Ascension of the Dark Seraph

"What…?"

Andrea's mind reeled, her eyes fixed on Lucivar—pupils trembling with a mix of shock and fear.

She questioned whether what she was seeing was even real.

Her mind struggled to grasp the sight before her.

"When… When did he get there? Where did he—come from?" She turned to look around, noticing no entrance other than the main entrance. "No windows, no backdoors… Where? No, even if he came in from the outside, I would've noticed, but I didn't. Don't tell me, was he always there?"

Andrea was smitten inside.

For someone to remain unnoticed in the very chamber where they were fighting, even though they hadn't used any stealth ability, meant they were anything but ordinary. Even now, as she stared at Lucivar, she sensed nothing.

No presence. No aura.

It was as if he weren't real at all, but a phantom created from illusion.

Gazing upward, to the altar, she realized that the Blood God's totem was half-destroyed.

Someone must've shattered it.

No people under the Valerius Supreme House dared to do that, but it seemed that assumption was wrong.

Some dared. He dared.

Leo also noticed the half-destroyed totem.

"That man isn't praying to our Blood God… He's not normal. Andrea, we should retreat."

"I'm also thinking of the sa-"

Bam!

Andrea and Leo turned and saw that the main entrance was shut.

Standing before it was another person, a blonde woman with pale blue skin and sapphire eyes.

Like Lucivar, she also has a light presence.

Andrea couldn't sense her because there was a very thin layer of water above her skin.

It blocked the warmth of her blood from being seen.

And with that, their chance of escaping was closed shut, trapping them inside.

"Afraid yet?"

Lucivar's voice echoed inside the chamber, forcing the trio to turn to look at him again.

Out of the three of them, Malric looked the worst.

His frantic thirst for blood was rapidly fading away, replaced by an insurmountable amount of fear.

Maybe the others could feel how dangerous Lucivar really was from his emptiness and demeanor.

But he could see it clearly.

Even his hellfire attribute—flames born to serve and orbit around the wicked, the neverborn—was being drawn away, pulled inexorably toward Lucivar. It could only mean one grave thing: the darkness within Lucivar far surpassed his own.

So much so that his hellfire attribute was leaving him.

Being near other Hell Demon Hybrids, the stronger one would also command others' hellfire attribute.

For the others, wielding it would be heavier than normal.

Never Malric has experienced his own hellfire attribute refusing to listen to him like this.

"You barged in with bloodlust in your heart… to kill her—without my permission?" Lucivar properly turned to face them with a slow, deliberate motion, his gaze like frost biting into bone. Then, he raised a single finger and pointed at the wounded Morriva. "She's mine. She serves me. And not even Gods get to bleed what's mine without my permission."

"For that… For that, blood must be spilled."

Hearing this, Andrea immediately snapped from her trance and reached for her voice.

"I am an outer member of the Valerius Supreme House, and I have authority here. Your slave is attacking valuable vassals of the supreme house, and her lack of discipline can be tied back to you." She said with a clear voice. "But I can pardon you and her this once as long as you let us go right now, and swear to punish her."

"Did you not hear me?"

"Hmm?"

"Not even Gods get to bleed what's mine, and you're talking about the Valerius Supreme House?"

A soft, chilling chuckle escaped Lucivar's lips.

He faced Andrea and smiled, a sweet, cruel smile—one that even reached his eyes.

"Even if you claim to act under the Blood God's will, my answer remains unchanged."

"What…?"

Andrea was taken aback.

Just mentioning the Valerius Supreme House usually gets her off the hook, no matter the situation.

It was her jail-free card.

So, meeting someone like Lucivar caught her off guard.

He should've been afraid, but he wasn't.

"Haarhh… Haarh!!"

Overwhelmed by fear and anxiety, Malric let out a broken scream, tears and drool streaming down his face as he snapped out of his trance. In that harrowing moment of clarity, he realized the brutal truth—the suffocating sin aura blanketing the cathedral hadn't come from centuries of buried atrocities.

It was all emanating from one man, Lucivar.

Like a scared dog, he turned around, intending to leave.

He leaped straight toward the tall window, wanting to escape no matter the way.

However, he was snatched mid-air.

Before he could even crash into the tall mirror and shatter it with his momentum, Lucivar intercepted him with eerie grace, catching him mid-motion and setting him down gently, treating him as if he were a fragile vase.

Both Lucivar's hands rested firmly on Malric's shoulders, steadying him, forcing him to stand.

Andrea's blood ran cold when she saw this.

'No ether. No enhancement. He didn't use anything, but he could still move faster than my eyes?'

She swallowed hard.

Just from that alone, she knew the three of them had no chance.

Fighting Morriva was already hard enough, and this was her master, her owner.

Despair began to clutch her heart.

At the side, Malric thrashed and struggled to break free, but Lucivar's grip didn't budge. No matter how desperately he fought, it was like a child trying to escape an adult's hold—utterly futile, almost pathetic in comparison.

