Rebirth of the Nephilim

“She’s a paladin? A fucking paladin demon? Dedicated to you!?”

Steingrimur’s outraged shout was the all the force needed to break the dam holding the room in silence. Everyone began talking at once as the many ramifications of Alex’s status sheet blew all previously accepted understandings of how demons worked out of the water. The verbal barrage of ideas, suppositions, arguments, accusations, and conjecture were so fast and numerous that Jadis could barely keep track of who was saying what, much less understand the individual words.

Feeling a soft body pressing into her side, Dys looked down to see that Alex had curled up into a ball, knees against her chest and both sets of arms wrapped around them, and was basically hiding in Dys’ shadow. All three of her eyes were wide as saucers as she watched the high priests argue with each other.

Jadis could easily understand how the demon felt.

A loud rapping sound echoed over the din of voices and it took Jadis a moment to realize that it was coming from Vraekae. The Magistrate was knocking her knuckles against the table again in an effort to restore order. After a few seconds of her attempts not working, the elf switched tactics.

“Silence!”

Vraekae’s shouted command was punctuated by her red orb slamming into the table with enough force to make the sturdy piece of wood vibrate. The priests all seemed to get the picture then and finally settled down, at least returning to a veneer of calm, if not true composure.

“Oswin,” Vraekae spoke in her usual cold tones. “As you are senior here, I offer you the floor. Please lead us in this calm and rational discussion.”

With a nod of acknowledgement, the older human licked his thin lips and set his elbows on the table before him, hands laced together. He took a deep breath, then began to speak.

“I do not think I can overstate the significance of this discovery,” he began. “To have verifiable proof that demon-kind have both a status sheet and classes is… Well. It changes all previous scholarly inquiry and has potentially ground-shattering implications in both our understanding of demons as well as how Samleos interacts with the Covenant. I almost don’t know where to start.”

“I do,” Steingrimur interjected. “Why in the gods names is that thing a Paladin dedicated to a mortal being? Unless she’s hiding something about her origins, Jadis should not be qualified to generate Paladin classes that are dedicated to her!”

Jadis was, in fact, hiding something about her origins. But she wasn’t going to bring that up at that moment. Enough bombs had been dropped in the room already. Even if she wanted to tell them, she didn’t think the high priests could handle another.

“I don’t know,” Oswin sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “That aspect, while troubling, is hardly the most disturbing aspect of this situation.”

“To you, maybe!” Lonan pointed a callused finger at the human. “Demons having classes isn’t exactly a brand-new idea that’s never been thought of! Having confirmation is something else, I agree, but it’s not like it’s completely out of thin air. I’ve at least heard the scroll-heads arguing over this very idea in the past.

“However! A mortal person, even an Avatar, being a focal point for a Paladin class is unheard of! How could that happen? Why Jadis, and why this demon? Does this utterly unprecedented class have something to do with the fact that Alex is a demon? Are Paladin classes a common occurrence among demons? Could Jadis cause others to have a Paladin class option?”

“Oh, and don’t forget,” Sholto tossed into the conversation, “why in Valtar’s hairy ballsack does that demon have such high stat values despite being so low level?”

“Yes! That!” Lonan said, slamming his hand onto the table. “That is also a damned good question!”

“Disrespectful phrasing aside, I agree,” Oswin said with a frown. “There are many, many questions that this revelation has engendered, far more than it has answered. I would suggest then that we examine Alex’s class skills. That would at least give us answers as to why her attributes are so high and may also give us some answers to our other questions.”

“Now, hold on there,” Jay spoke up at that point, holding up a hand to forestall any further action. “Look, I get the excitement here, but considering everything that I think has been answered by Alex having a status sheet, I say it would be a massive breach of privacy to just look at her class skills like that.”

“I mean, we’re all on the same page here now about her being just as deserving of respect as anyone else is, right? She’s not a magic beast,” Dys pointed out. “She’s an avatar. A Demon, yes, but still an avatar race with free will, the same as Myron or Vita or me. You can’t just walk all over her rights and examine her class skills.”

“Not without permission, anyway,” Syd added after a moment. “If she’s cool with it, then it’s fine.”

There were a few glances shared around the table, but after only a brief pause it was Vita who addressed the balled-up demon directly.

“Alex, dear,” Vita spoke kindly in her purring voice, though Jadis could tell that she’d hesitated over the endearment. “May we examine your class skills?”

Chin popping up over her knees, Alex stared at the flaming cat for a moment before speaking.

“Class… Skills…?”

“Gods, here we go,” Sholto muttered under his breath.

It took longer than any of them would have liked to explain what class skills were to Alex, though once she understood what was being asked of her, she easily consented to having them examined. Jadis got the feeling that, just like her, the demon didn’t have any of the cultural hangups that most people did on Oros when it came to publicly displaying class information. Which made sense, honestly. Why would demons care if other demons knew their stats?

