2.

This Council Has Appointed You

"Corvus, what on earth is this thing you have brought me?"

The weary crow turned its head and looked at the human who had spoken and whom it had allied itself with. It cawed before persistently nudging its glittering cargo at its human again. When this did not get the desired reaction, it flapped over, pecked its human on the top of his head as it passed, and flew off in disgust. Vrom the demon hunter, the hero known as The Nephalem, flinched and muttered a curse as the object slipped and fell from his fingers.

Kormac was the swiftest, and caught the item in midair before it hit the ground. "It's a shard of something crystal-like," was his commentary. This elicited a look of annoyance from Vrom. The templar had always been in the habit of stating the obvious.

"I sense some sort of angelic magic emanating from this artifact," Eirena the enchantress said as she took the shard from Kormac and examined it. "I wonder... how does it work?"

"Hell if I know." Vrom was not in a good mood at this point. That damned Corvus... what was it so mad about?

"Angels don't write letters, huh?" Lyndon snarked as Eirena continued fiddling with the shard. "I don't see why Ol' Tyrael couldn't just-"

Whatever the scoundrel meant to say about Tyrael was promptly forgotten as Eirena gave a little shriek, which was followed up by Kormac's shout:

"BY ALL THAT IS HOLY!"

All four adventurers whipped out their backup weapons as the shard suddenly flared to life in Eirena's hands. There was a tense moment of silence, but then the light proved to be harmless as an image took form from the glowing light.

"Illusion magic!" muttered Vrom. He had no great love for it, especially after his encounter with Belial, the demon who had been known as The Lord of Lies, and then Azmodan, who had used some similar magic to send some rather futile public disservice messages during the siege of Bastion's Keep. But instead of a demon lord, the ghostly image that appeared before them was that of a heavily-built man. The light was at his back, so all you could see of him was the perfect silhouette of his bald head and broad-set shoulders, but that was more than enough to make an identification.

"Tyrael!"

"Hello, my friend," the silhouette greeted. "I'm glad to see Corvus found you and the vision shard worked. Auriel mentioned there might be some difficulty. I don't have much time, so I must get to the point.

"About the contents of your letter: Yes, I know who is responsible for the attacks: they are an entity we call the Ethereal Ones. Your demon hunters were not alone. I also received word from Ytalea and Li Ming that Ivgorod and Xiansai too, suffered attacks."

"Surely two warriors of their calibre should have been able to take care of the situation?"

"For now, but that is not the worst of it, those demons you encountered in the Dreadlands are but a fraction of their real power. The Ethereal Ones have other weapons, great flying fortresses and arcane constructs that surpass those of the Horadrim at their peak. And worst of all, you were right. The figure you met was a fallen angel- a former member of the Angiris Council."

"What?!"

"A long time ago, long before Inarius ever created Sanctuary, he used to be known as Ubethrael, Archangel of Ambition. But he... turned to dangerous paths. We were forced to excommunicate and imprison him and his followers in the Void to prevent them from carrying out their mad plan for something called 'The Ascension'. It seems that after this long time however, they have escaped."

"Is the Council planning to do something, then?"

"Yes. In light of the recent incursion by the Ethereal Ones, this council has agreed on the initiation of the Excommunication Project. Several of the human nations I still have influence over have convened to take part in it as well. Together with this Council, they have agreed to appoint you to lead the initiative, to oversee humanity's first and last line of defense.

"Your efforts will have considerable influence on the future of Sanctuary, and that of all Creation as well. I urge you to keep that in mind as you proceed on to the new base of operations Isf have arranged for you... er, Vrom?"

Vrom's candid response to Tyrael's speech at this point was a disbelieving sputter.

From his chamber in the Silver Spire, Tyrael saw the image of Vrom jump to his feet. Even the ghostly echo of him from the vision shard radiated utmost confusion and not a little bit of fury.

"Me?! Wait, why aren't you getting involved at all? Aren't you one of us now? What of the Angiris Council? Are they planning to sit by and do nothing again?"

"Imperius has decreed that the heavenly hosts are not to directly intefere with what goes on in Sanctuary. Council was not able to convince him otherwise."

"Auriel and Itherael didn't see fit to lend their support?"

"It is being debated as we speak. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely we will be able to expend significant resources to aid Sanctuary, Vrom," Tyrael said sadly, as he turned to look out the window. "The Ethereal Ones have already come for us."

There was a stunned pause from the demon hunter. "Tyrael, do you mean to say the High Heavens are under attack again?"

Tyrael did not answer the question. "You must go back to Bastion's Keep, Vrom. We will keep the worst of the Ethereal forces focused upon us. The Ethereal Ones only strike now because they fear we will interfere with what they have planned for you. They intend to enslave humanity for their Ascension, and you are the one who must lead the effort to prevent that at all costs. I will speak to you again about this matter, but I must go now.

"Good luck, my friend."

Thankfully, the vision shard stopped functioning and cut off 'his friend's' colourful objections.

"I am surprised you chose the reclusive demon hunter as your Commander," Auriel would comment later. "I would have thought some of the other Nephalem would have been far more suitable as a leader of men."

"You are right, if this war could be won by mere flesh, they would have been the ideal choices. But from our skirmishes so far we already know that the power of Ubethrael's forces lies not in his troops, but the fel devices they wield."

Auriel was troubled. "It is true, the green fire artifacts they have empowered their troops with turns even the weakest imp in their ranks into a considerable threat. And those flying fortresses are... formidable."

"Exactly. We have fallen behind The Ethereals in this regard, and I fear Imperius' wrath has blinded him to the importance of it. This war will be won by the side that possesses the greatest mastery of such weapons. That is why the Excommunication Project is so vital to our success.

"In order to defeat our enemy, we must understand them. Of all the Nephalem, Vrom was the only one who made routine use of such knowledge and studied the construction of such artifacts. I think he is the one who would understand this most. I cannot think of a better person to lead the effort to take Ubethrael's weapons from his minions and use them against him."

In the far distance, large shapes tinged with green fire loomed in the skies of the high heavens as flights of angels rose ready to repel the invaders.

Auriel spoke softly as the Angiris Council prepared to do battle. "For the sake of all Creation, I pray for hope that you are right, Tyrael."

End of Chapter 2

A/N: Originally I'd meant this to be a very different story from what you just read but then I stumbled across this thread in reddit: np. reddit r /Xcom /comments /1s40dv /would_a_medieval_era_xcom_spinoff_work/

There was just so much win in the whole thing that I decided then and there that I would rather write a Diablo version of XCOM instead of the 'The Nephalem falls in to XCOM' fic I had planned.

So this story is dedicated to the crazy posters, commenters and redditors of that aforementioned thread. Thank you for filling my head with crazy ideas and making me scrap whatever I had of this story to expand that concept instead. This is going to be fun!

-|P