God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.
Chapter 958 - 958: Complex Answers.

"Or maybe you are too arrogant." Cain said dryly, but Steve was already shooting off his seat and darting towards the door.

"I see. So this is a classical case of all road lead to Hell!" Steve muttered as he dashed out of the room and down the hallway.

Cain sighed,

'What the hell is this?'

He quietly followed behind Steve until they arrived in front of another room. Steve through the door open and rushed in.

Cain followed behind him, his brow raised as he observed the place.

'A library?'

He picked up a random book from a shelf...

'A tome on Mysticism, huh... Where did he find the time to put all this together?' Cain thought to himself as his eyes scanned the room.

It was no very big, but it was neat and tidied. There were a few shelves filled with books of all sorts of thickness.

While it was not difficult to acquire such books due to the existence of the system, Cain couldn't help but think to himself if they could all be read..

"Over here, Cain!" Steve loudly beckoned him over.

Cain sighed and walked closer to take a look.

Steve was bent over a table, scribbling something into a sheet of paper.

"You really are a genius. Of all the possibilities, I didn't even think of that one. How careless of me."

Cain sighed and patted his shoulder,

"As long as you know. So? What am I looking at here?"

Steve finally stopped scribbling.

He swung his hand and shoved the paper right into Cain's face. Left with no choice, Cain carefully scanned through the it.

As he did, Steve blabbed on,

"I've been thinking about it. Of a way to link all these strange things together, but nothing seemed to click. As it turns out, maybe there might be no simple way to explain things in the end. Complex problems sometimes require complex answers."

Cain frowned,

"Is that..."

Steve nodded,

"We might be wrong, but that is very unlikely."

Everything suddenly seemed to line up in place.

"The world itself has been suffused with mana and magic. The boundary between the physical and spirit world is flimsy and weak. That means something as basic as a spell or mana powered skill from a single human can have somewhat of an effect on it."

Cain scratched the back of his head,

"It makes sense, but it doesn't at the same time."

Steve nodded,

"Consider the spirit and material worlds two rather large balloons that can stretch infinitely and retain its shape even if punctured. The walls of these balloons are layered rather close to one another, with the only thing separating them being..."

"Abyss that lies between realms."

Steve nodded,

"To put it bluntly, the reason the magical entropy doesn't add up, is because the mana lost is tearing holes through the walls. But they aren't powerful enough to reach the other side, so we just end up with rifts that lead to that place. By the way, is it that bad?"

Recalling his experience falling through that horrid place, the crushing feeling as he fell, and of course the terrifying abominations that were far worse than any Aether or mutant creature, perhaps even any Devil too, he couldn't help but shiver,

"Let's just say those things might be worse than Devils."

Steve frowned,

"Then that is a problem. Because we can't stop using magic. That means more and more of these rifts will keep opening in the future, right?"

Cain frowned,

"I don't think it is that bad for now."

Steve chuckled wryly,

"It isn't?"

Cain nodded,

"No such rifts have opened close by. The ones that have lead right into the Aether Realm, meaning the things that can get out are Aether Beasts."

Steve paused for a moment,

"You have a point. It's the ones in the wild we need to look out for. But how does that even make sense? Shouldn't it be the other way around?! Damn it! This is so confusing." Steve muttered while ruffling his hair.

Seeing this, Cain couldn't help but chuckle,

"It could be that there are weak points in the walls, and those weak points just so happened to be far away from us."

Although he said that, Cain couldn't help but be a bit worried.

If creatures like the {Abyssal Millionth Beast} begin pouring into their world, that meant another source of problems.

Even more terrifying was that thing that dwelt much deeper in the void.

'All this is so convoluted and strange. However, it is a bit exciting.'

"I see. That might indeed be the case. However, we will need to run a few tests just to make sure..." As Steve trailed off, Cain couldn't help but become lost in thought.

Noticing the bout of silence, Steve paused and glanced up.

Seeing the expression on Cain's face, he guffawed,

"What is this? Looks like you are having fun, Cain."

Cain raised a brow,

"Oh, really? You must be imagining things."

"No. That right there is a joyful expression if I have ever seen one..."

Cain snorted and waved dismissively, "Then you need to go get your eyes checked."

Steve chuckled, but decided not to press the issue,

"You've helped me a ton today, Cain— no. You've helped me a lot today, Leader!"

Cain's expression fell into a grimace,

'This guy...'

Seeing the sky smile on Steve's face, Cain felt overcome with the urge to wipe his grin off his face.

Still, he chose to endure instead.

'So the Rifts themselves aren't a matter of regular spatial magic. Rather, they are tears into the Void itself. Generally, there are two types of rifts; the ones that go all the way which can summon Aether Beasts, and those that aren't powerful enough to do so. Those are the really dangerous ones.'

His brows wrinkled just a touch,

'The plot thickens, it seems. How truly exciting.'

Sure, the revelations of the massive tides of darkness as well as the unraveling of the world was not enough.

If Steve's guesses were accurate, then their quest to unify Urbus was just going to be a tad more difficult.