Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 241

Chapter 241: The Sun (2)
Regardless of who won in the end, the winner would feel powerful.

And feeling powerful is corrupt, which basically means the person took pleasure in taking the opposing forces down. In this case, if Caldaros won, he took pleasure in beating Lucivar, and that would mean he was the same as any bad people.

He would be the same as Lucivar.

Ciri understood that—the expression she was wearing showed that she understood.

But she also knew that this conversation was following Lucivar’s narrative, it wasn’t true.

“No, you’re wrong. Caldaros would feel content, he’d feel fulfilled for making this world better.” Ciri argued. She wouldn’t herself to be swayed by Lucivar’s fantasy, not ever. “He’d feel fulfilled for doing good in the Goddess’ name.”

“Is he now?” Lucivar smiled playfully. “Are you certain he’d feel that way?”

Lucivar was seeding doubt in her heart, and that made her furious.

Despite her pliant and loving nature, Ciri’s expression turned fierce as she glared at Lucivar.

“Do not insult me by attempting to corrupt me with your wicked ideals!” She growled, grabbing a knife, a butcher knife on the stall, and pointed it ahead. “He’s the Goddess’ avatar, a mirror of her divine grace! The Goddess wouldn’t feel joy in killing you and your wicked God. She’s pure, she’s not even remotely like your God!”

Hearing this, Lucivar laughed, a cold, sinister laugh.

Knowing that Ciri was at least above thirty in age, he thought that she’d at least be mature.

He never expected her heart to be that of a naïve little girl.

“Good and evil are concepts that are only present in us, mortals. Gods, Goddesses, they were the ones who created these concepts to shackle us. Time, space, life, and even death are all concepts that apply to us but not to them. But that was a misconception.”

Lucivar took his time to explain, wanting to know more about how pure Ciri’s heart was.

He raised his hand, palm facing up as his eyes glistened with malice.

“Since they created these concepts, they too could choose to be influenced by them. Time… these Gods disassociated that concept because being bound by it would make them finite. Space… they also pull away because that would allow them to be found. But there are concepts that they wanted to be a part of, concepts that they would rather be in than disassociated from them. Emotions, for example…”

“When Gods kill other Gods, without the concept of emotions, they would feel nothing. Why would the Gods want that?” Lucivar smirked. For him, there were no good or evil Gods, there were only Gods. “So Ciri, what makes you think Sunna would not feel good? And if she felt good, doesn’t that mean your precious Caldaros, the mirror of her divine grace you said, would also feel good?”

Having her views challenged, Ciri lowered her stance as her eyes glowed yellow.

“I don’t have to listen to this!” She roared.

Lucivar was smiling inside, but there was a sense of unease when he saw her glowing eyes.

‘She’s not even a Hybrid, why am I feeling danger from her?’ He frowned.

It seemed Caldaros had placed something inside Ciri, allowing her to tap into Sunna’s power.

Swish!

Just then, Ciri dashed at him with unrelenting fervor.

Despite knowing that he was the rival of Sunna’s avatar, it was cute of her to try and attack him.

Lucivar raised his arm and blocked a horizontal strike from Ciri.

His eyes flickered for a bit as he was forced to glance over to Ciri’s hand—which somehow carried more strength than he had anticipated. Matter of fact, her strength wasn’t a joke. It surprisingly managed to even overpower Lucivar and forced him to act.

Using technique rather than strength, Lucivar twisted her hand and swept her legs.

“Kahk!”

Ciri was slammed to the ground with one arm locked behind her and Lucivar sitting on her back.

Even though she now has abnormal power, she is still an untrained person.

Her attack was strong but incredibly sluggish—easy to redirect or parry.

“You see, Ciri, the world is not all sunshine and smiles. You can’t attack me recklessly like this,” Lucivar said and paused, looking down at the ground while keeping her pinned down. “I’m sad, really. You have abnormal strength for a non-Hybrid, to be able to compete with me… Did Caldaros give it to you?”

A small chuckle escaped Lucivar’s lips, he couldn’t believe this.

“I need to endure years of being treated like a dog, an actual dog, by my own family. Kicked and mocked when I’m at my lowest. And even tasting the tip of death to awaken my power,” Lucivar continued, his voice barely above a whisper. “And then there’s someone like you.”

“Don’t talk to me! I don’t want to know!” Ciri exclaimed as two beams shot out from her eyes.

It happened in the blink of an eye, yet Lucivar didn’t feel anything.

None of those two beams hit him, instead, they hit the two kneeling people behind him.

Lucivar wasn’t naïve enough to think that Ciri missed, and he was right.

Bam!

In the nick of time, he was able to raise his arms to block a hard kick.

Stumbling several steps to the side, Lucivar flicked his arm several times as the kick numbed it.

“Damn,” He cursed before gazing back ahead. “That hurts.”

