Ascension of the Dark Seraph

"Eughh…"

Leandra drew on her power, Superntural Ego straining as she heaved the broken pillar, weighing at the very least several hundred kilos off of her body. The stone hit the ground with a dull thud, sending up a cloud of grit.

She glanced down and grimaced; a deep gash tore across her leg, raw flesh exposed.

A hiss escaped her lips as dust and debris stuck to the wound.

It wasn't the pillar that had carved the wound.

Her body was too resilient for that since she's a Chrysalis-rank Hybrid.

Instead, it was the blast of divine energy from Lucivar.

Even though she had been fast enough to react to the sudden blast, putting up a telekinetic barrier in time, the divine energy still penetrated through. It shattered her barrier and flung her backward—hitting the second-floor railing and then crashing into the wall.

Once she was freed, she looked up—only to find herself right in front of the main entrance.

Cough!

Cough!

Leandra coughed a couple of times and swept her gaze around.

She was hoping to find Mirel and Bakar, but instead, she found the other guests ahead.

Most of them were sprawled on the backyard near the pool, knocked out or grievously wounded, while some were buried underneath the rubble. Despite not being hit directly by the blast, the guests were only one wall away.

Not to mention, not all of them were Chrysalis-rank Hybrids.

In fact, more than half was still at the Acolyte-rank Hybrid—as the guests who came were mainly the representatives of a strong faction. Someone who could represent them to pay their regards to Vanessa, who was an important figure.

Gritting her teeth, Leandra approached them.

"Aaahh! I can't feel my legs!!"

"Someone help me! I'm stuck! I can't move!"

Leandra could hear them grunting and calling for help as she got nearer.

All of them were Hybrids—so they shouldn't be this helpless, but they weren't playing around.

It was plastered on their faces that they were really helpless.

'Are they being serious?' Leandra questioned in her mind, confused—since they were mainly dealing with rubble. Even a new Acolyte-rank Hybrid could lift these rubbles. 'Wait a minute, I also struggled more than I should have earlier.'

Recalling when she pushed the pillar earlier, she realized that it was more difficult than normal.

Considering her strength, she could lift the entire mansion if she wanted to.

So, this was quite odd.

Extending her arms forward, she channeled her power again, but soon realized that her ether was heavier than it should be. She pulled it from her Supernatural Ego, but it felt like pulling on thick liquid; she was exerting more strength to even have the ether reach her hands.

Frowning, she expanded her senses and noticed something instantly.

For some reason, the air was thicker than normal.

'Did Lucivar's divine energy do this? Must be.' She sighed helplessly, 'His divine energy is so dense that it thickens the air. Our ether, a lesser form of energy, finds it harder to travel through the air. That's a God's power for you.'

Biting her lower lip, she lifted the rubble and threw it into the pool, helping the guests.

A couple of strong Hybrids also helped, bringing the wounded away from the mansion.

None of them knew what caused this explosion, so it was not surprising that they thought the mansion had something to do with it. Since they were in the better part of the neighbourhood, the Hybrid Association would soon come.

Perhaps, even a representative from the governor would come to check the situation.

Leandra saw a lone figure in the distance, fifty meters away from the mansion's backyard, outside of the fence. Her eyes narrowed, trying to see who it was, and she soon realized that it was someone she knew, Bakar.

Both Bakar and Mirel were standing near each other earlier.

So, they should be hurled in the same direction.

Once she helped the last guest out of her predicament, Leandra limped her way towards Bakar.

Regardless of what happened, they should be moving right now.

"Bakar!" Leandra called when she was near enough, dragging one leg behind her. She stopped behind Bakar, who was sitting on his knees on the street, seemingly idle. "Are you hurt? My leg is busted, but I can still fly. Come on, we need to help Lucivar."

She swept her gaze around, hoping to spot Mirel somewhere.

All of them are Chrysalis-rank Hybrids, so she wasn't really worried that he got hurt.

Leandra getting wounded was bad luck since she stood the closest to Lucivar.

'I shouldn't have tried to stop him in the moment,' She thought bitterly, cursing her own foolishness as she realized how stupid it was for her to even attempt to stop Lucivar when he was as shaken as he was in that moment. 'But still… I can't believe it. I really can't believe Master Tobias killed Delilah. His own wife. For what? For Lucivar?'

She clenched her fists hard at the thought.

Elira had confirmed it.

Earlier, she told Leandra that the gem has ties to the Primordials.

And from that, she could deduce that the bastard Fire Primordial who killed Delilah was nothing short of a puppet played by Master Tobias. It was unclear how he was able to control the Fire Primordial, but he was clearly the culprit.

Nothing about that attack was coincidental or sheer bad luck.

But then again, thinking back, it was extremely odd for a Fire Primordial to come out of nowhere.

No dungeon breaks around, and it suddenly appeared and attacked them.

