Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 281

Chapter 281: Impostor (2)
Inside the Hybrid Association’s main office.

A commotion was happening inside the underground control room.

All warning indicators were lit on, and the screen in front of the rows of office workers—sitting in front of their computers, turned red. One of them, the man in charge of the control room, looked at the screen and instantly turned pale.

“My God…” He murmured in shock.

But then, realizing that the others were beginning to panic, he snapped out of his daze and turned to the side, to another worker, “Check the system—and make sure there’s no malfunction in the processes. Do it right now!”

Nodding his head, the worker immediately went to work.

For a brief moment, the vertical bar on the right side of the main screen dropped down to zero again.

Once the system check was completed, the bar was refilled again—reaching the purple grade level and triggering all warning indicators once again. It was clear now that there was no mistake, “How long has it been…? How can a dungeon of this caliber appear here, in the Light World?”

Gritting his teeth, the man in charge immediately rushed out of the control room.

He ran through the corridor and made his way up through the emergency exit, having no patience to use the lift, until he reached the ninth floor. Pushing the door open hard, he caught the attention of the people on the floor, but he didn’t care.

Soon, he reached a massive door with a secretary’s desk beside it.

“Where’s the director?” He quickly asked the secretary.

“Eh?” The secretary paused for a second before she quickly checked the director’s schedule when she saw how urgent the man looked, “The director should be having a meeting on the sixth floor. Should I call him?”

“No, need. Thank you,” The man quickly ran away again.

On the other hand, the director was sitting on his chair and listening to a presentation.

It was the monthly report on the fatality of the Hybrids under the Hybrid Association.

But the presentation came to an abrupt stop when the door was swung open, and a man stepped inside in a hurry. Naturally, one of the people seated at the table stood up, completely enraged—by the man’s lack of manners, “Did you not learn how to knock? A meeting is underway!”

“I’m sorry,” The man apologized before turning to the director. “But it’s urgent.”

Upon hearing this, the director gestured to settle down before focusing on the man again.

“Please, tell me what’s so urgent?” He asked.

“Our team was on our third scan, and we picked up a purple dungeon forming!” The man replied.

Almost instantly, the faces of the people inside the meeting room changed.

A purple dungeon was nearly unheard of in the Light World—appearing only a handful of times through centuries. Such a high-grade dungeon was typically deployed by the Primordials to strike critical places and establish strongholds.

It would probably take two Supreme Houses to work together to take down a normal purple dungeon.

Anything stronger, the entire Light World would need to band together.

Not only was their manpower barely enough to handle a dungeon of this caliber, but there were no good reasons for the Crossers to deploy this kind of dungeon against the Light World. If it were the world on the other side, the Dark World, then it’s a different story.

Hybrids there were stronger, far stronger than those in the Light World.

Despite the confusion, the people present have one guess on why the Crossers deployed a purple dungeon.

One that none of them wanted to be true.

Perhaps, the Dark World had already fallen to the Crossers, and now, it was their turn to be devoured.

“Are you sure?” The director asked sternly. “Have you rechecked?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” The man answered with a pale face. “What should we do, director?”

As soon as the man said that, all eyes turned to the director.

He remained silent for a good moment, contemplating hard inside, before he finally parted his lips, “Go and deploy as many teams as you can to locate the source of the energy, find where the purple dungeon is going to appear.”

Then, he turned to the other people at the table.

“Inform the clan leaders about the situation, and tell them to get ready to fight.” He added.

…

Meanwhile, back in the South Hues Tournament.

“Keep your guards up, we’re near,” Leo muttered weakly.

Upon hearing this, the other two nodded and channeled their ether to cover their entire bodies.

From what they found, Lucivar is a Harpy Hybrid—so speed is his forte.

Reaching the foothill, the three found that about twenty meters to the hill itself was devoid of any dead trees that they could use as cover. So, they stayed away from that open space since it was obvious now to them that Lucivar was hiding.

Slowly, the three swept the foothill, scanning their surroundings.

It was hard to see with the mild fog around them that limited their vision.

Leo’s eyes fixed on something on his left before he looked up, noticing the drone was staring at them.

Only one drone could be seen.

About a hundred meters away on the opposite side, there was another drone.

“Stop, put me down here,” Leo suddenly said, pointing at a dead tree. “I fought him there, near that big dead tree. You should be able to find traces of his blood. Leave me here, so I won’t be a burden. If I’m in trouble, I’ll scream.”

Nodding her head, the woman helped Leo sit down before she and the other man continued onward.

