Ascension of the Dark Seraph

"I heard there was trouble earlier. I should've been there, I'm sorry," Angel bowed and apologized.

"Just a pretty boy loser," Lucivar waved dismissively and gestured to the sofa ahead. "Please, sit down. I'm looking forward to what you have gathered for me. Make it quick—I don't want Dullan to see you doing this for me."

"R-Right…" Angel nodded and quickly settled on the sofa across.

She opened the suitcase and placed stacks of papers across the table, displaying it for Lucivar clearly.

"I managed to gather practically everyone worth mentioning who you might pose a threat to you," Angel said as she spread out the papers, showcasing multiple biographies of the participants. "I've listed their known abilities stated on the Hybrid Association's database, and also their recent accomplishments."

Lucivar leaned forward and skimmed through the papers.

Each paper showed different people, their names, ranks, bloodlines, and achievements.

In a matter of days, Angel was able to gather this much about them.

"What do these stars stand for?" Lucivar asked, pointing at the red star beside each section.

"Of course, we can't really trust the Hybrid Association's database. Some of them might be hiding their real bloodline and abilities—so those whom I can't confirm, I marked them with a red star," Angel replied, adjusting her glasses.

Lucivar gave her an approving nod.

Her position as the CEO's secretary wasn't only for show, she was competent.

"Also, the numbers at the very top," Angel pointed at the top corner of the biography. "Represent their threat level. It's based on my own bias and their achievements, so it might not be accurate, but it should be of help to you. Number 1 is the highest."

As soon as he heard that, he referred to the paper marked with the number one.

And as expected, it was the governor's grandson.

"Seth Damonil Valerius," Lucivar muttered—and hovered over to the achievement section. "Possess a diamond-class spell that allowed him to see through the illusion conjured—by a Savant-rank Hybrid, obtained the title of Spear Grandmaster, has five high-tier blue dungeons on his belt, taken part in a raid team for a purple dungeon, and has 21% Vampire bloodline purity."

"Pretty undermining, nothing special." He shrugged and placed the paper aside.

Angel smiled acutely at the sight—nobody other than Lucivar would say Seth was undermining.

Even the title Spear Grandmaster alone was usually given to those above the age of forty.

Seth got it when he was only nineteen, and that's something.

In the next five minutes, Angel observed as Lucivar skimmed through the rest.

But she was slightly confused—as he seemed to only be checking their abilities, not making an overall judgment of how strong each of them was. He didn't even bother reading their names and went straight down to the ability section.

'Is he not wary of them at all? Is he truly that confident?' Angel wondered, studying Lucivar's expression.

Each one of the participants was exceptional in their own way.

All of them were the top-dog of their particular faction, honed in combat for years, and had several tricks up their sleeves—that could change the course of the battle. Even the thought of underestimating them was sheer stupidity for many.

It would take someone insane or outright arrogant to do that.

From the looks of it, Lucivar was both.

"What about the Vanguard Institute, which was the strongest out of them all?" Lucivar suddenly asked.

He recalled the blond man earlier, and he was curious.

"Ermm…" Angel looked through the papers before she found one. "Here, the strongest participant from the Vanguard Institute is this person, Orivelle."

Lucivar looked at the photo on the biography and found a woman—with pale red hair and glowing lava eyes. She looked very young, maybe because of how she was underdeveloped compared to most of her peers, but she barely looked like someone in their twenties.

A chuckle slipped out of his mouth, "It's not even you, the strongest one? Pathetic."

Recalling how that blond man acted, Lucivar was expecting him to be the strongest, but he wasn't.

"The Vanguard Institute consistently produced powerful students and has always been participating in the South Hues tournament," Angel explained as she pulled back her hair behind her ears. Her face was burning from Lucivar's intense gaze. "They… They are always in the top three in the last twenty years, but I ranked her eleventh."

It wasn't surprising to see her being ranked that low despite her background.

She barely has any achievements, and she was also a Phoenix Hybrid, Angel had confirmed her bloodline, and a Phoenix Hybrid wasn't known to be the strongest. Compared to Vampires or even Titans, those who have the bloodline of a Phoenix aren't really strong.

Not that the bloodline itself was weak, but it depended heavily on the bloodline's purity.

And there are barely any Phoenix Hybrids with above 10% bloodline purity.

Being ranked eleventh was purely because of her background, because of the Vanguard Institute.

Despite that, Angel could see Lucivar looked interested.

Unlike the other biographies, he read Orivelle's biography longer than normal, more than a glance.

"Find out more about her abilities," Lucivar said, seeing that there was no stated innate ability.

"I'll try. I can't make guarantees, but I'll try." Angel nodded.

Then, Lucivar finally placed Orivelle's biography aside, into a separate pile.

After continuing to go through the papers, Lucivar found Caldaros, who was ranked at fifty-five, and stated as a Vampire Hybrid. Just from this alone—it was clear that he couldn't take the list at face value since Caldaros should be higher than that.

If Caldaros was able to hide his strength, then there are certainly others who could too.

