Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 312

Chapter 312: Phonecall (1)
Ravenna panted heavily, watching as Lucivar’s back disappeared around the corner.

She tried calling for him, but he didn’t answer.

“Where is he going?”

Shaking her head, Ravenna sat back down again, completely in a state of exhaustion.

Even though she was able to withstand Loki’s suppression, allowing her to remain conscious while the others, and perhaps even the entire world, were knocked out cold, it still took a toll on her. Her reserve was completely empty.

And her stamina—it took a hit from the burn coming from her Supernatural Ego.

All she could do right now was sit down and recover.

Out of nowhere, a sudden sleepiness assaulted her, making her eyelids ten times heavier than normal.

She tried to keep awake, but she couldn’t, not when she was this exhausted.

Soon, her eyes began to throb.

Each throb blurred the world around her as she desperately tried to keep awake.

Everyone was vulnerable right now, so there should at least be one to keep an eye on them.

But it was impossible.

Ravenna caught something on her periphery.

She turned to her right and then up, noticing a figure silhouetted by the sun standing on the roof of the building across the street. Naturally, adrenaline kicks in as this might be someone with bad intentions, someone who would take advantage of the situation.

Demon Hybrids might use this moment to kill them, and Ravenna couldn’t let that happen.

But adrenaline wasn’t enough.

As she squinted, the figure’s face became clearer.

Still hard to see, but she seemed to recognize this person.

“M- Master…?”

A murmured escaped her lips before, eventually, darkness took over.

An unknown amount of time came to pass.

Ravenna moaned lightly and opened her ruby eyes.

She blinked a couple of times—but then, when her mind connected back to her body, she immediately inhaled deeply and looked around with wide eyes. Despite her resistance, she fell asleep, and the sudden appearance of the figure made her alert.

Looking around, she realized that the sun was still up, and the street was still empty.

It seemed she hadn’t fallen asleep that long, probably only a couple of minutes, barely a nap.

No sign of the figure from earlier.

Ravenna tried to recall that moment and groaned, finding that it was now blurry.

Then, her ears picked up the sound of slow footsteps coming from the park.

Strugglingly, Ravenna crawled towards the entrance and peeked inside to see who it was.

Leandra.

She was the first one to wake up among the others.

Noticing Ravenna on the ground and awake, Leandra’s eyes flickered in relief.

“What happened? Where’s Lucivar?”

“I don’t know… As for Lucivar, he left.”

“Left? What do you mean left?”

Before she could explain further, Leandra saw Bakar and Nerissa lying at the middle of the street.

Immediately, her eyes flared in concern.

“What about Nerissa? Did he do something to her?”

Remembering that Lucivar carried the blood of a God, she clung to his words—that Nerissa would be fine. Still, she needed to know for sure that everything had gone smoothly. Above all else, Nerissa had to live; she was far too precious to die.

Ravenna nodded.

“Yes, I saw him do something, but I don’t know what.”

Glancing at Nerissa, her eyes hummed with a reddish power, what’s left of her ether.

“I can see her blood flowing. She’s alive.”

“Thank God…”

“Do you mean thank Lucivar?”

Upon hearing this, Leandra paused before she smiled acutely.

“You still have the mood to joke around?”

“Why can’t I joke around? After all, we should be glad, right now. The battle has ended, and Lucivar won. That’s all that matters.”

Leandra didn’t know whether she should be happy or not.

She saw the battle between Lucivar and Caldaros, a battle between God-like figures, and couldn’t help but feel at least relieved. Other than the fight being over, with Lucivar winning, they at least could keep their lives.

Had it been Caldaros, he wouldn’t have hesitated to slaughter them all.

Exactly as Lucivar did earlier.

Inside, there was Ciri’s corpse lying on the ground with a hole in her chest.

Lucivar must’ve been the one who killed her, the only person that Caldaros has.

Sighing lightly, Ravenna looked skyward.

“Do you have any idea where he might be?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the one who knew?”

“I ran out of ether. Can’t locate him right now. Do you have any idea?”

“Actually… I think I know.”

Ravenna looked at Leandra in surprise.

She wasn’t expecting anything, but it seemed Leandra really knew Lucivar well.

…

Meanwhile, inside the stadium.

Lucivar swallowed hard, emotions building up inside him.

He looked down at the phone, hesitant, reeling in silence for a good minute.

Only the soft hum of the air conditioner in the background kept him company.

“Gandr…”

A name escaped his lips.

Nobody answered.

“Sha…”

Another one came out, but once again, there was no answer.

“Sirrush?”

Nothing.

Once he made sure that none of them were responding, probably dealing with the aftermath from having Sunna killed—Lucivar finally placed the phone against his ear, calling someone. He waited a moment, using the time to contemplate what he was going to say.

“Sorry for not calling you lately, I’ve been… busy.”

