God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The flaming arc of crimson warrior's spear caught the dying twilight, a molten brand against the darkening sky.

His breaths were heavy, armor cracked and steaming with residual heat, wisps of fire still dancing off the crimson steel.

Above him, the bone serpent was still writhing despite the damage to its bones and the rotting flesh surrounding them. The damned beast just refused to go down, its vitality never waning.

'At this rate, I'll die of exhaustion if I'm not killed first. What a pain.'

He didn't have any more time to be frustrated as the Devil was already chanting again.

Legarde's eyes widened,

'Damn it! It's summoning another one?!'

"I won't let—"

As he spat out the profane words, Obegrin raised his gun and fired bullets at the charging human, his eyes colder than ice.

Legarde gritted his teeth. He couldn't close the distance.

"Come," the Corpse Sky Rider intoned once more, voice low and reverberating like a dirge for the damned.

Reality itself seems to part. It gave way, revealing a gash to the land of the dead.

From the rip in the heavens, a second monstrosity emerged.

A massive, decaying beast that resembled a vulture. Only, this thing was ten times more harrowing.

Its wings were torn, bone showing beneath sloughing flesh, and its eyes burned with spectral rot. It opened its rancid beak and let out a screech that reverberated through Legarde's bones.

Then it spat.

A stream of burning, corrosive acid shot out, raining towards Legarde in a sizzling downpour. He shot sideways in an arcing streak of flame, dodging just in time, but the air around him hissed with the deadly spray.

'Damn it.'

The flames of his spear crackled low. The enemy was amping things up, and the tide was beginning to turn. If he wanted any chance of fighting back, he would need more firepower.

"Fine," he growled to himself.

He released his current weapon, letting it dissolve into embers as it returned to his inventory.

In its place, he summoned a new spear. The air rippled as flames burst outward, forming the glowing silhouette of a jagged weapon. Then, in a flash, it solidified in his grasp. A brilliant red-orange spear with serrated edges and a core that pulsed like the heart of a star.

The {Salamander's Maw}. A weapon he had been given by the goddess herself.

Its history, was that it had been forged with a scale from one of the children of the celestial beast.

It was a heavy, and mighty weapon that took much out of him to use, which was why he didn't use it frequently.

Now, he was left without choice.

The power of the spear was real, vicious, and consuming. It trembled with his rage, manifesting it into a terrifying inferno.

The crimson sky was painted a deep, flaming red.

Night had turned into day.

Obegrin tilted his head as he observed the weapon. Despite his natural armor, his flesh was already beginning to sear.

'Troublesome...'

No words passed his cracked lips, but his expression said enough.

Legarde twirled the {Salamander's Maw} once and pointed it forward.

"Let me show you what true fire looks like."

And he struck.

The flaming cape around his shoulders erupted as he charged. He ducked under the vulture's acid stream, spun through the air, and flung a jet of flame at its wing. The flames cutting through the air were faster and much, much more wicked.

The vulture shrieked as the fire caught. Its rotting flesh and feather were turned to ash instantly, dealing a great amount of damage.

But just like the Bone Serpent, it refused to fall. It twisted unnaturally and clawed at him, talons snapping.

Legarde smashed one away, ducked another, then drove the spear into the creature's ribcage. With a roar, he ignited the weapon.

The explosion sent chunks of bone and seared flesh spiraling downward. The creature didn't die, but it reeled, damaged and flailing towards the ground.

And then Obegrin struck.

He was suddenly in front of Legarde, spear thrusting with vicious speed. Legarde deflected with the {Salamander's Maw}, but the force behind it pushed him back. Bullets followed, two, three, five in rapid succession. One scraped across his helmet, sending him reeling back from the force.

Legarde snarled as he swung several times in a split second.

Flaming spears materialized out of nothing, smashing towards the Devil. It parried one while the other two were blocked by the Bone Serpent's body.

"Damn coward!" Legarde roared in frustration.

Obegrin offered no reply. Instead, he floated back, arms wide. The dark gash in the sky pulsed.

The world trembled again.

A third figure emerged.

It was massive and hulking. Drenched in rot and death, it stood above everything.

With a loud bang that sent tremors through the ground, its enormous skeletal feet smashed into the earth.

A bone giant. Enormous, stitched together with ligaments of sinew and black magic. Its joints creaked with groaning finality as it lumbered into view, each step shaking the very fabric of the sky.