Once he was done skimming through the biographies, there were three hundred of them, he leaned back and rubbed his sore neck. He never worked with papers before, and that much reading was a lot. It was way easier to hunt than to look down at papers.

"Good work, Angel." Lucivar nodded and cast a smile. "I knew I could count on you."

Angel averted her gaze, trying to hide her blush.

She was working overnights to make them, and Lucivar's praise made it all worth it, but she didn't want Lucivar to know that being praised like this made her feel good and liberated. It would only make him look down on her more.

"Put these back in your suitcase, I'm going to take them back with me." Lucivar instructed.

Once Angel was done tidying up the papers, she took out an orb—and placed it on the table.

"What's this?" Lucivar asked and inspected the orb.

It was black and was attached to a holder underneath, exuding not a trace of energy.

"An orb to measure your power," Angel answered. "It's mandatory for participants to tell exactly how strong they are to their sponsors, which would then be reported to the tournament's officials. Of course, you will be re-checked again before the tournament."

"Just think of this as a preliminary assessment," She added, gesturing Lucivar to hold the orb.

Nodding his head, Lucivar placed his hand on the orb and channeled his ether.

Swish!

Slowly, but surely, the glow regained some trace, so life—humming with black and white power.

Angel kept her full focus on the orb, 'How strong is she? Five-star Acolyte rank? If he were still at the Five-star Acolyte rank, he wouldn't be able to reach the top three. All of the top twenty are Chrysalis-rank Hybrid, so he'd have no chance.'

Just as she thought that, the crystal surged with unrelenting power.

She was taken aback when the white and black energy flared outward like rippling waves.

Inside the orb, a core was forming, signifying that Lucivar was at the Chrysalis rank.

However, it didn't stop there.

Lucivar smirked as he poured more and more energy.

He kept going, pushing everything he had into the orb until finally—the surface cracked.

As soon as the orb cracked, Lucivar pulled back his ether and turned to look at Angel, who was stunned beyond measure. She was expecting him to be at the five-star Acolyte rank or maybe, one-star Chrysalis rank.

But this was beyond her expectations.

"So, how strong am I?" Lucivar asked cheekily.

Angel snapped from her daze and cleared her throat, "I… I'm not sure…"

Glancing back at the cracked orb, she sweated a little, 'That orb could sustain anything under the Savant rank, so for him to crack the orb like that, he must be an exceptional, no, an abnormal-level of Chrysalis-rank Hybrid…'

Lucivar knew what was going on inside Angel's mind, and he also wasn't surprised by this outcome.

Earlier, he poured all 25 God strands into the orb.

He wanted to know how strong a full-power strike from him would be, and it didn't disappoint.

'I should at least be this strong to win against Caldaros,' Lucivar thought and shrugged.

Focusing back to Angel again, he stood up and walked over to her.

Lucivar sat down beside her and placed one arm over the sofa, flaring his chest before he asked, "If you were to rank me in that pile of people you have, where would I be? Now that you know how strong I am, I'd like to hear your answer."

Realizing that he was already right beside her and close, Angel's face reddened.

"W-Where I w-w-would rank you?" She stumbled on her words nervously. "You… You'd be the first."

"Hmm? What's that? I can't hear you properly," Lucivar leaned closer.

His natural manly scent reached Angel, and it caused her mind to spin.

"I'd rank you the first," She repeated, louder this time. "You'd be the most dangerous of them all."

Lucivar smiled proudly as he reached his arm to her waist, and pulled her close, squeezing her against his body, "Dullan really made the right choice for assigning you to me," He whispered directly into her ear. "You knew exactly what to say."

"I… I need to go," Angel whispered meekly, trying to hold onto her last thread of her sane mind.

Dullan is coming, and she couldn't do anything with Lucivar right now.

But even then, her body was saying otherwise.

Seeing her pulling close, Lucivar smirked and pulled away.

"Oh, right," He cleared his throat. "Let's say that I am poisoned right now—but I don't feel anything. What could that poison be?"

Seeing him pull away, Angel tried to recover from the sexual tension.

But then, she paused and her face turned ghastly, "Wait, someone poisoned you…?"

"I'm not really sure," Lucivar answered truthfully—he found out about it just earlier from Ravenna. If it's not for her, he would not have known anything about it—since he felt perfectly fine. "But it's likely that I'm poisoned."

"This is why we don't make a deal with a mediocre academy." Angel massaged her forehead. Then, she contemplated for a second before she answered, "If you don't feel anything, then it could be one of two options. Either the poison is a lethal one or it's a harmless one."

"Harmless poison? What does that even mean?" Lucivar arched an eyebrow.

"Maybe, the poison was to gauge what your real bloodline was." Angel shrugged.

Knowing someone's real bloodline is paramount for the tournament, so it wasn't weird for someone to use this kind of poison on Lucivar. It was supposed to be nothing, but Lucivar's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.

"What…?" Lucivar stared at Angel with wide eyes. "To determine my bloodline?"