Ascension of the Dark Seraph

"Choose. Even if you choose the first choice, I and the other Gods here will allow you to leave."

Loki's voice rang again, this time, demanding an answer.

Stay or leave.

Seraphiel was forced to choose between two options.

She could abandon Lucivar for a moment, extract her bloodline away, and inform the forces of light about the situation, risking absolute torment to befall on Lucivar, which would lead him to a path worse than death, and also staining her purity for sacrificing one soul for the better good.

Or, she could stay and cling to the hope Lucivar would return to the good side.

As the Archangel of Purity, the latter would allow her to keep her purity—to stand by her own decree.

But that would mean the start of light's ruination.

Despite her heavenly will, as strong as refined steel, the pressure from making a choice weighed heavily in her heart. Not to mention, the five pairs of eyes of the Evil Gods—who were looking down at her from the shadows, made it worse.

She was cornered—the only beacon of light trapped within this purgatory darkness.

Each second that passed was the death of one of her heavenly feathers.

It was painful, being inside this dirty void stained her soul, but she couldn't make a decision.

Both options were a trap, Seraphiel knew it, but she couldn't think of another way.

All of the Evil Gods here have more than enough power to trap her here—forever, and the option to leave would only be possible through their generosity. But she knew that this wasn't right, the Evil Gods only wanted to break her.

"Be quick…" Loki's voice rang again.

Then, ahead of her, Lucivar reappeared again—but his eyes were completely emerald.

He was under Loki's influence, inactive, almost like he was a doll.

"My Blessed Oracle is strong," He continued cheekily. "And I can't hold his wicked mind for long."

A tear fell down Seraphiel's eyes, there was love and sadness behind her gaze on Lucivar—this whole situation was hurting her inside. Things weren't supposed to end like this, Lucivar wasn't supposed to walk this fate… he was supposed to be the last of them.

Seeing him helpless within the palm of the Evil Gods was a knife through her heart.

"I'll… I'll stay…" Seraphiel finally answered.

Loki, concealed by the darkness, grinned, "As expected, you truly are the Archangel of Purity."

Once he said that, the power grasping Lucivar's mind broke.

Lucivar's consciousness returned, and instantly, he locked eyes with Seraphiel again.

"I'll stay and help you, Lucivar…" She said with a pliant, self-sacrificing smile, as she spread her arms.

Instead of inducing a good emotion, her smile left a foul taste in Lucivar's mouth, it reminded him of the smile he always used back home—he absolutely loathed it. Like a phantom, he skipped the distance between them and grabbed her by the neck.

Despite being an Archangel, she was within Loki's dominion, Lucivar's dominion.

She holds no power here.

"Don't act righteous in front of me. I don't need your help," Lucivar barked hatefully, gripping her neck so tightly that his fingers dug into her deep. "Once I reach the third, fourth, fifth, or whatever level of Divine Elevation I need to be strong enough, I will first kill karma and then you."

"Killing you would be poetic then," He continued maliciously. "It's like a closure for my weakness."

"I-Heughk!" Seraphiel gasped, trying to speak. "I can help you fix karma! There-There is another way!"

"Oh…?" Lucivar brought her closer. "How do I do that?"

"Fate… Fate can tell you how, I'm sure! There's no need for evil!" She answered.

Lucivar remained silent for a second, and for a moment, Seraphiel could see a possible change, but that was an illusion. As soon as she said that, Lucivar smirked like the Devil, "Fate, huh… Guess I will pay Fate a visit to find karma, thanks for telling me."

Giving no chance for Seraphiel to answer, Lucivar grabbed her neck with both hands.

Viciously, he squeezed hard and broke her neck completely.

Splash!

Her heavenly body shattered into fragments of light that dissipated into the darkness.

Seraphiel wasn't dead, but it felt good to do that.

"Loki, bring me back." Lucivar commanded, and soon, he was pulled out of the void.

Opening his eyes, he found himself within his Inner Chamber.

He was still standing in front of the egg statue.

But this time, recalling that this statue belonged to that Archangel, he pulled his hand away in disgust.

It was as if the statue were a disease.

"What happened back there? Who was that Archangel?" Lucivar asked, turning to face Gandr on Loki's statue. One of his brows was raised, demanding an answer, "I blacked out for a moment inside—didn't I? The conversation that happened while I was unconscious, I want to know about it."

Gandr slithered down and swiftly reached him.

"If you're unconscious, then you're not meant to know," Gandr hissed.

"I'm not meant to know?" Lucivar gritted his teeth. "I'm the Blessed Oracle, and I demand to know!"

Despite that, Gandr's lips remained sealed.

