The Knight of Cain stood high above the rooftops.

His body dangled beneath the clouds as he looked down upon the manor where Venus’ ilk made their stay.

He was too far away for anyone to be able to sense his Ash, at least he thought so.

One could consider it an excessive layer of caution given that the guards down below would not be willing to break the law and use their powers within the city limits anyway.

Above his head violent clouds began to gather.

Raging winds started to fester as he gathered his strength and coalesced power from the world around him.

Ash from the distance roamed forward and added itself to the storm.

The mass grew denser, smaller yet heavier and stronger.

Finally he raised his hand, he was ready to toss the overwhelming sphere of might down upon the manor below.

Though he knew that not everyone would die from this alone, anyone below the Gold Class would surely be felled by this much power.

Indeed even the Gold Class survivors would end up dazed and helpless in the aftermath.

Their guard was down, they could not act to protect themselves, it would be over in a flash, that was what he expected to see.

Unfortunately for him however there were many factors that he did not know about, or that he just did not consider.

The people of Venus had already seen Cain’s methods once before, and to say they had been twiddling their thumbs after what happened to their city would be a gross lie indeed.

__________________________________________________

Higher in the sky than even the Knight of Cain there stood a lone female form.

One massive spiral of Ash rotated about her ankles, that power kept her afloat.

She had traded out her white dress for the same kind of military uniform worn by her peers, yet still she wore no armour.

After all she was a Gold Class herself, even if she had yet to perfectly master the power of Advanced Manifestation, a heavy suit of armour would only serve to weigh her down, especially here in the heavens above.

She opened her eyes and glared down upon the storm that was brewing below.

Beads of sweat fell from her brow, she could not maintain this state for very long and a very justified fear of falling gripped her heart tight.

There was nothing for it, this was what she had to do, hence it was what she would do.

She breathed in, grit her teeth, and then raised her arms overhead.

Her palms slammed together and another, much larger, spiral formed as she took a stance to throw it forward.

Yet it was in that same instant then that the spiral at her feet shattered with a thundering thud, all that she could rely on then to hold her aloft was the new formed disk in her hands.

Rusalka bit her lip, she buried her fear with pain and then glared towards the man from Cain.

The tragedy that befell her home flashed before her eyes.

The streets filled with the corpses of people she knew.

That day she lost her subjects, her family and her friends, her mentors too, all in equal measure.

She swung her arms forward as mightily as she could and sent the spiral rushing forward.

She didn’t care one whit for how in so doing she’d also sent herself tumbling to the street below.

She watched as the spiral closed in faster than even the sound barrier could endure.

Teeth clenched, a smile full of cold fury formed upon her lips stained red.

She looked up towards the skies and chuckled.

Either Venus or Cain, beneath this sky one could not remain.

“Suffer in silence...then perish with a whimper,” She said with a snicker.

Her words were a curse upon all the men of Cain.

The price of over ten thousand lives was very steep indeed.

_________________________________________________ 

The man shivered.

He sensed something wrong, very wrong indeed.

He should not have been able to hear a voice from this high up, much less a voice coming from above him of all places.

Yet there it was, a voice from on high cursing him to die.

He turned in a panic and raised his head just in time to behold as the sphere above him pulsed and became unstable.

He had no clue what was happening, he had no way to see that a very fearsome disk had just cut through the sphere like a saw moving at the speed of sound.

Still what little he could see distracted him from the female frame that suddenly bolted groundward off to the side of him, at least for a moment.

The man turned his head, his eyes wandered as he tried to figure out what had just passed him by, but it was in that moment that the sphere above finally shattered with a mighty boom.

He frantically looked up towards it as a second, far slower and smaller, disk of Ash descended upon him.

His instincts kicked in, he generated a suit of armour, then a triple layered spherical barrier all to defend himself as the spiral crashed into him.

The disk didn’t stop however, it only barely slowed down, indeed not even then by that much.

The man did all he could to steer it in another direction, it was all he really could do in the end.

He’d never get to now if that plan would’ve worked however, for it was in that same moment that the sphere of Ash above his head finally released all of its stored pressure.

The skies erupted with a brilliant boom of thunder.