Ascension of the Nephilim

At Martha's skill level, Decay could not be used as an area-of-effect attack that will naturally weaken the body, just as the Vampire orc did. But wielding it and concentrating the attack into one area was still possible.

The outstanding battle instincts of Martha believed that she could damage these creatures, and she did.

But despite these amazing feats, her death was still sealed.

Death Ripple was no longer active as Martha was running out of magic points.

The pain that caused the dracanae to lose their concentration was no longer there, and they began to harness their force energy.

At the very start, Martha allowed her Path of Combat to be guided with Foresight. Her will and focus remained on one question, and that was 'how can I buy my knight's time?'

The final arrows that contained True Entropy cost Martha a lot of energy that barely a fourth of the True Entropy remained. Yet even with the powers of Entropy assailing the insides of the dracanae, the terrifying vitality and recovery were combatting it that the Entropy could not easily corrode the dracanae's body.

"She has a True Entropy core!" One of the dracanae was startled at the attack, but a look of greed surfaced.

Martha shot forward-moving several meters at each leap.

"Hmp!"

The tail of the dracanae at the front swung down, but Martha was able to evade it by a few centimeters. 

Her two weapons swung down and stabbed at the dracanae's chest, but the dracanae simply laughed and released his Force Energy and the Second Source that dragons had.

BANG!

The sword strike of Martha also contained her Force energy, and the clash threw Martha back.

The dracanae rushed in and used their long tales to swipe at Martha, who began to retreat.

"She's retreating?" The dracanae was confused. They realized that Martha had fallen into a Dark Maddening state. But how was a berserked person capable of retreating?

"If she wanted to retreat, she could have done earlier. She's clearly confused."

"Hmp. Her attack contains a strange power the weakens my body. And that Entropy... it's quite annoying to deal with!"

"She is definitely being controlled by Path of Combat. And by the looks of it, her level should be high! But Foresight seems to be guiding her too! It determined that she would lose and urged her body to flee! Let's move!" The dracanae rushed forward to chase Martha, who was escaping.

Fate was guiding Martha's Path of Combat. And since it desired to buy time for the knights, Martha was now doing what Fate directed her instincts to do.

The attack she did was to deceive the enemy. Her Path of Foresight was stronger than the dracanae that it was meant for the dracanae to be blinded from her purpose. They believed that Martha was trying to survive and escape. And when that attack failed, Martha fled to give the impression that Foresight was forcing her to move.

At that moment, her Path of Foresight was increasing its level because the mad and crazy power of dark maddening was fueling Martha's usage of Foresight.

The group began to chase her, and even though many of the dracanae ghouls were recovering from the crash, those that would attack Martha were all swiftly killed.

The sword and dagger in Martha's hand grew even darker as it absorbed more and more during her escape. 

But what the dracanae didn't realize was that Martha was not just undergoing a normal Dark Maddening.

She had fallen into the type of Dark Maddening that Kyros hoped wouldn't be possible. Kyros knew how scary his Dark maddening was. It wasn't like the usual curses where one falls into a berserked state, and they would wake up out of that trance. He fell into that Dark Maddening state that was supposed to be permanent. 

And since the Coven had taken Kyros's blood, it was possible for them to fall into a similar kind of Dark Maddening.

It took a miracle and the help of Kyriachos to break free. But not everyone has the same power that Kyros has. Kyros knew that this was possible. But something told him that there was something good at the end of the dark tunnel if he allowed Martha and the team to fall into this trap.

Kyros was also curious. As cruel as it may seem, he wanted to know if the Dark Maddening was something that could be reverted.

Martha suffered from a minuscule attack that Kyros experienced. But without the divinity of Mysterion, Martha was lost in darkness.

She found herself moving in a long dark path.

The world she came to was the Abyss that was hidden deep within the cave and caverns.

She kept walking and walking, but there was no light anywhere.

"Where am I?" She pondered as she walked.

It was strange for her, a conscious and living being, to walk in the deep darkness.

