Ascension of the Dark Seraph-Chapter 236: Before the Chaos

'Look at him, I'm sure he's planning something,' Ravenna thought inside.

She was now looking at Lucivar who was sitting in the front seat, making small talks with the driver about the weather and the sector—all smiles and excitement. His demeanor today was unsettling, and it was enough to tell that he was onto something.

Even Leandra and Nerissa were uncomfortable.

For some reason, seeing Lucivar laugh and act friendly was even more unsettling than his silence.

As Lucivar said, he asked all of them to go out today, and surprisingly enough, the entire family decided to come—that includes Bob. Ravenna was quite surprised that all of them decided to come, considering it was a last-minute thing.

Moreover, usually, the others were busy with their training.

From the looks of it, Lucivar seemed to also be surprised that all of them came.

He also didn't expect this but they went anyway.

Somehow, Lucivar managed to secure the academy car, driver, as well as Fabio's personal credit card.

Lucivar hid behind the excuse that he wanted to check out more of the city, sightseeing, and he thought the others would want to accompany him too. He said—that since all of them has never been to a main city like Sunhold City before, they'd appreciate his invitation.

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'Of course, that was a lie,' Ravenna's gaze narrowed, staring at the back of Lucivar's head.

She looked as if her gaze could pry open his mind if she looked hard enough.

'He has the tournament coming up, he knew Caldaros was at the Chrysalis rank already, and though his current rank was unknown I'm sure he's nearing the Chrysalis rank too,' Ravenna firmed, she could tell that Lucivar was most likely planning something to achieve his breakthrough. 'So whatever today was, he's going to do something'

Ravenna then glanced to her side, 'It seemed Leandra and Nerissa could feel it too,'

All of them could feel it.

Having to observe Lucivar's actions from the start of their academy lives, they knew how he acted.

Bonding with the family, smiling, and making good initiatives were not a part of his kit.

However, for some reason, Ravenna was excited inside, 'I'm looking forward to what he's up to,' She thought, turning her gaze out the window to view the passing blur of buildings and cars. 'I'm running out of negative energy already so this is an opportunity to replenish it fully. I wonder, the others, are they also thinking the same thing?'

'Okay, open your eyes…' Leandra took in a deep breath. 'He's going to try and do something again. I must watch every move that he made—and why he did it. He aimed for Elira and Thalia knowing that their mother was not going to let him go, so he did that to resolve the issue. So what now? I must try harder—to understand him'

Beside her, Nerissa was fidgeting with her fingers.

'I came to get closer to hit but what exactly should I do?' She pondered uncertainly. 'I gained my natural ether from making others scream in pain but how exactly can I do that by coming here? I can't possibly hurt innocent people… I don't want to be cruel,'

Unlike Lucivar who seemed to be in a good mood, the others were all over the place.

Each one has different emotions swirling inside of them as they wait for the day to unfold to them.

From morning to noon, everything seemed normal.

Lucivar first brought them to an arcade to boast his skills in playing the games there as he already did once with Thalia. He beat the others who were also excited to try out the games, and even dominated the Shield and Sword game before being knocked down by Bob.

He wasn't expecting to be beat but then again, the Shield and Sword game is a physical game.

And Bob was leaps and bounds stronger than him.

Seeing how Bob was looking down on him with a smirk incited the competition inside of him.

However, for some reason, Bob absolutely obliterated him in every game.

"What the fuck…?" Lucivar sucked in a cold breath as the basketball machine beeped with the ringtone for the high score. He barely reached half of the high score but Bob, he set a new high score, "How in the fuck are you so good at this?"

"I'm more talented than you," Bob mumbled and turned away to leave.

Upon hearing this, a vein bulged on Lucivar's forehead as he cocked his arm, preparing to fight.

"Yeah? You're so talented that you can't even lose your belly?" He barked and headed over to Bob.

But Nerissa and Ravenna hold him back from behind.

"Calm down, it's only a game," Ravenna soothed, rubbing his back.

"He didn't mean it," Nerissa added, smiling acutely. "We're going out today to have fun, aren't we?"

Next up was a famous museum of Sunhold City.

All kinds of Crossers' items as well as inactive legendary artifacts were displayed there.

One of them was even from a red dungeon, the strongest and most troublesome dungeon there is.

Mirel and Bakar were the ones who geeked out the most, forcing the security—to come over to warn them to stop being too loud three times before eventually being kicked out. Because of that, the group was only there for less than an hour before moving on again.

Before eating lunch, the driver recommended them to go to the hotspot of the city.

Since today wasn't the weekend, the place should be less crowded making it perfect for them to visit.

It was the Laval Flow Dungeon.

A domesticated dungeon, separated from the Crossers' world has now turned into a tourist spot.

