Rebirth of the Nephilim

“What do we do.”

Jadis stared around the cabin, her voice as tense as her faces. All of her lovers were present, even Noct and Ammy, who had been sleeping in their own tents when Jadis and Alex had returned from their night flight. She had wasted no time gathering everyone, bringing them all into the safety and privacy of the Leviathan’s cabin. Jadis had even gone so far as to ask if Ammy had any potions that could help make sure no one would be able to spy on their conversation. Sorcha had her wand that could dampen sound, but the area it covered was limited, and Jadis wasn’t sure how well it would fare against magical means of observation. She wasn’t going to take any chances that night.

Amarantha had not questioned Jadis’ request and had produced a vial of some silver-colored liquid that she quickly aerosolized into the cabin, creating a sparling effect that soon dissipated. Trusting Ammy to have taken care of the job, Jadis had then taken the time to recount her hunting trip with Alex, quickly touching on the details of the fights they had, including the giant leech Demon, before plunging into the deep end and explaining exactly what class Alex had been offered upon reaching CLR sixty.

The reaction was calmer than Jadis had expected.

“What the fuck!?” Kerr cursed, her green eyes bulging as her gaze darted between Jadis and Alex. “I mean—what the fuck!?”

“There must be a mistake,” Eir murmured, her expression crestfallen. “A misunderstanding.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Bridget had leapt to her feet and was motioning wildly. “There can only be one Demon Lord, and I’m pretty sure that bloody shite eater hasn’t been slain yet! We’d know! And Alex can’t be the next one, even if the bastard was dead! She’s—she’s too fucking nice!”

“This… isn’t a prank, is it?” Maeve muttered, her expression deeply troubled. “This is a bad joke if it is.”

“It doesn’t feel like a joke to me,” Ammy said as she stared at the tightly bundled form of Alex.

Others in the room had no words, simply staring in shock or disbelief. To see Thea and Noct both focused on Alex with blank expressions was no surprise to Jadis; she was used to that from those two. But the way Severina was staring at the Demon without a hint of emotion made her heart race with anxiety.

“What… what exactly does the class description say?” Aila finally asked, her voice raised to cut over the noisier reactions in their group. “What are the exact words from the system?”

“Alex?” Jay said to the lover she was cradling in her arms. “Do you want to say?”

“Yes…” Alex said, her voice as strong as ever, though Jadis could see the turmoil in the Demon’s body language.

Demon Lord Alex

Blessings. The Eye of Samleos is upon you. In reward for your great power, you have been granted the ability to sire your Demon kin. Grow. Breed. Multiply. Go forth with your spawn and bring the Children of the Nine to their End.

“Well, I guess that answers one question,” Sabina said nervously into the silence left by Alex’s new class description.

“What question?” Meli turned to her, the Dryad’s composed expression hiding any sign of distress that she might be feeling.

“How do Demons make more Demons, I guess?” the smith shrugged as she gestured towards Alex with one hand. “I mean, we know that they’re all female, Alex told us that before, but we were all confused about how they breed if they’re all female. Which they can’t be, because we found giant sacks of sperm inside of Demon Prince Vinea, which means there’s a male Demon making the sperm sacks, which we kind of assumed had to be the Demon Lord, because… who else would it be? And—and I mean, doesn’t this confirm it? The class description—it’s literally telling Alex that the class will give her the ability to sire Demons. I think that probably conclusively answers the question. The Demon Lord is male, or is turned male, or is at least third sex like Jadis, because of… it’s class?”

Sabina’s words trailed off at the end, confusion wrinkling her features as she stared at the Demon cradled in Jay’s arms.

“But wait, don’t you already have the ability to make more Demon babies? I mean eggs? I mean—you still have your penis tentacles, right?”

“Yes…” Alex confirmed, looking up to meet Sabina’s gaze. “I do…”

“So, then why would you need a class to give you something you already have?” Sabina scratched one cheek with her fingernail. “You can already impregnate others. You impregnated Jadis, didn’t you? So, you don’t need a class to give you the ability to sire Demons, which makes this class feel kind of redundant, right?”

“I think that’s missing the point, Sabby,” Sorcha said, her tone strained. “Alex is the Demon Lord now. The Demon Lord! That’s kind of a bigger deal than whether or not she can shoot sperm, don’t you think!?”

