Ascension of the Nephilim

The power of Demerus had brought him into the class of Lich. But unlike the class of Lich that Kyros met outside, Demerus wasn't just a Lowly Lich which would have twice the magic power of what Skeletons have at their level, but Demerus had triple the magic potency.

"So Lich triple, then I wonder what power those who are Arch-Lich has?" Demerus smiled.

"Alright. Let's give it a go." Aron laughed as he wielded his fire, and it became a sword.

"What?!" Demerus was shocked. The sword that Aron created was of fire, but it looked as if it was hardened.

"Oh? So this sword should be equal to a regular knight's sword... I guess I have a long way to go before I can even make Captain Level swords..." Aron sighed.

"Oh well... Shall we fight?"

"Erm... That's not what I meant to fight! I mean, use magic!" Demerus defended. Aron could cut and pierce a Commander with unimaginable power. The Commanders they fought were all horrifying creatures that could take three or four of the Commanders in the Lowlands. Even if Aron had a regular sword, Demerus would dare not fight him.

"Master Aron, I believe you need to read more books about the Artificer! I believe I saw several books about that. The way you wield the fire... It's unnatural."

"Oh? Now that you mention it, the dark spears that Kyros made weren't this hard and could only maintain form for so long. Could it be because of my lineage to Hyperion Steel?" Aron wondered and glanced at the power of the sword.

"But I guess I should let my brother or someone else do that. I learn more from actually seeing it rather than studying." Aron answered.

"I... I see. I have heard of this monstrous ability of yours. Then let us all fight. I'll stay here within this perimeter and will not fly. Everyone except Master Aron, attack me with what you have and try to use magic. Master Aron, please stick with using fire."

"Alright." Aron nodded without any concern.

Reptilia frowned.

"You underestimate the Coven." She glared at Demerus.

"Not really." Demerus smiled.

BOOM!

The potent magic energy erupted. A great power of Decay erupted and formed a massive skull that surrounded Demerus.

"Entropy..." Mardock watched with an impressed expression.

"His force is nearly half of my prime power. And he has not yet even perfected it. Amazing." Mardock praised.

Reptilia retreated, as did the rest. Only Aron stood his ground and wielded flame.

"Oh? Is his magic causing my flames to decay? What an interesting concept!" Aron laughed.

"Come, Coven. Let's train!"

"As I said..." Reptilia frowned.

"You underestimate the Coven! Scarlet!"

"[Shadow Step]!" Scarlet shouted as she teleported right inside the gap of the skeleton.

Inside the greenish skull, Scarlet shot Fire Bolts.

KZZT KZZT!

But the fire bolts were all disintegrated.

Hunter and Reptilia attacked from the outside, wielded powerful energy, and slashed on the massive skeleton.

"Too weak, guys..." Aron shook his head.

BOOM!

The Force Energy all disappeared the moment it struck.

"What happened?!" Reptilia cursed.

"That Entropy is very strong. You need to make a massive attack to penetrate it. It degrades force and magic energy. This is a great way to train. It will force us to harness the strongest magic energy at once. If not..."

"AHHH!" Scarlet screamed as she escaped from the inside using [Shadow Step].

She fell down, and her body was rotting. Immense pain filled her body.

"Send her in the Temple. My attacks won't kill you, but it's designed to make you experience pain worse than death." Demerus smiled.

"Hunter! Get ready to attack!" Reptilia called out.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Haven't you noticed? When you attacked him, the Entropy got to you. It should start hurting... right about now." Aron guessed.

"AHHH!" Reptilia felt the pain. She turned to see her hand and saw that her hand was also rotting and felt the pain. The decay and entropy were moving towards her body.

Hunter also saw it and tried his best to stop screaming.

"This will force you to use magic to attack me. I can't maintain that form for long as it eats up a lot of my magic. But this will also train me to wield it. This will be our training, I will teach you how to meditate, and then once you show progress, we test it in combat. After which, we go back to studying and meditating and then fight again. If your growth is far below mine, you will always fail." Demerus smiled.

"Interesting. I like it! Let's do this! Our time to evolve has come and this new power will definitely be mine!" Aron laughed.

Diana watched from the inner chambers of the Library of Light.

"The Emberdons are geniuses indeed. I pictured a group that would be discussing and researching together like some mad scientist. But they made a contest out of it racing to figure out how to achieve the full powers of a lich. Demerus is clearly the smartest. And next to him is that Faye... But all of them are still shocking geniuses in their own right. And Demerus is pitting his genius against Aron to force him to train. It seems their Path of Molding is higher than I thought." Diana observed.

BOOM!

Aron charged towards the decay and used his arm to do a punch. 

The powerful punch harnessed force that dug deep into the skeleton.

Demerus used greater magic to resist the attack.

The fire around Aron disappeared.

"I lost, huh?" Aron shook his head. He only had so much magic in him and the Fire Core.

"You lack so much magic, Master Aron. You need to train to increase the amount of mana you can produce.

"I guess I need to train to have more magic points." Aron sat down.

"Yes! That's right, and I will teach you a way to meditate and how to force your Mind to slowly increase the magic in you. It's a high-level meditation technique of great complexity. But seeing as you are a genius, I'm sure that- Oh. You're already doing it..." 

Aron was already seated and had done the meditation technique that he had witnessed several times in his life. Kyros also gave him some tricks when he first awakened his magic energy back when he and Kyros first met and used the Temple.

Demerus tried to sound casual, but he was agitated. It wouldn't be long that Aron could penetrate his defenses and begin to train.

Diana watched and was laughing.

"I guess this is one way to make these geniuses train like mad." She chuckled.

"Fate made the lives of these Champions so hard so that they would be this polished. Thankfully, not one of them died and became our allies. With them, our research potential greatly increases. Even though Aron is a beast in combat, he cannot create new techniques as these mages can. With them around, we can finally understand the many mysterious techniques in those books. This training time will allow the Steele Family to evolve and reach a higher level of power."

Diana and moved back to the Temple.

"Still... Even if all of them worked together, they can't surpass you in the areas of research, right Branze?" Diana smiled as she glanced at her husband.

Seated in the middle of the Temple was not Branze. But a strange ethereal and mist-like armor had covered him. The power of Light had covered him. In Branze's trance, he couldn't even take notice of the notification that had popped up.

---

Templar Paladin Job acquired.