Ascension of the Nephilim

The swampland was a path full of miasma, poisonous ponds, massive bones of gigantic creatures, and many strange beasts that somehow survived and developed an ecosystem inside.

In the midst of these poisonous lands, three dozen survivors who had made it out of the Greedling swarms were sprinting and running as they were still trying to escape the swarms of beasts chasing them.

The swamp lands had a thick cloud of green mists over them that had great amounts of poison in them. This forced all cultivators to move below and not fly up because of the potent poison that occurred. And so, even these survivors had to once again, move through the grounds where the horde of beasts would chase them.

The team consisted of the survivors that managed to stay alive and flee from their respective teams. But all of them only survived because they had resistance to the poison due to their races. No humans were among them and the group kept on running away

"Move! They are right behind us!" A demi-human Cardinal cursed as he led the team. He had the features of a stone golem and belonged to a rare race known as the living golems. He was exhausted as he had to fight the greedlings that appeared in front of him. And if not for his natural resistance to the poison thanks to his stone-like body, he would have long succumbed to the many poisonous stings he received from the Greedlings and would have died.

Many demi-humans and arthropodians races followed the Cardinal and fought along the way. They were all Champions, Commanders and another Cardinal Arthropodian humanoid bee at the rear fought.

Like the golem Cardinal, the bee was also able to retain the ability to fly as his biology also used various poisons. But even he wouldn't dare to remain in the sky as he would become affected by the clouds of miasma that hovered above the region.

He gazed at the back and could see the Greedlings chasing them. The creatures were stronger and while none of the men had been eaten, there were numerous Champion-level Greedlings chasing after them!

The Cardinal harnessed powerful lightning magic and shot it out on the rushing swarm before retreating back.

"Hurry!" The Beetle-man Cardinal shouted.

"HYAAAAAA!"

A loud, piercing shriek was heard and everyone stopped pressing forward.

"What was that?!" One of the commanders at the front cried out.

"Everyone! Stop! Something's up there." A Feather-Folk Knight Commander glanced to the sky.

"Cardinals. We will need to fly up. Those creatures are not flying down. It's as if... they are waiting to shoot!" The Feather Folk Commander spoke.

The arthropodian Cardinal arrived at the front seeing everyone stop. But even though the one that ordered them was a Commander, the two listened. This Commander had saved their life and had proven reliable thanks to her ability to fly. She even had special pills that allowed her to resist the poisonous miasma!

"How many do you sense?" The golem Cardinal asked.

"About ten... All should be at the peak of Commander level."

"Commander level?! At the skies?!" The Cardinal cursed.

"Yes. We have to fly up there now! I can sense them gathering magic!" The Feather Folk flew up immediately.

"Damn it! Commanders! Take control and hold those Darklings off!

Inside the white armor, Angelian's dragonic form began to appear. In truth, there was no pill that allowed her to resist the miasma. It was her dragonic cultivation that gave her greater resistance.

She flew past the clouds and could see the creatures.

The golem Cardinal followed and used gravity-defying magic that gave him the ability to fly. This was a feat rare even among Golems. his powers to create a defensive Force shield around him and flew through the dense miasma cloud. As he passed through the clouds, he could see the creatures that Angelian sensed.

It was a large reptilian beast with a long serpentine neck and large dark green wings. The creature's neck was glowing with pale green energy and was indeed building up its magic to perform an attack.

"A Darkvyrn! Impossible! The records didn't state these beasts to exist here!" The Cardinal cursed.

Angelian had also seen the memories of Krysta that pertained to the insides of the Gigantes and the horrifying trials she faced inside. But this creature was not in her memories.

Angelian charged forward and prepared his dragonic powers to create a shield as the creatures began to open their mouths.

"I'll distract them, lord Cardinal! Finish them off!" Angelian shouted as she charged toward the beast.

The Darkvyrn's neck began to glow a green light as they took aim at Angelian.

BLAST! BLAST! BLAST!

The darkvyrns took a deep breath and began to spit out a blast of green bile! This was the same poison in the ground that not even the Cardinals dared to touch!

Angelian charged forward and held her shield and secretly used her Thane Dragon powers to resist the poisonous blasts.

The golem and the bee Cardinals rushed forward and used their respective magic.

The golems arm began to morph as his earth powers created a massive cannon on his hand. He was a siege cultivator and began to prepare for a powerful attack.

