Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 249

Chapter 249: Shift in Power
Moments earlier.

Lucivar suddenly signaled the driver to stop the car and stepped out.

Sitting on the backseat, Leandra rolled down the window and looked at him with an evident frown.

“Nerissa…” She hesitated. “She’s as she is, but she’s a big girl. She can go home on her own.”

“Regardless,” Lucivar closed the door. “I’m worried. Go on without me, I’ll check on her.”

Once he said that, Ravenna shot him a sharp look—she was promised to have him for the next couple of nights until the tournament starts, and she didn’t want her time to be taken like this. Lucivar held up a hand and smiled acutely, “It’ll not take long.”

Just like that, the car drove off, leaving Lucivar behind.

Only when the car made a turn did Lucivar’s expression turn serious.

‘I marked Ciri with the Soul Warden ability, a habit I picked up—due to its usefulness in tracking down people, but it was nullified.’ Lucivar glanced to his side, frowning. This wasn’t surprising, many could erase the mark if they were aware of it.

But what troubled him was the exact location where it had been nullified.

It was nearby.

‘Ciri is not sharp enough to sense the mark, so it can only be one person…’

Lucivar wasted no time and traced the street until he was back to where the drivers picked them up.

He scanned the street and found that there was nothing that was still opened, most stores were already closed, probably due to the commotion from the night market. So he moved to the other street. Once he came out of the alley, it began to rain.

For a second there, he let the rain drench him.

It felt good to be wet since the blood from all his killings made him feel sticky and uncomfortable.

Just then, his eyes landed on a single store that was still open, a cakery.

Recalling that Nerissa did ask for money, Lucivar instantly went over to the cakery and stepped inside.

Seeing yet another customer, the staff behind the counter was surprised, but Lucivar was not a customer.

“Have you seen a girl with blonde hair, quite short and chubby around here?” He asked.

“Eh?” The staff blinked a couple of times, seeing the smears and stains of blood across Lucivar’s clothes, and realized that he must be another Hybrid, perhaps Nerissa’s friend. “She left not too long ago in such a hurry. She doesn’t look well… She even dropped all her money on her table.”

“Where did she go?” Lucivar demanded.

Having no reason to hide her, the staff pointed to her left, “She went that way.”

Lucivar nodded, he stepped outside and instantly ran to the side.

Since he now has the Trust Constellation, he could tell that the staff was telling the truth.

A moment later, he could hear faint groans through the sound of rain coming from the alley ahead.

Lucivar rushed ahead, skidding a few meters as the rain-slicked ground betrayed his footing. Still, his gaze locked onto Nerissa, pinned against the wall by a lance of radiant golden light, sunlight. His eyes narrowed instantly as he turned toward the one responsible.

It was Caldaros.

Once he shoulder-charged Caldaros out of the way, he helped Nerissa, but had questions in his mind.

Even though Caldaros was strong, Nerissa didn’t fight back.

She could’ve run to a more crowded area or even back to the cakery, that way, Caldaros wouldn’t dare to do something like this, but she didn’t. Instead, she ran to a secluded alley where no one was around, a perfect spot for killing.

Clearly, Nerissa was having some issues—her face showed that clearly.

But those questions could wait.

“I must say, I’m quite impressed,” Lucivar nodded in acknowledgment as he stared at Caldaros, praising his attempt. “Attacking her right when I attacked Ciri, that’s hard to predict, and frankly, I dare say that it was quite commendable. But you should stay in your lane. Don’t step into a territory where you knew you can’t beat me.”

“Is that a hint of worry I hear behind your bravado?” Caldaros straightened his back and smirked.

From the moment the Gods behind them made a deal, he knew that Lucivar and he were different.

Different compared to the previous avatars.

But he couldn’t believe that Lucivar was different for the worse, he was… softer, more human.

“Your God’s avatars only bonded with animals, rabbits, snakes, birds, and that made them easy to kill, easy to defeat.” Caldaros mocked as a golden spear of sunlight materialized in his hand. “You… On the other hand, you bonded with humans? People? I can assure you—that’s a grave mistake.”

Lucivar tilted his head, “You’re mistaken, I don’t care about her.”

Swish!

Instead of responding with words, Caldaros instantly threw his spear straight at Nerissa.

But Lucivar blocked it using his wings.

Seeing this made Caldaros laugh hard, “From the way I see it, you very much care about her!”

He threw more weapons, varying from spears, knives, swords, and hurled them all forward, but Lucivar blocked them all without fail. As he continued, he was mocking Lucivar for his resolve, failing to truly embrace the dark side and becoming a half-assed devil.

One that still cares for others, one that still has a weakness.

“Move out of the way then! If you’re the big bad avatar, move and show me your resolve to the evil side!”

Caldaros kept laughing, even the rain couldn’t blot out his voice completely.

