Ascension of the Nephilim

It was as if Destiny welcomed Martha's challenge.

The moment she released the power of Fate Challenger, Destiny triggered the sudden collapse of the floor.

There were no earthquakes, but the entire floor just caved in, revealing deep darkness underneath.

"Protect Lady Martha!" Hunter cried out as the three rushed to protect her. 

As the floor started, Martha immediately drew her bow and launched an arrow with a metallic wire attached. This was one of her prepared arrows in case she needed to make a quick escape.

She used just enough force energy so that the arrow would pierce deep into the wall.

The Three H's was already near Martha when the entire ground beneath them opened up.

"Grab on!" Martha called out, and the trio jumped and clung to Martha as the floor collapsed.

"Move your head away from my chest, you dimwit!" Martha cried as they fell.

A dark abyss beneath and the status of the room they were in above revealed that their room had no support and that it was already close to breaking. Signs of cracks and damages that earthquakes may have caused could be seen all over the place.

Seeing the drop, Martha knew that the wire rope wouldn't support the total weight of the four of them. So she immediately began to slide off the rope so that the arrow lodged in the wall would not break from their weight.

Using a specialized gauntlet, Martha began to grab and twist the rope. But instead of clinging or putting an immediate break to the rope, Martha used it to slide down, in which the rope only provided a little friction. 

The knights were also helping as they kept using the legs and arms in an attempt to cling on the wall.

Martha revealed the strength of a Captain as she kept on bearing the weight of everyone as they were falling. And like this, the group descended to the abyss.

Mardock was standing near the slaves at Marta's orders. After opening the path, he remained to guard them. But then they all felt the tremor and the distant cries of the group.

"Stay here!" Mardock instructed as he rushed inside the path he had opened.

He rushed inside and finally reached the place where Martha and the group fell. The entire chamber caved in and revealed a deeper area inside the cave.

"Sister!" Myas appeared. She ignored Mardock's instructions and rushed to see if her sister was safe.

"Relax. That woman is strong. They are also vampires. But I guess we have to help them. Look over there." Mardock pointed at the other side of the cliff.

"I can't see anything."

"I forgot that you are human. Your sister managed to shoot an arrow and to look at the tension of the arrow. It seems that they are using it to descend slowly.

Several slaves finally arrived as they followed and chased after Myas.

"What do we do?" Myas asked.

"My Core is not with me. So I can't quickly use my desolation to create a path. Besides, it would cost me too much energy. But we must find a way down there." Mardock instructed.

The group agreed and began to look for a path and even started to check on whatever equipments they have which they could use for mining.

Meanwhile, the area where Martha was was covered in total darkness. Normal humans won't be able to see through it.

Martha was running out of ropes, but the side of the cliff they were on was cleanly cut that there wasn't even a rough patch to dig their arms on.

"Try to kick more! We have to minimize the speed of our fall! We don't know what's down there!" Martha warned. And so, the group began to exert more effort in kicking and would even stab their swords. But the rock-hard cliff resisted each attack.

They controlled their descent to go as slow as possible as Martha wanted to see if the ground beneath them was safe to land on and not some molten lave, spikes, or other dangerous objects.

Soon, they hear the crashing of rocks, and while their eye-sight could see through the darkness, it had a limitation, and they could only see with clarity for nearly a hundred meters in pitch-black darkness.

As Martha heard it, she immediately increased the speed of her descent.

"The crashing sound proves that it is ground beneath. Prepare to land. My arrow won't hold for long since I'm running out of rope."

Martha increased the speed of their descent that it was almost close to them falling. But with their enhanced strength, the landing won't hurt as much.

Soon, the ground beneath could be seen. It was as if there was a tunnel that spread out.

As the group approached the ground, Martha could sense that the rope she had was running out.

She harnessed her force and pulled with great force just as the rope was about to end.

The force allowed them to lessen the force of their fall, and the arrow finally gave in, and the metallic rope was dislodged from the arrow.

The group fell and landed safely on the ground.

"Check for anything living beneath this rubble! We need to find and drink their blood!" Martha ordered, and the group began to search.

The overpowering smell had masked their ability to smell, so the group had to search for any bodies buried under rubble.

"What's happening, Lady Martha?" Hunter finally asked.

