Ascension of the Dark Seraph

Lucivar had already reminded himself about what Darwin said earlier.

If a lot of people are pointing in one direction, then there's a high chance of it being right.

But he got swayed by his emotions once again and ignored that.

He mistakenly defended a proselyte and was stabbed in the back, ignoring the red flags the woman was showing. First of all, the people earlier had a reason to suspect her. Secondly, it should've been obvious that she was the proselyte when the dog creatures cornered her as opposed to instantly attacking and killing her.

All of the Crossers could tell who the proselytes were, they could sense them.

Naturally, they wouldn't harm the proselytes in any way possible.

Seeing that the dog creature instantly struck him earlier, he should've been suspicious as to why the two dog creatures didn't instantly attack the woman. Even her scream earlier was a fake one to lure him there.

Realizing how much of an idiot he was, Lucivar chuckled loudly, ridiculing himself.

Had it been a different situation, he would've died right here.

However, it seems like fate had given him the chance to learn from his deadly mistake.

Splash!

Giving his appreciation to the lady of fate in his heart, Lucivar punched the woman so hard on her chest that it caved in, propelling her away. A proselyte could get stronger with each victim they took, but the woman failed to kill her first victim.

So she was still a normal Human, there's no way she could endure Lucivar's punch.

In a dramatic display, her body heaved to the wall.

Blood sprayed everywhere as her body was squished and broken before falling to the earth.

Only then that Lucivar fall to a knee, his body wracked with stress and pain.

He panted heavily, sweat dripping across his battered form.

Despite surviving a nearly fatal slash to his chest during a hunt in the past, the pain he felt back then seemed insignificant compared to now. Every fiber of his muscles, ached with a twitching soreness, and his skin was marred with scratches.

Moreover, the forceful collision with the two additional beasts earlier had left him wrecked.

Even then, his mind was thrown back to the incident earlier.

'So the dark trail of energy from earlier is not a hallucination of mine,' Lucivar pondered, he now had a slight idea of what that thing, meant. 'It appeared four times already: my fight in the Rite of Fate, Tobias' workroom, Leandra's attack—and now this. Is it responding to any killing intent...?'

Contemplating those four instances' likeness, Lucivar reached that conclusion.

It was the best answer he could think of.

Moreover, he became more firm with that conclusion remembering that when he was chased by the three guards of the Ashbourne House—the dark trail didn't appear because they were not aiming to kill him, they were trying to capture him instead.

'But what is its condition...? Is there a range? Is there a limitation?' Lucivar thought further.

All he could deduce right now was the dark trail would appear when a killing intent appeared.

Since the woman did not harbor killing intent until he turned his back, the dark trail of energy came too late, and he was stabbed in the back. As long as the other person, was hiding their killing intent, the dark trail wouldn't appear.

Other than that, it was still vague.

However, there's one thing for sure, 'It must be the constitution of an Angel, my constitution'

Busy with his train of thoughts, Lucivar was caught off guard by a sudden growl from behind.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw one of the dog creatures lunging at him—its canine teeth bared and ready to kill. In his distraction, he had forgotten there were two of these creatures and the second one was still very much a threat.

'Oh, no! It's too close!' Lucivar thought in crisis.

Realizing he couldn't react in time, he braced himself to sacrifice one of his arms.

As the creature was about to seep its teeth into him, however, it halted abruptly as if there was an invisible force restraining it. Surprised, Lucivar turned his head and saw a figure on the side, her eyes glowing with power.

"Leandra..." he breathed, a mixture of relief and unwillingness in his voice.

Stumbling to this place, Leandra saw what was happening and trapped the dog creature with her abilities, immobilizing it mid-attack. Despite the beast struggling, it couldn't break free. In a brutal manner, Leandra gripped her hand and crushed the creature into a ball.

Splash!

Only then that her power release the creature as it fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

Upon doing that, Leandra walked towards him slowly.

Despite their confrontation, Lucivar decided to do the right thing, "Thanks, you're a savior"

Not even responding, Leandra observed his condition.

But then—her eyes slightly widened when she saw a carcass of the dog creature on the side and also the corpse of a woman—not too far from them, 'Did he manage to kill a bronze-rank beast and kill one proselyte alone...? His bloodline must've been very strong'

At this realization, she clicked her tongue in displeasure.

"If I weren't here, you'd be dead. Go back, you're still weak" She said in a cold tone.

Lucivar could only smile in annoyance, even though he thanked her, she seemed to be more annoyed because of it. Donning a mocking smile, he then added, "If you did your part better—I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place"

Surprised by this comment, Leandra gritted her teeth and glared at him, "What did you say?"

"What? Am I wrong?" Lucivar taunted, shrugging his shoulders. "If you and your team didn't mess up, and protected the portal better, none of these creatures would come out. I'm sure Darwin told you to get out to help suppress your team's mistake, isn't that right?"

