be here?"

'Most importantly, I didn't bring them here!' Is what he wanted to say. However, there was no way he could say that since if what she had just said was true, then his visit was starting to look rather suspicious.

Indeed, it was completely unreasonable for the {Willow Direwolves} to be out during the day. From what he had calculated, he reasoned it should just be a few hours past midday.

And despite that, he had just been told the wolves were out.

It had nothing to do with the cold, or the weather.

Instead, it was a thing of behavior. Beasts and intelligent creatures alike were made up of a bunch of different patterns, no one the same as the other to form these different behaviors.

In the case of both the {Willow Direwolves}, and the {Blood-Curse Bats}, both of them had evolved to not walk during the day, for various reasons of course, but that wasn't important.

What was important, however, was that something had made the Direwolves break character for once.

Suddenly, the droning sound of wings flapping filled his ears. He very clearly knew what that was.

Then came the shrieks. Loud, ear-piercing shrieks that cut through the silent darkness like arrows falling from the sky.

Ambrosia glanced at the ceiling then let out a sigh as she snapped her fingers.

Her magnificent stone throne and the seat of stone she has made for Cain crumpled back towards the ground in an instant.

Once it was close enough to the ground, she turned to Shadow,

"My children are waking up. Spread the word. Tell them to bide their time and wait for my commands."

Shadow bowed his head deeply.

"Yes."

Then he raised his head and spread his maw open.

A silent shriek, one so strange and unique, even Cain's extreme senses couldn't pick it up traveled through every particle in the air, bouncing off the walls and spreading to every nook and cranny of the caves.

Then he flapped his wings and shot off into the darkness.

Ambrosia turned to Cain, a look of suspicion still on her face.

Cain shook his head,

"Whatever you are suspecting me of has absolutely nothing to do with me. I can assure you that."

He turned to Steve and Blaze who seemed equally as confused as he was.

A strange expression appeared on Ambrosia's face,

"Well. This should be interesting then. Come with me. Let us go greet them and see what they want."

With that said, the Night Empress turned around began walking back the way they had come.

Cain turned to Steve.

He shook his head,

"Unfortunately, I have nothing to say either. I thought you sorted things out with that hairy guy."

Cain frowned, "I thought I did."

He shook his head.

Maybe perhaps he was reading in a bit too much here.

For one, he had not even met Roc yet, so he couldn't be sure of his intentions for the meantime.

Jumping to conclusions would only hurt everybody involved.

"Let's go." He said as he took urgent steps forward.

Blaze said nothing as he followed behind.

Before he left, Steve took another hesitant look at the walls of the cave lined with crimson veins.

"Such a shame I was unable to to get none. What a damn shame."

***

Before stepping out of the caves, Cain could already hear the breathtaking, spine chilling howls.

But moment he stepped out of the cave, Cain immediately noticed a few more things as well.

For one, the sky was dark.ixh darker than yt had been a few minutes ago.

Almost like night had come.

In front of the cave, Cain could see an army of enormous Direwolves.

Some stood at the top of the ravine's slope, some even hung from the large, string tree branches.

Some stood at the very head of the entrance to the caves.

Cain's eyes narrowed.

Suddenly, the air within the cave behind him gushed forward so powerfully, he was ashamed to admit that it nearly knocked him right off his feet.

Immediately following that, an endless stream of blackness poured out of the caves like black smoke rising into the sky.

Of course, that was not black smoke.

Instead, it was the Bodieswof thousands, upon thousands of the human-sized {Blood-Curse Bats}.

In mere moments, the dark sky became even darker with the wings of the {Blood-Curse Bats} obscuring the light from the very heavens.

Ian just a manner of seconds, a scene never before seen before had begun to unfold.

"Hey... Isn't this too sudden?" Steve muttered from behind him as he took a few more steps forward to come to the mouth of the cave.

Before Cain could say anything, however, he noticed movement from both sides.

Without wasting any more time, he citniend walking forward.

Seconds later, a scene painting a rather strange contrast appeared right at the center of the battlefield.

On the left side, Ambrosia stood, posture and form regal. A long black robe, darkness dripping from its hem draped down her back and sides.

While on the right, Roc stood in his Direwolf form, fur as silver as the moon, and golden eyes that could peer right through the soul and heart of even the most stalwart of men.

The enormous {Willow Direwolf Lord} looked down on the creature standing down beneath him.

However, his posture remained tense.

Ambrosia stared up.

A grin split her lips apart.

Cain's face paled as he stumbled backwards.

He instantly began to realize something. Something he hadn't seen before.

An unholy, unreasonable, wave of energy had surged forward.

Motes of crimson light weaved into blood-red threads that enveloped her.

With her form hidden from sight only for a moment, Cain has no idea what was going on.

And then, the red thread faded away to reveal...