Ascension of the Nephilim

For many days, the armies moved within the collapsing kingdom of the Black Bog Kingdom.

Under the lead of Nightwing, they moved out and destroyed several important 'nodes' that Nightwing found.

Nightwing claimed that the Half-Gigantes Flesh Monsters had overtaken the land and used its powers to create underground tunnels and bases within the Black Bog Kingdom.

Nightwing claimed that these creatures were transforming the underground regions, feeding off the mountain range like a parasite, and creating these canals to send out an army.

Nightwing's solution was to starve out this beast and stop the means it had to feed itself.

The Giants that followed Nightwing all spoke of the same monstrous beasts inside. They spoke of the Gigantes of legends, which was said to be the source of their power.

They spoke of how powerful the Crowns were and survived due to the blood of Nightwing, which prohibited all of the creatures in the stone from killing them directly. Yet, the laws allowed these beasts to rip and tear them as long as they remained alive after the attack.

Nightwing's limbless army was treated as heroes for dealing with and rescuing many of their allies.

Mage Commander Estus was even thanked as he managed to save several noble knights dragged down by the same kingdom where the Ragion was Prince.

The Ragion pretended to act in a neutral state. Though he despised Estus for marrying the woman he loved, Estus had no fault or revealed no hatred towards Ragion Prince.

On the seventh day of their journey, they found yet another massive mound of earth that had appeared.

Nightwing used his powers to lure the stony Half-Gigantes out, and they all easily defeated it.

These half-Gigantes only had Cardinal level strength and were easily slain.

In reality, these creatures were just some of the Cardinals they had captured, and Nightwing used the Necromancy of Mengks to bestow life and handed these corpses to Bomos, who moved out and prepared the next 'nest' for Nightwing to attack.

Each time they attacked a nest, they would slay thousands of Darklings and kill a 'half-gigantes' before a massive earth spell would appear, and everyone would retreat, fearing the power of the creature that Nightwing called a 'Mountain Deity' that his master sealed.

The spell was just actually Bomos eating the Darkling spawns. As these Darkling Spawns were just the cancer of Bar-Mammon, the creatures still followed the agreement that Bar-Mammon had with Bomos and remained neutral and did not attack Bomos or any of the Gigantes creatures living inside, such as the Antibodies. But Bomos could not absorb them as they had to be killed.

The Darklings have attacked many cities and have even grown in number. And so Nightwing used this plan to make the army of Breveros kill the Darklings, allowing Bomos to absorb them.

Breveros gained nothing, but Nightwing was curing the Gigantes of the cancerous parts and gaining an army worth of energy to absorb.

At the destruction of the last nest, the Ragion Prince had shown great valor again as he tore through the front lines.

Unlike the previous occasions, the earth spell did not appear since Nightwing knew that he had to give the army some corpses to escape suspicion. However, if every battle ended with nothing to gain, then Breveros would realize more sinister plans at hand.

Everyone rejoiced and was going through the spoils. The meat of the Darkling became popular as its taste was great.

The entire army took the camp and rested as the feared appearance of the stone golem did not happen.

Nightwing explained that they were too far away for the Mountain Deity to attack them.

"Prince Tauror." Commander Estus approached as the battle ended.

"Hm? Traitor Commander Estus? Are you here to express your anger towards me for marrying your wife?" The Ragion prince frowned.

"Traitor Commander? Fair enough, considering what I did. But now, your masters serve the Eldrich too. I believe my traitorous title is outdated."

"I still find it... baffling. Your master is a very capable man. Why would he pick you?"

"I see that my Prince hates me. Is it because of my slutty widow and how she forced herself into your family? I apologize for whatever pain that slut caused that might have strained the relationship between you and the Princess. But I am here to tell you I saw her die there. I guess, since you are his husband now, you should know. She has been reported as missing, right? So I'm here to confirm her death." Estus answered.

"...You didn't try to save her?" Tauror asked. But he was refraining from showing any of his anger and emotions. Instead, the pain of realizing that the woman had died was piercing his heart.

"By the time I saw her, she was dead. And besides... You don't know what horrors lie down there." Estus raised the stump of his right hand to show.

"We would have been dead without Lord Nightwing's blood." Estus sighed.

