Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 277

Chapter 277: Allies
Orivelle saw right through him.

She could peer through the façade of compliments and deduce what he actually wanted.

Intuitive, but Lucivar didn’t really mind that.

As a matter of fact, he was intrigued—there are traces of evil coming from Orivelle.

People who were observant and intuitive are mostly bad people, or people who have come through a bad situation. Lucivar didn’t know which one was Orivelle—but he was confident that his gut feeling wasn’t wrong about her.

“You aren’t fighting anyone, are you?” Orivelle squinted. “You’re trying to get my attention.”

“And how exactly did you know that?” Lucivar curiously asked.

“If you really are fighting someone, that person would at least come to check on you, even if that person is afraid of you. But nobody came,” She answered. Her burning eyes looked through Lucivar, as if he were an open book, “And the fight with Garran… Do you really think I wouldn’t notice?”

‘Oh… She really is sharp,’ Lucivar thought inside.

His move must’ve been too bold, and that gave him away instantly.

“Guilty,” Lucivar raised both his arms as if he were at gunpoint. “I am trying to get your attention.”

“What do you want exactly, Lucivar Asarafall?” Orivelle chanted his full name.

Since only the first name of the participants was shown on the tournament’s website, knowing his full name meant Orivelle had taken the time to check on him. Finding his full name isn’t hard since the website stated his academy, but that required attention.

Somehow, his profile caught her attention.

“You knew my full name, I’m flattered,” Lucivar smiled before the wounds across his body began to heal rapidly. Most of them are superficial wounds, the God strands easily took care of them. “Since we are being upfront, I’ll be blunt. I want to team up with you.”

“Allies?” Orivelle repeated, but she wasn’t surprised.

Considering the Vanguard Institute’s long win streak within this tournament, this is to be expected.

“Leecher!” Arthur remarked, holding his chin high. “You wanted to be our ally to get our secret sauce to win this tournament? Not going to happen. Aren’t you supposed to be mighty? Fuck off and fend for yourself then.”

Despite the curses, Lucivar didn’t react.

In fact, he ignored Arthur completely—fixing his eyes only on Orivelle.

Naturally, Arthur was enraged, grinding his teeth in anger.

Even now, when he was asking for cooperation, he was still looking down on Arthur.

But Orivelle ignored the tension between them.

“In that case, you should prepare.” She said as she tied her hair into a ponytail.

“Prepare?” Lucivar raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What do you mean? What are you trying to do?”

“What else? If you want to be my ally, we’ll need to understand each other better,” Orivelle said with a smirk, gripping her staff as she turned away. “And what better way to bond than through a hunt? You didn’t think I’d accept you on confidence alone, did you? I want to see what’s buried in that suppressed ether of yours. Only then will I know who you really are.”

“Of course not,” Lucivar scratched the back of his head. “I’ll play along.”

Flabbergasted, Arthur pulled on Orivelle’s arm.

“Are you serious? You can’t possibly think of working together with this arrogant scum,” He argued.

Upon hearing this, Orivelle cast a polite smile at Lucivar before pulling Arthur to the side.

Then, she summoned a wall of fire, separating them from Lucivar to talk.

“Didn’t I tell you earlier to shut up?” Orivelle said—with a stern tone. “I make the decisions, not you. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to really team up with him and his kingdom. Just trust me on this, and you’ll see.”

Arthur paused for a second.

Had he known that she has a plan, he wouldn’t be protesting like this.

“But still, can you at least tell me what your plan for him was?” He asked curiously. “I want to know.”

“I saw the counter on the radar earlier, it went up from 100 to 103,” Orivelle said, glancing at the radar that was now already below 103—with a couple being disqualified from the looks of it. “I do not really know how, but I think another kingdom was transferred into our division, and I can’t help but feel that it was Garran’s kingdom.”

“Garran also has a problem with Lucivar, so we might be able to use him to deter her. Besides, even if it’s not Garran, there would be stronger—and stronger crossers as we progressed further. If the situation arises, we could sacrifice them.” She elaborated, telling Arthur exactly what her plan was.

Almost instantly, Arthur’s face lit up like a kid when candies were mentioned.

He was now more at ease.

“Can you keep yourself together now?” Orivelle asked.

Arthur nodded repeatedly, feeling a lot better.

Once he calmed down a little, Orivelle took down the wall of fire and approached Lucivar again.

“Just show us how strong you are, only then I’d accept you,” Arthur suddenly said.

Then, Orivelle gestured behind her, “Shall we?”

“Of course,” Lucivar nodded. “I’ll do my best to be worthy of being your ally.”

As Lucivar followed them from behind, he smiled inside.

‘Come on, can’t you make it more obvious?’ He thought, shaking his head. ‘But still, I’m going to bite.’

Moments later.

“Since we’ll need to meet up with your kingdom—let’s make this quick.” Orivelle turned to a small hill in front of them and pointed at it. “I sense some prey there. You’ll pick one of your choosing, and I’ll do the same. We’ll meet back here in five minutes.”

