Ascension of the Nephilim

Kyros was moving fast, and the pressure that the mercenaries faced lessened.

As such, the might of the Mercenaries managed to pierce and cut the lizards. Their morale steadily increased as they began to fight and

Aron was the strongest as he could kill a lizard with a carefully timed blow.

There were times when Kyros would take advantage of an already inflicted wound made by the mercenaries, and Kyros would stab deep into the opened wound. Sometimes, the lizards would be killed with the stab of Kyros. On other times the lizards would howl in pain and allowed the mercenaries to kill them because the lizards would be unable to defend themselves.

Soon, Aron noticed that the Lizards attacking them were few.

"Men. Use your force attacks in rotation! Let's finish these monsters!" Aron ordered and made his first force attack.

[Knight's Charge]

Aron ran, and the force energy caused him to dash so fast and used his shield to ram a lizard and knock it back.

The lizard fell down and staggered from the stunning attack, and Aron slashed down to kill the beast.

The others began to use it one after the other. With Kyros harassing the lizards, the used attacks would always kill the lizard.

The lizards began to escape as it saw that they were dwindling in numbers. They began to jump back into the hole or dig down the ground to escape.

Kyros pretended to follow one, but he actually began to retrieve the shadow ghouls and the shadow familiar. Three lizards had died from their attacks.

He then ran back to the group.

"Kyros!" Aron laughed. The mercenaries also cheered.

"Sorry, I just had to kill one of them, so I chased one more. One less of those things means more lives saved in this cave." Kyros gave an embarrassed remark.

The mercenaries cheered again. They began to see Kyros in a new light.

"Brilliant! That swordsmanship! You truly are a son of a noble! The poise of your strikes, your precise attacks! Your form even bears a resemblance to mine! But why didn't you use any force attacks?" Aron wondered.

"I... don't know. I feel that I couldn't do it..." Kyros muttered and displayed his head-aching look.

"... I see. It seems that what you are suffering from isn't just some form of a traumatic or psychological effect. My apologies for my earlier remarks." Aron bowed his head.

"It... it's alright, Uncle. I'm sorry as well. When we were fighting, I recalled that this isn't the way to the temple. We took a wrong turn earlier. My memory is all fuzzy, and it almost killed us."

"Yes. But with these many creatures, we might just be able to level up! Let's head to the temple. If you were knocked out and managed to stay alive without being eaten, there should be some power to protect us. Let's bring back whatever monsters we can so we can absorb their life energy to level up!" Aron gave his orders.

"But... my Lord, didn't he say that the dead bodies disappeared?"

"Umm... It did. But when I woke up, I also leveled up." Kyros explained.

"WHAT?!" The mercenaries were all stunned. Harnessing the life force was a tedious and lengthy process. It required focus and attention. But Kyros managed to level up even when he was unconscious?"

"Its true!" Kyros explained. He had seen one of the uses of the temple and knew it would help him absorb life energy.

"It seems we might have found an interesting place. Men, let's move! Carry as many as we can.

The eight men were able to carry four large lizards and began to move. Kyros was unable to help them in carrying but began to lead them towards the place.

"It's this close?" Kyros pretended to have a shocked expression. The group found themselves into a strange tunnel leading down.

"The temple was this near?" It hadn't been four minutes since they moved, and Kyros already lead them to the tunnel.

"I- I'm sorry. I was very disoriented and... and..." Kyros tried to explain.

"Kyros! Relax! This is good! If it's here, then we should be able to bring in more lizards!" Aron laughed.

They walked down the staircase and found themselves at a dead end.

"Oh? What happened?" Kyros was 'shocked'.

"Was the temple here before?" Aron asked as he began to feel the wall.

"I... think so. No! I'm sure of it! But when I was running down here, it was open. This door leads to a dark and wide room with a temple at the very middle!" Kyros explained.

Aron began to feel the walls, as did the other mercenaries. They used their torches to touch and feel it.

"Pass... Password..." Kyros held his head in pain.

"Password?" The group asked as they heard.

