Ascension of the Nephilim

The appearance of human knights and the terrifying attack of the Champion was the final straw for these brave knights.

The peculiar circumstance was not to their advantage. They could not see clearly, and the smoke and herbs that were supposed to save them didn't seem to work. Moreover, they were being killed and attacked by powerful forces, and now an army of humans appeared.

This was a Champion, after all! In the Lowlands, most Champions are Earls and controls a personal force of roughly five hundred men. If the army bestows more, then it could easily go over the thousands!

Most of the orcs couldn't understand English, but the word 'Champion' was something they naturally were familiar with.

Grugnyr also shouted that a Champion Paladin was among the enemies that attacked them!

Gregory had charged in with his ghouls. And at the back, the last to move was Mechiel.

She was given an armor that could fit her and a magic sword which was only slightly weaker than the Earth Swords were given to her.

She charged in and shouted as ordered.

The orc captains immediately decided to retreat, and instead of holding the line, the group began to flee as the ranks collapsed.

Within the chaos, the Coven and the Dracanae ghouls continued to slay and kill the retreating warriors.

"Stop! Stand your ground!" Drought shouted angrily!

But Diana's figure suddenly appeared as her large shield rushed towards Drought's face.

"Hmph!" Drought carried his large ax and smashed his large ax.

BOOM!

"Champion! There's a strong one here! Let me take care of it!" Diana changed her voice as she shouted.

"A Captain Paladin?!" Drought was shocked.

"Please. I am not like my Lady Champion. I am a Force Paladin. And I will be your death, orc!" 

"There is a powerful enemy here! You are making a big-"

"A vampire. We know. And now there are two Vampire Ancients fighting. The Blood Calamity and Cracky Batcheeks! There are several Commander-level Paladin with us. One of their peers has fallen. And they believe that your kind killed them, for it was impossible for that Cracky Batcheeks to kill him. Tell me, orc. Was there a powerful Swordsman who went in to chase after Cracky?"

Drought was stunned. He had heard of the reports of Cracky Batcheeks who killed Dryklash, the Balefire Butcher. The survivors claimed of a mighty Paladin who challenged Cracky but died.

"Wait! We did not kill that Paladin!"

"Oh? So there is. Then you are out of luck, Orc. These Paladins probably hail from the Highlands. And while we would look the same filthy, weak, and uncivilized brutes to them, you just had to kill their Paladin!"

With Drought and the nearby orcs distracted by the claims of Diana, the battle continued elsewhere.

Martha was now free to aid attack with her bows as the archers and magis went on full retreat. They prioritized bringing the carriage with the bodies of the slain vampire orcs.

But this retreat was very disorganized.

The smoke around them was thick that none of those within the smoke could understand the battle. Everyone wanted to move out because of Martha's Gravity Field, which she would cast when devouring some of the orcs.

Martha started to snipe the powerful orcs from afar and selected those that would make great food, and prioritize killing them.

She also kept an eye at Mechiel, who was now fighting orc captains behind Gregory's group.

Mechiel ran with all her might. She was slower than Gregory and the ghouls.

"We'll soften the enemies at front. Just move in and kill whatever we weaken. And remember Martha's advice!" Gregory rushed in and disappeared in the thick smoke.

Mechiel was unlike the Coven, who had various abilities that allowed them to sense and detect the presence of the orcs within the smog. She was a dhampir ghoul after all!

She kept moving and then found herself facing a large orc who, in his desperation, used his berserk skill to rampage anyone and anything nearby. How Gregory missed this, she didn't know. 

She could hear the shouts of Gregory telling her to retreat, but the orc was already leaping towards her.

Mechiel trembled and lost strength at the sight of the orc rushing towards her.

"Die! Puny human!" The orc noticed her and slashed down using a large halberd.

BANG!

A small dark explosion exploded out and sent Mechiel stumbling to the right.

CRASH!

The wide slash struck empty air as Mechiel was jolted awake.

"Don't drag us down." A voice echoed out, and Mechiel knew it was from Martha. She chose to stand up and gripped the wounded right arm of hers from the dark bolt.

The orc swung the halberd, and Mechiel threw herself to the ground to evade the wide swing.

Mechiel then ran, but the orc took a small sword from his side and slashed down.

But Mechiel didn't evade and ran into the sword.

SLASH! STAB!

Mechiel's arm was severed off, but her sword managed to stab the head of the orc.

