Ascension of the Nephilim

Angelian glanced at the strange comfortable room of great luxury. The room was cold, thanks to a powerful cooling device. Angelian\'s blanket was thick and cozy. There was an array of food next to her that reminded her how hungry she was. She indulged in the food nearby and ate to her heart\'s content.

And suddenly, she wept. She had never experienced such peace and calmness as she continued to eat and there was a strange lightness all around her.

"The curse...? The curse has been removed? But how?" Angelian couldn\'t understand but began to test her theories.

She thought about her father. The story of how she met her father was bizarre. She was brought in to become a concubine as many of the men hired to catch her noticed her superior beauty and was contracted by Pyrekaiser himself!

But when she was brought before him, instead of becoming Pyrekaiser\'s concubine, Pyrekaiser \'discovered\' that she was his all along!

As she reflected on this strange meeting, she couldn\'t help but feel the care of her father as the room she was in her the room that her father gave her.

She could not help but smile as her heart began to warm up.

"...I see. Father spread that rumor! Father must have known of my curses and knew that if he made the announcement and tell me, De-Heart would make me unable to trust him. He knew I couldn\'t trust him. And considering my bloodline, he wanted people to think that I was going to be his concubine when in fact, he had already learned of my bloodline long before and even when he contracted those bounty hunters to catch me... It makes sense now! Why was it so hard to believe this?" Angelian recalled.

She then realized that the tale of her father was not full of greed, lust, and other unspeakable selfishness. But it was a father longing to be reunited with his daughter.

Angelian wept as she realized how hard it must have been for her father to keep giving so much, even going as far as to awaken her bloodline, but still not receive her trust.

"Father... When I see you again, things will be different. I will be your daughter!" Angelian vowed.

But then she stood up and glanced around the room.

"But... why am I alive?" Angelian couldn\'t understand.

"Did my father arrive? Did he sense something and defeated that dying vampire?" Angelian pondered as she began to walk up the bed and head towards the closest door.

She could hear voices speaking in the other room.

She moved and opened the door.

There was a large table with several people sitting on it. Aside from the man whose chair was positioned directly behind the door where Angelian moved out of, there were two people out of seven present that were familiar.

Commander Tyrs and another Captain-Level soldier who served in their suicidal crusade were present.

A tall, dark, unfamiliar man with scales around him was also present. But through scent, Angelian was also sure that this man was the dreaded Hydra who ate a lot of her former companions!

Two more were famous personas in the Uninvolved lands.

The powerful Duke and Commander of the Dwarven lands had been ostracized from the kingdom he served. He had a huge bounty on his head.

And the last one was a man who had elven ears, but he was a halfbreed and looked more human. But his identity was easily identified by Angelian as her father had tasked her to investigate him! He was the former leader of the Shifting Shadows organization. An organization that specialized in assassinations.

"Commander Tyrs! Dwarven Meister Strongholgen! And you... You are the Emperor Assassin!"

"Oh? Angelica...? Or should I say Angelian Fafnir." The tall, elven man smiled.

"As beautiful as the whispers spoke of! And it looks like you\'re well-rested! But I must say, despite your beauty, you are lucky to have caught the attention of Lord Nightwing." The dwarf chuckled.

Nightwing stood up and turned around to Angelian.

"Beautiful..." Nightwing praised.

Angelian blushed as she heard his praise.

"Wha-why... Why am I alive?"

"The answer was that I was never planning to kill you. I had several purposes in defeating you and tricking you to give yourself to me in death. I tricked you so that you would offer sacrifice, and used that moment to destroy De-Heart and a few of your curses. You must have felt the lightness around you?"

"...You tricked me to remove the curses? I guess I should thank you... But what\'s going on here?" Angelian asked.

"We are meeting on how to conquer the Uninvolved Lands here. That\'s what\'s going on." The \'Hydra\' spoke.

"It\'s a bother to explain... but simply put, I\'m not the monster you thought I was."

"...You killed several Commanders and their entire platoons and tricked us so that you could just be revived. The blood of many innocents was in your hands." Angelian frowned.

"They weren\'t so innocent as you would have thought them to be, Angelian," Tyrs explained.

"The Eldrich has infiltrated us in many, many ways. Menks was not the only one. Out of the entire group that was sent here, more than half were secret agents, sleeper agents, or hired people of the Eldrich. Many of them didn\'t even know they were fighting for the Eldrich as they were either at the service of someone serving the Eldrich or were manipulated and tasked to serve them indirectly. And apart from them, another large bulk of the people were spies to other kingdoms. Even your wandering companions were spies of other nations and traitors to the vow they claim to have made." Tyrs explained.

"I might be biased since my concern is with my kingdom, but out of the group, there were only two people who were truly among the good guys. Me, and this soldier. Joshua."

Joshua bowed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this is a world where the strong wins. Everyone had committed crimes or had taken bribes that would have equaled execution in the kingdom. This is why the kingdom I serve is on the brink of collapse. There were too many people in power that had not the agenda of the kingdom but wanted to increase their own wealth." Tyrs explained.

"So... only those who were righteous were supposed to live?" Angelian frowned.

"Depends on how you define righteous." Nightwing smiled.

"You, Tyrs, and Joshua had killed many people, some who would have been considered to be innocent in the eyes of the common folk. But you see, in my eyes, as someone who is waging war against Fallen and Ancients, it\'s all about allegiance. The gods and devils toy with the world. This entire world is part of a great battle that wages. My idiotic self hid it from me and sealed my memory. But what I do know, is that a battle between two forces that will dictate the future universe is at foot. To me, righteousness can mean killing those innocent, but whose allegiance is with Destiny."

"Destiny? Wait... I thought with what you said, I am supposed to be for Destiny!"

"Yes. As it turns out, the purpose of Fate\'s many curses on you, was to train you and deceive Destiny. To Destiny, he seemed to have been under the impression that you would side with him. But Fate made a risky gamble with you. She pushed you so far off and left you to fend for yourself and made you her enemy so that Destiny would protect you. But I was the wild card that changed everything. When I destroyed De-Heart, your true allegiance was revealed. You are, a Fate Challenger. A Challenger fated by Fate to fight for her!"

"I... don\'t understand. Will I be fighting against my father? The Highlands?"

"No. They will ultimately be our allies. However, right now, we must fool Destiny into thinking we are serving him. Right now, I still reek the scent of Fate Challenger since I took your curses. But our goal is to find and kill an Eldrich. Someone who will make me look like an agent of Destiny. But to force an Eldrich out will be tough. Hence, the plan. We are to conquer the Uninvolved Lands and be the secret rulers. That will force the Eldrich to meet with us."