"Destiny. And here I thought that Lord Kyros was a kind-hearted boy. He allowed Destiny to trap us. Whatever's down here... don't underestimate it. Destiny must have caused an earthquake here while we weren't here yet. It created that room that was so unstable that walking inside would trigger that fall. And even the cliff was so cleanly cut that we couldn't even cling on to it!"

"That's right!" Hems realized the impossible scenario of their fall.

"What about the dragon egg?" Hunter asked.

"It should be somewhere down here. I had to drop it to fire the arrow. Don't worry. That thing wouldn't crack from a fall like this. The voices and premonitions we felt were not from the Egg or Fate. It was Destiny pretending to be Fate. This is one of Destiny's traps that was just sprung now!" Martha explained as they continued to search.

"There it is!" Hemsey pointed towards the Dragon Egg.

The group looked at each other and then the egg. After that, they hesitated on what to do.

"Should we...?" Hemsey asked.

"Do it. The way Lord Kyros explained it is that Destiny must have used that egg as a medium to lead us on that trap. But I doubt that Destiny is still linked to that. I'm not sure right now and I've been trying to contact Lord Kyros but..."

"Right. I lost my link to our chat group too." Hunter added.

"In any case, the gains outweigh the cons. We could leave the egg here and lose it forever or we could beat Destiny and bring this egg back to lord Kyros as a souvenir. But I think we should bring it.

"My lady, you said that Lord Kyros sent us here intentionally?"

"Yes. Blame him when we get out. But remember what I talked about earlier. Despite the power that Lord Kyros has, he was forced to retreat against the Blood Calamity! And that must have been his wake-up call. If I were in his position, I'd have also done the same thing. Knights. Are you willing to be his pawns? If we win this and survive this, the benefits that we could give the Coven would equal the rewards we reaped after killing that orc!"

"Of course! For the Coven! For the Steele family!" The Knights shouted together with resolution.

"Good! Keep your swords drawn! We're moving out. Our primary goal is to secure a way out. Once we find one, we can focus on killing whatever is in here!" Martha ordered.

Hemsey picked up the egg carefully and placed it in the sack that it was in the group moved.

She led the way and tried to harness her Path of Foresight.

"This way!" Martha sensed something and moved in a certain direction.

Soon, they found a strange man-like creature with blood leaking out of its head.

The collapse caused some rocks to fall on him.

"Thank goodness!" Martha sighed in relief. Her Path of Foresight allowed her to find a dying monster.

Without hesitation, Martha ran and stabbed her dagger on the head of the creature.

The first stab to the skull was met with resistance.

"Tsk!" Martha cursed and wielded force energy to stab out again.

The second attack penetrated and killed the strange creature, and dark liquid-like energy was leaking out.

But Martha's expression darkened.

"A high Captain level vitality..." She cursed.

"Quick, drink the blood of this thing!"

The knights moved and began to stab the creature. But just like Martha, they had to stab twice for their Blood swords to penetrate deeper.

"What is this creature?!" Hunter exclaimed.

"Dracanae Ghoul. An undead humanoid Dragon hybrid. This place must have been a graveyard before. The souls and bodies of the might dead warriors are rising with the vitality of the dragons imbued on them." Kyros's voice could be heard in their mind.

"Lord Kyros!" Everyone called out in surprise.

"I linked with you to see what you're seeing. But I can't keep this up for long. Something's happening in the Planes World. I lost my connection with you and can't contact the others, and I had to use the Temple to link with you. So you guys are on your own. Be careful. The darkness that is leaking out can be absorbed because of your Dark Consumer. But the potent darkness could make you lose your mind, so you have to be careful. Lastly... Give Destiny my regards by beating it!" The link abruptly disappeared, just as it did earlier.

The group was startled at what they heard.

"It seems we can't drink to our heart's content... As a result, we won't have our advantage in quickly regenerating from our wounds." Hemsey frowned.

"You've been a human all your life. Don't rely on your vampiric powers too much! That will make you weak! This place is the perfect training ground for us! For now, absorb what you can. We should gain something from their blood."

"Grraaaaaahhhh!" Distant howls could be heard from where they were.

"Let's hurry. Carry the body, and let's get moving!"