Ascension of the Dark Seraph

"Leandra, we really can't."

Ravenna stopped her in the corridor by grabbing her hand.

It was concerning what the two of them were about to do.

"Do you really think we can sneak a peek? It's Lucivar we're talking about, he'll know!"

"No, he won't. I've done this before. He's too distracted with the call, and besides, he's exhausted."

Leandra has done this before with Mirel or alone, and as far as she was concerned, Lucivar didn't know that she had eavesdropped on his phone call. Not to mention, his ether was exhausted from the fight. It certainly dulled his senses.

Right now is the best time to eavesdrop.

Ravenna contemplated for a moment.

Finally, she let go of Leandra's hand and rubbed her temples.

"Fine. But if he notices us, I will blame you for this."

"If you're that scared, then don't come with me."

Leandra walked away, heading towards the locker room section of the stadium.

It took a moment for her to find Lucivar's room.

She was able to find it because the door was open, the only one that wasn't closed shut.

As she got closer, she could hear a voice coming from inside.

Lucivar's voice, that's for certain.

Suppressing her ether further, she glued her back against the wall.

Glancing to her side, she found Ravenna there—she decided to tag along.

Once they were a step away from the door, Leandra leaned in to see from the crack—and immediately recoiled when she saw Lucivar sitting inside with a phone to his ear, as expected. She looked at Ravenna and nodded, telling her that he is on the phone as expected.

Both of them breathed silently, focusing their hearing on Lucivar.

"Nerissa lived, I made sure of it, but the thought of you hating me for doing this… I-I can't."

"I can't even wait until she is revived. I'm afraid she'll change and you'll blame me for it."

From this alone, Ravenna looked down.

She now realized that Leandra was telling the truth; it seemed Lucivar was really talking to Delilah.

Or at least, he thought that he was talking to Delilah.

'All I know about his past is that he's a fugitive. For him to love Delilah that much despite only being with her for mere months… He must have been deprived of love.' She sighed to herself, a sense of pity swelling up inside. 'If not for this, I would've thought he was fine. He's good at hiding it.'

Hearing Lucivar sniffling was hard.

Mainly because he never showed any emotions like this, the sad part of him.

"Really…? You're going to forgive me?"

"I really appreciate it, Delilah. I made sure that something like this would never happen again. Not unless they asked for it like Darwin. I'll take care of them. I'll take care of Tobias. Nothing bad will happen to them, I promise."

Upon hearing this, Leandra's eyes widened.

"D-Darwin…?" She muttered whisperingly.

She turned to Ravenna with shock and confusion palpable in her eyes.

But Ravenna was also stunned.

Of course, she knew about Lucivar killing Darwin, as that was the chip she used to get close to him.

Her shock didn't stem from that.

"Lucivar was the one who killed Darwin?" Leandra pressed.

Snapping from her daze, Ravenna closed Leandra's mouth with her hand, "Sstt… We'll talk later."

Ravenna and Leandra gazed ahead in silence.

Both of them were covering their own mouths with their hands, listening to Lucivar's phone call.

Then, there was a five-minute silence.

Leandra peeked inside and saw that he was sleeping, exhausted from everything that had transpired.

Biting her lower lip, Leandra grabbed Ravenna's hand and pulled her into the neighbouring locker room, and closed the door behind her. Once they were inside, she immediately exploded, "Did you hear him? He killed Darwin! How could he kill Darwin? Why? What's the reason?"

Ravenna looked down, avoiding Leandra's gaze.

Seeing this, Leandra paused.

"You knew…?"

"Yes, I knew. I knew for a while."

"Then why didn't you say anything?!"

Leandra exploded, anger climbing up into her neck through her bulging veins.

She couldn't believe that she was oblivious to this.

Now that she thought back to the day Darwin died, Lucivar persuaded her to go tell the others, and that must've been when he came back to end Darwin. He used him to kill Darwin, and that's what Leandra was angry about the most.

It was because he used her.

"You should've told us about th-"

"It wouldn't make a difference!"

Ravenna retaliated, also frustrated as this wasn't what they were supposed to be talking about.

But since it came to this, might as well address it.

"I wasn't sure at first, but my Predator Oculus ability helped me see through his plan. I confronted Lucivar, and he wouldn't say the reason. But I knew the reason," Ravenna mused, staring straight at Leandra's eyes. "Darwin threatened Lucivar, and that's all there is to it."

"So, what?" Leandra scoffed incredulously. "You're saying it's self-defense?"

"Yes."

"You can't possib-"

"Back then, he didn't have an absorption technique to restore his ether. He was weak, and Drawin told him to leave, demanded him to leave, under the pretense of protecting us, all because he was a wanted man. If he left, there was a high chance he wouldn't survive. So, yes, it was self-defense."

