Ascension of the Dark Seraph-Chapter 344: Grand Analogy

Confidence is one of the medicines that could always cure fear.

All Lucivar needed to do was to make the Gods seem incompetent.

It would be the first step for them to overcome their inherently natural fear of the Gods.

Of the entity in the sky.

Downplaying Gods might seem to be a stretch, especially if it was done only using words, but Lucivar has something that could easily bolster their confidence. He took out Caldaros’ head, a person that—like him—was close to the Gods.

Nerissa was initially taken aback, sucking in a cold breath.

But once she recalled who that person was, she frowned.

"Is that...?"

"Yes, it’s Caldaros. Technically, you were killed by him, saving me in the process."

Morriva turned towards Nerissa.

It was new news for her to know that Nerissa had died.

Perhaps that is how she became a Vestal, and Morriva was right to think that.

On the other hand, Nerissa’s face turned grim.

Seeing the one who killed him in such a state was relieving, but it was also unnerving.

She knew that she had died back then, but she didn’t want to think about it anymore.

Then, she remembered something.

"Isn’t his body disintegrated? Ravenna said so when she told me about what happened after I died."

"Not disintegrated, but evaporated into divine energy. It’s Loki’s first time winning against Sunna, so he wanted a trophy. He retracts Caldaros’ head from the divine energy. I don’t know if that was possible, but hey, anything goes if Gods are in the mix."

"I see..."

Considering Loki had never won against Sunna from the dawn of time, this wasn’t surprising.

Lucivar was surprised to see Caldaros’ head neatly placed like a decoration behind Loki’s statue, but he wasn’t troubled by it. In fact, having Caldaros’ head placed there was a good thing. Every time he went into his Inner Chamber, he was always reminded of his substantial success.

"Now, let’s start training."

As he was about to tell Gandr and Sirrush to start, Morriva stopped him.

"Sir Lucivar, can I ask you to do one thing?"

"Hmm? What one thing?"

"Since we’re going to be training, we need to have a goal, a height we strive for. Can you show us?"

"You want me to show how strong I am?"

Morriva nodded firmly.

She had been training too, even when Lucivar was away, working on her connection with Loki, and she felt that she was a lot stronger now. Perhaps, she would be at least within the range of Lucivar’s level, and she could know that for sure if Lucivar showed his full power.

Lucivar didn’t expect to be asked to do this.

But it didn’t stop a grin from forming on his lips, also eager to try out his new Greedy Grasp.

No, he wanted to go beyond that.

"Since you asked," Lucivar cracked his neck and loosened his body. "No harm in showing you."

Both Morriva and Nerissa focused, waiting for Lucivar to make his move.

All of them could be classified as a Chrysalis-rank Hybrid, so the gap shouldn’t be that far.

At least, that’s what Nerissa and Morrivia thought.

Oftentimes, though, reality isn’t kind.

Using nothing but his will, a scarab appeared and glowed on Lucivar’s forehead.

It glowed white, and in the next second, Lucivar disappeared.

Swoosh!

Morriva blinked her eyes, thinking that she must be hallucinating.

A moment ago, Lucivar was there, but in the blink of an eye, he disappeared from his spot.

"Where’s he?! I didn’t see him move!"

Nerissa looked around, noticing the wind unnaturally changing direction rapidly.

"He’s everywhere..."

"What?"

Now that his body had been reforged a second time in the Anvil of Sutekh, having his bones transmuted into gold, his physical prowess had increased dramatically. He’s two times strong—or even more than before using the Divine Merit.

His body alone could kill a two-star or even three-star Chrysalis rank.

And with the white scarab granted by the Triune Scarab ability, his speed became unfathomably fast.

All Lucivar did was a simple dash.

But from Morriva’s and Nerissa’s perspective, his body disappeared into thin air.

Lucivar circled the two of them like a phantom.

He was moving faster than even the speed of them turning their necks.

Even though his presence could barely be seen, both of them could feel his movements through the air.

Despite their eyes seeing nothing, their other senses sensed Lucivar circling them.

Swoosh!

Morriva and Nerissa looked up, seeing Lucivar appearing above them.

Under their eyes, the scarab on his forehead changed from white to red.

Lucivar dived like a meteor and punched the ground hard, not forgetting to use all of his God strands.

He wanted to use all fifty of them to see how strong his punch would be.

But at thirty-five, his arm was already trembling uncontrollably, and there was also pain inside.

’Tch! I can only use thirty-five God strands at the same time, huh... Well, whatever. Let’s see this.’

Kaboom!!

His knuckles slammed into the ground solidly.

In an instant, the ground cracked beneath his fist, giving little to no resistance at all as it splintered into countless fragments. A wave pulse erupted, rippling across a full mile radius, and for a fleeting moment, the solid earth felt as soft and unstable as water.

One that shocked Nerissa and Morriva.

Then, with a thunderous roar, the pulse detonated outward.

