Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 242

Chapter 242: Unwarranted Penance
Lucivar chose Sutekh for a couple of reasons.

One, he has the option to extract power from another God who doesn’t have a bad record against Sunna. It would be foolish for him to solely focus on Loki’s power against Sunna, whom history has shown to be exceptional in countering it.

He needed to win—the method, how underhanded it might be, is not a problem.

Second, improving his physical prowess would help immensely in a direct confrontation.

Keeping the stages of the tournament in mind, Lucivar knew that a strong body is the key to his victory.

Because of those reasons, he concluded on choosing Sutekh.

As soon as Lucivar made his choice, agony struck without warning.

A searing throb erupted in his chest, violent and merciless, as if unseen claws had burrowed deep into his heart and clenched tight. His breath hitched. His vision blurred. With a strangled gasp, he clutched his chest, fingers digging into his own flesh as the veins across his body bulged and blackened.

Losing strength, his knees buckled beneath him, slamming into the cold ground.

It was a similar feeling to back when he was being made as entertainment for the Ashbourne House.

It was the feeling of death.

He wanted to scream, to tear the torment from his body, but what happened was the complete opposite.

He couldn’t scream, and the pain only intensified—growing worse with each agonizing second.

Then, the realization hit him like a blade to the gut.

Just as he had turned Zibbo into a Vestal of Sutekh, he, too, had to die to reach Sutekh’s realm.

“Damn you, Sutekh. I really hate your ways,” He whimpered as his body collapsed forward.

On either side, the two wolves nudged him, whining softly with concern.

But Lucivar was already dead.

…

Once Lucivar regained his consciousness—and opened his eyes, he was already standing in the middle of a desert, a familiar place that surfaced painful memories. This was the same desert he was forced to fight mummies, crushed countless times, and having a race with a damn snake.

He saw the pyramid far ahead and Sutekh’s aura still lingering there.

“Is that fear I sense in you?” Sha suddenly appeared out of nowhere, mocking him with a smirk.

“Fear? What are you talking about?” He answered with a stiff face. “Do you know who I am?”

“I can smell fear, you know. Your attempt to lie is quite adorable,” Sha wagged her tail and trotted with small steps towards the pyramid, excited that she was now here again, in her Lord’s domain. “But still, I’m glad you chose my Lord for your divine merit.”

Lucivar ignored the comment and followed her, “So, what am I doing here, exactly?”

As he said that, a towering stone column burst from the sand.

It burst right below Sha’s feet and elevated her high into the red sky while Lucivar fell backward.

Sha turned around and looked down at him from a high-vantage point, and unlike in the Inner Chamber, her voice was loud and clear despite the distance between them, “Before your divine merit starts, you needed to receive your punishment first. Scream for me, will you? Although I may not react, I do quite like watching you struggle.”

“Punishment?” Lucivar stood up and pointed at her angrily. “Stop acting high and mighty just because we’re in your Lord’s domain. What punishment? If you don’t’ come back down here and stop whatever you’re doing, I’ll fuck Ravenna again three nights straight! How about that? Huh?!”

“You!” Sha’s expression twisted. “Do you need to go that low?! You whore fucker!”

“Shut up! You’re the one who went low first!” Lucivar shouted. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Sha wanted to scream, wanted to argue, but she swallowed her anger back down.

She’d have her revenge in the next couple of minutes.

“It’s not me who wanted to punish you—you imbecile,” Sha closed her eyes and flicked her face away arrogantly. “It’s my Lord’s wish. Your tongue is to blame, you cursed His greatness again before your death earlier. For that, you need to be punished.”

Lucivar’s breath hitched, it was only because of the heat of the moment.

He was dying, it was damn painful, so those words slipped out without his brain filtering them.

Before he could say anything, more stone columns burst forth.

Splash!

Splash!

Splash!

Sand splashed with each surface of the stone column, and soon enough, Lucivar was trapped.

All of the stone columns surrounded him in a circle, providing no chance for him to escape other than the open ceiling—that was at least a hundred meters high. Leaping out might be possible, but he could feel that it would be impossible.

“Tell Lord Sutekh it slipped out, I didn’t mean it!” Lucivar shouted again.

But this time, there was a tinge of plea in his tone.

He didn’t want to show it clearly—he was too arrogant for that, but really didn’t want a punishment.

Considering that this was Sutekh he was dealing with made him more reluctant.

At least, Loki’s punishment would be illusions.

Sutekh, on the other hand, would bestow actual physical pain that he didn’t even dare to imagine.

“…”

“…”

Silence.

Lucivar looked at Sha and waited for her to answer, but that answer never came.

It was only then that his anger bubbled again.

“Stop acting like you didn’t hear me you damn cat! Tell that to your Lord right now!” He screamed.

It was futile, though—his scream fell on deaf ears.

Sha kept on sitting there without a care in the world, acting as if she couldn’t hear his desperate shouts.