"Or was it your fault that these creatures came out?" He added, squinting his eyes.

Upon hearing this, Leandra's expression darkens but no answer comes out.

Leandra was supposed to be inside the portal.

Now that she was here, Lucivar was quite certain that something had gone wrong inside.

Judging from Leandra's expression now, it seemed he was right.

She was the one who made the mistake.

"I have 'being weak' as an excuse, what do you have?" Lucivar asked again as he stood up.

Leandra had a lot to say, the words were climbing through her veiny neck but she decided to turn her gaze away and storm to leave. She could feel her blood pressure increasing, and her veins would burst if she stayed any longer near Lucivar.

Seeing her leaving, Lucivar smirked, "Heh, no answer. I guess I hit the right spot"

As he refocused on the situation, Lucivar noticed a glow inside the dog creature Leandra had killed earlier. His eyes lit up—with recognition. "An ether core! I have heard it's rare for beasts to have them. This must be my lucky day."

A Hybrid could get stronger through cultivating their Supernatural Ego using ether.

However, some Hybrids had a very difficult method of amassing a lot of ether.

Fortunately for them—there are other ways to amass ether, and that is through absorbing it, from external energy sources such as an ether core. Naturally, at the sight of the ether core, Lucivar wanted to take it for himself.

It was then, however, he thought of something, 'I should focus on the portal first'

Pausing for a moment, a mysterious smile crossed over to his face.

"Ah, I might be able to find the remaining proselytes with this power of mine..." He muttered.

Moments later, the entire town lay deserted.

Only a couple of distance screams could be heard resonating through the air.

Volunteers for searching the proselytes and killing them to close the portal or unfortunate souls who had been left behind, or attacked by the dog creatures were the only ones who were still in the town.

Because of that, the streets were eerily empty as if they had been abandoned long ago.

Such was the life of a town that wasn't even considered a slave of the Five Supreme Houses.

No reinforcement would come to help them.

"P- Please, someone help me..."

On one particular street, a man with both legs broken completely crawled along the ground, crying out in agony. Behind him followed another man—his clothes were already ripped, and coated in blood.

Blue veins bulged conspicuously across his exposed skin.

Marking him unmistakably as a proselyte.

Donning a devilish smirk, the proselyte stomped on the man's back hard, causing him to let out a painful scream as his spine broke with a sickening crunch. Pain was dripping from the scream evidently as the man was paralyzed.

Savoring the man's scream as delightful, the proselyte mounted the helpless man.

Gripping the knife in his hand, he began stabbing repeatedly.

He laughed maniacally, as blood sprayed everywhere—each stab was filled with a frenzy of bloodlust and perverse pleasure. Before the man could die, the proselyte did not stop there and drilled his hand into the stab wound on the man's back.

Following that, he closed his eyes as the blue veins pulsated with more and more power.

It seemed like the proselyte was absorbing the man's life force and making it, his.

"What happened? I thought you were better than me in anything?" the proselyte ridiculed.

But the man couldn't answer as he was being drained to death.

Only when the man's painful scream faded did he stop, the scene around him was already turned into a crimson mess. Standing up with an intoxicated look, the proselyte closed his eyes as his discolored veins spread even wider.

Inside him was a surge of swelling rejuvenation.

His muscles contracted and bulged as newfound strength coursed through his veins, he was becoming stronger, and stronger with each kill. His horrific act had not only satiated, his own twisted desires but also made him stronger.

"Not bad... I should've become a proselyte sooner" he muttered, licking his lips savagely.

Upon calming down, the discolored veins turned to normal once again.

Aside from the blood, he looked like a normal person.

Just then, however, he turned to the side when he heard a voice in the distance.

"Help! Someone, please help me! I'm wounded, I can't go on any longer!"

Realizing another prey had come to his doorstep, the proselyte grinned and dashed away.

Peeking from the corner of the street, the proselyte saw a man who seemed to be extremely wounded—as he was drenched in blood. He was dragging himself through the main street— looking left and right in search of help.

Seeing this, the proselyte savored the thought of killing the man brutally.

But as he was about to do that, he stopped, "Hmm... is this a trap? He's being too obvious"

Everyone knew that in case of an incident such as this, they shouldn't show any weakness or signs of wounds to not be targeted by a proselyte that was hiding amongst them. However— this man was shouting for help instead.

It made the proselyte hesitate, fearing that this might be a trap.

Of course, there's a chance that panic made the man desperate, but it's too risky.

"No, there's a high chance that this is a trap. I'll find another one," the proselyte mused.

Just then, however, when he looked back at the wounded man, his eyes widened completely when he realized, that the wounded man, was nowhere to be seen. It made his heart—skip a beat as he could feel a bad premonition hovering around him.

A shiver ran down his spine when a whisper suddenly seeped into his ears.

"Found you..."