A massive crater formed beneath his fist—the ground caving in nearly five meters deep and stretching outward for over twenty. Rootlike fissures veined the earth far beyond the crater’s outer ring. And then came the shockwave.

It struck with such overwhelming force that even Morriva and Nerissa, who braced and anchored, were pushed backward. The air howled around them, debris flying, the world quaking under the sheer violence of the impact.

All of it was caused by a single punch.

No low-star Chrysalis-rank Hybrid without a strength-oriented bloodline could’ve withstood that blow.

To endure it without special ability would mean death.

It was, quite simply, too strong for a strength possessed by a Chrysalis-rank Hybrid.

But Lucivar didn’t stop there.

Swoosh!

Around him, the trees began to dissipated—its essence sucked until there was nothing left.

Lucivar recharged his God strands in an instant, and in the next second, he gathered it all into his finger.

Ether boosted with thirty-five God strands gathered on the tip of his index finger.

Rapidly, a sphere was formed, containing a devastating amount of power.

Once he was ready, he made a pistol with his hand and pointed it at Morriva and Nerissa.

He smirked at them and fired the sphere.

Bang!

Lucivar used the Night Piercer ability, firing a beam of concentrated energy from his fingertip.

It zipped through the air, silent and precise, passing cleanly between Morriva and Neissa.

Neither of them could react to that energy bullet.

And the wind that followed grazed their cheeks like a blade’s whisper.

Then, far off, came the sound of trees snapping—one after another, felled by the beam’s invisible path.

No explosion, no fire, and no sound.

Just sheer deadly penetration.

Lucivar lowered his hand, looking at their shocked expressions.

He didn’t blame them for being stunned.

In case it’d make it better, he was also surprised by how strong he had gotten.

"Still have Loki’s ability, Tamtu’s ability—and also my light and dark attributes. I can’t show you all of my capabilities, but this should be enough, right?"

Hearing this, Morriva and Nerissa blinked and snapped from their trances.

Both of them forced a nod.

Even though they had always known Lucivar was stronger than they as they were his Vestals, while he was an avatar, the true extent of the gap between them was staggering. If he wished to, Lucivar could end their lives in a heartbeat.

That was the kind of power he wielded, and how strong he is compared to them.

And not only that, he still has other things he could do.

Lucivar turned to Gandr and Sirrush.

"Go train them. Make them stronger for me. It’s for your own good, too."

Gandr hissed, "No need to remind me."

"Is that how you asked for a favor?" Sirrush rolled his eyes. "You should at least start by kowtowing three times to me. Next time, you should do that first."

Ignoring Sirrush’s comment, Lucivar nodded at Morriva and Nerissa before turning away.

He didn’t need to watch.

No, he couldn’t watch, to be exact.

Just like them, he also needed to do his own training—there are still two more Divine Merits.

And he was only going to go back after he cleared those Divine Merits and mastered his attribute.

Once he was far enough, he stretched his arms and sat down on the ground.

"So, which one of you wanted to go first?"

...

The Divine Merit is a chance that would allow Lucivar to be trained in the Gods’ realm directly.

And the training he would go through will be tailored to the associated God’s expertise.

Sutekh, for example, had forged Lucivar’s body to its absolute limit—and beyond through a brutal trial known as the Anvil of Sutekh. Following that principle, Loki will most likely be guiding him in the mastery of magic.

But when it came to Tamtu, Lucivar couldn’t begin to guess what kind of trial or gift she might offer.

As far as he knows, Tamtu’s core powers are her children, monsters.

Due to that, he was excited to use the Divine Merit on Tamtu.

However, even though he has no clue, he could make an educated guess.

Gods followed a very simple rock, paper, and scissors analogy.

It was the simplest term Lucivar could put it in based on his observations.

Loki is an extremely powerful God of magic, reveled in spells and arcane abilities, making him a master of magical combat. In the grand analogy, Loki was the paper—symbolizing all Gods who possessed a sharp edge in magical prowess.

As for Sutekh, he’s the rock.

Gods who had unparalleled physical prowess, like Sutekh, are considered to be the rock.

One that could not lose in a battle of the body.

For the scissor, Lucivar found the God who could fill that role—Sunna.

Gods that fell to the scissor category an experts in none, but have considerable powers on both sides.

Now, with the appropriate Gods placed in their perfect category, the grand analogy made sense.

Loki will always win against Sutekh since physical prowess has little to no effect on someone with an extremely wide range of magical prowess. Though they never fought each other, or at least not as far as Lucivar knew about them, Loki would probably come out on top.

On the other hand, Sunna always won against Loki, since she fell into the scissors category.

She has magical defense and far superior physical prowess to Loki.

And Sutekh will always beat Sunna, as a non-master would never penetrate an unparalleled physique.

Lucivar already has his rock and paper.

Now, he guessed that Tamtu is his scissor, so the trial would need both magical and physical prowess.

Once he entered Tamtu’s realm and opened his eyes, he realized he was falling from the sky.

And below him was a sea of darkness.

"Fuck... I hate water."

Splash!

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