Now, standing on either side of Ciri, who has climbed back to her feet, were two people, both of whom were the people Lucivar restrained earlier. But now, their aura has changed, and their eyes are glowing yellow.

None of them were Hybrids, so this must be the work of Sunna’s power.

Both turned from regular people to someone who could pose a threat to a Hybrid like Lucivar.

“Seems like Caldaros has made preparations,” Lucivar praised, nodding to himself—without a trace of worry—which only made Ciri more uneasy. “It would be foolish to let his sun wander around without any protection. As expected of my rival.”

Ignoring Lucivar’s mocking tone, Ciri pointed forward and sent her two servants to attack.

Moving swiftly, the two servants showed speed equivalent to an Acolyte-rank Hybrid.

Quite fast and strong, but even then, none of them could reach Lucivar.

As these two attacked from left and right at the same time, reaching their lethal hands forward, two ash-colored wolves shot from a nearby mirror—and bit their hands hard. With a twist, the wolves flung the two servants back to their masters.

But this time, they were missing one arm.

Seeing the two ferocious wolves, Ciri’s expression softened—her will to fight disappeared.

She cast a glance at the kneeling people with regret plastered across her face.

Lucivar didn’t allow her to breathe for long and attacked along with the two wolves.

In a second, he managed to cover the distance between them, and with a forceful hold—he grabbed the two servants by the neck and squeezed. Gnarly bone-cracking sounds echoed, irritating the eardrums of those nearby.

Lucivar had used a couple of his God strands to crush their necks.

Ciri blinked and realized Lucivar was already standing in front of her.

She immediately leaped back to create a distance.

Smiling savagely, Lucivar threw the two servants to his behind nonchalantly.

Both of the wolves caught them and began rending them apart flesh by flesh.

It only took a few seconds for the wolves to devour the two servants, leaving not a trace of them behind.

Almost instantly, Lucivar lunged to grab Ciri, but her body turned translucent as fast.

Lucivar tried grabbing her, but his hand passed through her body—he was grabbing at light, which was impossible to do. Then, without saying anything, Ciri blitzed out of the night market like a yellow ghost, leaving behind a trail of yellow energy.

Upon seeing this, the two wolves were ready to leap into the mirror dimension again.

Chasing after her was a possibility for them—but Lucivar simply patted them on their heads, stopping them from going further, “It’s fine, we did enough already. We don’t want her to use—her trump card, now do we?”

Since Caldaros prepared countermeasures to protect her, there must be something more.

One that would be problematic for Lucivar, so he didn’t press further.

Knowing who she was and what she looked like was already good enough for the night.

Lucivar hadn’t set out to find her, but now that their paths had crossed, he was already grateful.

“Your bad karma is abnormally high for your current state. Your luck is incredible.” Gandr appeared.

Hearing this washed Lucivar’s heart with pleasure, he took this as a compliment.

“Caldaros must’ve felt this encounter, he’s probably punching the wall by now since he now has to keep close eyes on Ciri,” Lucivar bent down—and took two golden spheres on the ground, a lot bigger than even the golden spheres he got from the thugs. “His anxiety would slow his growth down.”

“Congratulations, you obtained a divine merit.” Gandr suddenly said.

Lucivar raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him, “Divine merit? What’s that?”

“It’s a currency we created only for you—the Blessed Oracle,” Gandr explained nonchalantly, as if he was explaining how the weather was today. “Achieving any great feat against the opposing Gods would bestow divine merits. You can use them by choosing one of us, and we’ll take you to a special training place.”

As soon as Lucivar heard that, his eyes sparkled.

Since the tournament was nearing, he was badly in need of some sort of boost.

Being trained by the Gods is certainly the best way to prepare himself to fight Caldaros.

“Choose. Father or Sutekh.” Gandr demanded.

“Wait, how do I know how much divine merit I have?” Lucivar asked. “And how is it calculated?”

Gandr smirked meaningfully.

“Ask me or Sha. As for the method, it’s determined based on our own subjective calculations.” He replied.

Lucivar could only click his tongue in displeasure.

Gandr was basically saying that the divine merit could increase or decrease as the Gods wanted. Killing Ciri’s servants granted him one divine merit, but in the future, it might take a lot more than that to obtain one divine merit.

It’s unfair, but then again, he was dealing with Gods—it was supposed to be unfair.

Contemplating for a moment, he rubbed his chin as he weighed his options.

‘Most of my abilities were already high in mastery already, at least compared to normal Hybrids around my level. And since I can’t use Sutekh’s abilities against Caldaros, there’s no use in focusing on them. I should focus on strengthening my physique.’ Lucivar nodded.

Recalling how even Ciri could be on par with his raw strength, his physique was meager.

He would need a lot more to be on par with Caldaros.

“Sutekh, I choose you!”