In a fit of anger, Lucivar turned to the God statues, "If any of you wanted my favor, my full support! Tell me what happened there! I will be inclined to you more—if you tell me what the conversation was! I swear!"

None of them answered.

Lucivar was only faced with still statues, none of them reacted.

Seeing this made him burn more with anger, but he didn't reach an outburst.

Instead, he swallowed the anger and straightened his back—there was a change in his eyes.

And frankly, the Evil Gods could see it.

"I can tell you—who that Archangel was," Gandr continued, prompting Lucivar to turn around to face him again. "She's the Archangel of Purity, one of the heavenly pillars, and as you might already guess, the one whom that egg statue belonged to."

"Archangel of Purity…" Lucivar repeated, then sneered. "Such a waste."

Gandr wanted to say something more, but Lucivar had already disappeared.

He already exited the Inner Chamber.

Once he came back to reality, he opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings.

Nobody was around him—he was alone, and he was sitting on a meditative cushion.

For a second there, he regulated his breaths—calming himself down and registering what had happened to him. It was now clear that he had the bloodline of Seraphiel, and she was trying to win him over by showcasing how strong she really was during a battle through the snippet.

But the Gods intervened.

Then, there was the momentary blackness—the Gods' attempt to keep him in the dark.

'I can't force it out of them, but I could pressure them to explain the situation. All I need right now is more merit, more merit in their favor, and I could start from killing Caldaros. At that point, I won't let Loki go until he tells me everything.' Lucivar thought and nodded.

No point in getting angry and frustrated.

Instead, he needed to take on actions that would actually matter, that would actually help him.

Shaking his head, his focus returned to reality again.

Just then, he tilted his head down when he heard the sound of steaming.

Swish!

His body was heating up with the power of light and dark—these two attributes crawled from the very core of his Supernatural Ego. Lucivar waited, allowing them to take their course, and the moment they reached his mind, a torrent of information erupted.

It drilled into his brain with unrelenting force.

Then, a strand of energy shot forth from his mind, creating two blobs of energy in front of him.

Both contained a Primeval Skill displayed within the snippet.

One is a Primeval Skill called Mass Purification, while the other is Protection of Feathers.

Lucivar didn't need to ponder for long, he already knew which one he wanted.

It was the Protection of Feathers.

He recalled how Seraphiel blocked the incoming rush of energy with her wings, turning the attack into golden feathers that rejuvenated her surroundings. In hindsight—Lucivar was not compatible with this kind of ability, considering that it wasn't an ability that focused on him.

But he wasn't worried.

As soon as he reached for the Protection of Feathers' blob, the other side of him got to work.

Two streams of energy, emerald and bronze, invaded the blob.

Lucivar watched with a wicked smile as both Loki and Sutekh molded the Primeval Skill into one that aligned with them, aligned with the new Lucivar. For a moment, the blob trembled, and its color changed from white to olive.

It was turned from Protection of Feathers to Protection of the Fragmented Desert.

Once a protection ability, it has now turned into a sharp protection.

Learning about his new Primeval Skill in silence, Lucivar couldn't help but smile.

It was perfect.

"Coupled with the ability I devised on my own, this is perfect." He mumbled to himself.

Serpahiel's bloodline gave the blueprint, and the Gods perfected the ability, and finally, after a long and well-thought-out preparation, he has a bit of confidence to fight against Caldaros face to face. Perhaps he might be stronger now, but he didn't get into his head.

His main strength isn't a full-blown confrontation, it was his secretive and meticulous planning.

Why would he choose to confront Caldaros directly with a moderate chance of winning?

Instead, he would create a situation where his chance of winning would be one hundred percent.

Some might call this cowardly.

But when he was standing and Caldaros on the ground in the end, cowardice became strategy.

Lucivar wanted to test the new Primeval Skill, but he reckoned it would take a lot of ether to use, so it was best for him to save it until the tournament. Besides, he has somewhere to be, one last move before the tournament.

Raising his gaze to look at the holographic clock on the wall, it states minutes past midnight.

"Should be about time," Lucivar nodded and stood up.

He opened the door to his room and saw a woman already standing there.

A clan member of the Blessed Hand Clan.

"Someone is waiting for you," She informed, avoiding making eye contact.

Lucivar nodded, "Bring me to her."

Just as requested, the clan member led him through the halls until he reached the lobby once again.

There, a familiar figure was waiting for him—Angel.

"Did you find her? I really can't accept a failure right now." Lucivar said and crossed his arms.

Upon hearing this, Angel retained her professional demeanor and smiled lightly, "I found her, I know where she is right now. She's a part of a crew. A festival crew that she went around with, so finding her wasn't exactly hard. Just a few pressure here and there,"

"Good," Lucivar nodded and headed for the car outside. "Bring me to her. I just want to have a talk."