Ascension of the Nephilim

At first, Kyros didn't notice it because there was no mountain, and he had the fight to finish the moment they left the portal. But later, when Kyros was moving about, he noticed it. The landscape was similar. Some regions had places that revealed a battle had taken place. But with Kyros's intelligence, he noticed it right away.

"The landscape, the places, and even the ruins suggest it. This is the same mysterious place where we once were. But my deduction is telling me are in that same world where Gojirrah and Reptilia lived, but possibly decades or even a hundred years into the future."

"How can you be so sure??" Branze asked.

"The exit to the portal is the same place where the Nephilim Sealing Mountain led to!"

"Lord Kyros is right. The portal that we emerged out of was the very same place where the Golem City and the huge mountain used to lay! I can even tell that north of this place is where my kingdom used to be!" Reptilia added.

"What?!" Mezal and Aron were shocked.

"I thought at first that this was some sort of alternate place. Like a reverse world of that world where we were."

"But you saw the ruins..." Calaminus's voice spoke.

Everyone turned to the Time Core that floated near Martha.

"Erm... Right. Everyone, this is my mentor and guardian. Time God Calaminus. Even when we first met, he was always with me, but I didn't reveal him because I feared Destiny's and Fate's power. But now I understand that Fate is trying to keep Calaminus's identity from being leaked while Destiny is trying to reveal it. As a god of time, you can only imagine his worth," Kyros introduced.

"He saved my life," Martha added.

"Erm... How do we address you?" Mezal asked. He was afraid of talking to other gods. He was slashed and given painful wounds the last time he spoke to one.

"Eh, Just Calaminus. I'm with the Nephilim, and I'm more dependent on him than he is on me. Besides, you guys aren't normal. Martha, a disciple of Kyriachos. Mezal and Aron, sons of Hyperion. If I'm not mistaken, Branze should be the reincarnation of Gannaios Steel. And Diana ought to to be Katara Kyriachos, the Bearer of Burdens, who totally isn't Lydia who is sworn to carry our burdens." Calaminus shrugged.

"As you can see, he's very eccentric. So don't worry about that. He's actually harmless."

"Wait! You're one of the Gods that Histerion showed!" Diana recognized Calaminus.

"Histerion?" Calaminus frowned at first but suddenly remembered.

"Oh my God! Histerion!"

"Did he just say, 'Oh my god?' Do gods swear by other gods?" Hunter whispered to Avary.

"Wow! I forgot about him! The keeper of History! And my father!"

"You're father?!" Even Kyros was amazed.

"I guess so. But let's not talk about that. He is one of those Beings that Were. So it won't do well to ponder on it."

"He's right." Kyros sighed.

"Anyway, Calaminus, you saw it too, right? Ruins of the kingdom where Gojirrah and Reptilia served was there! This isn't some reverse world, but a future world! This is the same place that the Nephilim Sealing mountain led to but, it is many, many years in the future! Can you sense the changing of time?"

"That's just it. There is no time here. We are caught in a strange place. This ain't the Past or the Present. But it isn't also the future."

"What?" Everyone had a confused expression.

"It means..." Calaminus began.

"Beyond the Nephilim Sealing Mountain is another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. It is a journey into a wondrous land of imagination. It is the Twilight-!"

"Ignore the idiot." Kyros facepalmed and interrupted Calaminus.

"But how can this place be the future and not the future? I don't understand..." Reptilia asked. She was so convinced that they were in the future.

"Beginning and End. I think I get it now. Everyone, listen up. When I arrived in Golem City, I saw a vision that brought me to a strange realm of Gods. But I heard that the fight between Destiny and Fate is also a fight that is a tool used by Beginning and End. And this makes me believe that this place is the battlefield between Beginning and End."

"Is Beginning and End gods like Calaminus?" Mezal asked.

"Yes. But this battle is even more complicated. We have to stop thinking of the concepts we know about how time works. We are involved in a grand battle that exceeds time and we have to abandon time itself to make sense of this! There is a God called Beginning. And there is another God called End. They sound like a concept of time, but since these two gods toy around with the Time God and have Fate and Destiny working for them, you could say that they are more of Concepts. Every beginning has to have an ending. And we are Beginning's champions for this battle!"

