Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 290

Chapter 290: Third Party
As soon as Arthur was exposed, a thunderous booming sound exploded in the sky.

A Hybrid that was tasked to pick up the lawbreakers, one that was above the Chrysalis rank, appeared and floated above them. Lucivar glanced upward before he finally let go of Arthur’s hand, not forgetting to take the crest emblem from Arthur’s pocket.

“Good luck explaining your reason, Arthur,”

Lucivar walked and stopped right beside Arthur before patting his shoulder.

“You mess with the wrong person, motherfucker.”

Having his own words thrown back at him, something inside Arthur snapped.

Brazenly, he gripped the blade tightly, channeled it with his ether, and swung it fiercely at Lucivar.

Expecting a dessert, to get one last flick, Lucivar smirked at the attempt.

Clang!

Arthur watched with gritted teeth as the blade struck Lucivar’s neck perfectly.

He expected the blade to slice Lucivar’s throat.

Since he couldn’t possibly give a good reason as to why he tried to kill Lucivar, it was clear that jail or a raid mandate were waiting for him. Either way, his future was compromised. No matter how changed he becomes in the future, a Hybrid with a criminal record would never be off the hook.

In the end, he would always be someone expendable, incapable of becoming someone important.

Since that was already certain, why would he let Lucivar go?

To his surprise, upon impact with Lucivar’s neck, the blade shattered into pieces.

Arthur’s eyes rounded when he saw this—that slash could even penetrate through a defensive spell from another Chrysalis-rank Hybrid, so it should be impossible for Lucivar to take it as if it were nothing.

But reality proved otherwise.

“You should pay closer attention,” Lucivar whispered. “Now, you’re only embarrassing yourself.”

Slash!

In a blur of motion, Arthur’s arm was suddenly severed and knocked skyward.

Blood spurted out grotesquely, creating gnarly arcs in the air.

“Raarggh!!”

Almost instantly, Arthur fell to his knees while clutching his severed arm, hissing in excruciating pain.

Anticipating the possibility of Arthur attacking him out of rage, Lucivar was ready.

Once Arthur infused his ether into the blade, Lucivar used the Greedy Grasp ability to suck it all without him even noticing. Due to that, when the blade reached his neck, it was nothing more than a raw blade with no ether.

Normal Chrysalis-rank with non-physical bloodlines would still be sliced by the blade.

But Lucivar? His body alone is a weapon.

All thanks to Sutekh’s stone tablet.

Realizing that Arthur was shameful enough to attack Lucivar again, even though he was already caught red-handed, the Hybrid above immediately dove down, grabbed Arthur by his nape like a puppy, and slammed his face onto the ground hard.

Then, he took out a reinforced handcuff and cuffed Arthur with it.

Once Arthur was restrained, he felt no connection with his ether, almost like he was normal again.

“Committing another murder attempt, you’re not going to get off the hook easily,” The Hybrid said with a dangerously low tone. “The governor instructed us to pardon the first violation, as adrenaline is high during the tournament, but you… You’re finished.”

“W-What…?” Arthur’s face turned pale when he heard this. “I… I could’ve been pardoned?”

“Not anymore,” The Hybrid sneered and hauled Arthur off the ground and brought him away.

Lucivar straightened his back and put the crest in its place again before tapping it.

He could feel the warm brush of healing energy enveloping his entire body, stitching back his wounds until he was fully recovered. It was the second charge for the crest. Now, there was only one charge left, which Lucivar was planning to use sparingly.

“Hey, you alright?” Mirel landed right in front of him.

Seeing what happened to Lucivar earlier, he came rushing to help, but it seemed he wasn’t needed.

Lucivar has his own ways of making others feel stupid for wanting to help him, and Mirel was the victim right now.

“I survived,” Lucivar answered after a brief pause. “So, I think I’m alright.”

Even though the taste of pain from almost being crushed by the massive tentacle wasn’t fun in the least, it was all worth it. ‘I hit two birds with that move. It hurts, it really hurts, but whatever… I just need to finish the plan quickly and sleep for an entire day, no, a couple of days after!’

As he thought of that, his eyes naturally trailed to the other direction.

Orivelle was not too far away, and she was looking straight at Lucivar with a vacant gaze.

It seemed she was in shock at what had happened.

But then again, seeing Arthur go as far as trying to kill Lucivar must make her wary of him again.

And Lucivar can’t have that.

Before he could even say anything, Orivelle already turned and sprinted away, going on ahead without waiting for the others. Lucivar clicked his tongue in displeasure when he saw this, “Come on, the stage is not over yet.”

Mirel nodded his head and dashed, leading the charge with Lucivar following right behind.

Like two indomitable lasers, the duo cuts through the Garden of Monsters with relative ease.

All the lava slimes’ limbs that were trying to reach them were thwarted easily by Mirel’s speed, while the massive tentacle’s descent was blocked by Lucivar’s machine gun Night Piercer as well as another God-strand-infused slash.

Under their perfect synergy, they began to catch up to Orivelle little by little.

Once near enough, Lucivar called for her.

