God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 911: For the Curtain Call, The End of the World as we Know It (2).

Chapter 911: For the Curtain Call, The End of the World as we Know It (2).

The area surrounding the chasms and the land bridge possessed a rather strange topography.

This broken wasteland had been created as a result of the expansion of the world due to the inception of the God Ash and Mana.

At the world expanded, the land began to change.

In some places, it broke, in others it coalesced and ballooned.

In this case, however, it was a bit of a mix of both.

Numerous ridges or arching ’spires’ jutted out towards the entrance of the chasms from both sides, like the teeth of some lovecraftian eldritch atrocity.

The wind howled as Cain stood on the teeth of such a spire, overlooking the burning wreckage that had become of the world. The humans had already begun their retreat, but they still kept up the tempo, constantly releasing artillery and spells into the air.

The exchange of firepower continued unrelenting...

A thunderous bolt of magic lit up the dark sky as it barrelled towards them.

It struck down hard, lighting up the charred ridge behind them, completely cracking it at its base and sending it spiralling into the abyss.

Across the valley slope, the land bridge loomed, partially collapsed, scorched, and splintering under the sheer weight of two weeks worth of destruction.

What was left of the human army were slowly making their way away from this nightmare zone. Meanwhile, Cain and the others stood without looking back.

"I think it will be much better if I retreat like the—" Vincent began to say with a bitter smile, but he was quickly cut off.

"Are you that terrified of dying? One would think you’d be used to it by now." Sue glanced as him and spat snarkily.

Vincent glared at her,

"Sorry for wanting to preserve my life for as long as possible! Unlike you fools, I’m not a martyr!" He shed a few silent tears then readied his rifle.

Hearing his chatter, Cain couldn’t suppress his chuckle.

"You seem excited." Steve glanced at him with a smile.

"How couldn’t I be? So this is what a group suicide feels like? It isn’t so lonely after all."

Steve chuckled,

"But really... We should come up with a plan. The bridge is already shaky enough. I think one more push should send it tumbling."

"Except that might be a bit difficult to do. Those blasted Devils did well not to damage it too much. Seems like they still have plans to get across it." Hunter said mirthfully.

Cain turned to him,

"We probably can’t lay any bombs down conventionally. We’ll get filled with bullets before we can even make it past the halfway point." He said.

Hunter frowned.

"That’s why I think we should take the risk and cross the bridge."

Cain’s brows shot up as he turned to the person who spoke.

Jenny blinked and her cheeks became a bit pink,

"Well, if we can make it, detonating it at the base of both sides will surely destroy the bridge."

"Wait. Wait. Wait! If we cross the bridge and destroy it from that end, how do you expect us to get back here?"

"Isn’t it obvious, you nitwit?" Sue said with a snort.

Then she pointed her finger at Cain,

"We have this handsome trump card over here. His spatial magic can easily take us away, no worries."

Vincent’s expression darkened,

"I feel like things might not go so smoothly."

"What?! Where’s your optimism?!" Sue answered him with a heavy slap across the back.

Vincent winced, "It’s long dead. Buried alongside my shame and loyalty."

Sue clicked her tongue,

"How shameless."

A few chuckles rang out amongst them.

Then here was silence...

Although this wasn’t meant to be a suicide mission, in their minds, they acknowledged the danger.

Very soon, the last of the human army would have retreated and the Devils would finally begin to give chase.

That would be their cue to begin.

Their goal was not only to destroy the land bridge, it was also to cull the remaining Devil numbers as much as possible.

They had all come to that silent, tactic understanding.

While it was not quite the same as throwing their lives away, it was still damn near close to it.

It was stupid. And it was reckless.

But...

Cain stared down at his hands.

Responsibility was a strange thing.

In a way, it was a form of pride. It restricted and limited, but also existed to hold someone accountable. Accountable for loss and for glory.

In this case, there was no going around it.

Ashur’s words drifted back into his mind for a moment.

He bowed his head and smiled softly.

A soft white radiance shimmered between his fingers.

A moment later, {Eidwyrm} appeared.

He pursed his lips as he tried thinking of what to say.

A battlecry, or a roar to excite the blood within their veins.

After a moment, he said nothing.

There was no need to say anything.

He raised a hand.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Manny was the first to take a step forward as he huffed wildly.

A deep roar shot out from the depths of his throat as he drew his weapons and began rushing down, slowly picking up speed until he had broken into a full gallop.

The rest followed suit a moment later.

