Ascension of the Nephilim

Aron watched the twelve remaining Vampires hovering in the air. He had revealed a confident and carefree expression, but in truth, Aron was observing the enemy as he could feel the threat of death.

Even Fate was agreeing that he would die.

The Vampire Commander gave a cautious look around the army. He could not sense any life among the forces. He then gave a careful look at Aron. The dark suit that Aron wore also hid the life force.

"[Detect Life] doesn't work on you because of the armor. What a complex trick."

"It isn't that complex. I'm just wearing a suit made of Shadow Ghouls!" Aron laughed as he demonstrated. Then, a dark creature emerged out of Aron's back.

"A Shadow Ghoul?" One of the champions noticed the creature.

"It's sort of uncomfortable to wear them. But it gets the job done. So, the next Commander to fall on our hands is a Vampire Commander commanding a Coven? This should be interesting. A Commander vampire and eleven Champions. Three Vampire Mages, Three Vampire Knights, a Vampire Berserker, two swordsmen, and two assassin class vampires. And, of course, the Commander! A hybrid class, I presume? I believe Kyros called it a Battle Mage? One who has equal talent in Force and Magic?"

"Impressive eyesight. It's rare to see a Force user be able to see through my form." The Commander smiled.

"You will make an excellent replacement for that Vampire you just killed."

"My Lord...? What do you mean?"

"That attack of his destroyed the soul of Everon. If you die by his hands, your souls don't go back to my soul pool."

The nearby vampires were horrified as they heard this.

"Do you see why I stopped you, Morticar? Had you recklessly charged forward, you would have died. My condolences to you. But let this be the last time I greet you." The Commander ordered.

The anger in the vampire's eyes could be seen as a bright red flash appeared on all of their eyes.

"Scary. Red eyes. Those are signs of a Royal Vampire lineage!"

"Oh? You know of our linage?"

"Of course. We talked about all vampire blood. Only those that are Royal Vampire are capable of flight like yours. No magic fluctuations of force magic. This is Blood Magic. You are controlling your blood to levitate."

"How knowledgeable. Are you a vampire hunter of some sort?" The Vampire Commander asked.

"Haha! That would be ironic. No. My nephew is a vampire, and he has formed a powerful Coven. My wife included. And they have a certain Bloodline called Vampire Bloodlines. And I heard it's stronger by some degree than your impure line."

"Vampire Bloodlines?! Impossible!" A Champion shouted.

"The Nephilim is a vampire?" Another asked.

"Relax. He's making you all agitated. If it is true, then it's only to our benefit. We don't know where his allies are. Follow your training. Assume that you are fighting a Commander."

"Oh? Are you not going to step in? You Commanders sure are different. Each of you has your own tactics and styles on how to fight us. That dragon was probably the strongest in terms of might. But he recklessly attacked and treated every one of his Champions as props that only served to build up and glorify his power. Then there was that Crab Commander. That Crab was better, smarter, and very meticulous! I would have died if not for having an ally who's smarter than him. And had it not been for the Crab Commander's pride, he would have lost. You, on the other hand, seem to be something in the middle of those two. You hold your head up with such pride as a Royal Vampire and treat your Coven as trusted subordinates. I must have made you angry that I permanently killed that Champion. So who's next? Are you all going to come at me at once? Be sure to have stronger defenses than that other guy had. He was so weak."

"I'll kill you!" The woman roared.

"Stop. He is taunting you to attack. Our advantage is that we are in the sky. Avoid fighting him in close range and keep the skies to your advantage. Do not underestimate him. His sword attacks aren't normal. Knights. Assume that his sword can cut through your shields. Now go!" The Vampire Commander ordered.

The Champions all attacked together. Cold energy erupted in the sky as the Vampires harnessed the cold energy. Ice crystals were appearing around the two mages.

The knights, swordsmen, and the berserker flew at the forefront and readied their attacks. The assassin vampires had vanished, and the mages were preparing massive attacks.