As soon as Alex’s class skills started appearing in the hologram-like illusion hovering over the table, Jadis started writing the information down on her own sheet of parchment. She just knew Aila would want to analyze the details later. It wasn’t every day that one got to examine the stats of a demon. And, just by reading the first skill description, Jadis knew Aila was going to have a lot to say.

Follower of Jadis

Passive Skill. The amount of Experience Points you actively and passively gain from following Jadis are increased by 0.3. This increase only applies to experience points gained either from participation in an appropriate action in conjunction with Jadis or from passive gains generated from appropriate actions that Jadis has taken in your presence. This Experience Points gain also applies to your Secondary and Tertiary classes.

“That looks… kind of insane, actually,” Jay murmured under her breath.

There were, of course, immediate reactions from the gathered priests, though the reasons for furor turned out to be different from what Jadis was expecting. In her opinion, a class skill that passively increased experience point gain was, well, just unfair. A thirty percent boost to experience gained, even if it had a limited scope of effectiveness, sounded amazingly useful. Jadis had never even heard of skills that boosted experience points. Was that another stunning, unheard-of revelation for the gathering of priests to tackle?

No, no it wasn’t. As it turned out, a good number of classes offered passive skills that could increase experience gain if certain criteria were met. They were usually classes like Acolyte or Apprentice and weren’t often chosen. While the experience boost was useful, the other class skills offered tended to be inferior to other, less training-wheel type options. Other classes having experience boosting skills did happen, though that was exceedingly rare and usually only happened with classes that had strong dedications to particular focuses.

That was part of the real interest to the priests. The fact that Alex’s exp skill was dependent on Jadis was unprecedented. Usually, the requirements were to perform certain actions under specific circumstances, like studying in a schoolroom. Instead, Alex’s skill only required that the experience points come from gaining them with Jadis.

Which meant, Jadis realized, that Alex had actually been siphoning off bonus experience points from every demon kill Jadis had ever made while toting the little demonling around. Plus, that bonus exp had been boosted by nearly a third the whole time.

Sneaky little devil…

The other aspect of the skill that the priests focused on was the fact that it applied to her secondary and tertiary classes. That was almost unheard of, though not quite. The only two examples that could be pointed to, though, was a Hero from centuries past and a companion to a Hero from a few cycles ago. Either way, seeing a demon with such a valuable skill was unexpected and, to some of the priests, concerning.

Eventually they had to move on to Alex’s other class skills and, while there were many pauses to examine and debate, Jadis eventually had a full list written down for her and Aila and the others to go over once they got back to the headquarters.

Expanded Awareness I

Passive Skill. Your physical senses are increased by 0.1.

Paladin’s Resolve

Passive Skill. Increases the Endurance and Vitality attributes by 7 points.

Paladin’s Faith

Passive Skill. Increases the Divine and Will attributes by 5 points.

Paladin’s Reservoir

Passive Skill. Increase the Focus attribute by 10 points.

Regrowth by Will

Passive Skill. Your Health regenerates at half the speed of your Magic, as based upon your Will attribute.

Paladin of Jadis’ Boldness

Passive Skill. Multiplies a chosen magical attribute by 1.5. Attribute is chosen when skill is first selected and cannot be changed.

Paladin’s Barrier Break

Active Spell. Strike a physical or magical barrier with a weapon or your body. Deal divine damage equal to your combined Strength and Divine attributes multiplied by 2. Cost – 25 magic. Duration – Instantaneous.

Paladin of Jadis’ Fervor

Passive Skill. Increases the Divine attribute by 15 points.

Paladin’s Stalwart Sacrifice

Active Skill. Increase your Fortitude and Resilience attributes by 0.3 while in a defensive stance. Defensive bonus increases to 0.5 when stance is used to block damage that would hit a target other than yourself. Cost – 10 stamina and 10 magic per second. Duration – Channeled.

Paladin’s Bold Smite

Active Spell. Strike a target with a weapon or your body. Deal damage equal to your Divine attribute multiplied by 1.5. Target takes additional damage equal to 0.5 of your Paladin’s Boldness attribute every second for the next 5 seconds. Cost – 50 magic. Duration – Instantaneous.

Body of Bonded Alex

Passive Skill. Choose a vessel to incorporate into your being and become a Greater Demon. The vessel chosen will alter the outcome of your physical form. Once chosen, the vessel cannot be changed. Once your transformation is complete, the physical and magical attributes that your vessel had gained through leveling are added to your own. If your vessel had no physical or magical attributes gained through leveling, instead gain 20 points in each attribute. Increase one attribute of your choice by 50.

