Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 316

Chapter 316: Connecting the Dots

Ravenna watched as Lucivar sprinted out of the bathroom and then out of the room.

She was now in her bathrobe.

Once he left, her expression immediately shifted into a tense one.

Her eyes naturally settled on the dressing table—the phone wasn’t there anymore.

Slowly, she approached the table and reached for the bottom right drawer where the phone should be.

It was easy to find out about this since Lucivar wasn’t really hiding the phone.

But a gentle pull showed her that it was locked.

Lucivar brought the key with him, so there’s no use searching the entire room.

Ravenna sat down on the edge of the bed, combing her hair backward, contemplating something, judging from the complex look she was wearing. It was the same thought that kept replaying in her mind ever since that day.

‘Delilah, is she still alive?’

Back then, after hearing her voice on the phone, she immediately walked out of the locker room.

She didn’t understand why she did that.

At the time, all she wanted to do was to get away from the phone as far as possible.

Leandra followed right behind.

And outside of the stadium, Ravenna could tell that she also heard something.

She said that the voice, Delilah, said not to touch the phone ever again.

‘I’m not crazy. Leandra heard it too.’

Even though this thought has been haunting her for the last month and more, she doesn’t have the sheer courage to ask Lucivar directly about it. Or maybe, the shock has gotten to her so badly that she wants to avoid talking about it.

Of course, she tried to build up the courage to talk about it.

Maybe earlier in the bathroom, when Lucivar was out of it, she could sneak in the conversation.

But she failed again.

It was the same for Leandra.

Not only did she avoid talking about it, but she also avoided Lucivar entirely.

Needing to process this shock.

“She’s dead… She died right in front of our eyes.” She leaned forward, covering her face with both her hands. “I couldn’t save her, and she died in front of us. Then who is that on the phone? No call came in, but there was that voice, and it was undeniably Delilah’s voice.”

“Is there something that we didn’t know that only Lucivar knew? Is she somehow… still alive?”

Just then, Ravenna remembered the sticker.

A magical artifact that was certainly tied to the phone.

“What kind of magical artifact was that?”

Biting her lower lip, Ravenna stood up abruptly and changed into the academy hunter uniform.

She couldn’t hold it in anymore.

It’s time to face reality and confront this situation head-on.

Once she changed, she brushed Nerissa’s head and whispered to her that she was leaving for a moment.

Nerissa only groaned and nodded before going back to sleep again.

Ravenna walked out of the room and traced along the corridor—there are barely any rooms up here.

Unlike the lower floors that have at least almost a hundred or even more rooms on each floor, this floor was a lot secluded as it was reserved only for the top-rankers or someone like Lucivar, who made a big contribution to the academy.

She went down a few floors through the emergency exit.

Deliberately avoiding the main staircase or lift so that she wouldn’t cross Lucivar.

It took a minute for her to reach a particular door, and she knocked on it.

But there was no answer, no matter how much she knocked.

“Where is she?”

Ravenna looked around when she realized Leandra wasn’t in her room.

She thought for a moment and headed downstairs again to leave the building.

A place came to mind where Leandra might be.

Ravenna managed to slip past Lucivar, who was talking to Angel at the lobby, and got out.

As expected, the academy streets were already filled with students going to their morning classes.

It was about seven in the morning, and the first class was about to start.

Soon, she arrived in front of a big building not too far away from the main academy building.

A training place for students.

Lucivar requested that the others be moved alongside him to the student dormitory, and he has a special privilege ID that would allow them the same benefits or even more with the students. So naturally, all the benefits of a student were open to them.

In the lobby of the Training Facility Building, Ravenna talked with the receptionist and found Leandra.

She was in room thirty.

As the door slid open automatically, Ravenna was greeted by an open, spacious training space.

It has all kinds of things that would assist in a Hybrid training, such as numerous kinds of weapons, test dummies, puppets with varying power levels—and even the Reflection Meter that couldn’t only gauge the raw strength of the Hybrid, but also spell power output.

Leandra was at the center, working up a sweat with a steel sword in hand.

She didn’t even turn as Ravenna entered, keeping up with her combos, swift and precise.

Even the sound from every slash she made was a clear tell-tale that she was an expert, and her fluidity of movements made her look like a butterfly. Ravenna watched this from the side in silence, waiting for her to finish.

Leandra made a circular swing and then a quick dash, stabbing forward precisely.

Her ether blasted from the tip, hitting the Reflection Meter hard.

[Calculated output: 2-star Chrysalis rank!]

A robotic voice resounded across the room, declaring the result.

