Rebirth of the Nephilim

The process of explaining to the Hero of Valtar, the destined soul meant to destroy the evil Demon Lord whose forces were ravaging the world, that one of his allies had just that night transformed into a Demon Lord herself went about as well as Jadis could have hoped.

“I don’t believe you.”

That was to say, they were being met with denial rather than violence.

Jadis, Alex, Aila, Eir, Severina, and Ammy had gathered in the Leviathan with Wilhelm and Jocelyn. Technically, Jadis had flown the rest of her lovers over to the Roc to wait before bringing the Hero and Oracle to the already privacy-screened airship. Eir had raised the valid concern that having everyone present for the sensitive discussion could lead to the two humans feeling as though they were being ganged up on; the numbers certainly would have been against them. Jadis agreed that was possible and that she didn’t want either Wilhelm or Jocelyn to think that they were being anything but open and honest with them, but she also felt as though the underlying reason Eir had for limiting the participants was to prevent distractions from happening. If that was the case, Jadis couldn’t disagree with that reasoning, either. Still, to make sure that none of her lovers were left out of the loop, her Syd body stayed with everyone on the Roc so that they would be able to get direct, second-by-second updates of what was being said.

The peanut gallery was only slightly distracting.

“I am not joking,” Jay insisted as she motioned with both hands at Alex.

“She’s really not joking,” Ammy echoed as she mirrored Jay’s stance and pointed at the Demon.

“Alex was offered and has accepted the Demon Lord class,” Jay continued. “She’s a Demon Lord.”

Alex, standing between Jay and the catgirl in her humanoid form, waved two of her hands at the Hero.

“Yes… I am… An evil Demon Lord… And will… Destroy… The World…” Alex stated in an upbeat tone.

“Fuck, stop listening to Kerr,” Dys dragged one hand over her face. “Now is not the time for jokes, Alex.”

“Sorry…”

“So, you are joking about…?” Jocelyn said hesitantly as she made a confused, half-smile expression.

“No, I’m not,” Dys insisted again. “I mean, Alex was joking about the being evil and destroying the world part. The Demon Lord part is real.”

“Yes…” Alex nodded her head. “I am… Not evil… But I am… A Demon Lord…”

“And you’re a reincarnated human from a different world called Dirt?” Wilhelm stated flatly after staring at Alex for a solid minute.

“Earth. It’s called Earth,” Dys corrected the man.

“I can’t believe he actually made that mix up,” Syd grumbled under her breath as she recounted everything said to her audience in the Roc.

As part of their explanation of Alex’s new class, Jadis had covered the entire encounter with Samleos in D’s realm, which naturally required an abbreviated explanation of Jadis’ origins. If they were going to be upfront with Willy and Jocy, she figured it would be best to be completely upfront, hiding nothing more from either of them. Jadis was putting her full trust in the two. If she couldn’t count on them to keep Alex’s secret, then she would have bigger problems to deal with than keeping her own secrets from the Hero and the rest of the world.

“I… I need a moment—just a moment,” Wilhelm said as he sat heavily down onto one of the nearby seats.

The expressions that flitted across the Hero’s face were varied, to say the least. Jadis could only watch as he sat with one hand over his mouth, eyes darting back and forth, seeing nothing, as he dealt with thoughts and emotions that were no doubt running rampant through his head. It was no doubt a lot for the man to take in.

Jocelyn wasn’t doing any better, from what Jadis could tell. The Oracle had gone deathly pale, her face showing a mixture of fear and worry. Her eyes kept turning towards Wilhelm, but she also couldn’t stop glancing at everyone else in the room, like she had a million different questions to ask of them all yet didn’t know where to start. Or perhaps she was waiting for Wilhelm to break the ice.

“How do—how do I know that you are truly a Demon Lord?” Wilhelm abruptly asked, his gaze focused on Alex. “I do not have any means of identifying a class. What proof do you have, other than your word, that you are a Demon Lord?”

“This… Is… My Mark…”

Alex was currently in her more humanoid form. She was wearing a pair of Jadis’ pants, which fit well enough thanks to her increased height, and one of Jadis’ shirts that Sabina had hastily modified by removing the sleeves and cutting a bigger hole so that both sets of arms could comfortably fit. She also had on the magic pantaloons, not that anyone could see them at the moment, with her tertiary class purposefully left as blank. They were all still discussing what would be the best false class name to use, so nothing had been selected yet. As part of her change, Alex had kept her tri-pointed halo suppressed, so it could not be seen. However, as she pointed at the space over her head, the glowing blue ring reappeared, immediately giving off a subtle aura that washed over the cabin.