‘Shut up.’ Lucivar thought inside, annoyed by Caldaros’ words. ‘Delilah is the one I cared about. I’ve clung to her so that I wouldn’t turn into a monster. If I became a monster, that beats the whole purpose of being evil. In order to be evil, I need to understand what my actions would do.’

‘He doesn’t understand. A lot of monsters out there, in this world—or across the dungeon, but none of them were favored by the fortune of Karma. Why? It’s because they kill and cause chaos without understanding fully what they really did, and that’s not… evil. That only made them a monster.’

Splash!

Just as another sword pierced through his wings, a haunting melody echoed.

Nerissa sang from behind—she had already recovered from her daze and past and realized that Lucivar was now being bullied, and she couldn’t have it. Her blue eyes gleamed brightly with ether—two sapphires that stood out against the dull backdrop of the suburb.

Her ether rushed forward, blue energy that latched onto Caldaros’ body.

“Hmm?!” Caldaros’ eyes widened when he felt his body become ten times heavier. “What’s this?”

Crack!

Ignoring his surprise, Nerissa’s voice raised an octave higher and slammed Caldaros to the ground.

“Her bloodline is as strong as a Vampire!” Caldaros exclaimed.

On the other hand, Lucivar glanced over his shoulder to look at her in surprise—the ether radiating from her was as strong as his or perhaps even touching the Chrysalis rank. ‘An innate ability… This must be the power from the name bloodline inside her, the Siren Queen!’

Noticing Nerissa’s nod, Lucivar snapped out of his daze and turned to Caldaros with a smile.

Grounding himself better with ether, he charged forward with a powerful dash.

His muscles contracted and summoned power that was never there before his visit to the red sand.

Swoosh!

Before Caldaros could react, a knee landed squarely against his face.

It was a hard one, and he could even feel his teeth waver.

‘What the-?’ Caldaros was disoriented, the hit rattled his brain. ‘His knee felt like a rock!’

Once he recovered from the hit, his eyes instantly saw emerald chains wrapping around his body, adding another layer of power to pin him down. In front of him, Lucivar had already pulled back his arm and used ten God strands to enhance his fist.

Despite exhausting his God strands from the night market incident, he had already replenished them.

Leandra and Ravenna are excellent sources to replenish his God strands.

Both of them knew what he did, but they didn’t say anything.

Due to that, replenishing God strands has become a second nature for Lucivar—he did it automatically.

Caldaros, however, wasn’t a pushover.

Boom!

A blinding surge of sunlight erupted from his body, shattering Nerissa’s melody and disintegrating the emerald chains constricting him. Then, without hesitation, he also threw a punch of his own, his massive fist colliding with Lucivar’s in a thunderous impact in the middle.

Bam!!

Despite putting everything he had, Lucivar was hurled back.

His body rolled across the alley until Nerissa caught him.

“Fuck, that damn hurts…” Lucivar complained, his shoulder was dislocated from that clash.

On the other hand, Caldaros was stunned.

As expected, his punch sent Lucivar flying, but what he didn’t expect was the fact that the impact was able to actually make him stagger back a few steps. He needed a second to regain his footing, which was shocking.

Compared to their previous clash in Kalinan city, where Caldaros dominated, this was unbelievable.

Caldaros wasn’t prepared for this shift in power.

For Lucivar to be able to push him like this meant his growth was a lot faster.

‘Was it the rain…?’ Caldaros thought in disbelief. ‘It must be, the ground was slippery, I must’ve simply slipped—there was no way he was catching up to me. Not when the disparity between us was that big, there’s no chance!’

Under the shocking situation, Caldaros’ mind tried desperately to make sense of it all.

However, deep down, he knew the truth.

“How was it? Am I still a coward, now?” Lucivar’s voice echoed. “Afraid of a real fight?”

Blinking his eyes, Caldaros gritted his teeth.

He was fuming inside, and the golden light around him was growing more intense by the second.

And that was the cue that Lucivar had succeeded.

‘Let him worry… It’s time for him to get off his high horse and feel worried about our final battle,’ He thought, smiling inside. It wasn’t as planned—but this was a good development for him. ‘Now… Since he’s already starting to become serious, there’s only one thing for me to do.’

Not even waiting for Caldaros to respond, Lucivar grabbed Nerissa’s hand and sprinted to leave.

“Someone, help!! There’s another thug right here!!” Lucivar shouted at the top of his lungs.

Since the Hybrid Association was nearby, one of them might hear his scream.

Caldaros ground his teeth in anger at Lucivar’s shamelessness.

He was deeply frustrated as he had made a mistake by coming here, but he couldn’t do anything.

“The tournament will be your demise, Lucivar!” Caldaros roared.

Once he gave his final say, his body turned into sunlight and he shot to the sky, disappearing for good.

Seeing this, Lucivar stopped shouting and smirked.

A glaze of an idea flickered in his eyes as he gazed into the night, starry sky.

‘Hey, Fool, I have an idea. And I’m sure you’re going to like it. How about it? Are you interested?’