Phantom Brave/Headscratchers

Why is Ash so weak in the intro?

 * When exactly did he learn Rising Dragon if he doesn't know it during that sequence?
 * Presumably, he's grown stronger as a phantom, or being a phantom (and thus having no body to worry about beyond the chunk of material he's inhabiting at that moment) lets him do things he couldn't do as a human.
 * But, the skill's description says it's the last skill he learned before he died. Considering the intro battle was right before he died there's no reason he shouldn't have the skill other than there wasn't a need for that powerful a skill.
 * The best answer I can think of is that he learnt it at that one moment where he tells Haze and Jasmine to run and prepares to fight Wrath. He dies immediatly afterward so it's never shown but he could still have it.

Ivoire has no indication of any real religion, so how can something be "Blasphemy Incarnate"?

 * Figurative references to gods exist, but nothing beyond that. Ignore the thing from Another Marona, and that no one has heard of him.