As Wilhelm and Jocelyn stared at the neon-blue halo, Dys held up the leatherbound book that Vraekae had gifted her the day before. Jadis hadn’t even had a chance to really read the thing yet, not since Alex had jumped the gun on picking her class, but she had skimmed a few of the chapters. In fact, after Alex’s transformation, her Dys self had been rapidly scanning through the pages, looking for anything that might be important for their current situation. Jadis was glad that she had, as there was one description of previous Demon Lords that they all seemed to share. Opening the book, Dys put her finger to the page and read one of the later passages.

“Demon Lord Sunder, whose dread form was wreathed in fire and flame, burned the land upon which his great bulk rested, turning stone to a molten lava that flowed forth in a great ring around him. With each scraping step of his clawed feet, the ground quaked and the foundations of Oros trembled. From his five long necks rose five toothless maws, from each streamed fire and death. And crested above his fifth head was a Mark, shaped as a hollow diamond with a curved X bisecting it in the middle. And from this Mark rose a terrible heat, worse than the flames and melted stone beneath the Demon Lord’s feet, and worse than the fire and brimstone that flowed from his mouths. Worse still than all the fires of Mount Fen, for from the Mark flowed all the fury and hatred Demon Lord Sunder held for the Children of the Nine.”

“That’s from the invasion cycle before the last two,” Jay said as Dys closed the book. “A lot of the language in that book is a lot more flowery than I’m used to reading here on Oros, but every description of Demon Lords that I’ve seen so far is the same. They all describe—”

“The Mark of the Demon Lord,” Wilhelm said, his gaze fixed on Alex’s halo. “A symbol, unique to each Demon Lord, that marks them as the ruler of their kin.”

“…I’m guessing you’re familiar with the concept,” Jay frowned with worry.

“Valtar showed me the current Demon Lord’s Mark when he gave me my class,” Wilhelm stated, his eyes still unblinking. “He taught me its meaning.”

Turning to look at her companions, Jay raised an eyebrow in question.

“Is this whole Demon Lord Mark thing common knowledge?”

“I admit, I have not heard the term before now,” Severina said as Aila shook her head and Eir echoed her ignorance to the concept. “I’ve seen paintings of Demon Lords in the past, and I do believe some had some sort of mark or symbol related to them, but—”

“It’s not a secret,” Jocelyn cut in, then immediately looked embarrassed to have interrupted the Seraphim. When Severina simply motioned for her to continue, the Oracle nodded her head and faced Jay. “The Mark of the Demon Lord is more of a symbolic term than a literal one, as it refers to the aura of dominion that Demon Lords emanate. It’s supposed to represent their power, in the same way runes represent magic power. It’s not true writing, but an abstract concept made real.

“There’s no particular symbol that represents all Demon Lords, and they don’t all come as floating, ah, marks over the head, like… that,” the woman pointed at the ring floating above Alex. “I believe High Priest Oswin Teel taught me of several Demon Lords whose Marks were on their bodies, or were a part of their bodies, I think, or something of that nature—”

“But every Demon Lord has a Mark,” Wilhelm finished as he rose to his feet. “You are right about that, Jadis. And while a floating symbol is meaningless on its own, I know by the foundation of my class that I can sense the Mark of a Demon Lord when I see it. For good or for ill, you have convinced me. Alex is a Demon Lord.”

“I’m kind of hoping to avoid any ‘ill’ when it comes to this,” Dys said as she stepped slightly in front of Alex. “That’s why I came to you and Jocelyn in the first place. None of us wanted to keep you in the dark.”

“Now,” the man said with some heat in his voice. “Now you do not wish to keep me in the dark, now that the damage is already done! You were more than fine with hiding this all from me for the past week! Not one word of this was given to me! You lied to me!”

“No, we didn’t,” Aila rebutted cooly. “We told everyone that Alex was delaying selecting her tertiary class pending further research and consultation. That was the honest truth. We simply did not reveal all of the details.”

“Oh, do not split hairs with me,” Wilhelm scoffed. “A lie of omissions stinks the same as any other falsehood. You did not trust me with the whole truth and are only telling me now after the fact!”