“No, she isn’t.”

The goblin rounded on Meli, who sat on her left. The Dryad stared back at her calmly, unbothered by the fire burning in Sorcha’s eyes, nor by the piercing attention of the rest of the cabin.

“What do you mean? She just read the class description! Demon Lord Alex! It’s not even a normal class description! It sounds like something written by Samleos himself!”

“That is true, the class and its description is troubling,” Meli acknowledged with a nod of her head. “But Alex is not a Demon Lord.”

“But the—”

“Alex, have you accepted the class?” Meli turned to look at the Demon.

“No…”

“Good. Then she is not a Demon Lord,” Meli stated firmly, turning her attention back onto Sorcha. “She has been given Demon Lord Alex as an option. She has not accepted the offer. Therefore, she is not a Demon Lord.”

Sorcha deflated as she processed Meli’s calm analysis of the situation. Around her, Jadis could see the tension ease in the room as everyone came to the same realization. Even she felt some of the anxiety leave her as she thought it through. Alex had been offered the Demon Lord class. But she hadn’t accepted it, nor did she have to. She could ignore the offer entirely. Except…

“That’s true, and thank you for pointing that out, Meli,” Jay said as she gave Alex a small squeeze. “But that doesn’t change the fact that Alex was offered the class in the first place, and that it’s the only class she has been offered. She doesn’t have any other options for a tertiary class. Just Demon Lord.”

“That, in and of itself, is extremely unusual,” Aila murmured, her brow furrowed in deep thought. “A singular choice in class is nearly unheard-of. Even the Hero gets multiple options. The only examples I can remember reading about were fringe cases, individuals who had done so little in their lives due to infirmities or truly unique conditions that they simply did not qualify for anything other than a single class. There have been golems who dedicated themselves to singular tasks with the goal of only receiving one class option when leveling who have not succeeded in that effort. It’s that rare for one option to be given.”

Turning to meet Alex’s neon-blue gaze, Aila frowned.

“I know you’ve done things to qualify you for many different classes. There’s no reason for you to be offered a single class right now.”

“Unless there is something about the way the system works that overrides all other options once a Demon meets the criteria for Demon Lord,” Dys suggested, her own mind hard at work at the problem. “It could be a hard coded response.”

“Hard coded?” Ammy whispered to Kerr, who shrugged at the cat girl.

“Or it could be interference,” Maeve said, her tone dark. “Divine interference.”

“You think D has a hand in the class?” Syd asked with a mix of disbelief and dread in her voice.

“A bad joke on the mad god’s part,” the Fetch nodded. “Exactly the sort of bullshit that asshole might do, just for a laugh.”

“Perhaps,” Severina spoke up, her blank expression finally cracking as a glimmer of worry entered her eyes. “Destarious could do something like this. But I think it more likely to be interference from Samleos himself, if any god were to put a hand on the scales.”

“That makes sense,” Jay nodded at Sev. “He could be messing with Alex, out of spite if nothing else. But if he is…”

“…do any of you feel anything from your patrons saying as much?” Syd asked, looking at the other avatars in the room. “Any sense of guidance, or warning, or anything from the gods?”

Slow shakes of heads were her answer as the others who had direct links to the divine went through whatever process they used to tell if their god was trying to tell them something. Jadis had been checking for any sign of a gut feeling or emotion that wasn’t hers ever since Alex had told her what class she had been offered, and she had sensed nothing. Nothing from D, or Lyssandria, or any other outside party. Just her own barely repressed panic.

“Valtar is silent,” Severina admitted after a short while. “I—I do not know what to do.”

The way Severina’s quietly uttered words sounded so lost made Jadis’ hearts ache. Putting one hand on the Seraphim’s shoulder to give her comfort, Dys was about to reassure Sev when Eir spoke first.

“We do not need to guess at what the meaning of this class option is. The cooldown on my oracle ritual is almost over. We can speak to Destarious directly. He can answer three questions, which should be more than enough to give us the truth.”

“Exactly,” Kerr snapped her fingers and grinned at the elf. “We can just go to the source of all this chaos himself! And with how the last few rituals went, I bet a couple of the other gods will be hanging around in that weird house, too! They might chime in on what’s going on!”