Leandra pursed her lips, wanting to argue, but couldn't.

She found it logical for Lucivar to do this.

It was life and death for him, so he had to do something.

"Even if you knew, what could you even do? Are you going to tell Lucivar to leave?"

Ravenna chuckled weakly.

Nothing good will come out if Leandra knew about it back then.

"Master Tobias can do something…"

"He'll only delay the inevitable. Lucivar did us a favor by not making us choose."

Leandra pivoted around, looking at the wall in silence.

She was conflicted, and understandably so.

"It's not important right now, Leandra. We should be talking about why he talked as if he were really on the phone with Delilah." Ravenna stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder gently. "Something about this doesn't sit right with me. I need to find out more—don't you?"

Sighing deeply, Leandra nodded her head and turned around.

But then, the sound of a door closing suddenly echoed from the corridor.

Almost instantly, Leandra and Ravenna ducked down, avoiding the window facing the corridor.

Following the thudding sound were footsteps, going further away from them.

Both of them exchanged a look and silently came to an agreement to peek from the door.

Lucivar was walking away with purposeful steps—he was going somewhere, but the two did not care and instantly went over to his locker room. Since he did not seem to bring the phone with him, it must still be in the room.

Closing the door silently, the two looked around.

"It should be here…"

"Inside his bag, go check it."

Leandra opened the bag and immediately got the phone.

She quickly tapped on the screen with Ravenna overlooking from her shoulder, and thanked Lady Luck, as there was no password. In the home screen, there was nothing more than the built-in apps, and several apps that must've been downloaded by Delilah.

"Check the call log, hurry!"

"I'm trying to find it!"

Frantically, Leandra swiped and searched for the call log.

Neither of them was accustomed to using phones, so finding it wasn't as easy for them.

Leandra was trying her best.

Bam!

Out of nowhere, a loud bang resounded, startling both of them.

None of them knew how Lucivar would react if he saw them snooping around.

And that made them all the more nervous.

Ravenna headed for the window to keep an eye out for Lucivar, but Leandra stopped her.

"Hey, come and see this."

"Hmm? What?"

Looking back at the phone, Ravenna saw that Leandra was pointing at the rose sticker behind it.

It was letting out a very faint sizzling energy.

"Did you do something?"

"No, I was startled and my ether was riled. It got onto the phone, and this sticker got like this."

Frowning in confusion, Leandra ran a nail beneath the edge of the sticker, trying to peel it off.

She was able to get her nail underneath, but the moment she did, a surge of energy exploded outward, electrocuting her and hurling her against the wall. Her body slammed hard, knocking the breath from her lungs in a sharp, gasping wheeze.

"Leandra!"

Ravenna immediately checked on her to see if she was hurt.

But she held up a hand.

"I'm fine. I'm fine."

Once she recovered, their eyes fixated on the sticker again.

"It's not Lucivar's energy. It's different."

"A magical artifact? But why was it there? Could it have belonged to Delilah?"

"Maybe. But even then, why did it attack me?"

"Since it only reacted when we tried to peel the sticker off, its purpose was clear."

No matter what the sticker was, be it a magical artifact or something else, it didn't want to be peeled off the phone. Lucivar never tried to do it, he had no reason to, so he must not know that the sticker was a magical artifact.

Heck, the two of them knew about it in an accident.

If Leandra weren't startled, the sticker would remain unnoticed.

Just that alone was proof enough that the sticker is a powerful artifact since it could avoid their detection.

Hesitantly, Ravenna picked up the phone.

She checked the call log, and there were no recent calls.

The last call was made months ago to the only saved number on the phone, Master Tobias' number.

Ravenna looked at Leandra with a complex expression and placed the phone against her ear.

"H-Hello…?"

A tense silence choked the room as Ravenna waited for a moment.

She wasn't really sure, but her gut told her to try this.

But there was nothing.

"Put down the phone, Ravenna."

Brak!

Ravenna recoiled until her back slammed against the lockers, dropping the phone in the process, as her face contorted in absolute shock. She looked at the phone with round eyes, uncertain whether she was hallucinating or not.

Then, her eyes landed on Leandra.

"What? What is it?"

"S-Someone answered. It's- It's Delilah… I can hear her voice…"

"What…?"

Meanwhile, at the center of the arena.

Lucivar approached the portal leading to the dungeon he was in earlier and crossed his arms.

Since nobody regulated the portals because of the emergency evacuation, all three portals remained in the arena and accessible to anyone. Smiling inwardly, Lucivar stepped through one and emerged once more into the scorched volcanic terrain.

The heat licked his skin dry the instant he stepped into the dungeon.

He looked around, noticing a couple of corpses scattered around—the fallen participants.

"Oval and Heart died, so let's get some more pets, shall we?"