“Okay, yes, we lied,” Jay jumped in, her voice raised though her temper stayed cool. “You’re right. I lied to you. But it wasn’t with malicious intent, and it wasn’t because I don’t trust you. I do trust you! I’m giving you all the information now, including one of my most important and guarded secrets, because I trust you, Wilhelm! We were going to come to you for advice! It was literally on my list of things to do upon returning from Eldingholt. I just—I didn’t get the chance.”

“I am… At fault…” Alex whispered, her body language withdrawn. “I may… Have acted… In haste…”

“Yes, you did,” Aila bluntly told the Demon. “But Jadis was being highly romantic and ridiculously supportive with her words, so I understand why you let your emotions get the better of you.”

“Jadis does have that effect,” Severina muttered darkly.

“So, I do not blame you, Alex. No one does. At the same time,” Aila turned to face Wilhelm. “Please do not blame us for our caution. You know as well as we do that a secret is best kept when those who keep it are few. We truly were trying to resolve the situation without drawing attention to it, and when the discussion with Destarious ended how it did, asking Jocelyn for help speaking with Valtar was the next step.”

“Oh! Ah, of course, I would have absolutely devoted my next oracle ritual to your aid!” Jocelyn spoke up with a flush to her face.

“Thank you,” Aila said with a slight bow. “Please, do not take offense that we did not notify you sooner. We truly hoped that we would be able to resolve this by unlocking a different class for Alex via Divine assistance. The situation hasn’t developed the way we expected, which is why we are here to include you both now.”

“See, that’s why she’s the smart one,” Kerr said as Syd repeated Aila’s speech word for word. “I couldn’t have said that without two or three curses.”

“Please, forgive us for not coming to you sooner,” Eir said as she bowed her head low to Wilhelm and Jocelyn. “We did not mean to slight you.”

“No, please, don’t do that!” the human oracle rushed to lift the elf’s head. “We don’t need you to apologize!”

“And yet,” Wilhelm said with less kindness in his voice, “I imagine you will be asking for our silence, won’t you? That is why you asked for me and Jocelyn to be here, without the rest of my companions?”

“Yes,” Jay answered bluntly. “I’m asking you two to keep this information to yourselves and to not tell anyone else.”

“Which means we will now be a part of your lie,” the Hero scowled. “And we are to carry it out against those whose lives I am responsible for, those who I trust with my own life.”

“Oh, dear gods above,” Ammy groaned loudly before shocking everyone by picking up a random shoe from the floor and throwing it at Wilhelm’s head. “Give it a rest, would you?”

“Ammy,” Wilhelm began with a finger raised. “That was—”

“Shut it, Willy!” the Lares snapped. “You’re the Hero! Not a fucking paragon! Don’t act like Jadis is asking you to commit murder on her behalf! She’s asking you to keep a secret! You know we can’t tell Halvor about this because he’s a lippy drunk! Ludger’s a meathead and he can be talked into talking about just about anything, Lucia would tell the whole temple of Valtar immediately, Tiernan would muck it all up with experiments, and Rein tells his uncle about everything we do! Alex and Jadis are trusting you with a big fucking secret because you and Jocelyn can be trusted! Stop being such a buttface and get over it!”

“Your opinions of your comrades are unkind and saying such things is beneath you!”

“It’s not unkind, it’s called being realistic! If you want to tell any of them about all this, you better come at it from a blood oath direction, otherwise you know what I’ve said is absolutely true. And stop acting like the reason why you’re mad about this is because Jadis kept a secret from you! It’s not like she’s required to tell you everything, and I know you don’t tell her everything going on in your life! You’re being a pissy crykitten for no reason!”

“No, I’m not angry at her because she kept secrets!” Wilhelm shouted at Ammy, showing more anger in his face in that moment than Jadis had seen in all the time she had known him. “I’m angry because I’ve shared my meals with Alex! I’ve sat by the campfire with her! I’ve fought beside her in battle! I’ve held her baby in my arms and looked upon that smiling face with hope for the future! And now, because of actions entirely outside my control, I am forced to say that I am sworn by my duty to Valtar to kill her!”

Wilhelm’s chest heaved as he stood there before them, his face contorted by anger and grief. Squeezing his eyes shut, he scrubbed at his head with his hands for a moment, causing his hair to stick up in random directions before letting his arms drop to his side. Opening his eyes and turning his gaze onto Alex, he gave her a small, defeated shrug before speaking in a bemused tone.