Both of them instantly turned into shadows and disappeared.

Once they were gone, Leo glanced in a particular direction with a malicious smirk.

Meanwhile, the other two reached the big tree Leo was talking about.

Both circled the big tree, trying to find the blood traces Lucivar left behind since Leo said he was also wounded. However, the two of them frowned when they couldn’t find anything. “Do you find anything over there?”

“No,” The woman shook her head. “Did he clean it? No way. Not when he’s wounded.”

“It’s also strange there aren’t any signs of a battle,” The man muttered, placing his hands on his hips as a frown tugged at his face. Something felt wrong, off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Maybe Leo was too out of it from blood loss and misremembered where the fight happened.”

“Maybe…” The woman muttered, but could also feel something was eerily off.

Rumble!

Roar!!

Just then, the two were startled when a thunderous roar shook the entire dead forest.

Realizing that it was a beast, and it was coming from Leo’s direction, the two exchanged a look before they quickly returned to where Leo was. He was wounded, so he’d be in trouble if he came across this beast that emanated a heavy aura.

Upon returning, they saw that Leo was crawling on the ground, trying to get away.

Behind him, the dead trees could be seen toppling over one by one.

Something was charging in his direction, and it was massive, from how the dead trees were easily knocked down.

“Help!” Leo called and reached out his hand.

Snapping out of their dazes, the two quickly went over and picked him up.

It was at the same time that the monster exposed itself.

A massive monster shaped like a ball of death—its body was wrapped in overlapping plates of rusted bronze armor and charred iron. Every inch was adorned with vicious spikes of varying lengths, curling outward from its spherical form like petrified thorns.

Each step it took shook the ground, highlighting how heavy it was.

“Bring Leo away, I’ll hold it off for a bit!” The man shouted and stood facing the charging monster.

Nodding her head, the woman supported Leo and dashed away.

Swish!

Sensing that the monster possessed a Chrysalis-rank power, the man didn’t hold back and summoned his ether in the form of a shadow shield. It expanded outward from his hands and created a shield that was as massive as the monster.

However, as the monster neared, the man frowned when he noticed something was wrong.

‘What’s happening…?’ He thought in dread, realizing that his shadow shield was getting smaller.

Gritting his teeth, he poured more ether into maintaining the shield, but it was futile.

Instead of maintaining the shadow shield’s size, his ether was being drained—no matter how much he poured in, it vanished like water into a bottomless pit. He couldn’t sustain the shield at all, and the more he tried, the faster his ether reserve was drained.

He had never experienced anything like it before.

For a second there, fear gripped him—the man tried turning around to run away.

But the monster was faster than him.

Roar!!

Curling into an actual, spiky ball, the monster rolled forward and ran over the man brutally.

His body was squashed completely, flattened against the ground.

Not even given any time to scream, the man was killed—bloodied holes riddled his corpse.

Unrelenting, the monster charged toward Leo and the woman, spinning like a spiked juggernaut at the speed of a car on a highway. It came fast, too fast, but the woman was ready. With a sharp motion, she hurled them both aside, narrowly evading the deadly roll as the monster thundered past.

“No… Roy!” She screamed in shock when she saw that the man, Roy, was now dead.

“I saw a cave earlier,” Leo grabbed the woman’s shoulder. “We can hide there!”

Snapping out of her shock, the woman blinked before she nodded.

Before the monster could turn around, they had to find cover.

“Hold on,” The woman said, channeling her ether to cast a spell.

But like Roy, she also found that her ether couldn’t form the spell—every time the spell was about to be formed, the ether was drained suddenly. Despite her confusion, she grabbed Leo and went ahead on foot—every second counts.

It took a moment for them to see the cave in the distance.

“There!” Leo pointed. “That monster wouldn’t fit that cave. We’ll be safe there! Go faster!”

“I’m trying!” The woman complained.

She could feel her strength leaving her, even though she should be in good condition right now.

Like a parasite was inside of her, and it was eating her ether and draining her stamina rapidly.

Just as the two were a few paces away from reaching the cave, the monster appeared again behind them, charging like a furious bull. At this point, the woman’s legs already felt weak, but she had to keep going or else both of them would die.

Leo is wounded, and he needs her help.

However, as she thought of that, she noticed the bleeding wound on Leo’s stomach was gone.

It was then that the woman’s heart skipped a beat, and the bad premonition she was feeling heightened.

Noticing the change in the woman’s expression, Leo paused before his lips curled into a smile.

“You… You’re not Leo,” she rasped before gulping in fear. “A Tribrid…?”