Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 230

Chapter 230: Late for the Surprise
Lucivar inhaled deeply and groaned as he sat up on the bed.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes and realized the time—it was a little bit over six in the morning.

For the longest time, this was the latest time he had woken up—mainly because he was still wounded. The healer was still absent and Nerissa was in closed-door training, Lucivar had nobody else to turn to because of that.

It was true he had achieved the Second Divine Elevation of Loki.

All his abilities originating from Loki have become stronger which includes his Greedy Grasp ability.

But the God strands were still not enough to fully heal him.

Not that it couldn’t but there was a limiter preventing him from using them to heal himself fully.

Lucivar tried asking Gandr about this—but all he got as an answer was that if he couldn’t do it then it was probably for the best for the current moment. Recalling how the Michief Panes worked, by creating a sacrificial version of him and devouring it to increase his abilities’ mastery, Lucivar reckoned that there was also danger in using God strands to heal himself fully.

So he decided to take it at face value.

“I’m going to shower,” Lucivar moved to the edge of the bed.

“Now that we’re in a pillow-friend relationship, when are we taking the next step?” Sabrina’s low voice rang out, stopping Lucivar in his tracks. He turned over his shoulder, one brow arched, as she continued with a playful smirk, “You know, maybe progress to a bathing-friend relationship… or perhaps ev—”

“Don’t push it,” Lucivar cut in, his tone flat. “Or you’ll be demoted to a floor-hugging relationship.”

Sabrina laughed as she too sat up and tied her white-pinkish hair into a ponytail.

She didn’t wake up earlier because Lucivar was still using her as a pillow.

Now, she was late to do her daily work.

Moments later.

Lucivar got out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.

He was drying his hair with another towel and found a tray of warm food on the table.

Seeing the food caught him off guard.

“Since when can I have food in my room? Is this a hotel?” Lucivar mumbled to himself and approached the table. He looked at it for a second, and then paused at a thought, “Now that I think about it, nobody has come to check on me yet. It’s already twenty minutes passed six, the guards would normally barge into my room at this point”

Naturally, this was weird.

Going missing because of the scandal already put him in trouble with Fabio.

He expected today to be grueling like the last couple of days, forced to clean up the public toilet outside—and even carry drinking water for the morning exercise and also serve food during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Fabio was relentless, he didn’t care that Lucivar was still wounded and could barely walk.

But then again, that’s what he gets for going missing.

Of course, going missing for days wasn’t entirely all his fault—Callista imprisoned him and he even got tortured in the process but there was no way he could say that to Fabio. Lucivar has no other choice but to do the chores.

Despite feeling something was off, Lucivar shrugged his shoulders and ate the food while it was warm.

Once he was done, smacking his lips in satisfaction, he changed his clothes and sat on the bed.

Since he was already late, there was no need for him to hurry.

He was going to be punished either way so he decided to go into his Inner Chamber for a moment.

Lucivar opened his eyes inside the dark chamber once again—his gaze did not turn to the God statues surrounding the chamber but fixed on his Supernatural Ego instead. Approaching closer to the egg statue at the center, it soon reacted to him.

Swish!

A mixture of black and white aura seeped out, one sinister and the other one divine.

Both were clearly against each other, creating violent fractures in the form of energy sparks.

Moreover, the egg statue itself—aside from the central section—had transformed from mere stone into two starkly contrasting materials, light and darkness. One half radiated with brilliant, pure golden light, while the other was forced from an abyssal blackness that sent an unsettling chill through the heart.

Lucivar looked at the statue as if it was his son, this was the product of his training.

But annoyance soon crossed his face as he gazed at the central section.

“Fuck that Dullan, I realized it too late,” Lucivar scratched his head in frustration.

Under the extensive care of the Trading Union, he managed to increase his rank to the peak of the Acolyte rank. Unfortunately, with his highly powerful bloodline that was probably beyond a red grade considering he have Gods inside of him, the resources for him to reach the Chrysalis rank were extremely expensive.

It came to the point that even Dullan couldn’t provide him with more resources.

Not that he has any but it was above what he was willing to pay.

Of course, Lucivar pressed him but it took more than a day until Dullan decided to give him more.

But he has no time to continue absorbing power crystals to reach the Chrysalis rank—the showdown he scheduled with Callista was upon him. It was only a few days ago, as he lay in bed staring at his own bedroom’s ceiling that he realized Dullan had played him.

Dullan deliberately made it difficult for him to obtain resources, forcing him to waste time.

That argument alone had cost Lucivar an entire day—time he could’ve spent absorbing power crystals.

It was both infuriating and frustrating but Lucivar had to give it to him, that man was a businessman.

