God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 865: The Human Condition (4).

"And so, that is the just of it..." Steve concluded with a bleak look in his eyes.

A dark silence stretched between the people gathered under a broken roof, providing them with shelter from tej crimson moonlight.

"Knowing all this now isn't going to change anything, is it?" Gilead said with an annoyed frown etched into his face.

Steve sighed and shook his head,

"Most likely not. But—"

Lukas tutted, "To think the only thing reason we aren't all already in the ground is because of this. How amusing."

Gilead turned to Steve,

"If you are right, then that means those we left behind in Valestorm are in trouble."

Steve nodded. He paused for a moment then explained,

"Right now, a huge portion of the main army is headed towards Valestorm from the opposite direction. It is too late to bring the shield dome back in order so we will have to accost them on their way. Even if iteans putting all our lives in danger..."

Leah groaned as he massaged her temples,

"Don't get me wrong, I understand your intentions, Steve. But what you are asking is simply impossible."

Steve sighed, "I know..."

She frowned,

"Then why..."

"Because we don't have a choice, right?" Luke said with a grimace.

"The forces of the devils are a hundred thousand strong. And that is excluding the horde of {Zombies} scattered around the city. At some point a few days ago, I noticed a decent chunk of {Zombies} suddenly disappear from the detection system, but I had no idea where they went. Now it all makes sense..."

Steve's eyes narrowed,

"If Valestorm gets taken down, a few things will follow suit. We will get rear-ended in a pincer attack. Not only that, but our food and water supply chain will be destroyed too."

Leah shook her head,

"I understand all that. But we already have our hands full as is. Simply keeping ourselves from being overrun is taking all our manpower."

"Which is why from today, we are going to go with plan B..." Steve said calmly.

Every one threw confused looks at him.

Seeing this, Steve cackled,

"Leaving Valestorm unguarded like that... I was worried they wouldn't take the bait."

Gilead frowned,

"Bait? What do you mean?"

Steve waved his hand,

"Don't get me wrong. Our situation is still bad, but it might get a bit better if the plan falls through."

Sensing the stench of confusion around him grow strong, Steve cleared his throat and explained,

"Valestorm is a city within a city. Although its other side it facing towards the rest of the mainland, that doesn't mean the Devils cannot go around to reach the other side. At first, I was skeptical. There is no reason for them to do something like that. This confirms my suspicions..."

Steve's eyes narrowed,

"There is something inhibiting their ability to wipe us out completely. At least for the time being." Hunter muttered to himself.

Steve nodded, "Now that that has been confirmed, although I don't know the exact reason why, I plan on taking full advantage of it. Currently, we are outnumbered four to one. And the divide is getting wider each day with their numbers increasing and ours decreasing. This might be our only chance to even out the odds."

"What exactly are you suggesting? What is this plan?"

Steve's face fell. He chuckled wryly,

"Well... It involves a lot of explosives."

Everyone's faces fell.

Hunter glanced at him with a frown,

"That sounds like something Cain will try to pull off. This idea was definitely his."

Steve sighed, "This was supposed to be our last resort, but I guess beggars can't be choosers."

Hunter sighed as he leaned back,

"So? What do we have to do?"

Steve fell silent, gathering his thoughts.

"We will make three teams. One will be in charge of pushing the offensive here. This team, unfortunately, is the safest. Lukas and Gilead, you and your men should be enough to hold out for a few days."

Lukas clicked his tongue,

"Sure. But we will all be dead by the end of it."

Steve shrugged, "Not very optimistic, are you?"

He paused for a moment,

"Susan will stay behind to keep you all alive for as long as possible so don't worry about it."

Ignoring Lukas' annoyed expression, he cleared his throat then continued,

"The second is the 'Explosion Squad'. Dan, Hunter, Leah, Kai, Lin Lin, Sisi, Sue, Li, Stan, Jenny and I are all in this team."

"And finally, there is the 'Defense Squad'. Floki, Luke and the rest of the Beastkin. You both will head this team and rush back to Valestorm to prepare a defense just in case we fail."

"If anyone is dissatisfied with anything I have said so far, please raise your hand." Steve concluded.

After waiting for a moment, he nodded,

"Good. Then we can proceed. Godspeed, everyone. Try your best not to die too soon."

Steve's words caused a tense silence to stretch out in their midst.

The bleeding sky was like an ominous curtain signalling the birth of an ocean of blood submerging this broken, tainted city.

***

Clenching his fists, Steve calmly went through the papers in front of him again.

Everyday, the world seemed to grow colder and darker.

Hope and joy were quickly becoming things of the past, with only death and despair available in excess.

Lives had become cheaper than mana shards too.

It was not hard to see where exactly they were headed.

He was exhausted.

He wanted to give up.

He sighed again.

'Not yet.'

He looked up, his gaze piercing the horizon.

There were thousands of humans scattered all around the city. Every one of them doing battle in one way or the other.

It had become the general human experience within the city. One every one of them shared...

"The Human Condition..." Steve muttered to himself.

He shook his head.

Suffering and pain.

The fear of death.

There was no joy, there was no light, there was no redemption.

Only futility and darkness.

A thick, pervading rot that slowly seeped into their bones as the reality closed in on them in the form of the nightmares that plagued their world.

This was the Human Condition.

It was humanity's sin to carry. A sin, not of their own making, but as a result of their existence.

Their weakness.

Steve's eyes pulsed with a dark light and for a moment, his arms and face were covered in dark markings.

A pair of pitch black hands clasped around him neck, sucking the life out of him.

His organs turned inside out and his body shriveled to dust as he died...

Snapping out of his reverie, he desperately sucked in a deep breath of air.

He grinned bitterly,

"I also have my own sins to answer to, don't I?"

He grasped his head in his hands.

Consulting with eldritch entities from the beyond was taking its toll on his mind.

His hallucinations were getting worse everyday.

However, that was a small price to pay for power.

With a sigh, he threw all the papers back into his inventory.

Then he pulled a different item out.

It was round and black, with faint silver and crimson markings and runes covering its surface.

It was one of the new explosives Cain had made in bulk before leaving. He had handed every one of them over to him to be used in case of an emergency.

The make of the explosives were exquisite yet simple, providing maximum efficiency.

Each magic bomb had three mana shards with three different attributes embedded in its core.

A flame elemental mana shard, a wind elemental mana shard, and a metal elemental mana shard.

The flame elemental mana shard was to power and amplify the 'combustion' rune. The wind elemental mana shard was to fuel and fan the flames resulting from the explosion to make it as terrible as possible.

The metal elemental mana shard was to make sure there was more than enough shrapnel to inflicted as much damage as possible.

Putting all this together with am amplification rune, and a single magic bomb had the power to bring down an entire building.

He clenched his fist around it...

He had a thousand of them...

Throwing it back into his inventory, he plopped down on the ground.

Leaning against a broken wall, he let out a tired sigh.

He truly was exhausted...

'I should probably get some sleep...'

The distance sounds of chaos.

A serene, troublesome melody playing at his ears, lulling him into a deep slumber.

Just before he lost consciousness, Steve couldn't help but think to himself,

'I'm getting too used to all this. I'll need to take a vacation once it's all over.'

And with that, the sweet embrace of rest enveloped him.

Overhead, the crimson moon hung.

As lonesome and grand as ever.

Not at all affected or influenced by the endeavors of the creatures in the world below.