God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.
Chapter 952 952: As I Lay Awake.

Letting out a sigh, Cain was finally relieved to be alone.

'Honestly. I can't relax when she's around.'

He had moved from his chair to the bed.

Better bedding had finally been provided after so long. The bed was soft, but not too soft. Just perfect.

As he lay his head in the pillow, he pulled up his status screen and stared at it for a long time.

Then he closed it up.

'It feels unreal, in a way...'

Despite his stat points being so high, he didn't feel overwhelmingly powerful.

'It could be that my control stat creates a delicate balance. Or, it could be the legendary Hedonic Treadmill effect.'

The feeling of never being enough. An undebatable aspect of the human condition.

Or perhaps, other creatures experienced it as well, one could never know with how wide and endless the known and unknown universe were.

Although his physique was incredible and his strength points were significantly above superhuman, he didn't feel like he would break through the bedding and floor.

However, on the downside, it created a strange phenomena in his mind. A subtle itch.

He let out a sigh.

'I can't sleep this way.'

He lay there still for a few more seconds.

Then he sighed again.

I'm a flash, his body disappeared...

And reappeared right above Valestorm.

The presence of night brought stillness and coolth.

The night wind was not overbearing, even though he was high up in the sky.

Instead, it was steady and came in consistent waves.

Like the soothing ocean.

He closed his eyes.

A set of pitch black wings, both spanning about ten meters when fully stretched from tip to tip, jutted out of his back.

As he shot through the sky, he felt a silver trail behind, created from the moonlight hitting the air parting around him.

Riding in the wavy wind, Cain had his hands behind his head.

He didn't bother looking at Valestorm down below. He had already had his fill.

Instead, he gazed towards the night sky.

With the expansion of the world, it seemed even more boundless than before.

Almost endless if observed with normal human eyes.

But since he no longer had the privilege of doing such, Cain could only enjoy the view with his.

The patch of sky directly above the entire City of Zoan was filled only with sparse clouds.

Because of that, he could see a few stars, the starlight twinkling their way into the world for him to appreciate.

'I wonder... Those stars. Are they new worlds?' Cain thought to himself.

The universe was vast, he had no doubts about that.

Perhaps, in the scale of a human such as himself, it could very well be endless...

But he had his feet tethered to this world beneath him.

This world already plagued with all sorts of evil and darkness in various shapes and forms.

He feared that if he looked back down, he would forever lose this beautiful view. He would never be able to look at it this way again.

'Ah. There I go again, trying to be poetic. How stupid.' He chuckled to himself wryly.

He sucked in a deep breath and got his mind ready for the real reason he had come up here.

"I think I've mostly gotten a hang of it." He said as he glanced at his back.

Yes. Behind him, there were indeed wings on his back.

The latest evolution of what had once been {Golden Blood}, and then {Golden Body}< before evolving again and again until it had come to this.

Now, he was sprouting extra appendages and parts like Manny.

'Like the horns weren't enough.'

Although it was troublesome, the ability to perform aerial combat was not something he would turn his nose up to.

Instead, he welcomed it with open arms.

However, the greatest challenge in this, was that he had been born a human, not a bird.

Learning how to fly was like learning how to walk all over again.

In other words, it had been difficult, involving months of hard work, and a lot of crash landings.

But he had eventually gotten a hang of it.

As he soared through the air, he began picking up speed.

Flying was much faster than running too.

Although nothing best moving with {Spatial Jump} or the {Nexus Tether}, this was a very close second.

He cut through the night sky light a missile, leaving behind rings of displaced air.

However, because of the cloak of darkness that enveloped him, no sound was made.

Under the cover of night, he was practically invincible too. A silent weapon of mass destruction,

Eventually, he arrived above an empty patch of land at the dead center of the region that had once been Sandsea.

There were no nodes nearby because there was truly nothing to be gotten all the way out here.

Hence, it was the perfect spot if one wanted to cause as much chaos unbothered as possible.

On the ground, there were enormous scorch marks and craters from previous sessions.

He let out a yawn as he slowly drifted down to the ground.

Once his feet hit the ground, he retracted his wings and began stretching.

'It would be good to have a sparring partner, but I highly doubt there is anyone that can handle everything I have to give at the moment. Well, maybe there might be a few... But they are too busy to bother so I'd rather just go wild on my own.'

He sucked in a deep breath.

Over the past six months, he had also taken time to train his sword technique.

Improving his martial skills not only had significant impacts on his mind, they also let him utilize his strengths whilst correcting his weaknesses.

With that in mind, he stretched out a hand.

A golden blade appeared. The same side, width, length and even weight as {Eidwyrm}.

He had been practicing for a while now, but it always felt like he was at the cusp of a breakthrough no matter how hard he tried.

Now, perhaps tonight would be different.