Legarde let out a dry chuckle,

"Hey, hey... You can't be serious."

This was totally unreasonable. The fight was not fair at all!

The giant reached for him.

Flames burst around Legarde as he vanished from the spot. He appeared above the giant's head and drove the Salamander's Maw downward. The air around the spearhead screamed. Moments later, the spear pierced the skull, igniting a conflagration that consumed the giant's head in searing heat.

But the colossal undead didn't fall.

Instead, it swung a massive hand, slamming into Legarde and sending him hurtling through the air.

He grunted, stabilizing himself just before crashing into a floating spire of bone. His body ached. The armor sizzled.

Rotting steed galloping through the air, Obegrin chased after him.

Spears met again.

Fire against death. Legarde growled, forcing himself to move faster, strike harder.

The vulture dove again, joining the fray. The bone serpent slithered around, lunging from one direction. The giant loomed, preparing another devastating swing.

Legarde roared.

He summoned fire into his body, releasing a burst of it that seared in every direction. The vulture shrieked and backed off, the bone serpent halted momentarily, and the force of the explosion shook the bone giant off its balance, sending it crashing towards the ground.

Raising the Salamander's Maw high, he focused all his mana.

The night sky crackled as a colossal spear of pure flame, born from the will of the Maw itself. It burned bright with the power of a Celestial's bloodline, creating a miniature sun in the dark sky that could incinerate everything.

"Burn."

He hurled it.

The massive flaming spear tore through the sky and slammed into the bone giant's chest. Flames exploded outward, engulfing the creature in a dome of inferno.

The creature didn't shriek. Because it began to crumple into a mountain of ash. The flames clung to the ashes, burning it relentlessly.

The Bone Serpent cried as it retreated.

Legarde's chest heaved. That spell had taken a lot of mana from him.

Staring at the pile of ash the giant undead had become, Obegrin's face was dark.

Cultivating his legion took a lot of time and resources.

Besides, this corpse was one he had just recently procured.

He had high hopes for it.

To see it turn into ash just like that made a cold fury burn within him.

He pressed forward again. Their spears clashed again. Legarde gritted his teeth as he became subject to a flurry of spear attack and a shower of bullets.

The vulture screeched and dove. The serpent circled to cut off escape.

Legarde laughed, blood staining his teeth.

Despite his dire situation, his blood burned with battle lust.

Obegrin leveled his spear. His gun swirled with necrotic energy. The vulture and serpent flanked him.

Legarde aimed his spear.

They moved.

Two forces of cataclysm clashed.

One of cold death and darkness, the other of fire and fury.

Below, the fighting among humans and devils had become even more furious.

Fire, smoke, death, wails and dying throes.

Shreeches, roars and soul-trembling cries that inspired terror and fear.

A battle in the sky and one on the ground.

Chaos abounded.

The bone serpent made another lunge. This time, Legarde sidestepped and summoned a small, concentrated flame beneath its jaw then detonated it.

It was blasted away, bone shrapnel raining like hail. They struck his armor, distraction for a moment.

But that moment of focus cost him.

A bullet pierced finally pierced through his armor and into his left shoulder. He muffled a groan, teetering backwards.

Their spears met again, but Legarde's strength faltered. He forced the clash away, barely dodging a follow-up shot.

Fire swirled around his spear as he launched a barrage of flame projectiles, scattering the enemy.

The skies lit up again.

The vulture returned, trailing green fog from its cracked beak. It loosed another acid bomb, and this time, it hit. The side of Legarde's armor hissed and cracked.

Legarde roared in pain.

Obegrin threw his spear again and Legarde parried again. A flurry of spear strikes were exchanged again. Stab, sweep, slash, parry.

Aimed at the throat, neck, eye...

{Salamander'd Maw} continued to burn bright. Obegrin was much more cautious as the games produced by this weapon was much more dangerous, capable of reducing a powerful undead into ashes in a second.

Suddenly, Legarde's eyes widened. The spear in his hand erupted with blinding light once again.

The sky split open once more.

Obegrin's eyes narrowed as he responded in kind, chanting coldly, his spear glowing darkly.

The air around him became cold, oppressively so. The vulture shrieked as it spat out a dark green acid fog. The serpent slithered through the air, coiling around its master, its eyes burning with an insane bloodlust.

But that didn't matter to a man wielding the flames of a Celestial.

"Let the heavens burn!" he roared.

Man and Devil charged at one another.

The sky erupted.