While the two were talking, the Princess of the kingdom was nearby. But her attention was on Estus.

She couldn't understand what she was feeling. There was an unquenchable mysterious thirst that she had. Despite being a noble Cardinal of great power, her eyes often looked after this young man who moved freely within the army. Estus would visit them these past days, but all of those times, he would never speak to the princess but only to someone close to the Princess.

She longed to see him. Hear him and even smell him.

But the mystery of her thirst was caused by several small spiders injecting her with another potent poison of Estus's blood mixed with Incubus magic on her while she would be in the heat of a great battle.

Prince Tauror offered a few more apologies which he spoke behind gritted teeth.

"I have to say... I understand what she did. I hated it. It broke me. But knowing that slut... Has she already moved on you, my Prince? Granted, you have a wife far more beautiful than her, but that woman was very persuasive. I guess she had numerous lovers."

"And why... would you think that?" Tauror asked.

"Whenever I return from my missions, she pounced at me. I never believed her to have cheated on me because of that... But now I understand. She was cheating on me, and those crazy nights together were the answer. She had multiple partners, and they might have never been satisfied by whoever her partner was. I'm guessing her lust was bottomless. Or... rather, I'm just that loaded. It's probably why she chose you as her target. She associated your large frame as a Ragion and hoped it would be as... grand as my staff." Estus shrugged.

Tauror was pretending to dig through the ground for more corpses, but the rage and anger in his heart were leaking out. His pride was affected by Estus's words. He thought that he had given that woman the time of her life. But now, it seemed that he was wrong! Was he inadequate that she would leap to Estus after such a mission?! The thought plagued Tauror.

"At least... I have my princess. My true love!" Tauror consoled himself and turned to his princess.

But as he gazed, he saw the direction of where the Princess was looking.

"Princess! Forgive me! I didn't know you were here!" Estus exclaimed.

"Did you hear our talk?! Forgive me. My widowed wife has placed your family into such inconvenient circumstances." Estus bowed.

SLAP!

The Princess slapped Estus.

"Pamela! What are you doing?!" The voice of the king boomed.

"That is Nightwing's Commander!" The King roared in anger.

Estus did not evade the slap but gave the Princess an apologetic look.

"Princess, King Omar. Do forgive me. I am a branded traitor, and my wife caused problems in your kingdom. In truth, Lord Nightwing sent me here to apologize. Now that we are all unexpectedly working together and must be united under this darkling and Gigantes plague, he wishes to resolve all possible hatred within the team. I am here to offer myself to be beaten up by any of you for my traitorous actions and the problems my wife caused to your family." Estus revealed.

"Oh? Then let me punch you!" Tauror smiled as he moved closer.

BOOM!

But at that moment, Ikarod landed in front of Tauror and blew the ground, causing Tauror and the nearby officials to be thrown off.

Estus flew towards Princess Pamela from the impact of Ikarod's landing.

Pamela was pressed under Estus, and for those short seconds, she felt such bliss. Under her skin, her blood quivered as she touched Estus.

The spider's poison was working and triggered a reaction of great lust upon contact, bringing her to the point where she almost climaxed.

"Estus! You idiot! Get up!" Ikarod complained as the wind drew Estus back.

"While Nightwing wants to resolve these issues, he still has a reputation for carrying. Estus is one who had made grave offenses to your kingdom. And as your kingdom is one of the stronger and more numerous ones in this unified army, we will hand over Estus. But he cannot be killed, and his punishment will not be public. It will be within the camps of Nightwing, so we can assure that Estus will not be killed. Select one among you who has the highest grievance with Estus and send that person to our camp, where Estus can be punished for an entire day. We will offer you privacy so as long as Estus remains alive. You can cut his limbs for all we care. We can regrow it, anyway."

Estus trembled in fear but did not complain Crown Ikarod's words.

There was silence, but then, a surging power of numerous elements blasted out.

Princess Pamela used her Cardinal magic to enshroud her.

"That bastard is mine!" She roared angrily.

"He betrayed our kingdom and sold our secrets! He spied on us! And his wretched hag of a wife dared to taint my husband! And now, this buffoon dared to touch me?!" Pamela roared.