Boom!

Just then, Lucivar flinched when a thudding sound came from behind him.

Slowly, he turned around to see what it was and saw a light blue sarcophagus there, embedded into the sand with the head part shaped like a falcon. Almost instantly, Lucivar’s face was drained of all color, the fear was now evident.

It hasn’t been that long since he was here.

And one look at the sarcophagus was enough for Lucivar to know who was inside it.

“Hey, I’m sorry alright.” Lucivar turned to Sha again, desperate. “I’ll not take revenge on you, so please, tell Lord Sutekh that I’m sorry, that this was a misunderstanding. Heck, I’ll even cut my own tongue if I mistakenly curse his divine grace again!”

Hearing his pleading tone, Sha’s ears twitched—clearly pleased but acting like she wasn’t.

“I’ll even help you bully Gandr, I’ll back you up anytime! Help me this one time!” He begged further.

However, Sha still remained silent, and time ran out.

Splash!

Lucivar flinched once again—this time, the sarcophagus’s lid fell down.

Stepping out of the sarcophagus was none other than the Falcon Champion, carrying all his might.

A violent, sky-blue aura erupted from him—its sheer intensity carrying the power to shatter worlds and rend realms asunder. Even the sky itself wavered, flickering chaotically between night and day, sun and moon, as if struggling to withstand the Falcon Champion’s overwhelming presence.

Below, the desert trembled in response, the sands whirled into frenzied spirals.

Gradually, their golden hues bled into an eerie cerulean glow, reshaped by the force of his divine might.

Such a display of power doesn’t belong to Sutekh, it belongs to something else, another entity.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” Lucivvar cursed, taking a couple of unconscious backsteps.

“Oh, I nearly forgot to mention. Time moves much slower here than in the real world and you wouldn’t die here—since you’re technically already dead, no matter how rough the Falcon Champion becomes,” Sha mused, a cruel glint in her eyes. “So your punishment will last for quite some time, a year of pain for every word.”

Instead of relief, Lucivar got more bad news.

Nothing good came out of her mouth, only more confirmations that Lucivar was screwed.

“It’s not a test either…”

Sha shook her head.

From the face she was wearing, she was clearly enjoying this moment very much.

“The Falcon Champion is the reflection of Horus, the Falcon of Gold. Meaning, you have no chance.”

At that moment, Lucivar realized that the Falcon Champion wasn’t only a powerful being.

It was the mirror of another God!

“Once you pay your penance, we’ll start your divine merit. Until then…” Sha turned. “Goodbye.”

As if on cue, once Sha finished speaking, the Falcon Champion’s eyes glowed, and with a speed beyond mortal comprehension, he disappeared and reappeared behind Lucivar. With a casual flick, a divine gold harpoon appeared in his hand.

Devastation coated its tip, and with another casual motion, the harpoon struck Lucivar’s side.

One hit and he felt his body break instantly.

Lucivar, through blood-stained vision, looked down at his body and saw it twisted and broken unnaturally.

His torso was torn open, his ribcage was shattered with most fragments stabbing into his internal organs, while blood pooled and wet the sand around him at a rapid pace. It’s painful, excruciatingly painful,that it felt like he was dying all over again.

And considering the level of damage his body endured, he should be dying, but he didn’t.

Swish!

Slowly, the sand around him began to envelop him with warmth, and in the next second, all his wounds were miraculously healed. All the pain was gone, and Lucivar could walk again. However, that wasn’t good news as the Falcon Champion approached him again.

“Graarghkk!”

Bam!

“You lunatic! Did you just enhance my body so that I can endure your hits?!”

Crash!

“Fuck!!!”

Days passed in a blur, the sun went up and down countless times already as the Falcon Champion beat Lucivar non-stop. It was an actual Hell, Lucivar was forced to confront unbelievable pain—a sensation that he loathed the most.

His body was broken and crushed, healed, and then crushed again.

A repetitive punishment but worked damn well.

One day, after a devastating gut punch that tore through his abdomen, spilling his intestines onto the hot sands, Lucivar lay motionless—staring up at the blood-red sky for what felt like the ten-thousandth time since the punishment began.

As always, he waited—waited for the cursed sand to knit him back together, to erase the pain.

But that never happened.

Instead, the sand enveloped his entire body and teleported him someplace else.

Lucivar looked around once the sand unveiled the world, only to find himself in a similar situation.

Beside him was Sutekh, sitting pompously arrogant on his throne.

He didn’t even have the courtesy to heal Lucivar back first, leaving him in such a pitiful state.

It was humiliating, but Lucivar didn’t say anything.

Being placed in a world of pain made it impossible for him to retaliate, when Sutekh has the power to easily put him back to where he was moments ago. Forcing out a rough, weak smile, Lucivar raised a thumbs up, “Nice punishment, I learned my lesson.”