The Abyss, the great power that divides, has removed her soul from her mind.

She was no Nephilim but a mere human. And so, the power of the dark that separated her was something her soul had no chance of resisting.

She walked down the endless darkness, trying to remember who she was or what she was. She knew she existed, but other than that, she knew of nothing else.

Her soul continued to walk in the darkness.

"How odd..." A rough and strange voice echoed in the darkness.

Despite the loud sound, Martha couldn't hear it, for she was detached from all forms of senses inside the darkness.

The source of the voice was a large red dragon who peered out of the darkness.

"A human soul has wandered into this Abyss? Could it be? Humans have reached my grave?" The dragon frowned.

"But how did she fall into such darkness and reach this realm? Has the Fallen taken residence of my grave and is battling humans?" The dragon wondered as he observed the soul.

"At least I have someone to accompany me in this eternity." The dragon smiled and continued to watch. It was then that the dragon felt something uncomfortable.

"Hrm? That power! It's the Charmed Fallen!" The dragon's soul began to retreat as he was afraid of the pain that the power of one of the deadliest dragon slayers could create. The dragon had seen it, and all of his brothers and sisters fell from the hands of this very Fallen.

"Scary. Why does this human have the power of the Charmed Fallen?" The dragon frowned.

"My soul falls into the Abyss, and just when I meet someone after a millennium, she has the power of the Charmed Fallen! What stupid luck. Even if this human dies, her soul will be lost forever in this darkness! I'd have to keep walking out of her way, and I can't devour her!" The dragon cursed.

He then began to think. The power of the Abyss in this place was something he had grown accustomed to. But it took him many centuries to break free from the separation. His fear was that if he devoured this soul, the Darkness that Separates would affect him once more and throw him in a state of limbo for all eternity.

"Strange. Now that I think about it... The Charmed Fallen's darkness shouldn't have cause one's soul to fall down this Abyss! They would only go through a temporary state of Dark Maddening. Did this human try to eat the darkness of the descendants of Fallen Kyriachos?" The dragon scratched his head.

"But then again, how can humans eat darkness?" The dragon took a closer look at her soul.

He decided to draw closer and observe the form of Martha.

As he approached, something he didn't expect happened. Martha turned to him as she sensed a presence near her.

"Who... are you?"

"You can see me?!" The dragon was startled.

At first, Martha stood silently. But then she took a closer look at the figure before her.

"Are... Are you talking to me?" Martha asked.

"She can also hear me!" The dragon was amazed.

"Little girl! Can you hear me? Stop casting that Death Ripple spell! I'll move closer if you can!" The dragon shouted.

He did so, several times and finally, Martha nodded.

The strange power in her soul disappeared.

"Good! Now that I think about it, I just saved your life. You could die by constantly releasing Death Ripple." The dragon laughed as he approached.

"You...! You're a dragon!" Martha could finally see the full form of the dragon's soul. He was like the same dracanae he fought, but he had large wings and horns on his head.

"Nice to meet you. It would be so nice to be a dragon again. But right now, I am just a dragon soul. I ate something I shouldn't have, and the Darkness that Separates began to pull my soul out of my body and trapped me in here. I think that the same thing happened to you."

Martha glanced at the dragon with a confused expression. Martha was starting to feel a strange pain in her soul as some thoughts were starting to come to her. Although she couldn't remember, many parts of Martha's behavior were returning due to the dragon's words and jolting her soul to seek memories naturally.

"Urh... I'm alive! I know I am alive! But what does this mean?" She was so confused. She had a feeling that she didn't belong in this darkness, and her soul was longing to return to her body.

"You're weird." The dragon frowned. The anomaly he saw before him was too strange. Normal humans can't do this! How could she easily recall about herself in such a fast time when it took this dragon ages to do so!

"Not the most polite thing to say to someone you just met... But I guess I can play along. You're ugly." Martha countered.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Fair enough." The dragon sighed.