The sky above grew colder as the Champions harnessed their power.

"Kyros was right. Vampires, being dark dependent, prefer the cold as their elements." Aron watched as the vampires began to send out their attacks. Aron slowly allowed himself to fall into the horde of shadow armies below as the attacks reached the hill he was standing on.

BOOM! BOOM! 

A burst of Force energy erupted and allowed Aron to dive into the armies quickly.

"[Gravity Slow!]" The Vampire Commander activated strange magic that caused Aron's fall to slow down.

"Kill him! He's trying to hide in the army!" The Commander ordered.

The Berserker Vampire grew large and bulky as he rushed forward.

The two mage vampires created massive magic energy that covered the berserker creating a bulky ice armor that covered his entire body. The ice armor had several spikes and had terrifying thickness.

The slow fall caused Aron to smirk.

"What powerful magic. You guys aren't normal. No one within the Midlands has it!"

He saw the Vampire Berserker charging like a bull, and the space around him was slow.

Aron raised his arms and prepared to attack when he felt another strange magic.

"[Slow Motion]!" The Vampire Commander summoned a powerful time-space magic that turned the air around Aron into a strange watery-form.

It was as if Aron was underwater. Every move he made was restricted and moved with extreme slowness.

With the possible movement of Aron weakened, the knights and swordsmen all rushed to kill Aron. 

Aron frowned as he felt it.

"What use of your strength when you can't achieve the velocity to perform the attack?" The Vampire Commander laughed.

Aron saw it all and waited. He felt great crisis telling him of his death, but he did not panic.

A few moments back, before the group separated and went their own way...

Kyros gave the directive, and Martha, Mezal, and Aron made their preparations.

"I'll take the East. I sense strange darkness there. I should get stronger with that Commander." Martha said.

"We'll take the South. I feel that that place is the place to go if I want this young blood to live." Mezal laughed.

"Uncle?"

"Eh? I'm too lazy to think. I'll just stay here."

"What?" Kyros, Martha, and Mezal exclaimed.

"Husband! Don't make light of this!"

"I'm not. I know that you want me to go West since that's also the place that gives me the highest chance to survive. Kyros, you planned to stay here to face whatever that's coming here, right? I want to fight it."

"Are you sure?"

"As I said, I have to challenge Destiny. If I go West, then I am fleeing from the battles that could kill me. Besides, I want to try something. We've slain two Commander-level creatures. The Temple greatly bestowed the powers of the dragons to us. It gave the bulk of the energy to the main Steele family, and after killing that Crab, the Myster Experience System also gave me quite a lot. I've leveled up quite a few times and reached level 33. But there is so much that I have gained in my training. The research of Branze have pushed my abilities to a level that even I do not know. I want to know what my limit is so that I can break past it. I've always known my strength as a warrior who evolves in the midst of battle. The best way for me to grow stronger is to fight in a battle that could kill me. I haven't had that for a time." Aron smiled.

"Fine. I can tell that the Commander coming here is a Vampire. The Corruption of the Fanged Fallen speaks of it. So let's talk about their possible abilities..."

Kyros began to list down the traits and possible abilities that vampires had.

Aron had known that vampires had a tremendous ability in the areas of Ice and Water. The two are their elements. Kyros guessed that if a particularly powerful vampire with the ability of water appears, the vampire would have the ability to merge it with Dark and another element within the Waters elemental family. Time Magic was a very rare form of magic that only a few could grasp. But as Destiny was cruel and vicious, Kyros told Aron to prepare for the worst.

With Water, Time, and Dark working together and creating a zone that slowed Aron, his death was certain. The approaching vampires were all Champions with impressive potential, and they were all charging at Aron.

But this was all according to Aron's plan.

"Very good, Destiny.. Send them all! I can't make several powerful slashes! So come at me together so that I'll only use one slash!" Aron smiled as his schemes were working.