Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 289

Chapter 289: Uproar
Several days before the tournament, Arthur was contacted by the Crimson Wolf Clan.

He was bribed to kill Lucivar by any means necessary.

Regardless of the method, he was told to make sure Lucivar didn’t come out of the tournament alive.

And with the amount of money and resources the Crimson Wolf Clan was willing to give him for this assassination, Arthur couldn’t say no. It was too good to pass out. Naturally—he has a plan in his mind on how he would get rid of Lucivar.

But he was surprised to see Lucivar coming to him first.

Initially, this spooked him.

Knowing how powerful Lucivar was, he thought that somehow, Lucivar knew about his intention.

In addition, Lucivar being near the others messed up his plan.

He now has to improvise while making sure that Lucivar doesn’t attack first.

However, as the tournament progressed, it was apparent that Lucivar was targeting Orivelle—for some reason. As opposed to knowing his intention, Lucivar has another agenda, and it involves Orivelle, not him.

That realization soothed him a bit, but that doesn’t make the situation better.

Arthur didn’t want something to happen to Orivelle, but he couldn’t say anything to Orivelle since the Devil was practically sticking close to her. But an opportunity arose when the Shadow Clan champions attacked.

Naturally, Arthur thought that he could find a moment to kill Lucivar.

But he witnessed Lucivar destroying the Shadow Clan champions instead.

He even almost made a mistake when he saw Lucivar blown away from the cave and crash near the big tree. At that moment, seeing Lucivar sprawled weakly, Arthur wanted to sneak in to deliver the killing blow, but he caged that intention when Lucivar’s eyes abruptly opened.

Arthur thought that he was hurt, but as it turns out, he was pretending to be hurt.

In addition, Lucivar’s senses were sharp, he almost caught Arthur in the act.

Fortunately, Arthur was able to hide in the nick of time.

And true enough, Lucivar pretended to be hurt so that he could trap Renis and humiliate him.

Realizing that there was no way he could kill Lucivar at this moment, Arthur decided to go back to the others and informed Orivelle to stay away from Lucivar. He sounded distraught, and perhaps that made him look unconvincing.

However, the world was on his side when Lucivar’s sole focus was on Orivelle.

Once they passed the halfway mark towards the third checkpoint, in the Garden of Monsters, Arthur knew that it was the best time for him to attack. With a lot of tentacles around them, along with the slimes, it would be easy to pass Lucivar’s death as the monsters’ doing, not his.

But as it turns out, that was another mistake.

“And what if I am?” Arthur rebutted uneasily.

Lucivar smirked, “Then, I could do this…”

Arthur’s brows dipped into a frown when Lucivar suddenly grabbed his hand.

Naturally, he tried to pull his hand but stopped when he noticed something moving in the background.

“Hmm?” He frowned harder, glancing around to check. ‘Am I seeing things?’

Being a Mirror Demon Hybrid with a named bloodline, Arthur was connected to the mirror dimension, another dimension that only certain entities could enter. It was a parallel dimension, hidden on the other side of the mirror—a twisted reflection of reality.

And from there, he could sense something was moving.

However, that couldn’t be right.

Arthur wanted to focus on Lucivar and end things as quickly as possible, but the uneasy feeling made him check the mirror dimension. Channeling ether into his optical nerves, his eyes turned into the shade of grey as he peered into the mirror dimension.

It was only then, his eyes widened in shock.

He saw the paw of a monster heading towards him, claws flared with killing intent.

Splash!

Arthur blinked his eyes and realized that his spell that made him invisible had shattered.

For a second there, he froze in his spot.

“How…?” As the realization dawned upon him, he sucked in a cold breath, “How?!”

Considering that the spell that encased him in a blending glass that turned him invisible could only be touched by those who have a connection to the mirror dimension, which nobody should in this particular moment, Arthur couldn’t understand how this happened.

Nobody should be able to touch the glass, much less shatter it.

Seeing the smirk on Lucivar’s face stretching, Arthur’s expression paled as this must be his doing.

“Hey, fix your face a little,” Lucivar leaned forward and laughed. “Smile, you’re on TV!”

“Eh…? No…”

“Yes, come on. Look up, and wave to the camera.”

Upon hearing this, Arthur stiffly tilted his head upward and saw a drone hovering right above them.

It was only then did he finally realized—he was exposed!

Lucivar shattered his spell and exposed him while his blade was still stabbing through Lucivar’s belly.

Snapping out of his trance, Arthur tried desperately to pull out the blade—or even pull back his hand, but Lucivar had a strong grip on it; he couldn’t budge it. So hard that even the bones in his hand began to crack under the pressure.

All this while, he kept smiling awkwardly at the camera, “It’s not what it looks like, really!”

Instead of responding, the drone’s lens only narrowed.

Clearly, it was exactly as it looked.

On the other side, inside the stadium, Arthur’s face was shown on the main screen.

