ShanDeRad
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Book 2: Chapter 44
🕑 Added 2024-06-13 17:09:51 +0000 UTCAs they both walked through the palace, Shaun got more nervous by the second, he was about to meet one of the most powerful being in the multiverse, one of the twelve major powers. He hadn’t really thought through the impact of this meeting, when he had chosen to come here all he was really thinking about was getting information, seeing what they expected from him when the time came for him to move here permanently, he hadn’t for a moment considered the implications of suddenly appearing in the palace of a god.
During their walk they encountered fae and other beings, all of whom gave him a questioning look, he had been the only human here from what he could see. What was more odd was that they would all give a respectful nod to Des as they passed. No one stopped them or questioned why Des was leading a human through what had to be the capital of The Alliance, although they did encounter some beings that seemed more put out than others, they looked more or less human outside of their eyes and scales on parts of their skin, he recognised these people as dragons in their more human forms.
He felt that everyone around him was at a much higher level than he was, and a few times he encountered someone who had not fully restrained their aura, allowing him a glimpse into just how large that power gap was. He had questions, more now than ever, but he didn’t ask them as Des had been silent their entire walk. Eventually after a few minutes of walking they got to a set of doors with 2 guards standing in front of it, ensuring no one that didn’t have permission could enter.
“Are you ready?” Des didn’t immediately have the doors opened, instead she made sure he was okay to proceed.
“Nervous, kind of terrified. But no point wasting the time I have here, so let’s do it.”
Des chuckled at his honesty and gave a nod to the guards who opened the doors and allowed them entry. He really was nervous and he felt unsteady on his feet for a moment before pulling himself together and entering the room with Des. He had expected this to be a throne room where the Queen Elivasia would sit on a throne and he would stand before her, he couldn’t have been more wrong. Rather than a big room with a throne what he saw instead could only be described as a lounge area. There were couches that although looked more expensive than anything he could afford also looked to be very comfortable, there was also a small table in the middle that had food and drinks prepared. Standing in a corner of the room was a fae male who was staring at another set of closed doors that led into another room. When they entered the male turned to Des and him, giving a small bow of his head to Des and moved to staring him down. Shaun didn’t feel threatened by the look, it was more assessing than anything, the male was clearly trying piecing together what kind of fighter he was.
“He is the one?” The male asked Des but didn’t take his eyes of Shaun for a second. Des nodded back to him which was all the confirmation the male needed. “Than it seems I will have a lot of work to do to get him to where he needs to be.”
He was somewhat offended at that, for his level Shaun was more than capable, more powerful than he had any right to be. Yet this male believed that he needed a lot work to get to where this fae would approve of his ability? What have I gotten myself into?
Before he could reply the closed doors leading into the other room opened and he felt the air shift as who he had been waiting for entered the room. Queen Elivasia came through the doors but she was not alone, beside her was King Shrakein of the dragon’s. Shaun stiffened the moment he saw them, but not from fear, or nervousness. It was because some part of him recognised them, and not just through a memory, he felt kinship with these two, friendship even. The feelings were overwhelming and it seemed that the two royals were having a similar experience as they had both stopped and stared at him the moment they had locked eyes.
“Greetings Elivasia, Shrakein. It has been a long time.” The moment he spoke, he knew that it wasn’t him, not exactly. It was that part of him that was hidden deep inside of him, that part of himself that he had been working to unlock, and just by seeing these two in person a part of him had been opened, if only for a moment. Shaun shook his head trying to come back to himself. “Sorry, I….. I mean It is nice to meet you, Your Majesties.”
A silence spread through the room for only a moment before King Shrakein’s laugh broke the silence. “Finally, it is time.”
A smile broke out on Queen Elivasia face as King Shrakein spoke. “It seems that it is.” When Queen Elivasia turned that smile at him he felt weak a the knees. She hadn’t aged a day when comparing the memory he had of her from Azreal to the fae who was standing in front of him now. She was beautiful, powerful. She had stark white hair and a smile that could light up a planet, behind that though he knew she was a warrior with almost no equal. “Shaun, I can not express how happy I am to see you here, to make this trip, even with the systems help, you must have given up much.”
“But he shall gain so much more.” King Shrakein said after her. “I have waited for this moment for longer than you can imagine, Shaun. Just looking at you I can feel it, the connection, the power. It has been too long since I last felt this, to be in the presence of a Nephilim. Or an almost Nephilim anyway.”
Queen Elivasia motioned for everyone to take a seat, the smile never leaving her face as she did. “We have much to discuss and not long to do it. I assume you have come for a reason, before using the token, tell us what you need and we will see it done. Ask whatever questions you have and we will answer what we can.”
“Before we do that.” Des interrupted. “Shaun, you mentioned a war before and that much had happened since I saw you. You said that you have been named, that you are known to the factions as Rejector. We must know, what has happened? Speak your story quickly and precisely, we will not interrupt.”
Shaun didn’t particularly want to recap what had occurred, with time being so limited he wanted to talk more about the Nephilim, the Great War and the coming year. Seeing the looks that were pointed his way after Des spoke though, he knew that there was more going on. Rather than put it off he spoke through everything that had happened, the offers from the reps, the meetings, the war that was set to be waged for Earth and finally how he got his name, including the offer that anyone that killed him would be offered a place with one of the powers. He told them of cutting ties with his friends and what he had done in the tutorial to help form a resistance to The Pantheon through creating the links. It had taken no longer than 10 minutes and at the end he informed them of winning the tutorial and the choices he was provided, picking the one to come here.