Back then, Leandra rushed to search for Master Tobias after she woke up from consciousness and found him knocked out in the broken wagon. Now she understood that it had all been an act. Master Tobias made sure to command the Fire Primordial before he went back and pretended to be knocked out.

It was sick.

Just thinking back about that tragedy made Leandra feel sick.

Never in her wildest dreams that she guess how cold and merciless Master Tobias was.

And the thought of him using someone as kind and gentle as Delilah made her blood boil.

Above everything, she doesn't deserve to be used like that.

For that—for manipulating them and killing the gentle Delilah, Master Tobias has to die.

Blinking her eyes, she noticed that Bakar didn't move from his spot.

"Bakar?" She called again, and her eyes narrowed at the sight of Bakar's shaking shoulders.

Leandra went around him and realized that Bakar was crying profusely.

He was stunned in place, tears streaming down his face freely, as everything finally dawned on him.

Almost instantly, Leandra knelt down and grabbed his shoulders firmly, shaking his body to help him snap out of it. "Get yourself together!" She exclaimed—shaking him harder. "It's not over yet. We still need to fight!"

"Dinda…" Bakar cried harder, covering his face with both hands. "Dinda died because of me…"

Hearing this, Leandra gritted his teeth.

It was now clear that the only reason Bakar's former master had been condemned by the people was because of Master Tobias. He had sown discord to claim Bakar for himself—a scheme that ended with Dinda's death and Bakar's supposed freedom.

Leandra knew how painful it must be to realize that Dinda died because of him.

Because of his enchanting bloodline, Master Tobias targeted him, and Dinda became the sacrifice.

Even so, this was no time for melancholy.

"Why are you even surprised?!" She asked demandingly, hating to see Bakar acting weak and helpless like this. "Lucivar already warned us about the possibility, so why are you surprised?! Did the thought of Lucivar being correct not cross your mind at all?"

Bakar sobbed as he finally turned to Leandra.

"I… I sided with Master Tobias…" He forced out the words, eyes reddened and overflowing with tears.

For a moment there, Leandra frowned in confusion.

Her gaze shifted from Bakar's left eye to his right, before finally settling on him as a whole.

It was only then did she realized what he meant.

"You…" She whispered and bit down on her lower lip. "What's done is done. It's in the past."

Master Tobias didn't seem to be that surprised to see them earlier; in fact, he was rather calm, almost as if he was expecting their appearance, and that was because Bakar had told him about their plan. About their plan to ambush him at Vanessa's birthday party.

It was a blatant betrayal from Bakar's part.

As opposed to sharing his thoughts with them, he opted for the easy way out by selling them out.

Saying that Leandra wasn't angry would be a damn lie.

She was furious, but there's no turning back time.

Now, Bakar could redeem himself by helping them defeat Master Tobias, and maybe more.

Of course, the fact that Master Tobias turned out to be the culprit was more devastating for Bakar, who had decided to trust him wholeheartedly. But drowning in gloom will not bring him anywhere. All he can do right now is keep going and be better.

"Come on, stand up." Leandra grabbed him by the elbow, forcing him to stand.

Bakar wiped his tears and stood up, though still weak.

Both of them looked around.

"Now we have to find Mirel," Leandra muttered.

"Mirel?" Bakar cleared his throat and looked to the side. "I think I saw him getting thrown that way.

Leandra nodded her head and followed Bakar from behind.

But it was then, her ears picked up a shrill whistle that split the air.

A sound akin to a blade tearing the sky apart.

It seemed Bakar also heard the same thing as the two of them snapped their heads to the side.

And before they could react, a shadow blew past them and crashed onto the mansion with bone-rattling force. Both of them could only see the person flying for a fleeting moment, but they could already tell who it was—Master Tobias.

Master Tobias' body pierced through the open air like a falling meteor, the wind trailing behind him in a violent scream.

He slammed into what remained of the mansion's first floor, and the impact was cataclysmic.

Crash!!

Stone pillars cracked like brittle bones, walls folded inwardly, and debris erupted outward in a storm of dust and splinters. The crack shook the earth itself, a thunderous roar that drowned out every other sound around.

Anyone who was slammed that hard would find their bodies broken beyond measure.

Even a Chrysalis-rank Hybrid wouldn't be able to survive the impact.

Heck, even someone at the Paragon rank wouldn't come out of that unscathed.

Those who had only begun to stagger to their feet from the earlier devastation were thrown back down, shielding their faces from the flying rubble. Startled cries and sharp yelps broke from the survivors as fragments of shattered stone rained around them.

Leandra and Bakar also did the same, covering their faces with their arms.

Once the debris stopped, Leandra lowered her arms.

But at the same time, her eyes locked onto a figure not too far away from her—Lucivar.

Instead of rejoicing, she pulled Bakar and crouched down, hiding behind a flipped car.

"What's wrong?" Bakar asked.

"Shh…" Leandra pressed a finger against her lips. "Shut up if you don't want to die."