Upon arriving there, the group sucked in a deep breath.

"Wow… It's so big," Mirel looked up at the massive purple dungeon in front of him.

At least, the purple dungeon was as big as a ten-story office building.

"I can still feel the remaining Crossers' energy, and it's still chilling even though it has been conquered for more than fifty years," Ravenna said and shivered, this was once a very powerful dungeon. "What would it feel like back then?"

Mirel walked over to the side to the history scripture about the Lava Flow Dungeon.

"It was an attack purple dungeon to destroy the Sunhold City's headquarters which was at the time—the heart of the First Crusade's operation," He read the writings on the scripture, amused by the history of this dungeon. "And it belonged to the Fire Primordials…?"

As soon as the group heard the last part, the atmosphere around them instantly turned gloomy.

Just the sheer mentioning of the Fire Primordials forced them to remember Delilah.

Lucivar looked at the dungeon in disdain, his expression dark, then scowled.

He never forgot about that night and when he was ready, he brought hell to the Crossers' world.

Even though at this moment, he knew that Delilah's death was meant to happen—as he liked the way he was right now, it didn't diminish his hatred for the Primordials, the Fire Primordials to be exact. One day, he'll get his revenge and let Delilah rest in peace.

Sensing the change in atmosphere, Mirel clapped his hands, "Let's not be gloomy and head inside"

Inside, the group was greeted by a lot of things.

Since the dungeon has now turned into a tourist spot, there were a lot of stalls and even challenges.

Remembering his defeat against Bob in the arcade, Lucivar's eyes sparkled when he saw the challenge stall at their left called the Lavafall, "Hey, fatty," He called, turning to Bob who was at the very back of the group. "Let's do that and see who would last longer,"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Nerissa intervened, shaking her head. "You have your tournament,"

"What? It's going to be fine," Lucivar waved his hand. "Look, there's even a healer on standby"

"Count me in," Bakar cracked his neck, not wanting to lose out. "I'm still a Troll Hybrid,"

As soon as the three agreed to participate, all of them turned to Mirel.

"Do you need to ask? Mirel won't participate," Ravenna said dismissively. "He's a Yellow Lightning Elemental Hybrid, he's weak to heat, unlike you gu-"

"Hell yeah, count me in!" Mirel suddenly cut in, striding over to join the three.

"…"

Ravenna's lips froze mid-sentence before she rolled her eyes—as if she should have known better. "Of course, you don't care," She muttered sarcastically. "Do you boys always need to measure—who's got the biggest balls?"

"Let's leave them on what they wanted to do," She continued, grabbing Nerissa and Leandra by their arms and walking away. "While the boys were doing stupid stuff, why don't we relax in the hot spring? I saw it earlier,"

"Eh? Shouldn't we stay together?" Leandra asked reluctantly as she was pulled away.

Nerissa didn't argue, she liked the sound of that.

Moments later.

A small crowd gathered, watching with interest as four Hybrids were going to tackle the Lavafall.

Most of them were normal people with a handful of Hybrids who were as excited to watch this.

Psshh!!

"Shit, shit, shit!!" Mirel wailed as his eyes bulged in pain. "This is worse than I fucking thought!"

Once the small opening underneath the barrel above him opened, a filtered lava cascaded down onto the top of his head and covered his entire body with its thick texture. Mirel was having the hardest time compared to the others.

He constantly regulated his ether to fight back the heat but that was still not enough.

"Operator, are you damn sure this is level 2?!" He shouted.

Upon hearing this, the operator beside the control chuckled, "It's level 2. I told you it's really hot. Now, the highest score is forty seconds—done by a 5-star Acolyte rank Vampire Hybrid. Can you guys beat that high score?"

"Of course, you're excluded since you're a Chrysalis rank Hybrid," He gestured towards Bob.

For the next painful seconds, Lucivar, Bob, Bakar, and Mirel endured the hot lava on their skin.

Naturally, the first one to buckle was Mirel—he couldn't even last 20 seconds.

Next was Bakar at 27 seconds, who instantly rolled on the ground to get rid of the lava.

Once the 30-second mark was reached, Lucivar was already growling.

He was pumping his entire body with God strands—and then changed to activating the Triune Scarab ability but the heat was still piercing through his skin and bones. Finally, once the clock struck 44, he collapsed forward and lay on the ground.

Lucivar beat the high score but he was still bitter as Bob won against him, again.

'I guess that's the difference between a Chrysalis rank and an Acolyte rank… I'm no match' He sighed.

Even though this was all fun and games, it made it quite clear—that if he fought Caldaros in his current state—the result would be the same, as his attempt to beat Bob. And that made him more determined to reach the next rank.

Soon, the sun finally drowned and came the night.

Lucivar's eyes sparkled as he gazed ahead, "It's show time…"