She recalled what Martha said about the Temple and decided to surrender her arm to kill the orc.

The stab struck the eye, but it didn't penetrate through.

The orc howled in pain, and Mechiel decided to put all her weight and jump at the orc.

Slowly, the sword pushed through. The orc struggled and tried to pull Martha off as he stumbled back but Mechiel's blade.

Mechiel struggled and bit down on the orc and was in tears. She was in great pain, and now she had to feed on her prey. But unlike the Coven, Mechiel was only a dhampir, and the restoring power from her feeding on the Captain was too weak. It didn't even allow her to raise her levels.

Martha watched Mechiel.

"Tsk! That Blood Calamity is very careful. Could it be that she suspects that we know?" Martha wondered.

"She might be harboring doubts. Send me outside. If you reveal me, we will trust her enough to show some of our cards. Also, I am quite hungry." Puff asked.

"Your appearance won't cause a disturbance, will it?"

"No. Right now, I am just like a monstrous beast that you hunt. Of course, that Blood Calamity who heard you claim to have a dragon will know of it."

"Alright. Go." Martha agreed and moved towards Mechiel.

"Is this your first kill?" Martha asked.

"La-Lady Martha... It is..." Mechiel answered weekly. Her mouth was full of the orc's blood.

"The Steele family walk a path of blood and death. I could have saved you, but I didn't. If you can't sacrifice this much, you can't be of use to us. While I am indebted to your father, I still have my lord to serve. Go on and fight. I'll bring out Puff to help you."

"Puff?" Mechiel asked.

A portal opened, and a small creature the size of a dog emerged.

"Puff. Aid Mechiel. Feel free to kill and feed. Get stronger. A lot of prey is here."

"As you will, Master." Puff nodded.

Mechiel was shocked. The creature had sentience.

Martha and Puff immediately moved, leaving Mechiel standing.

As Mechiel blinked, the eye color changed.

"A dragon! They have a dragon! Damn it! Where in Airom did they find that dragon! Damn that Nephilim!" The Blood Calamity cursed.

Meanwhile... Deep inside the Nephilim Sealing Mountain...

Kyros and Gojirrah had moved out and soon arrived at the exit of a cave. The moment they walked out, Kyros watched and beheld an amazing scene. The underground region within the mountain revealed an extremely wide space. They were just inside the cave of one of the mountains! In this world, there were mountains, rivers, and valleys in the deep darkness. A strange sun was there, but it was a bright brownish sky instead of sky-blue heaven above.

"I was right. We are in a world inside a different place..." Kyros confirmed. The wide space that expanded out and the mountain ranges that Kyros could see established that the entire region was larger than Airom itself.

Even Gojirrah couldn't still believe or make sense of what Kyros had said that the other exit that led to the Golem City or the Temple was a whole different world in itself.

"No wonder the Golems said it took them a year to explore every part of this! It's this huge! It's like that Temple is a pathway towards two different worlds. And right now, there is a human army composing of Champions arriving here. And it's quite timely that this place only holds Champions at most." Kyros observed.

"Right. It's also timely since I've seen more and more soldiers being deployed here. Even the Amphibian races are appearing."

"You allied with Newts?"

"Newts are among the stronger races of the Amphibians. And yes, we did."

"Interesting. Aside from Lizardfolk, are there any Arthropodians or elves?"

"I do not know of those races, Lord Kyros. I haven't heard of them."

"I see. It seems that wherever this place is leading, it's not connected to the Planesworld. You guys also hail in a different world. If you were on the same planet as I am, you would have known of those races. Where do you hail? Do you live on a planet or some Yggdrasil like this Planesword?"

"This Planesworld is a Yggdrasil? We don't live in a Yggdrasil! We live in a World-bearing Ancient Turtle!"

"A World-Bearing Ancient Turtle, huh? Haven't heard of that." Kyros frowned.

"He must be very far off." Calaminus frowned.

"The only habitable heavenly objects near the Planesworld are several solar systems, a singular planet, and a Flat Earth. And that is all being limited by the Great Chasms that divide the galaxies. So you scholars and astronomers would only know of planetary bodies like the ones you can see. But World-bearing Ancient Turtle is quite common in other galaxies. But only Greater Gods can cross these Great Chasms like we did when we saw that vision. The world that these lizards are in is something that crosses galaxies." Calaminus explained.

Kyros frowned.

"It seems that this entire region... is a place for Fate and Destiny to fight!"