Fortunately, the golden sphere he obtained from killing the old man, a Chrysalis-rank Hybrid had pushed him close—to breaking through. Extending his hand, Lucivar pressed his fingers against the remaining rock-solid portion, “I hope the remaining ether inside the golden sphere is enough to complete this,”

“No,” He shook his head. “It has to be”

Grabbing the golden sphere to the side, Lucivar began absorbing it again.

In order to reach the Chrysalis rank, a Hybrid must entirely shift the material of their Supernatural Ego into their innate attribute. Only when the entire Supernatural Ego has transformed would the Hybrid be officially in the Chrysalis rank.

‘I could get stronger faster if I change the absorption technique,’ Lucivar thought inside.

He was still using the Versatile Blooming Hyacinth to absorb the power crystals.

A silver-rank technique that only utilized six ego points.

Lucivar has more than quadrupled that amount right now, he could use a diamond-rank technique but he couldn’t bear to let go of this silver-rank technique. After all, this was the only thing Delilah had passed down to him.

Stupid? Maybe.

However, he could afford that stupidity as absorbing Divine Blood doesn’t require a technique.

Shaking his head, Lucivar sat down, closed his eyes—and continued to absorb the golden sphere.

Once he did, two elegant wings burst forth from his back.

One emerald while the other one, the slightly smaller one was regal bronze.

Krrk!

As seconds turned to minutes, Lucivar’s expression tensed, a sharp twitch betraying the pin as blood spurted from his smaller wing—stretching, growing with his ascent toward the Chrysalis rank. Even the Supernatural Ego began to glow.

Its underdeveloped part shifts into pure light and abyssal darkness.

But at the thirty-minute mark, the golden sphere dissipated.

Lucivar opened his eyes as veins popped across his neck, he hadn’t reached a breakthrough yet.

“Damn it…” He cursed under his breath. “I only have a week left before the tournament”

Knowing he would soon need to face that idiot Sun Avatar, Caldaros—who was annoyingly very strong despite his extreme stupidity, he had to reach the Chrysalis ran. He had no grasp of Caldaros’ full power, but only by advancing could he feel any semblance of confidence in his chances.

Caldaros himself was not a threat but Sunna was.

No matter how much he has progressed, Lucivar didn’t underestimate Sunna at all.

All Loki’s past avatars never won against Sunna’s avatars, and that spoke volumes.

Lucivar was anticipating Sunna would have a perfect counter to all Loki’s abilities, so he must at least rank higher than Caldaros to make sure everything went smoothly. But now, he was stuck once again, “I can feel I’m really nearing the edge of breaking through but this is still not enough…”

As he stood up and walked in a circle in contemplation, his eyes noticed something.

It was the Rune of Mischief on one wing of his Supernatural Ego.

For some reason, it was flickering.

“Now that I noticed it, I haven’t really explored what that rune was for,” He mumbled lightly.

But before Lucivar had the time to check the rune, he heard the door was opened in the real world.

Someone was calling his name.

From the voice, it was Sabrina, and she seemed to have something to say.

Lucivar pulled his consciousness out of the Inner Chamber and opened his eyes to look at Sabrina.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Ermm…” Sabrina hesitated, pausing for a moment.

Seeing this, Luciva tilted his head slightly—she had only gone to do the laundry, his laundry so what could she have possibly encountered between the room and the utility room to make her hesitant to talk to him?

Just before Sabrina could open her mouth, the door was opened again.

Leandra barged inside without knocking on the door with a bright smile on her face.

“Here you are, the star of the day still lying in bed,” She stood by the door and locked eyes with Lucivar—before crossing her arms under her chest. “What time is it already? Come on out, everyone was waiting for you”

“Huh…?” Lucivar arched a brow in confusion. “Waiting for me? What do you mean waiting for me?”

Upon hearing this, Leandra scoffed.

She didn’t know whether Lucivar actually didn’t know or was pretending to not know.

“Are you being serious? Do you have any idea how long the entire academy hunters have been waiting for you to leave your room?” Leandra asked, exasperated. She had already been waiting for a couple of hours herself and yet there was no sign of Lucivar. “The official list of participants for the South Hues Tournament is out, and everyone’s gathered at the main training area to surprise you and Mirel,”

“Mirel already got his surprise but you never showed up,” She added, a tinge of irritation in her voice.

Lucivar was stunned when he heard this.

‘So that’s why there was warm food here, Sabina must’ve taken it from the cafeteria seeing that nobody was around,’ He pondered—as a wry smile crept onto his face, not expecting a surprise in the morning. ‘Now I’m going to look like an asshole…’