Ascension of the Nephilim

Out of all the fighters that ventured into this dark castle, only sixteen remained. The platoon of the soldiers originally had three commanders each commanding two Champions who led their platoons consisting of several ten men teams led by a Captain.

But out of this group, only one Commander, four champions, and seven Captains made it out of the collapsing cave.

Out of the seven hired wanderers, only two Commanders and two Champions remained.

The Commander looked in horror at the collapsed cave and was horrified at what he did. Menks started it, but he added to the damages that caused the entire cave to collapse.

"My... my men...!" The Commander fell.

The Champions stood in silence as they glanced at the pile of rocks and could hear the cries of terror and pain that continued to echo out from deep within. They could hear people who were caught in the collapse of the cave and even more who were fighting.

"Commander... Hel...p..." A voice cried out.

BANG!

Angelica suddenly attacked Menks and punched him towards the wall.

"You're the necromancer!" Angelica shouted.

"What do you know of this place?!" Angelica demanded.

Menks was caught off guard and the sword of Angelica was now pressed onto him and the punch created a destabilization of his Force and Magic circulation preventing him from casting magic or using Force.

Menks spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Tell me!" Angelica demanded.

"What... accusations are you-"

"Don't lie! My beauty is not just my face! I am not of humankind though I look the part. I am a half-breed between a Dracanae and a siren!" Angelica revealed.

"You were not affected by my natural charm! That alone proves you practice the dark arts! You are a half-dead man! You also knew of things before everyone else did! You knew that the place was not a training ground! Ever since you were unaffected by my beauty, I knew that something was strange with you and paid careful attention to your expressions! You knew that this place was a sacrificial chamber before anyone else did!" Angelica revealed.

"She's right! He suggested that we leave the place first!"

"Exactly! I used my beauty to make everyone follow his suggestion because I believed that he knew something! What was that down there?!" Angelica asked.

"Tell us!" A Champion drew his weapon towards Menks.

Menks's expression changed from that of anger to a sneer.

"How smart of you, Angelica. But as expected of the Fafnir bloodline. How are you related to Champion Supreme Pyrekaiser Fafnir?" Menks asked.

Angelica was stunned at his words.

"Answer my question!" Angelica demanded.

"Stop threatening me. I may have been your enemy, but you know that down this place, we are but food to that Vampire! You need me, just as I need you!" Menks boasted and even though he had no strength he forcibly pushed his body and Angelic had no choice but to withdraw her strength or Menks would suffer grave wounds.

Seeing Angelica retreat, Menks smiled.

"You sure are smart. At least this gives us hope in escaping this hell hole. To answer your question, I knew nothing of this place before we came here. I also fell for that slime's lies and killed Commander Tyrs. Had I known it would be like this, I would have at least kept him alive until later! You are correct! I was the one who betrayed Commander Tyrs. I threw him back in with my [Dark Shadow] magic."

"Dark shadow? Isn't that a bit redundant? I mean, is there a light shadow?" A voice was heard and everyone was startled and turned towards the side.

The dreaded Slime Lord was there once more.

"Luigi! You tricked us!" Menks shouted in anger.

"Eh? You tracked them too. You killed off Commander Tyrs. That dude was quite strong and you might have managed to defeat the undead Commanders down there with his leadership and Foresight. Don't blame me that you're in this mess." Luigi chuckled.

"Why are you here?!" Angelica asked.

"I'm sure you guys found out the inconsistencies to our power. I'm sure you guys noticed that we have been putting on a facade. As you guessed, we were never meant to give you a legacy. You were to be offered as food for our lord. And our Lord has just risen thanks to the wonderful offering of Commanders and Champions." The Slime Lord chuckled.

"You monster!" The Commander raged as he drew his weapon and charged at Luigi.

WARP!

The Slime disappeared.

"I still have power over this space, you know. We are weak, but you won't be able to kill me so easily." The slime's voice echoed out.

"In any case, I'm just trying to make things fun for my lord and give you guys clues. Enjoy your meal, boss!" The voice of the slime vanished.

But at that moment, Menks's expression turned strange.

"Wait... What did he mean by that? They are weak?!" Angelica cursed.

"Your starting to realize it now? The lord of this castle and even that slime isn't as strong as we believed them to be! When we arrived inside that chamber, I understood what was happening. There is an Ancient Vampire here. But it's weak. It just awakened. That's why it didn't kill us all and offered us that room! Even that Hydra was not as strong as we believed! We panicked and tried to flee inside this place, but if we fought that Hydra head-on, we would have won. It used its strongest ability when it showed itself. We naturally thought that was just his average attacks. But it was definitely its aces! I knew because my shadow saw it all. This place used lies to trick us into our current situation. That slime lord was building an elaborate trap to catch us and kill us one by one! It even used its magic to make us kill each other!" Menks explained. His shadow stood up and it was like a dark clone of himself.

Everyone was startled at the sight of the necromancer revealing his form.

"I know the darkness! So I know what this vampire ancient intends to do! We were all tricked into entering the place with the magic walls, barriers, and time-distorting magic of the slime! But that was already most of their capacity! They lured us here and killed a few of us while the ground absorbed the blood that spilled and took the life essence of those dying! It was all to awaken the large crystal we saw! The room was designed to be a battleground! The Hydra couldn't kill us all outside! He had to move inside that place for the offering to work! See the limitations?! See the weakness! I tried to get us to leave that place because the larges red crystal was a Vampire Chrysalis! A hardened cocoon of blood to fuel a vampire who's asleep!"

"Then that chamber would take the blood of the fallen. Why did you make us attack the cave to collapse it!? We could have rushed here and held the line to let our men go! You traitorous wretched excuse of a man! I'll kill you now-"

"Stop!" Angelica shouted and silenced the Commander.

"He had to collapse the mountain. The heartbeat. I heard it too. It must have been the Vampire Ancient's heartbeat. Everyone, this necromancer is indeed our enemy. But even I didn't kill him because, in this place, we need all the strength we can get. The Vampire Ancient had awakened. I felt a terrifying threat behind us."

"So?! His slime is a time and space expert! There was no need to collapse the mountain since the slime could just teleport his lord here! Who knows?! Maybe the vampire ancient will teleport here after it feasts on everyone there!"

"Wrong. If he could teleport and kill us, he would have appeared here already! But he hasn't! He has just awakened and his strength is weak! I led us to collapse the cave so that the strongest of us would not get eaten. Those souls down there are not worth comparing to the food up here! But because the vampire ancient has not made his move, it means he cannot directly challenge all of us now!" Menks explained.

"He can't?" A Champion asked again as he couldn't believe his words.

"I am Necromancer. I know the laws of such a thing. This Vampire Ancient would have been as good as dead. He can reclaim his power but it will be done through the offering. If he has a Commander's strength he would have to at least eat four or five Commanders unless that Commander is like me, a Necromancer who has tremendous death energy. Don't you see, you fools? If I die here, you will all die because I am worth five Commanders to him! So suck up your anger. I led you all to collapse the mountain above so that we can escape! Which I suggest we do now! He might chase us and use more schemes to kill us!"

Menks began to walk out.

"...It's no use. When we collapsed the mountain, we had already failed."

"What?" Menks asked.

"I felt... an unnatural power move in. The Vampire Ancient is not down there. He is up here."

"What do you mean?!"

Suddenly, Luigi appeared again and his slime form had changed. He maintained a similar round shape but had two legs and what looked like a giant eye.

"What Angelica means is... there is an impostor among us."

WARP!

Luigi disappeared again.