There was a lot to process when it came to Alex’s skills. Some were, to Jadis’ surprise, kind of ordinary. Passives like Paladin’s Resolve and Paladin’s Faith were just straightforward attribute buffs, some basically the same as ones that she or her other companions possessed. On the other hand, Alex had a skill that was almost too familiar. Paladin of Jadis’ Boldness was essentially Jadis’ Mirror Knight’s Might but for magic attributes. Jadis knew from conversations with Aila that such a powerful skill was as rare as hair on a frog, so the fact that Alex had such a skill was mind-blowing.

Regrowth by Will was also something Jadis would call a cheat skill. Alex literally regenerated health points constantly, just standing around, with no effort. How was that fair? Even Jadis had to freaking sleep to regain health points with her skill. Sure, it wasn’t as fast as the healing Eir could do, but so long as Alex wasn’t dead, she could regenerate to full health without any outside assistance within ten hours.

So unfair.

Though, thinking about it, Jadis guessed that was an issue that most demons would need to overcome. Healing themselves. Jadis knew from experience that some demons were capable of casting healing spells, at least on themselves and their hosts, but she’d never seen any demons going around healing other demons in the middle of battle. Having some kind of regeneration skill made sense for some demons to have, though Jadis doubted they all had skills as strong as Alex’s.

The attack spells that Alex had access to were a surprise. Since Alex had never taken much in the way of aggressive action, Jadis had assumed that meant the demon just didn’t have any kind of offensive skills or spells to use. As it turned out, that was incorrect. In fact, Paladin’s Bold Smite looked incredibly nasty. Jadis wouldn’t want to get hit by that attack, even with her recently increased Resilience. Paladin’s Barrier Break, however, explained something that Jadis had always wondered about. How had Alex managed to break out of her confinement? The answer, apparently, was by smiting the shit out of it.

Then there was the big one. The skill that came from her brand-new Bonded Alex class. It was, without a doubt, the most controversial as well as most enlightening of all of Alex’s skills.

Body of Bonded Alex.

What a skill. If what Alex had was similar to what all other Greater Demons unlocked with their class, and there was no reason Jadis could see to think it wasn’t, then that explained a lot about why Greater Demons were so powerful. Alex had “chosen” Eike to be her vessel. Eike had been a high-level melee-magic caster. Jadis wasn’t sure if she’d been above level sixty or not, but she had probably been at that point, or at least close to it. That meant somewhere around sixty levels worth of attribute point gains had all been dumped right into Alex’s stats. Based on the wording as well as the quantifiable numbers on Alex’s sheet, it seemed likely that included both regular free attribute point gains as well as any passive skills that had boosted Eike’s stats. Sure, Alex hadn’t gained any other kinds of skills or spells from the woman, but even just stat boosts were a huge deal. And who was to say other Greater Demons didn’t have different versions of the skill that did grant different aspects of their vessel? From what Jadis had seen of every Greater Demon she’d fought so far, she wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that her guess was true.

Plus, a straight fifty-point boost to whatever attribute she wanted? Alex really had gotten a killer class…

“All right, everyone,” Vraekae called out to the gathering after the priests had calmed down slightly from reading Alex’s latest skill. “This meeting can’t go on forever and we still have a lot to discuss. I think, however, considering the extremely illuminating and potentially world-altering information that we have gained thanks to… Alex’s assistance, we need to discuss special dispensations in order to secure her safety here in the Empire. I do not think it would be wise to allow such a valuable… ally to either be harmed or fall into the wrong hands.”

“I second the motion,” Myron spoke up, his constant writing having never slowed during the whole meeting so far. “Demonic origins notwithstanding, Alex is too valuable an asset to be lost due to thoughtless error.”

“Ally,” Jadis corrected the Golem. “Not an asset. She’s an ally.”

“Ally,” Myron agreed without argument. “No offense was intended.”

Steingrimur scoffed at the apology, but Jadis didn’t pay the man any mind. Thanks to all the incredible insight Alex had provided into demon-kind, Jadis was certain that she’d secured both her safety and her freedom. Most of the high priests were looking far more interested in Alex than disturbed, which meant she’d managed to gain some tentative allies. While things hadn’t gone as smoothly as Jadis had privately hoped for, the meeting had still gone way, way better than she had feared it would. Truly, Alex had come through in the end.

“Good girl,” Jay warmly praised Alex while gently stroking her tentacled head. “Very good girl.”

The demonette leaned into Jay’s touch, her own happy smile on her face as her many thin head tentacles reached up to stroke Jay’s hand back in turn. After a moment of clear enjoyment, Alex looked up into Jay’s eyes and ruined the tender moment by embarrassing the living soul out of Jadis in front of Vraekae and the high priests.

“Alex… Fuck… Now… Please…?”

“What did she just say?” Aurea asked, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

“D damnit, Alex,” Jay murmured with no heat to her words. “We really gotta work on your timing…”