Murmurs of agreement filled the air as the others commented on the suggestion. Going to D and asking what the fuck was going on made perfect sense. In fact, Jadis had already thought of the idea when she had been flying Alex back to the army encampment. After all, she had to say the phrase “D, what the fuck?” almost daily. Why wouldn’t one of her first thoughts be to demand answers from her insane patron? It was a good idea. A solid plan. One that would likely give them the answers they needed, so long as they were careful with how they worded their questions.

The only problem was that Jadis had already made a promise that she couldn’t afford to not keep.

“We can’t do that,” Jay said through gritted teeth. “I swore that Hraustrekr and Kestil would get to ask one question each during Eir’s next ritual.”

“Oh, fuck them,” both Kerr and Bridget cursed in unison.

“Who cares about those royal assholes right now?” Maeve curled her lip in disgust. “This is more important. We can just skip them, and they can ask their questions next time.”

“No, we can’t,” Jay shook her head.

“Yes, we can! They—”

“No, they cannot be skipped,” Severina stated, her voice ringing like a bell over the din. “Jadis swore an oath to two members of the imperial family. To unilaterally back out on her promise, to break her word to both of them, wouldn’t just be political suicide. Her reputation would be irreparably stained across the whole of the empire. To do so might even be considered criminal, as one question per oracle ritual is reserved for imperial use. The consequences for Jadis and Eir would not be light.”

“I have to see it through,” Jay said, though she didn’t want to. “Unless we plan on abandoning the empire entirely and moving to Volto or some other country. And considering most of your families, I don’t think that’s a great option. We have to give Hraustrekr and Kestil their questions. Which means just one question for now, when Eir’s ritual is back up in a few days.”

“Unless Jocelyn can help us out again?” Syd asked, turning her attention to Ammy.

“I… I’m not sure,” Amarantha replied with a hesitant look between Jay and Alex. “She has several questions she’s already supposed to be asking, both for Volto and the emperor. Plus, we’d have to tell her about Alex and—look, she loves and trusts all of us here, but finding out Alex has been offered to become a Demon Lord…”

“It’s a lot to put on her,” Jay nodded in understanding. “If we need to ask for her help, we will. But for Alex’s safety, I think we should avoid telling Jocelyn about this until we understand what’s happening. The same goes for Wilhelm and everyone else in the Hero’s party.”

“We tell no one,” Dys said sternly, her eyes sweeping the room. “No one. Not Teg, not Cora, not a soul. We don’t even talk about it amongst ourselves unless we’re covered by a spell or potion like Ammy has done for us tonight.”

“We’re ignoring it?” Sorcha frowned with worry.

“N—no,” Thea quietly responded to the witch. “Sometimes, you h—have to be silent, to be a guard.”

“Exactly,” Jay nodded. “We stay quiet and we guard this secret for Alex until we can get some answers.”

“You won’t be taking that class,” Aila said as she put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I don’t know who among our allies might have a spell, skill, or enchantment that will let them see your CLR, but if anyone asks, you tell them that you were given several very good options, and you are still deciding which one to pick. That’s no different from what Jadis did when she unlocked her tertiary class. It’s normal for some people to take a few days to choose.”

“Everyone in leadership knows that Jadis is pushing hard for those among our group who have not yet unlocked their third classes to reach CLR sixty,” Severina said as she crossed her arms across her chest. “Some may assume that Alex has done so. We may want to preempt questions and say as much tomorrow and then leave the details as a private matter of consideration. The most important thing to remember is that we cannot act differently. We must maintain our composure, so that no one suspects that anything is wrong.”

“Easier said than done,” Kerr muttered, but followed her words with a heavy sigh. “No, we’ll manage it. This isn’t the end of the world. Getting offered Demon Lord as a class doesn’t change anything about who Alex is.”

“Damn right,” Bridget nodded. “This is a shite deal that our Alex has been given, but it’s only that and nothing more. A shite deal that we’ll work out a fix to. We can keep our teeth shut until then, right?”

Heads bobbed in agreement in answer to the orc’s question.

“Alex is Alex,” Eir stated with quiet confidence. “We will love and protect her, just as she has loved and protected us.”

“Yes, we will…” Severina whispered, her cross-shaped eyes not showing the confliction that they had held moments before.