“Orivelle!”

He shouted, calling her name as if it were his lifeline.

“What are you doing?! We need to stick together or else you’ll be in trouble!”

Upon hearing this, Orivelle glanced over her shoulder and shook her head determinedly.

“No!” She denied loudly. “Leave me alone!!”

Lucivar was at a loss for words.

In case he remembered correctly, it was Arthur who attacked him earlier, and he was forced to retaliate in order to preserve his life. As his comrade from the Vanguard Institute, Orivelle, should at least initiate by making an apology.

As opposed to doing that, she ran away as if she were the one who was attacked.

‘What is she doing now…? This is going to be troublesome.’ Lucivar thought inwardly.

Glancing down at his sprinting legs, he frowned, knowing that his stamina was nearing its limit already.

Even though the crest healed his wounds completely, it didn’t heal his stamina, as well as his ether.

On top of that, his God strands were also running low.

‘I should’ve taken some ether from Arthur, but I forgot. Damn it!’ He cursed inside.

Needing to keep up with a lot of things in this second stage, it was natural for anyone to forget a small but convenient matter like this. But Lucivar was extremely furious at himself because of this. After all, his Lucivar Asarafall, the Blessed Oracle.

He would accept nothing but perfection for himself.

“Let me give you a hand.”

Out of nowhere, Sha’s amused voice seeped into his ears.

In the following moment, Lucivar could feel some of his stamina recovering.

Not too full, but enough to steady his breaths once again.

Just as he was about to pick up his pace, his gaze snapped to the side.

“Something is coming!” Mirel warned, also sensing the enormous ether coming their way.

Lucivar’s eyes darted left and right, searching for the source of this powerful aura, but before he could find it, the ground a few paces in front of him cracked. He couldn’t stop in time—as a figure came out with ferocity, landing a brain-rattling uppercut squarely on his chin.

Bam!!

Before this figure could land another attack, Mirel had already grabbed Lucivar’s leg and pulled him away.

Then, Mirel threw a fist, aiming at the figure’s toned abs.

However, upon impact, his eyes widened as hitting this figure felt like hitting a rock.

His punch barely did anything to the figure.

In the following sequence, Mirel exchanged a couple of strikes, each side aiming to grab hold of the other’s wrists, but the momentum was on the figure’s side. Mirel was about to lean away to restart, but the figure managed to grab his wrist and pulled him forward.

Bam!

Mirel was pulled towards her knee.

He grunted in pain and stumbled backward as blood spilled from his broken nose.

A few paces behind him, Lucivar landed on his feet and raised his gaze, seeing a familiar figure.

“Garran…” He mumbled.

Not recognizing Garran was practically impossible, considering that despite being a woman, she was at least a head taller than Lucivar, more muscular than the manliest man, and also—she carries around a two-handed battle axe that she used with one hand.

‘How is she here?’ Lucivar thought in confusion. ‘She’s not supposed to be in this division.’

Lucivar sighed in relief earlier when he found Garran wasn’t in his division.

He messed with her to gain Orivelle’s attention, nothing else.

But it seemed trouble had its way of following him.

Casting a mischievous grin, Garrna turned around and sprinted away, leaving Lucivar and Mirel behind.

“Fuck is her problem?” Mirel cursed while holding his broken nose. “Lucivar, look at me for a second.”

“What?” Lucivar asked impatiently.

He needed to chase after Garran, who seemed to be aiming for Orivelle.

“My nose… is it bad?” Mirel asked, putting his hand away to show Lucivar his nose.

Naturally, it was quite bad—It’s crooked and couldn’t stop bleeding.

Seeing this, Lucivar wanted to rip off the crest on his outfit and plaster it on Mirel’s outfit to use the last charge of the crest on Mirel. Even though he wanted to save it, Mirel wouldn’t be able to fight or even breathe properly with his nose like that.

But as he was about to do that, Ravenna’s words rang inside his mind.

“Mirel was planning on sticking with you during the tournament, because he now has suspicions about you.”

Recalling that Mirel might get in the way, Lucivar refrained from helping him.

Mirel watched as Lucivar’s expression shifted from a tad bit concerned to neutral—and he couldn’t help but wonder what was going on inside Lucivar’s head. He waited a bit, and got no answer, “So? Is it bad or not?”

Upon hearing this, Lucivar snapped from his daze.

“Not that bad,” He said before pausing. “But it’ll get a lot worse in a second.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Mirel raised an eyebrow, confused.

Giving no warning at all, Lucivar clenched his fist and sucker punched Mirel across his face.

Bam!!

Mirel’s eyes widened as the impact cracked against his cheek, sending him tumbling across the ground.

Once he finally skidded to a stop, groaning, he touched his throbbing cheek. “What in the heck is that for?” He muttered, shooting a glare toward Lucivar—only to find him already sprinting into the distance without any care in the world.

Realizing what Lucivar was doing, Mirel swore under his breath.

“For fuck’s sake… He’s going to make his move. He’s heading to Orivelle!”

Scrambling, Mirel rose to his feet and quickly chased after Lucivar.