"So the God which is the concept of Beginning is fighting the God known as End?"

"Yes. You could say that this place is in the middle. One God is at the start of Creation, and another stands at the end. And they are fighting towards the middle! I could be wrong on some details. But this theory somehow explains how Fate and Destiny are fighting against each other." Kyros explained his theory

Everyone was silent after hearing Kyros's theory. Some couldn't even comprehend it. They could not help but look at Calaminus.

Calaminus was now smoking something.

"Oh, don't look at me. I'm not as high as him." Calaminus shrugged as he puffed a large smoke ring and blew a thick gust of smoke right at the center.

"Anyway..." Kyros was doubly irritated now that Calaminus was openly revealing himself and his eccentricity to everyone.

"This explains why your souls didn't leave. It can't because it is in a place where death doesn't happen as fast it should. It's like in a strange limbo in the universe outside of time and space. But while this saved you, this also poses a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Mezal frowned.

"Oh no..." Branze figured it out.

"Branze?" Aron turned.

"The souls don't travel back in a way that they should in this land. It stays here. This place where the path to the Afterlife is not possible makes the soul stay longer. This happened to your souls, but also of the enemy. And didn't we just see a Shaman Commander?" Branze reminded everyone.

"So they can draw back the souls of the slain commanders?!" Triona shouted in shock.

"Not just a Shaman Commander. Their Cardinal is a Necromancer." Martha revealed.

The expressions of everyone changed to horror.

"Then... Then...All the Commanders we fought and killed will return?" Demerus asked.

"Relax. Killing those Commanders had some effect." Calaminus answered.

"Even gods have a hard time performing true resurrection." Calaminus interrupted.

"Yes. They are definitely weaker now. Even if the souls remain, resurrecting the dead isn't easy. Even those who are Cherubims cannot easily resurrect the dead without great cost!" Kyros revealed. He had broken out of the Lowlands in his previous life ad saw a battle that even exceeded that of the Midlands. As such, he knew what Cardinals were capable of, and if Cherubims couldn't achieve true resurrection, the means of the Necromancer would result in an unstable resurrection.

"Then what can we possibly face?"

"Well, a half-life of those Commanders. We can't underestimate Destiny, though. I'm sure it's weaker, but just to be safe, we have to prepare to face them in their full strength."

"Agreed. Everyone, do not be discouraged. We have stopped and killed their commander. That wasn't wasted. But let's all fight and assume the worst anyway." Branze shouted to everyone and used his Motivational Speaker to keep everyone's morale up.

"It will have a body, and not a shadow body?" Aron asked.

"If only it was a shadow body. Our necromancer enemy properly explains how and why those shadows killed by normal means can come back. True Cut may kill it and stop them from returning, but my question is, where are the original bodies of these shades? And if the body died, who killed it in this place where Destiny has placed his forces?" Kyros asked.

"So you mean to say that the original bodies of everything we saw in here are stored in their fortress? And that the Necromancer is saving those bodies for resurrection?" Diana asked.

"Well, he could have used the bodies for other reasons. The fact that there are many Champions with Commander potential hints that the Necromancer probably fed them with the bodies of the weaker creatures and gave these men those shadow forms."

"I get it. Creating a body requires tremendous resources. The stronger the body, the more expensive it is. So they took the bodies of weak soldiers and fed it to the Champions and Commander."

"Yes. I've seen a Shade Lord Commander. Shade Lords are beings of endless darkness. That was what the Necromancer used as the resource to create the army of Shadows. But I'm guessing that another bulk of the bodies of those shadows was prepared in case this happens. They will be returning. Those commanders will rise and fight us again. And while they are weaker, they could probably match most of us. After all, we did have to rely on tricker to kill them." Kyros explained.

"Then what do we do? Are we going to attack now and stop them from being resurrected?"

"It depends on Calaminus."

"Me?" Calaminus asked.