“I do not want to imagine what’d happen if anyone in the Voltonian army found out that there’s a Demon with a Demon Lord class available to them sitting here in this airship,” Amarantha muttered darkly. “I’d have to kill so many people… Willy would be so mad at me.”

“Let’s just keep the secret for now, so we avoid having to murder our allies, alright?” Aila said cooly.

“How many days until your ritual is ready to be performed again?” Jay asked, turning her attention onto Eir.

“Four days,” the elf said after a few moments. “We can perform the ritual in four days.”

“Then we’ll need to be ready for it,” Jay said. “Part of that means that I’ll have to tell Salvius and Ovinius that I need to take Eir and Alex with me back to Eldingholt.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t take Alex?” Aila suggested. “You can get there and back with the help of some potions, especially with Alex using her prayer, too. Keeping Alex here would help allay any suspicions, and if things become… difficult, she will be further from the dangers that Eldingholt harbors.”

“I agree,” Severina echoed the mage’s advice. “We don’t know what might happen during or after the ritual. It would be best if Alex was in a place where she can be more easily transported to seclusion and safety.”

“Just Eir, then,” Jay nodded after a moment. “Unless you think differently, Alex?”

“I agree… With your wisdom…” Alex said, unfurling from her closed-off position and turning to properly face the others. “But… I worry… For Hope…”

“If things go that badly in Eldingholt,” Dys frowned, “and I am not saying that they will. But if they do, it’s probably best if I only have Eir and Hope to worry about protecting.”

The thought of having to deal with the consequences of what she was suggesting hurt Jadis’ heart. There were more loved ones than Hope in Eldingholt. But if she had to choose, she would choose her daughter to fly away with, and not just because she was her baby. No one else was as vulnerable as Hope, both due to her age, and her parentage.

Gods, Jadis didn’t want to think about how badly things could go if the wrong person found out that Alex had been offered a Demon Lord class. But she had to, because that was her responsibility. And part of that responsibility meant preparing for the worst.

“Noct,” Syd turned to the silent Valravn who had been quietly watching the whole exchange without offering a word. “Do you think you can deliver a few messages to Eldingholt for me? There are letters that need to get there as soon as possible, before Eir and I go in a few days.”

“Yes,” Noct replied without a hint of hesitation.

“Thank you,” Syd said and leaned close to the dark-haired woman, giving her a gentle kiss. “I know this is a lot to ask, so I promise, you can have whatever you want as a reward when you get back.”

The growl that rumbled in Noct’s chest was almost as concerning as the way her red eyes dilated to an obscene size.

“…Yes.”

“You know,” Maeve commented as Dys got up to retrieve paper and pen to start writing her letters, “we could probably resolve all this by Alex taking one of her earlier class options. Just pick one of those and then never speak of this Demon Class business again.”

“I will not…” Alex shook her head at the suggestion. “I am… Not… Evil…”

When Maeve turned a questioning glance as the others, Jay explained.

“Alex’s other primary class options are for the types of Demons that possess others. I’m not even sure she could take those class options now, considering what Demon classes like her Bonded Alex class do to Demon body shapes. And her other secondary class options are also for non-bonded greater Demons. Again, not sure how that would even work for her. Paladin of Jadis is the only class she’s been offered that’s like the sorts of classes any of us would be offered.”

“You may not have much of a choice, though,” the Fetch said with clear sympathy to Alex. “Even if you never end up using any of the main skills, it might be better to take one of those classes than take Demon Lord and risk someone seeing it.”

“You are… Correct…” Alex agreed with Maeve. “But I… Do not… Feel at ease… With taking… One of those… Classes…”

“Don’t pick anything right now,” Jay said before giving her lover a kiss on her tentacled head. “This really could be some kind of terrible prank played on us by D. Once I talk to him, the Demon Lord option could go away, and we might get some better options for you to pick from.”

Jadis knew that the words she was saying were just idle reassurances. There was no guarantee that D had anything to do with the class Alex had been offered. Even if he had some hand in it, there was no telling if the mad god could change the offer after the fact, or if that was even allowed per the covenant that the gods abided by on Oros. All Jadis could do was ask a question, which D was under no obligation to answer in a useful way. Still, what else could Jadis do but offer what comfort she could and pray that Eir’s ritual would hold some answer to the question that was on all of their minds.

What the fuck were they going to do?