“No, it’s not okay. I should’ve at least called. I’m sorry.”

Lucivar shifted on his seat, leaning forward as he rubbed his forehead stressfully.

“I made good progress today. I killed someone important.”

“Not really. It’s not that I want to, but I have to. I was told to kill him.”

“No… Yes, you could say that he’s a rival.”

He nodded slightly, listening to the voice on the other side.

It seemed that hearing the voice was a hard thing to do, he became emotional.

“Okay, I know I called you so that I can share good news, but it’s not the reason this time. I’m hell-bent on becoming stronger, so I’ll do anything to get it. So, I… I have no choice but to use Nerissa, an-”

“…”

“I… I really have no choice. The Third God took a liking to her.”

“Yes, I could’ve searched for another way, but at the time I… I’m sorry.”

Lucivar rubbed his face harshly, his hand pausing at his mouth, and stayed there for a good moment.

A tear drizzled down his face, wetting his cheek.

Then, his voice broke.

“You’re the only one I care about right now. I can’t have you hate me for what I did. I don’t care what others think, but you… I care what you think, so don’t hate me. Nerissa lived, I made sure of it, but the thought of you hating me for doing this… I-I can’t.”

“I can’t even wait until she is revived. I’m afraid she’ll change and you’ll blame me for it.”

Lucivar sniffled.

He was already too deep in his plan and forgot about the implications it might bring.

Not external implications, but internal implications.

Just when the person on the other side spoke again, Lucivar’s eyes widened—before he quickly wiped away his tears.

“Really…? You’re going to forgive me?”

Lucivar let out a choked laugh, he couldn’t believe that he was forgiven.

“I really appreciate it, Delilah. I made sure that something like this would never happen again. Not unless they asked for it like Darwin. I’ll take care of them. I’ll take care of Tobias. Nothing bad will happen to them, I promise.”

A huge burden was relieved from Lucivar’s chest.

His tense shoulders relaxed, and he was no longer sitting on the edge of the chair.

Earlier, he dreaded when he realized what he had done.

But now, that has all come to pass.

It’s water under the bridge.

He was forgiven.

“Is there anything else bothering me? Yes, there’s one more thing.”

Lucivar straightened his posture again as his expression turned stern, almost deadly in a way.

“I was willing to become a slave to the Gods, to kickstart my path to power, doing anything they wanted me to do as long as I could get what I wanted, Karma. You knew about this. But earlier, they blocked me from getting information about Karma.”

For a brief moment, a flash of what happened earlier emerged in Lucivar’s mind.

How Tiamat crippled him for a moment, and how Loki and Sutekh watched with cold eyes.

Despite the fact that he earned the right to question Sunna, as he was the one who had beaten her, these Gods denied him access. He already proved his worth as the Blessed Oracle, so he should’ve gotten something in return.

Something that actually matters.

But he didn’t.

Lucivar clenched his jaw as his fingers tightened around the phone.

“It… angers me.”

“However, they are still helping me become stronger. What do you think? Should I continue or not…?”

…

Bakar and Mirel woke up not too long after Leandra woke up.

Since both of them were up, Ravenna and Leandra told them to bring Nerissa to a hospital.

An appointment with a healer as soon as possible would be nice.

Talking can be done later.

Of course, they didn’t forget to tidy up Ciri’s corpse, to make it seem like an accident.

Since the purple dungeon was gone, search and rescue teams were sent to sweep the entire city, and Ciri would be found by them among the rubble. As for Caldaros’ corpse, it was gone. His body turned into the beam that closed the purple dungeon.

Now, Ravenna and Leandra were standing in front of a building.

“Are you sure he’s here?”

“Yes, he’s here. I’m certain.”

Both of them were now in front of the stadium, and wasted no time going inside.

“Mirel and I saw him making a call after accomplishing something. Not too long after, I saw him sitting on a bench, doing the same thing. It’s a habit of his. Every time he accomplished something, he needed some time alone to make the call. His phone is in the locker room, I bet, so he must be here.”

“Who is he calling?”

Upon hearing this, Leandra stopped and turned to Ravenna.

“Delilah.”

“Delilah…? She’s gone.”

“Exactly.”

Leandra continued ahead, entering the stadium quickly with Ravenna behind, trying to keep up.

She was confused—this was new news for her.

“Wait, wait, wait, so you’re telling me Lucivar is talking with Delilah?”

“I was waiting for Lucivar to come clean about this. He really loved Delilah, and her death messed him up greatly. It devastated us, too, but it’s different for him. He’s starting to change around the time after Delilah’s death. Master Tobias gave him the phone as a memento, but I think he’s using it to talk to her…”

“You mean hallucinating, right?”

Leandra’s brows dipped, uncertain how to answer that question.

It was the reason they came here, to pry.

“We’ll see…”