Feet pounded the ashen earth as they surged forward. The air screamed with bullets, spells, and screeching war cries.

The humans had finally begun their retreat.

The Devils had begun the chase.

Above, the dark sky split open with flashes of blue and red.

{Sky Devils} dove like vultures, wings of bone and shadow casting elongated silhouettes over the battlefield.

Vincent was already yelling curses as he scrambled around before perching on a chunk of broken stone amidst the chaos and raining hellfire with his custom-built mana sniper.

Condensed rounds of condensed plasma whistled through the air, taking down {Sky Devils} one by one. Each shot cracked the sky with a sharp bang. One Devil’s wing was torn through with a single bullet it shrieked as it careened through the air.

Another bullet cut through its skull, painting a patch of sky crimson, bringing itself life to an end.

"Easy." Vincent muttered as he reloaded.

His eyes widened and he rolled dramatically to the side. The next moment, his previous location was carpet bombed.

"Damn it! Those blasted {Sentinel Drones} have filled the sky!" he shouted.

Cain turned his eyes to the sky. He felt the magic signatures closing in. {Sentinel Drones}, sleek obsidian spheres, buzzed forward with arcing bolts of cursed mana trailing behind them.

"I’ll handle it."

Steve raised a hand and the ground erupted. Thousands of dark, writhing arms burst from beneath the ash and rubble, grabbing at the {Sentinel Drones} and dragging them down. The air shimmered with unstable mana as explosions erupted in a chain reaction.

"Keep moving!" Cain yelled as he waved his hand and several golden blades shot into the sky.

Manny leapt into the air and tore through a charging {Sky Devil}, blades whirling like a storm around him. With six bastard swords and a psychotic grin on his face, he moved like a Devil himself.

A Devil of flesh, steel, and madness.

Jenny has stayed behind on a spire overlooking the abyss.

Her supple body pressed against the ground, she settled into a stance.

Her beautiful lips pressed together,

"Bang."

The next moment, her rifle cracked, each shot a crack of the grim reaper’s bell. One by one, the larger {Sky Devils} leading the charge were sent crashing into the ground, half, most, or all of their heads gone missing...

Susan stood at the heart of the formation that rushed forward, glowing with an arcane, divine light. She focused solely on healing and protective spells, creating a field of holy radiance around the melee fighters.

Floating just a few meters away, the shimmering outline of the Guardian of Light loomed above them like a celestial servant.

The Guardian of Light had grown much bigger since the last time Cain had seen it.

It seemed to contain more life than before, its incandescent body pristine and Divine. With a wave of its enormous sword and shield, dozens of Devils fell from the sky before being abruptly cut down by the others.

Of course, the Devils didn’t just wait to be attacked.

Hundreds of {Sky Devils} descended on them like black hail. They clawed at them with both skill and chaos.

Every Devil was a beast skilled in the art of war, condition to inflict the most amount of damage possible before their life ran out for maximum utilization.

They were what one would call a troublesome foe.

Several shields manifested from nothing. The Devils smashed into these shields, breaking them like they were a thin layer of ice.

Cain stretched an arm towards the sky. Hundreds of smoldering orbs of fire began to fall as well, crashing into the Devils and shooting them down.

He formed a hand seal and a rift tore through the sky.

From it, Ignis dropped like a meteor, gauntlets glowing. A fist slammed into the earth, and a pillar of fire erupted, reducing the Devils that had fallen into molten chunks within a sea of boiling earth.

A torrent of ash and smoke rose into the sky, painting it several different hues.

They kept moving, carving a destructive path forward.

Every step brought them closer to the bridge as the Devils responded with equal fury.

Artillery spells thundered across the slope, one after another. The ground fractured beneath them. Heat, ice, rot, curses weaved into bolts of lightning...

Susan grit her teeth as she muttered a spell, raising a barrier of light to deflect a barrage of searing plasma.

Even more arched through the sky and fell upon them.

They pressed on.

When they finally reached the mouth of the bridge, Cain discovered the stone bridge was steadier than he had believed. Chunks of the stone span had already collapsed into the black chasm below. Despite that, the structure born from the expansion of the world remained grounded.

Cain sucked a deep breath in and summoned an armory’s worth of golden blades before driving them deep into the mouth of the bridge.

Then he turned around and nodded before shooting into the bridge at breakneck speed.

Just detonating it at one end wasn’t going to be enough to bring it down.

They were going to take the risk of carving through the Devils to place the explosives on the other side as well.

The real challenge had only just begun.

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