When he was done there was a few beats of silence before King Shrakein spoke. “Now we know what is going on with the other powers. They have been unsettled since this integration, more so than any other. Even we have heard of the person known as The Rejector, but we did not know it was you. Shaun, are you confident that you can protect yourself on your planet? Or are you planning on coming back before the year is up?”
“The plan was to stay on Earth for a while. I am strong enough to fight monsters much higher level than me, at least to the peak of E grade. But I don’t know what people in other tutorials are like. Until I do I’m not sure how many of them I could take at once.”
“Shaun, I am Commander Alserio, I lead the fae when it comes to our warriors. I need to know what you are capable of to best prepare you. If you will, share with us your status screen?”
“I don’t actually know how to do that? Do you want me to just read it out?”
“To share your status screen with someone you can simply will them the information. Just think about how you bring it up to view yourself but instead of you seeing it push it so that others can.” Des replied to him with a kind smile, although the others seemed to be holding back chuckles.
He nodded at the explanation and closed his eyes, trying to do what Des had said. He imagined that everyone in the room could see his status screen and instantly he felt the information flow form him to the others. It hit a roadblock though, as it seemed that they had to accept the information as well. When he opened his eyes, he saw all of them looking into the air in front of them, presumably at his stats.
“I can work with this. Your stats are better than expected, much better if I am honest. Your actual skills are good but their level is low, too low. Your affinity is just….. I forget sometimes, the power of a Nephilim.” Commander Alserio got to his feet after that. “I must collect some items for his training, I will be back by the time is up. Your Majesties.” He bowed before disappearing from the room.
“Why do I get the feeling that what he was planned is going to hurt?” Shaun mumbled to the room before he could stop himself.
Queen Elivasia’s laugh echoed through the room at his comment, even eliciting chuckles from the others. “He is the best at what he does, training under Commander Alserio is a dream of all fae. But make no mistake, he will train you until you collapse, and even then he will not stop. He will help to make you the best you could possibly be, as long as you listen to him and don’t give up.”
“Enough of that for now, you came here with questions, let us answer them.” King Shrakein said.
“Tell me about the Nephilim, about the great war and if you know anything about what I can expect once I am back on Earth. Also any advise you may have, anything I can do to prepare for what is to come. And what the purpose, the true purpose of the heritage is.”
The mood in the room got more serious as he asked his questions. Queen Elivasia let out a sigh and visibly slumped. “These are not memories I enjoy reliving, but you are right to ask these questions. The Nephilim are, or were, a broken race. They had very few limits placed on them when it came to the power they could reach. For them it was always a matter of mind, if they wished to gain more power, they could, if only they were willing to accept the risks. As you are well aware, affinity was their greatest strength, with it they were always offered better classes and professions. The younger they started accumulating power, the stronger they would become in the future. Even with all of that power, they were a peaceful race. They always sort out to make the multiverse a better place, they created wonders to help everyone grow, used their power to help those in need, sometimes to increase the quality of entire planets to provide better futures for all those that lived there. They were strong, but they were few, which is where their relationship with the Fae and the Dragons came in. You may not be aware but like the Nephilim we are also few in numbers but stronger than most races in the multiverse. It is balance, we are not able to produce offspring as quickly or as often as others, but comparatively we are stronger. Our three races formed The Alliance, creating a pact that we would always support each other, our goal to create something better than what we had. But greed is a terrible thing, many looked at the Nephilim with envy, they hated to see a race stand so far above them in power. The war started when the powers, the ones leading the factions you know of now, banded together and trapped a lone Nephilim, her name was Sarshia. Together, 11 against one they killed her, and from her body they ripped out her heart, each of them taking a bite. With it they consumed a portion of her power and in the process got stronger. Sarshia was a dear friend, losing her hurts to this day.” King Shrakein took her hand as she spoke, giving her the comfort that she needed.
“Those monsters, the powers, had found their way to become the most powerful beings in the multiverse, all they needed was an excuse for war. They each took their own factions and spread rumours, all of them designed to seed the rebellion against the Nephilim. It was years in the making but eventually they launched their first attack on the Nephilim, with the support of the people. We were overwhelmed, we had the strength but they had overwhelming numbers. Slowly they started to wear us down, their goal to kill the Nephilim and consume their power.” King Shrakein continued on with the story. “As the war continued they only grew in power while our numbers dwindled. By the end Azreal came to us, told us that there was no hope in winning this war, to pull back our forces and wait. He created the heritage, the embodiment of their people, each of the living Nephilim sacrificed a part of themselves to create it. And it was then given to a woman in an unknown world out of the system. The heritage would lay dormant until the time came, when the multiverse was ready for change and the opportunity to bring back what was lost was upon us. To bring back the Nephilim.”
“What do you mean, bring back the Nephilim? I though they were all dead?” Shaun’s heart was beating so fast that he thought it would explode out of his chest. The story that he had just been told was tragic and he was so disgusted in the powers that we was ready to wage war against them this very moment.
“We do not know. We were told that if the person holding the heritage grew strong enough, fully embraced their destiny, then the answer to that questions would be revealed.”
Comments
TerrestrialOverlord
Time sifting? He could pluck them out of time itself