The crowd could be seen booing him for attempting to kill a participant, thinking that he could get away with his meager stealth ability. Had it not been for the barrier surrounding the arena, the crowd would’ve already thrown trash at the screen.

At the edge of the arena, there were a few participants who were imprisoned in a cage.

One of them was Renis.

Upon being picked up and brought back to the stadium, he was placed inside this cramp, hanging cage.

His entire body was slick with sweat, bruises, and food leftovers.

Just as per the tournament’s rulebook, those who broke the severe laws would be imprisoned like this and be allowed to be humiliated by the crowd. For almost ten minutes, the barrier surrounding the arena was taken down, allowing the crowd to throw rocks, food, and leftovers at him.

It was why he was in this state right now, pathetic and shameful.

Renis has lost all hope—he still has a future, but it isn’t the bright one that he had before.

Now, it was as dark as the night.

Even the Shadow Clan’s leader, clad in an all-black outfit, wore a grim look right now.

And certainly, back in the headquarters, the Blessed Hand Clan’s leader was clapping in joy.

However, when Arthur’s face appeared on the screen, another lawbreaker, the Shadow Clan’s leader’s face lit up. Arthur came from the Vanguard Institute, a top-tier academy. So, for them to also—branded in shame took a chunk of attention off of Renis’ mistake.

On another booth, Drake stared at the screen blankly.

Seeing Arthur’s face on the screen, his lips parted slightly as he was at a loss for words.

Just moments earlier, when he saw that Lucivar was suddenly wounded, he was elated.

Even without being there, he knew that Arthur had done his task successfully, and his revenge had now been paid. Ragnar told him all about Lucivar, how he was the one who gave Julian the upper hand, so this has become personal.

But to see that Arthur was exposed, he was speechless.

Who could’ve thought Lucivar also has an answer to someone like Arthur?

“I told you, Father. He’s too cunning!” Ragnar complained from behind. “If we wanted to kill him, we should do it with our own hands. Doing it discreetly like this wouldn’t work. It’s the same as back then. It felt like Lucivar had eyes watching over us at all times!”

“Quiet yourself,” Drake commanded with a suppressed tone.

As he stared ahead again, his eyes met with another leader to the side.

It was a woman with grey hair and draped in a military uniform, the leader of the Vanguard Institute.

Realizing that she was staring at him, Drake quickly averted his gaze.

‘Did she suspect that it was me who made Arthur do this?’ He thought inside, worriedly.

Having one of their champions coerced to be a lawbreaker was unacceptable. it was natural for the grey-haired woman to be pissed. Not to mention, her faction was held in high regard in this tournament, so this was a devastating blow to their reputation.

Meanwhile, Elira and Thalia were having a laugh in their booth.

“He’s definitely sent by the Crimson Wolf Clan,” Thalia laughed without restraint.

Her laugh came in a cascade of giggles, breathless and unpolished, as if she couldn’t hold back the sheer delight rattling in her chest, “Did you see Drake’s face, sister? He went from smiling hideously like a clown to looking like someone stepped on his toe—It’s too hilarious!”

“Shush, manners!” Elira warned, but she couldn’t stop some chuckles from slipping out of her mouth.

It was obvious to them that Arthur was sent by Drake.

Being forced to drop the vendetta in exchange for Ragnar certainly left a bitter taste in Drake’s mouth.

Naturally, he wanted to cleanse his palate by killing the root of his defeat, Lucivar.

But he failed miserably.

“This kid Lucivar is really something,” Julian nodded his head in acknowledgement. “He seemed to be prepared for all kinds of situations. I’m afraid his cunningness is even beyond most of us from the older generations. But then again, he did manage to outwit us.”

Upon hearing this, Callista’s expression twitched.

Obviously, Julian was referring to her.

However, seeing how amazing Lucivar was made Callista feel better about herself.

If this kept going, she might be able to convince herself enough that it was natural for her to lose.

After all, nobody could match Lucivar in terms of cunningness.

In the main booth, the governor looked at the screen and rubbed his chin in contemplation.

“Who is this young man? The one who got stabbed.” He asked.

Readily, the assistant tapped on her tablet and stepped forward, “His name is Lucivar Asarafall. He’s an academy hunter—from the Bloodhaven Academy. He made quite a name for himself in the last month, almost as if he came out of nowhere.”

“Ah, the one who saved Kalinan City,” The governor remembered. “I see.”

Pausing for a second, he turned to his side.

A beautiful woman with flawless pale skin was sitting beside him—she was his sister.

“I think we should add another target to Seth’s list,” He said meaningfully. “Caldaros is not enough to test Seth’s skills, he needs more. Tell Seth to also attack Lucivar.”

“Brother…” The woman wanted to refute, but she couldn’t.

All she could do was sigh and reach for her phone to do exactly what the governor said.

Inside the dungeon, Lucivar was smiling from ear to ear, oblivious to the commotion he caused.

His eyes then naturally turned to Orivelle, his next target.

It was going to be total domination for him in this tournament.