Ascension of the Nephilim

Mezal glanced at the altar and raised his hands.

The room trembled, and numerous altars appeared.

"I have prepared many records for our coming fights!"

"Master Mezal, you seem to be rather obsessed with this. Your magical powers have increased as well."

"Drop the master. I am no longer your master since you are an adopted son. Call me papa if you want." Mezal laughed.

"...No." Hunter disagreed.

"In any case, this isn't magic. This is the magic of Soul power. I have found ways to harness the power of a shaman from the books of the Nephilim Library and have studied it. As for my obsession, it's a side-effect of experimenting with Brimstone. The joyous desire to record things, which is Histerion's desire, has affected me. But my vanity has affected it, so I want to journal and detail our adventures."

"Will my journeys will also be recorded?"

"Yes. You are a Steele. So what of the developments in Middle and Reptilia and Gojirrah's place?"

"We only scouted the regions to see the state of the planet on the other side. It's very... weird."

"Weird?"

"I guess we Fate Challengers are just used to it, but when we entered that other place... it was so... light. As if there was no pressure or burden around us. Here in Middle, it's thick. Up in the Planesworld, it's even thicker. The armies we fought there seemed to have no alignment. Once we could kill the lizard lords, the nations instantly slipped out as the people we elected into the castles, and political chambers easily gained power with little interference. It was like whatever we do. The enemy would just bow down and let us kill them!"

"I see. So it seems we can feel the powers of Destiny and Fate that skirmish against each other. Although, most mortals in this realm won't ever have a chance to see it. Then we should As expected, the Planesworld is a significant place in this coming wars. Not just because it holds a time and space entry to Middle, but it seems to be at the crossroads of the battle." Mezal assessed.

"What of your conquest?

"Throughout the past months, we have been moving back and forth between the two places. We realized that recruiting more lizardmen on the other planet was easier. There were some human kingdoms in that other world. But the continent we were in had only a few humans. They all submitted and served us. So we were moving back and forth, recruiting there and attacking in Middle. The Emberdons have been helping us in some of the attacks. But it was all to test their new weapons."

"I noticed. I haven't delved into the details since my attention has been on the Kingdoms of the Lowlands."

"They... sort of created a plague on one of the enemies we faced in Reptilia's home planet."

"...A plague?"

"Yes. A dangerous illness that could even afflict Commanders."

"What sort of plague was that?"

"A plague of hemorrhoids."

"..." Mezal's mouth was left wide open.

"What...? Why? What inspired them? Calaminus?"

"Yes. They said that they asked Calaminus for ideas from his eccentric otherworldly incarnations. Calaminus said that there was a plague of hemorrhoids in a book called the Bible. Calaminus gave a full disclosure stating that this Bible is an ancient book and said that the plague was that of emerods. Regardless if it was hemorrhoids or tumors that inspired the Emberdons to make that weapon."

"Was it any helpful?"

"The enemies surrendered and pleaded for the cures after two weeks. As a result, most of our front-line soldiers constantly fighting the undead hordes north of here are from that kingdom that surrendered."

"Whatever works, I guess. So you have come here to report your successful conquer of the Alpha Draconis Kingdom?"

"Yes. Gojirrah is named king since my wife doesn't like to be queen."

"Why?"

"Er... Because I didn't want to be crowned king. It felt weird to be a king of lizardmen."

"You have a good wife, Hunter." Mezal chuckled.

"So this means that Commander Komodo had also submitted?"

"Yes. The Cardinal that he served retreated, and many other Cardinals gathered together to band as one kingdom. They thought that with their strength, they could easily conquer Middle. They were powerful Lizard Lords that could easily kill the former Komodo. Now, as an ally, we have been training him to fight. He often spars with the three of us."

"...I'm guessing you are applying Martha and Aron's training methods."

"We are."

"Poor guy."

"Not just him, but many former Champions are growing up, and they are following us not because we conquered them but because we made them see a new standard that they want to pursue. Gojirrah is accepted as king because he defeated a Lizard Lord that was a High Cardinal in the Battle of Heroes and was hailed the After Toilet Slayer."

"The what? Wait... Then again, I don't want to know the history behind that. It would just soil my records." Mezal shrugged.

"After the defeat of one Lizard Lord, the rest of the Lizard Lords allied with each other... and with the Undying Lands. No doubt a work of Destiny. That's the current enemy we face right now. All surviving Lizard Lords have banded up. And we sense a powerful gathering of Destiny's chosen champions from the other worlds that are connected. And... by some mysterious means, they are growing as strong as Crowns!"

"Oh? A Champion battle between Fate and Destiny approaches. The Lizard Lords was a way of Fate to pit us against strong enemies. The Nephilim Sealing Mountain is constantly opening up its portals to bring us challenges that could equal the Midlands now."

"I wish Lord Kyros would be back. But now we face him to be our future enemy." Hunter sighed.

"That's exactly why Kyros left. If we stand by his side, we will never really blossom. But now, we are forced to fight. This gathering of Destiny is a battle that will appear to be between Destiny and Fate. But now, the other person of Kyros, Nightwing, has clarified that we can masquerade as True Challengers."

"How do we masquerade as True Challengers?"

"Two beings are known to be of the True Neutral alignment. Dragons and Gigantes. And we have both. If we present ourselves to have this great power, it will only seem that we are Neutrals just living to fight against Fate and Destiny."

"So, we are to force our lizardman friends to become dragons?"

"That would be too alarming. Airom is a battlefield between gods and dragons, after all. We use some parts of that, but not enough to draw attention to the gods and fallen. We can use the newest rooms built in this Fortress!"

"Is it the new hall in the west wing?"

"Yes! The Gunpla Collection room!"

"Gunpla?"

"It's short for Golem Uniform Plating. It's a very interesting power that can help our army grow. We will be equipped with the Golem's armors at command. Right now, we only have a few suits that give five people the power of five golem uniforms. Wind, Fire, Lightning, Water, and Ice. If you equip those, you have the armor of a Golem! Use them to fight the incoming army! This also gives you the power to scale up to five levels!"

"Five levels?!" Hunter was amazed.

"Yes. So use them properly. The more forces of Destiny come, the better. We must kill them all and use the advantage of being forgotten in this battle of Fate and Destiny to our advantage."

"But... if that's the case, I would need to conquer kingdoms that have Fate. I might even have to kill Fate Challengers to deceive the enemy and present myself as a True Challenger!"

"Yes. We will be going with the conquering route. We attack and imprison both Fate and Destiny's people when we win. Have Reptilia make preparations for it. You came here to ask for help, but this is your battle, Hunter. You have to find a way to survive and win this. The Gunpla access is all that I can offer since we have not yet found a way to deploy it outside of Middle."

"Understood. Those suits will be helpful if we trick the enemies into more Battle of Champions. But if an Eldrich appears, we might not have a way to defeat them."

"You have to hold your fort for at least two months. By then, Branze should be able to resolve all problems in the battles in the Lowlands. By my calculations, an Eldrich should have already made its way here!"

Hunter sighed and walked out. He knew that a bloody battle was over the horizon.

Back in the Midlands, a full army had marched off out of the eastern side of the Uninvolved Lands and was headed towards the Black Bog Kingdom.

Watching the parade of forces marshaled, Nightwing and a small team stood in the shade of harnessed Oblivion.

"Let's move deeper. Now is our chance to scout how strong the forces remain!"