"There was a password. We figured it out! We were here! That's how I knew to get back here. There was a password?"

"A password? And you don't remember?"

Kyros fell into deep thought. As he was doing that, he had connected with the temple and uploaded a specific command. When a certain keyword is heard, Kyros would be alerted, and he would have the choice to open or close it.

"Password123!" Kyros mumbled under his breath.

The wall suddenly trembled, and it began to move up. A dark pathway was revealed.

"Really? Seriously? Password123? That's a very weak password!" Calaminus complained.

"No, it's not. You have to make the P sound loud and exclaim it. It's case sensitive, so if you start the P weakly, it won't work. Same with the intonation. It has to end loudly and not have any other inflections other than the exclamation point!"

Calaminus shook his head.

The group looked with a strange expression.

"We should move. We can go back and grab the other fallen Lizards!" Kyros reminded.

The group woke up in their stupor and began to rush right in.

"Just drop it inside! With the wall, we can keep this place closed. Let's run back and grab the other lizards!" Aron ordered.

"Kyros. Wait here. Let's hope that the Lizards won't disappear as you said."

The group dropped the lizards, and a notification rang on Kyros's mind.

[Quest Item: Char Vermillion Lizard (4/80)]

Kyros tried to maintain his smile as his plans worked.

The group went out of the door and looked out of the door.

"How does this door close? Password123?" Aron tried to say the password.

"It won't work. You have to make a strong P sound and end with an exclamation point." Kyros guided.

Aron had a strange expression but decided to follow Kyros.

"Password123!"

The door suddenly closed.

"Alright! Good! Let's go, men! We have to hurry!" Aron's voice could be heard as he led his team to the corpses.

Kyros was also delighted that his programmed commands worked. When Aron said the password, Kyros was alerted and had the option to open the door.

"Good. Now with these men, I can immediately level up. I wonder what the rewards are for completing the Lizard Quest would be?" Kyros wondered. He hoped that completing the quest would allow him to gain some rewards that would be helpful for his next mission.

Soon, the group managed to bring the twelve fallen lizards inside with the numerous trips.

[Quest Item: Char Vermillion Lizard (16/80)]

The group closed the door and sighed in relief.

"Kyros. Where is that temple?" Aron asked. Unlike before, Kyros made the temple lights grow dim. And so, it was dark.

"Follow me." Kyros led the way. The group carried one of the dead lizards, and soon they reached the temple area.

"It is a temple!" One of the mercenaries exclaimed.

"Do you feel it? Such potent holy energy..."

"I don't think we should step inside..." Another said.

"Relax! Kyros spent the night there. No wonder it saved Kyros. The Lizards are creatures of death and darkness. They hate this temple." Aron explained.

"Well... Let's test what you just said." Aron was the first to take a step inside.

All of a sudden, he could feel a strange power activating, and it began to heal him.

"This is...? Heal!" Aron exclaimed.

The mercenaries were in awe. They could see Aron's minor cuts slowly closing up.

Immediately, the mercenaries moved inside, and the heal spell began to affect them.

"We're healing!" The mercenaries exclaimed joyfully.

[Char Vermillion Lizard detected. Assimilate to the temple and disperse experience points?]

A notification appeared. Kyros willed it to do so, and suddenly, the bright lights flashed.

Shouts were heard as the lights surprised them.

Kyros felt a strange power fill him. But sadly, no notification appeared about his level up.

"Seriously? I ate the soul of that Prince of Darkness, and I haven't leveled up yet?" Kyros cursed.

"You have three souls. You are exponentially harder to level up." Calaminus laughed.

Kyros shook his head but told himself that there were more and he should level up with the next batch.

"I... Leveled up?!" A mercenary exclaimed.

"Me too!" Another also shouted.

"Amazing..." Another was in a daze.

"Lord Aron!" It was then that another noticed Aron running out of the temple!

"What are you idiots waiting for! Get back and get the Lizards!"

The group stampeded out of the temple in a hurry to bring the lizards in the temple.