“Do you not see how I might feel conflicted in this moment?”

In the silence that stretched between them, Jadis found that she held no anger in her heart at Wilhelm for what he had just said. The man cared for Alex. He didn’t want to hurt her. But he felt duty-bound by his oath to Valtar to fulfill a task he had been set to. There was no maliciousness in his words or actions. He didn’t want to kill Alex or cause any pain to any of them. He was, in essence, just following orders.

Which meant it was up to Jadis to show him a way out of those orders.

“Do you have to kill Alex?” Jay asked, her tone as calm and reasonable as Aila had ever managed to be. “By that I mean, does your oath to Valtar specifically state that you have to kill Demon Lord Alex?”

Turning to face her, Wilhelm slowly shook his head.

“My duty states that I am to ‘Slay the Demon Lord.’ It does not specify a name.”

“But Valtar did show you the symbol of the current Demon Lord when he gave you your Hero class, right?”

“Yes, he did,” Wilhelm nodded a little more firmly. “It is… similar to Alex’s Mark, in so much as they are both ring shaped. But they are distinctly different.”

“Well, if the oath just says ‘the’ Demon Lord and not a specifically named one, and Valtar showed you a Mark that is different from Alex’s Mark, then I don’t think there’s anything about your oath that requires you to fight Alex, is there?”

“I do not believe the wording of the oath was ever intended to account for a situation where there is more than one Demon Lord,” the Hero let out a huff of amusement. “What was once straightforward has become vague. However, presuming that I slay the current Demon Lord, the one other than Alex, I mean… I would still have an oath that tells me I must slay the Demon Lord, and there would be no other option left but Alex.”

“Okay, so, there’s some ambiguity,” Jay inhaled deeply before continuing. “Then we just need to get some clarification. At the risk of sounding biased, I haven’t received any word from my patron saying that Demon Lord Alex should be slain. How about either of you two?”

Turning to look at Severina and Amarantha, Jay raised an eyebrow in question.

“I have not received any guidance from Valtar one way or the other,” Severina stated bluntly, her arms crossed over her chest. “I have been asking continually ever since we were first learned that Alex was offered the Demon Lord class and my pleas have been met with silence.”

“Nothing from my lady either,” Ammy said while still glaring daggers at Wilhelm. “She’s being weirdly quiet. Not like she talks to us all the time anyway, but I usually get touches from her when big stuff is happening. Not a thing right now.”

“Then, perhaps we should seek Valtar’s consultation directly?” Jocelyn asked hesitantly. “I know that my next ritual was meant to be used to ask for advice on the coming assault on Kastoria, but this situation is far more important. I could even perform the more powerful version, so that I could bring more than one person with me to speak with Valtar—”

Jadis felt a sudden, undeniably alien, urge to agree with Jocelyn’s plan. It literally felt like someone else was jumping around under her skin for a brief moment, throwing themselves forward in desperate urgency. Jadis’ whole body shivered as the sensation passed a second later. As distracting as the feeling was, she did not fail to notice how both Severina and Ammy also shivered at the same time. Even her Syd self saw Meli and Maeve tremble uncontrollably, despite the fact that she hadn’t fully finished repeating what had been said to everyone gathered in the other airship.

“Oh, I felt that,” Ammy said as her flaming hair puffed out to twice its normal size. “Wow, I felt that.”

“I do not believe we could have received a more direct indication as to what our next step should be,” Severina stated calmly.

“Jocelyn,” Jay addressed the Oracle. “We would be really, really grateful if you could perform your multi-person communion ritual as soon as possible.”

“Yes,” the brunette nodded her head in agreement. “I will use all of my cooldowns to perform it right away. Eir, would you help me with the preparations?”

“Of course,” the elf replied without hesitation.

As Dys moved to carry Jocelyn and Eir down to the camp so that the Oracle’s tent could be raided for the supplies needed to perform the ritual, Wilhelm took several steps closer to Jay. Gazing up at her with a worried expression, he spoke his words softly, intending them just for her.

“You understand that I truly have no desire to cause any harm to Alex, yes?”

“Yeah, I get that,” Jay nodded. “You’re a good person, Wilhelm. You’re just trying to do what you think is right.”

“You are a good person, too,” the man replied, his expression firm. “As is Alex. I just… I don’t know what I will do if Valtar tells me I must treat her as I must treat any other Demon Lord.”

“Me neither,” Jay spoke with steel in her voice. “Me neither…”