Ascension of the Nephilim

There was nothing on the other side. Emptiness stood up on the floating island. All but the void remained as the dust settled. 

"My... my lord!" Neteri hesitated to speak. The amount of energy to create a path in the Crossroads and to recover magic and force to an entire army through [Somatos Ous Thanatou] was an amount of energy that no Cardinal could ever dream of wielding. Yet they did that through Destiny. And that attack... was useless?

And yet, there was nothing on this site.

"They... aren\'t here?" Shellcross asked.

"No! It\'s a trick! They must be using stealth magic! Remember my fight against that Sword Expert! He could disappear among my minions! What if the Temple that we saw and that had vanished can hide!"

"Then start shooting out an attack! But, first, we have to see if they are here!" Heralcus ordered immediately, and the group launched magic and force attacks.

Siege Cultivators appeared and used their massive skill. They launched attacks that could equal the power of Commanders. 

This was a force to be feared and could even threaten minor forts in the Highlands of the Planesworld.

The attacks landed on the floating island that stood in the middle of the darkness, and explosions rang out around it.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

But the sight of their attacks moving and exploding without hitting any invisible fortress caused Heralcus to feel great pain in his heart.

"Wait! What if they are dead! That land is soil that has massive densities, probably created by a god or fallen! Only they can destroy such soil! But what about the Temple? We created a massive attack that was several times more powerful than what they can take and were all incinerated by the attack!" Darako declared.

"So they are... dead?" Lucas asked.

"I doubt it! I don\'t see souls in this place! If they were, I would at least sense something!" Neteri frowned.

"What if they hid under the soil? They must have dug out and created an underground fortress inside." Eredus guessed.

"Go see if you can dig down the soil." Heralcus ordered.

Several minions were sent down, and they began to strike their pickaxes to the ground. 

CLANG! CLANG!

The pickaxes buzzed and trembled as it struck solid rock faintly buried underneath the soil.

"It\'s not working." Faust was grinding his jaw that those nearby could hear it.

"Heralcus. Send some of you men down. I wish to speak to you." Pergo\'s voice echoed from the portal behind him.

Heralcus trembled in rage and slowly moved to the back.

"Move out."

"My Lord, we are using that exit to move out?" 

"Yes! Lord Pergos is correct. The Nephilim will not expect to send our forces directly here regardless of our failed venture. They might be watching from the outside. Divide yourselves and have some stay here. The rest will use the original exit as a diversion. We need to find the location of their base!" Heralcus stormed off towards the spatial rift.

Heralcus moved and stood before the massive tower.

"It seems you have failed Lord Destiny greatly," Pergos spoke.

Heralcus didn\'t answer.

"I did not call you here to chastise you. After all, I should have questioned intently your belief that the Nephilim\'s Temple has positioned itself here! Your failure is also because of my negligence. I called you here to inform you of my theory. Why did you believe the lies of the Nephilim? And why did you not send out scouts?"

"... The Nephilim went to great efforts to lure me into that portal. He was trying to get me to go there. He has already used the power of Tyrannus to taunt me. I... Believed that there was a trap set."

"Why did you believe that?" Pergos asked again.

Heralcus raised an eyebrow.

"Lord Pergos. I know I am... an idiot in believing that..." Heralcus trembled as he said, idiot.

"I didn\'t say that. That is not my implication. How can you, a descendant of Lord Necros, believe a lie? Life after death, the power to bring back the dead, the very essence of [Somatos Ous Thanatou] is born from a lie! In short, you should have a higher resistance in determining if an enemy is lying to you! And yet, he managed to deceive you!" Pergos questioned.

It was then that Heralcus realized it.

"That...That\'s right!"

"See? You couldn\'t even tell that being susceptible to a lie is practically impossible for someone to do under Cardinal level! And yet, you were deceived!"

"What does this mean, Lord Pergos?"

"Answer me. True or False. Every Beginning has an End."

"True."

"Exactly. Now think about this... Our enemies are an alliance of all the Gods and Fallen that Beginning either recruited, bribed, or forced to work under his army. So if he wants to achieve Eternity and put an end to End, he will need the Fallen or God who created lies! Because he needs to twist that truth!"

"What?! But are not the fallen lords of lies on our side?"

"It is for the sake of accomplishing many hindrances that prevent Fate to see the End! But think about this! We do not remember the Beings that Were that aids our armies. And this will doubly be true for those on Beginning\'s side. Therefore, the reason why you believed his lies has to do with greater power at hand! You used [Guage] on him, correct? What true name does he have?"

"Cracky Batcheeks, The Naked Offender. Oh...! The name! He could hide the name from me!" It was only then that Heralcus realized how many lies he believed.

"It seems my theory is true. You are dealing with someone who has the Corruption of the very Fallen or God who made the first lie in the universe! And since his power is so innate, he must be a direct descendant of this Fallen or God! So while he may carry titles bestowed on him by Soter, Kyriachos, and Tyrannus, his real bloodline that cannot be revealed now, is from the one who decreed the first lie!"

"That\'s why he fooled me! He wields the power of the deceiver!" Heralcus crushed his fist.

"Now you know this! Go! Do not waste the remaining energy! You still have an army!" 

"Yes!" Heralcus frowned and moved towards the entrance headed towards Middle.

"It would be suspicious if my army does not appear without me! If he has the power of lies, he can also tell lies! But I must appear in the forces that march out to Middle!"

And so, the army was divided. Half of the army continued to march into the Crossroads where the Temple of the Nephilim originally was situated, and the other half marched out of the massive path coming out of the Life and Death Containing Field leading to Middle.

But as the forces marched out, little did they know that upon releasing the massive attack, a young Feather Folk stood before the portal. He was one of the fighters in the surviving settlements that Kyros recruited. He saw the massive attack and jumped into the portal leading back to Middle.

He waited for a few seconds, and there was great fear in his heart. But this was his mission. Kyros\'s shadows could not be controlled as their link would disappear if it went inside the portal. None of the strongest fighters had the luxury of staying hours on this place as they still had the training to do.

He took a deep breath and pushed his head into the portal, and soon saw the armies moving down.

He immediately flew up high and gave the signal, which was seen by another feather folk on some distance.

The message was passed on until it quickly reached the Temple grounds in less than a minute.

"Let\'s do this.." Kyros smiled.