“A contest? Sure, I don’t mind.” Lucivar nodded.

And on cue, the two of them dashed straight at the hill, splitting at their tenth step.

Staying behind, the woman and Arthur crossed their arms.

“Five minutes? Bringing back a Chrysalis-rank Crossers would be tough,” The woman muttered.

“Of course, it’s hard,” Arthur nodded. “But senior sister would be able to do it easily. I bet she’d be the one who came back first. I can tell that Lucivar guy is strong, at least a bit stronger than me, but that’d mean he’s still far behind senior sister.”

“After all,” He sighed, staring at the hill ahead. “Senior sister’s bloodline purity is at 10,3%”

Though he said that with conviction, Arthur wasn’t entirely sure.

Something about Lucivar made him feel uneasy.

Not even five minutes later, around the third minute, a figure could be seen approaching them from ahead.

Seeing this, Arthur smiled as it was Orivelle.

She was pulling a dead boar monster the size of a rhino by a flaming lasso from her staff.

Judging from the amount of ether this boar monster was emanating even in death, it was clear that when it was alive, it was a strong Chrysalis-rank monster. But compared to Orivelle, a second-star Chrysalis rank Phoenix Hybrid, it stood no chance.

“He hadn’t come back yet?” Orivelle asked, slightly surprised. “I rushed to kill this to stay ahead.”

“I think you overestimated him, senior sister,” The woman chuckled slightly.

Once she placed down the boar monster, Orivelle stabbed her staff hard into the ground and placed both her hands on her waist. She looked at the small hill again—and shrugged, “Well, let’s wait for him. He should be coming back any second now.”

However, she was wrong.

As two minutes came to pass, there was no sign of Lucivar.

It was already past their agreed time, and there was still no sign of him anywhere.

“Guess you have the wrong perception of him, Arthur,” Orivelle sighed lightly. “He’s not that strong. Come on, let’s go.”

Arthur frowned.

He could tell from the aura Lucivar emanated back in the Trading Union main branch that he was surely someone formidable. Even the way the Trading Union treated him showed respect. It was almost certain that he was extremely capable.

So, seeing him this late felt really off.

Just as he was about to turn around, a figure emerged from the distance.

“Hey, wait!” Arthur called, stopping the other two. “I think that’s him. He’s coming back.”

As he said that, however, his entire body was paralyzed.

Seeing what Lucivar was dragging behind him was surreal to the point—that Arthur thought he must be hallucinating, but he was not. Even Orivelle and the other woman saw it, Lucivar pulling on two people who seemed to be unconscious, almost dead, while holding up a small lizard monster.

“Sorry, sorry,” He apologized with a smile when he neared.

Lucivar placed down the two participants, a man and a woman—both bruised and bloodied, their bodies marked with fresh scars. Clean cuts that surely came from the bloodied dagger sheathed on Lucivar’s side.

Then, he held up a small lizard, a feeble three-star Acolyte rank creature, and showed it to Orivelle.

“These two slowed me down,” He said—with a faded smile. “This was all I had the time to kill. I guess I’m not strong enough to be your ally, huh?”

Upon hearing this, Orivelle’s eyes shifted from the small lizard and the two participants.

Clearly, each one of them was a Chrysalis-rank Hybrid, but in five minutes, Lucivar managed to knock them out and even had the time to hunt a small lizard. And yet, he said he wasn’t strong enough? Such a thing was absurd.

But Orivelle knew one thing from this, ‘He’s incredibly strong, and I can use his help…’

Nodding to herself, Orivelle then asked, “Where is your kingdom? I’ll agree to become your ally.”

“Oh, great! How generous of you,” Lucivar said, faking excitement. “But first, I need to put these two in a lethal zone for attacking me out of nowhere. Wait a minute, there should be one nearby… Oh! I found it. Once I put them away, I’ll bring you to the others.”

Meanwhile, back in the stadium.

“Our first prisoners of the day! How exciting! Participant Lucivar managed to take down two peons and imprisoned them in the lethal zone! Now their King must retrieve them!”

“In the other division, Seth also didn’t lose out! He defeated seven peons at the same time! How about that!”

People cheer and clap, their eyes glued onto the screens.

At the center of the stadium, there was a small sand hill along with three open portals.

Participants are going to emerge from the portals, the finishing line, and plant their flags on the hill to win the race and save their kingdom from being disqualified. But on the VIP seats, there was one person who wasn’t paying attention.

“Who is she?” Leandra thought, staring at the woman on the corner. “Why is she trying to kill Lucivar?”

Earlier, she was worried when she saw that this woman, Ciri, was nowhere to be seen.

She thought Ciri sensed her staring and decided to change seats.

But it seemed she hadn’t, she was only a bit late.

‘I should get to know her,’ She thought and stood up, deciding to approach Ciri.

On the other hand, Nerissa, who was watching the second stage unfold, glanced over to Leandra.

A peculiar glint could be seen flickering behind her eyes.