"You're the one who struck the blow, aren't you? Then I'll leave you for the last."

"Monster Skin…"

Lucivar blinked, and his eyes changed from golden to purple.

He used his new ability he had inherited from Tamtu, eager to see what kind of effect it would cause.

As soon as he did, Malric's body tensed as he tried to pull away but couldn't.

A sharp electric shock surged up his arms.

His veins bulged, darkened, then blackened completely, writhing beneath his skin like roots of decay.

His breath hitched.

His eyes rolled back, the white overtaking them as if reality itself had been yanked away.

Then came the visions.

Malric could see a flood of atrocities pour into his mind, each more horrific than the last. The world he knew was gone, replaced by a theatre of torment. He saw through the eyes of the slain, felt the blade dig into flesh that was now his, saw fingers claw at the ground as his eyes were gouged out, his screams muffled under Lucivar's cold laughter.

Death, again and again, in ways no mind was meant to survive.

He knew that it was an illusion, it had to be, but the agony wasn't just vivid—it was personal.

Just then, a surge of purple power ran hot through Lucivar, darkening Malric's illusion into something deeper, crueler. It was Tamtu's power taking over, turning his pain into reality—from the way Malric's body reacted as if each wound were real, as if his soul was being carved with every memory of Lucivar's murder.

His limbs spasmed violently.

His back arched.

Veins crawled up his face, turning black and rigid, pulsing with every beat of borrowed horror.

Foam spilled from his mouth, lips trembling as a choked cry escaped.

More animal than man.

Lucivar observed this with great interest.

The Monster Skin ability didn't turn him into a monster as he anticipated; no, it took the monster side of his being and induced it on others. Considering that Malric was also wicked, it should have had aweaker effect, but Tamtu's power left him exposed.

He couldn't bear the torrent of horror.

Once Lucivar let go, Malric crumpled to the ground like a severed puppet.

Every muscle limp—every nerve severed from will.

His chest still moved, barely.

His eyes stared forward, unseeing.

No sign of the Hell Demon Hybrid that teetered on lunacy, he was silent now, paralyzed completely.

"What are you doing?! Attacking him!"

Leo shook Andrea's body.

Blinking, Andrea turned towards him as she came back to her senses again.

"He's a Demon Hybrid, too! Look! He used a wicked ability! He's weak to the same thing as Malric!"

"R-Right!"

"What are you doing?!" Leo shouted, bumping Andrea's shoulder to shake her. "Attack him!"

Andrea blinked, her gaze snapping toward him as if waking from a daze.

"Eh? Attack?"

"He's a Demon Hybrid, too," Leo pressed, urgency burning in his voice. "Look at that ability, it's surely wicked, just like Malric's! He's clearly a Demon Hybrid, so he must be weak to the same thing!"

Realization flickered across her face.

"Holy water…?"

"Yes!"

"R-Right!"

Andrea stammered, eyes sharpening as she turned back to Lucivar.

She grabbed a vial from her pocket.

It was the vial she prepared in case Malric was becoming hard to control due to his demonic impulses, an item that could damage him badly, exactly like a White Blood to Vampire Hybrids. She has it in case of emergency, and it worked on all Demon Hybrids.

So, if Lucivar was also a Demon Hybrid, it would also work on him.

Gritting her teeth, she drew her revolver and shot three consecutive bullets at Lucivar.

As if the bullets were nothing, Lucivar raised a hand and dissolved the bullets mid-air.

His Greedy Grasp ability has become so strong that it could stop attacks mid-air.

Since the bullets were made entirely of ether, they were easily nullified.

But in the same breath that he melted the bullets, Andrea rolled forward, wasting no time at all.

With swift, practiced hands, she uncorked the vial of holy water and poured it over a single real bullet, soaking it completely before sliding it into the chamber of her revolver. She came to a halt, kneeling on one knee, and levelled the weapon at Lucivar.

Both hands steady, breath held.

Swish!

Ether surged into the gun, a soft hum building in the barrel as her magic fused with steel.

Next comes her blood attribute, spiraling around the sanctified round.

Then, she pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A glowing, steel bullet glazed with holy water, ether, and blood attributes cuts through the air fiercely.

It spun violently, leaving a crimson trail in its wake—a streak of power and purpose.

Lucivar raised his hand to use his Greedy Grasp ability again, but the bullet was too fast and dense.

It ripped through his defense like paper, slamming into his chest with brutal force.

Lucivar staggered back, a sharp grunt escaping him as the impact cracked through his frame. From a distance, Leo and Andrea watched with held breath—cheers rising in their chests, hope flaring in their eyes when the bullet landed on its mark.

Surely, the holy water is going to work.

It had to.

But when Lucivar straightened his back again, exposing his cruel grin, they realized it didn't work.

Swoosh!

"Scary, isn't it…?"

Andrea and Leo gulped harshly when a voice seeped into their ears from behind.

Someone was standing directly behind them.

"The moment you realized you're nothing. That someone out there is far stronger than you."