Once the echoes faded, Leandra straightened her posture and turned towards Ravenna.

She was slightly out of breath and her skin slick with sweat.

For a second there, she only stared at Ravenna in silence.

Then, she strode past Ravenna, heading to the corner where her belongings were neatly arranged.

“You’re here to talk about that, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. We need to talk about it.”

Ravenna turned around and sighed exasperatedly, already feeling uncomfortable.

But a month of pretending is already enough time for them to prepare.

“That rose sticker,” Leandra wiped the sweat—with a towel and sat down on the bench. “I think it’s the source of the voice. Delilah is gone, that’s for certain, and there was also no incoming call, so the sticker must have something to do with that voice. Someone else is pretending to be Delilah. To what end, I do not know.”

“Someone is using Lucivar, but that doesn’t make sense. He would know that someone is pretending, and knowing his temper, he would’ve hunted that person down since he loved Delilah.” She added with a heavy exhale. “It was blatant disrespect to use the dead’s voice.”

“You weren’t there,” Ravenna sighed and took a seat beside Leandra.

Her mind replayed the night of Delilah’s death.

“You didn’t see how hurt he was when Delilah died, it was devastating for him. For all I know, he might think the voice was only in his mind.” She clasped her hands together as her face grew darker by the second. “He blamed his mind and didn’t question anything. In fact, he might be glad.”

“But what is the end goal here? What does this person want from Lucivar?”

“To influence him? Maybe to remind him? I don’t know. We can’t even be sure that all things Lucivar did weren’t from this voice, too.”

“No, I’m sure those things are completely Lucivar’s doings.”

Leandra shook her head, firm about this.

She was certain that the bad things were done by Lucivar’s own free will, not the influence of another.

“Besides, I heard him talk a couple of times, and most of the talk involved him telling the person on the other side about what he did. Nothing more and nothing less. Lucivar always sounded boastful when he talked about his achievement to this ‘Delilah’.’

“…”

Silence enveloped both of them again.

It was still surreal that this was actually happening.

Initially, when they heard Lucivar talking to the phone as if he was talking to Delilah made them think that his mind had gone crazy; this was his way of coping with Delilah’s death. Now, they realized that he was crazier.

Talking to someone imaginary was already madness, but mistaking a real voice for imaginary was sheer lunacy.

He was that devastated.

Ravenna shifted on her seat and leaned backward.

“Do you know when exactly that sticker was on Delilah’s phone?”

“I-I am not sure. I wasn’t really paying attention. Bob and Mirel might know since they’re close with her. I haven’t seen Bob around, but Mirel, we can ask. But wait…”

Leandra looked at Ravenna with clear shock plastered across her face.

She only now realized what Ravenna was insinuating.

“Are you saying someone set Delilah up to die? But that’s impossible. A Fire Primordial killed her. So, there must be a dungeon break around the area, something that couldn’t be controlled.”

“By now, we know Lucivar carries the blood of multiple Gods—and Loki is one of them. A master trickster if the myth is true. And the others? I’m certain they’re just as powerful. You felt it too, didn’t you? For beings like them, I’m sure manipulating a Fire Primordial would be as effortless as lifting a finger.”

At those words, Leandra was thrown back to the blood village.

Before Lucivar killed his doppelganger, she saw a jackal-head behind him, flaring theatrically.

It must be another God.

Naturally, what Ravenna was saying made sense.

A God must have their own ways to do the unthinkable.

Manipulating a Fire Primordial, a weak one at that, sounds underwhelming for a God to do.

And then suddenly, everything clicked.

Leandra remembered clearly that Lucivar had begun to change at the small village right after Delilah died. He wanted to learn how to kill at first, and that desire gradually escalated until he became who he is now.

Delilah’s death was the catalyst the Gods used to shape him into their likeness.

At that realization, Leandra’s expression tensed up as the weight of the situation pressed on her heavily.

She opened her mouth and uttered with a very light voice.

Almost as if she were scared that someone was listening.

“Are you sure we’re going to head down this road…? Because once we do, there’s no going back.”

“I… I love Lucivar. I’ll help him, even if that means risking my life.”

“Me too… I guess it’s settled.”

Crossing the Gods would mean making an enemy out of them, which was extremely terrifying for those who were nothing more than mere mortals. So much so that their hands were trembling uncontrollably, knowing that this might as well be their end.

Or the beginning of the unimaginable pain.

But now that they agreed on what to do, there’s no going back.

“What should we do first?”

“First, we have to tell Master Tobias the truth. And then we’ll talk to Lucivar.”