God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Biting into a piece of meat, Cain licked the coating of fragrant oil from his lips.

"So tell me... These Moon worshippers, what are they like?" Cain asked.

Boulder swallowed the mouthful of meat in his mouth as well. He seemed to think about it for a bit,

"We haven't made much contact, but when we do, it always ends in disaster. Most of them are loyal to their new god, and those that serve another are deemed heretics."

Cain nodded, "So they are crazy fanatics?"

Khan shook his head. Unlike the others, hos eating was not as messy. The juice of the roasted meat wasn't dripping down his jaw and forearms,

"They aren't crazy at all. Every action they take is deliberate. This makes them even more dangerous."

Cain felt strange about this. In these dangerous times, when anything and everything that had life in it was seeking out human life, wouldn't it be wiser for the humans to band together and fight against the collective evil?

With the creation of different factions, division was only normal. However, for it to devolve into actively trying to kill off another group, was absolute madness.

And at the core of this problem, were the damned Celestials.

Khan continued,

"You might think of it as just a title, but there is a reason the Moon Goddess is also called the Goddess of Blood."

A smile spread across his face,

"A bloody moon, or a moon drenched in blood. The lore might run deep, but there's one thing that's for certain; this Celestial would probably love to see this world bathed in blood."

Everyone was sat around a fire. A giant creature has been butchered and they were consuming its flesh. Its maw was opened in an eternal silent scream of horror.

This scene looked evil, but it was one of necessity. It was eat or be eaten. Having been on the move for so long, recovering stamina and energy through food was one of the best ways to preserve one's life.

The region surrounding the collosal blood-colored dome was incredibly huge. With the expansion of the city, just this region alone would be enough space to house several million people and thousands of buildings and infrastructure.

With most of these humans either turtling behind the dome or dead, all that was left in this place was the remnants of civilization, and its new inhabitants; the Aether Beasts.

These Aether Beasts were different from normal creatures in numerous ways. Not only were they summoned here by the power of a Celestial, albeit a dead one, they also possessed the power to control Aether, a special form of energy.

If Ki is considered vital or physical energy, and Mana is considered arcane or mental energy, then Aether would be the energy of mutation.

Long ago, when the universe was still in its formative state, when the Primordial Devils and the ancient Celestials still battled for dominion of the Universe, the battle eventually led to a climax, leading to the destruction of the birthplace of the Primordial Devils;

The Devil Mountain...

The Devil Mountain could be considered a separate universe of its own, so the magnitude of the calamity wrought by its destruction has never and will never be ever again.

The destruction of the Devil Mountain caused the universe to split once again, leading to the creation of a new realm;

The Aether Realm.

The creatures born of this realm are called the Aether Beasts or Aether Creatures. Shackled by the circumstances of its creation, the Aether Realm can be considered a prison of some sort.

Calling the Aether Beasts beasts wasn't very accurate as well, since most of them were created by the mixing of Devilish Bloodline and that of any other creature.

These creatures are the descendants of the lesser Devils race that was left behind after the defeat of the Devil race by the Celestial race.

Summoners, and those with the ability to control Aether could, in theory, control the actions of tje Aether Creatures, lile some sort of shackle, or [Body and Soul] contract, just much more thorough.

The Aether Beasts inherited the inherent violent nature of the Devils, but their intelligence wasn't as impressive.

'So thos goddess is a summoner. That's interesting to hear.' Cain thought.

Thinking about it made him a bit scared. What kind of being, even in death, was so powerful, that just its presence was more than enough to pry open the gates of what sounded like hell, releasing its denizens.

Khan sighed, his face troubled,

"The biggest problem is this; for whatever reason, the Moon Goddess doesn't control these beings, allowing them free reign. Although it sounds bad, there is a reason the Aether Beings are kept on chains."

His eyes narrowed, "Not only is their reproductive rate rather alarming, they had no qualms eating anything that moves and then some. For now, the Devils have managed to keep them at bay, but soon, they'll become a worthy competition for them."

"And an even worse one for us." Lucia said, her face dark.

A chuckle came from the crowd,

"Luckily for us, we have people like Boulder and Cain."

Another one of the twenty Hunter's spoke with a wide smile,

"It's terrible, but I think we can defeat the Devils and Aether Beasts. Did you see how Cain demolished an entire nest of them?!"

"It was impressive. Although I bet Boulder could do something like that as well, easy..."

"What are you saying? Boulder is a leader, but he doesn't have that much firepower, that's for sure!"

Cain was thoroughly embarrassed. It was strange, watching these people he wasn't particularly familiar with, speaking of him in such a glorified manner.

For what it was worth, these people didn't seem like bad people. They didn't seem to hold strong loyalties to the god they supposedly 'worshipped'.

And they also had such high opinions of him.

Gloria gave him an intense stare,

"Cain... That spell you used. A flame spell, right? What was that?"

Although he wasn't used to her intensity, Cain still answered,

"The {Flame Orb}..."

Gloria nodded, "I see... Although the name needs a little work, it wasn't bad. Decent at least."

Cain wrinkled his nose. What did she mean by that? He thought {Flame Orb} was a good name.

Cain frowned, "I've been wanting to ask. You all don't use magic, right?"

Boulder finally finished the last chunk of meat in his hands,

"Yes. Not magic, but Mana Tech. Well, we call it Mana Tech. Apparently, its supposed to be one ."

Cain raised a brow, "Mana tech?"

Boulder summoned his weapon and passed it over,

"See those glyphs and symbols?"

Cain nodded as he studied them up close. He had seen them many times over the past few weeks, but this was the first time he had studied them.

Sure enough, they were quite different from what he was used to.

No, not quite...

Entirely different. On a fundamental level...

It was like the difference between oil and water.

Boulder continued, "According to the Pilgrims, this knowledge is a direct gift from Balangol. It is the essence of a different way to utilize mana."

Cain's eyes sparkled with fascination,

"Interesting."

Gloria chuckled, "I might not look like it, but I'm quite the expert at Mana Tech."

Cain nodded, "What is it about? The basic principles I mean..."

Gloria tapped her chin, "Well, its simple and complex at the same time. Mana circles, runes, and arrays are the basic system of magic. They are what all magical formations, spells, and skills are made of. However, those who serve Balangol are forced to abandon this old system. Instead, we make use of an entirely different system."

Her eyes sparkled as she spoke,

"What I'm trying to say is Mana Tech and traditional Magic are like two roads leading to the same place. The approach is different, but the end goal is almost the same. However, they are also very different. So different, they can't be called the same."

Cain hummed, "Is that so..."

"In the end, most of Mana Tech is not about making use of the elements. It is more about finding efficient and effective ways to make use of mana in its raw state. Those who do have high elemental affinity can make use of the system to even boost these effects further."

Cain nodded, understanding much of what she said. The systems of mana application did infact differ tremendously, but there were some situations where they intersected, almost like one was made using the other as a reference point.

'What could the story behind this be? What sort of Celestial is this guy, Balangol?'

{Replying to Host: Balangol belongs to a pantheon of gods under Tian located in the Stygiox Interplanetary System. There are numerous gods in that pantheon, but the most powerful of them all is Balangol, the God of the Sands, Death, and Mysticism}.

'Hmm... Mysticism, huh. Now thats Interesting.'

Very interesting...