The body of the bee-man began to glow as his insect-like abdomen began to glow a bright yellow light and lightning began to gather at his stinger.

The golem shot with his cannon while the bee shot a beam of lighting through its stingers.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! ZAP!

A volley of meteors was launched from the golem's cannon obliterating the darkvyrns and killing five of them. A beam of lightning ripped through the remaining five and the five were killed instantly.

Angelian flew back as she tried to throw off the green acid on her shield.

"Let's go down! I can't stay in this cloud of mist any longer!" The golem spoke.

"Impressive.... defense. I can't wait to eat you!" sinister laughter was heard and suddenly, a large gigantic beast appeared over the sky.

A large batlike creature with a pig's face flew over them.

The beast was the size of a hill and its terror and power released shockwaves of great force energy!

"That beast...! It's as strong as a mid-level Cardinal!" The golem exclaimed. They were only at the first level of power. Level 51 cultivators, and what appeared before them was most likely, equal to a level 55!

It would have been possible to kill them but they were all exhausted and weakened and facing a monstrous cardinal in the poisonous skies was tantamount to suicide.

Angelian saw the creature and sighed.

She harnessed her power and prepared to give an all-out charge.

STAB! STAB! STAB! STAB!

Suddenly, numerous swords stabbed around the beast.

Everyone was startled and Angelian saw Nightwing flying past through the mist as he held on to Krysta.

He assumed a Paladin's form and held on to the sword with Krysta.

Suddenly, a series of bright chains was revealed to be connected from the swords that stabbed the beast and were tied to the sword that Nightwing held.

"Do it. Under the guise of my light, drain him!"

Krysta revealed powerful dark energy as she held on to the sword.

"That... power!" The bee Cardinal saw the dark energy that Krysta commanded.

The creature squealed like a pig and was angered by the ambush attack.

"What are you guys waiting for?" Nightwing asked the nearby Cardinals.

The two were awakened and began to launch their attacks at the bat-pig creature.

Angelian also made her charge. Her fist began to transform and as the attacks of the Cardinals landed, her fist also struck the beast.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The consecutive attacks struck the creature and in its weakness, Nightwing harnessed his sword and stopped Skotos Eis Phos to turn his holy sword into a sword of darkness.

Krysta was absorbing a terrifying amount of power because of this, and to the eye of everybody, it appeared as if Krysta was the one wielding the sword!

"NOOOO!" The beast roared and the Cardinals and Angelian continued their attacks.

Soon, the beast began to fall.

And as it plummeted, the Cardinals that fought also started to fall as they were moving way beyond their limits.

Angelian flew towards Nightwing.

"Why were you thinking of killing yourself for them?" Nightwing chastised Angelian.

Angelian was stunned at Nightwing's rebuke.

"Master... I..."

"Angelian. Were you starting to care for them?"

Angelian was quiet but finally pleaded.

"Master... please spare them."

"I won't kill them now, because I need an army to attack the Fallen Spawn. But all of them will die. All of them will be killed at the right moment to strengthen me, and perhaps to resurrect Krysta's family."

Krysta was silent. But she glanced at Angelian and realized that Angelian was not as insane as she thought!

"It's just that... they are good people."

"They are either neutral or aligned with Destiny and will heed Destiny's call. Angelian, I've already told you what is at stake. Think about it, my enemies are too strong, that I even had to use a powerful spell to deceive Destiny. Don't think that Fate and Destiny are just abstract concepts. They are gods and fallen. And you are fighting against them."

Angelian was silent and bowed.

"I... understand."

"We have to move. This team is quite useful. They are more resilient to the poison of this bog and even the poisonous stings of the Greedlings. Do you understand? The Greedlings sting injects the poison they drink from the swamp. We will use this team as a vanguard to threaten and draw the attention of the Fallen Spawn. Let's hurry. That Coin was already on the verge of becoming a Silver of Mammon!"

"You plan to use this small team to head to that temple where the Fallen Spawn resides?!"

"That's right. There is something here that allows the Fallen Spawn to communicate with all the Coins. I had a hard time searching for you with my powers. Something must be amplifying the Fallen Spawn's power. We take that, he loses his eyes, and Monica and Sherah will be able to kill those coins and bring us the real army! Angelian. Gather those survivors and tell them to prepare as we head into the heart of the Gigantes."