Ascension of the Dark Seraph-Chapter 299: The Real Battle of Avatars (2)

Caldaros gasped and turned to look out of the building.

His eyes hummed with ether.

Slowly, the physical construct of the world around him faded away, leaving behind a sole beacon of light several miles away from him. It was Ciri. And she wasn't in the safe house that Caldaros prepared for her, she was somewhere else.

'Where is she…? What is she doing…?'

His heart skipped a beat at the thought.

'Did she defy my order and watch the tournament?!'

At this realization, Caldaros turned to Lucivar sharply, his eyes blazing with unrestrained fury.

"You…" He mumbled with hate.

"Did you think I wouldn't realize?" Lucivar cackled, blood mixed with saliva spat from his mouth. "Did you really think I'm that dumb to not read between the lines? I knew everything, Caldaros! That bitch you called aunt is your source of power, isn't she?! She's your sun!"

"RAARGH!!"

Crash!

Caldaros tackled Lucivar hard and hauled him by his neck.

His arm muscles bulged from how hard he was squeezing.

"DON'T CALL HER THAT WITH YOUR FILTHY MOUTH! SHE'S MY EVERYTHING!!"

"A woman who danced for money, what else would you call her other than that?"

Lucivar drew ether from Caldaros' arm with Greedy Grasp, turned it into God strands, and infused them into his own head—then lunged forward, delivering a savage headbutt to Caldaros' nose. The crunch of bone rang out as Caldaros stumbled back, dazed.

A painful groan escaped his mouth as he covered his nose with teary eyes.

"Once she's dead, you'll be left sunless," Lucivar said with a low, menacing tone. "I'm looking forward to how long you would last against me then…"

Swish!

Instead of answering, Caldaros' eyes gleamed.

Out of nowhere, two spears made of sunlight burst from the ground and impaled Lucivar's wings.

Before he could recover, Caldaros was already on him with a blazing sword.

Slash!

Lucivar's eyes widened at the sight of warm crimson liquid bursting from his chest, his blood, and it was a disturbing amount of it as the sword tore a deep wound across his torso. He was hurled away once again—his wings were torn in the process.

As he came to a stop in a kneeling position, he covered the bleeding wound with his hand in pain.

He was already panting heavily now.

Despite knowing that this was going to be a hard fight, he had lost so much blood already.

He could close the wounds with the God strands, but the blood didn't recover.

It would be bad if he lost more. He'll pass out.

'How long was it? Five minutes? Ten minutes? I held back Caldaros long enough to give the others a head start.'

Lucivar wasn't aiming to kill Caldaros right now.

In truth, he was buying time so that the others could reach Ciri first before Caldaros did.

At this point, the others should be nearing Ciri, and that'll be the cue for the final act.

Lifting his gaze, Lucivar saw Caldaros already flying away—abandoning the fight to head straight for Ciri. Clearly, he feared she might really be killed. But—considering the threats Lucivar made, and also the cruelty he was capable of, who wouldn't fear for their loved ones?

"Sutekh, any time now…" He muttered as he struggled back to his feet.

As expected, fighting Caldaros with only Loki's power and his bloodline was incredibly hard.

He really wanted to use Sutekh's abilities, the Fang of Ankh and the Triune Scarab, but both of them were not responding to his will. Neither of them could be used in front of Caldaros. It must be Sutekh's way of telling him that this wasn't his battle.

But then again, Lucivar would hope that the Gods would go along.

How easier would this be if that were the case?

Slowly, his wings were healed.

Lucivar coughed blood a couple of times as he reached for his dagger.

Once he had recovered enough, he took in a deep breath and activated the Soul Warden spell.

In that instant, his body dissipated.

At the same time, he shot up from Caldaros' shadow and tackled him from below again.

Locked in a vicious spiral, they tore through the purple sky—Lucivar slashing to bring Caldaros down, while Caldaros writhed to dislodge him. In one explosive motion, Caldaros tucked his legs and launched a crushing kick into Lucivar's midsection, finally breaking loose.

Spinning downward, Lucivar caught himself and didn't let up.

He fired multiple Night Piercer spells from his fingertips, made by his light and dark attributes.

Caldaros tries to dodge all of them, but some struck his body, creating a bruise.

Even so, he was still able to keep going, leaving Lucivar behind.

Just as he was about to bank left and hide behind a building to avoid being shot, his pupils dilated, and his breath was caught in his throat. Attacking from both sides, two wolf monsters lunged out of the glass surface of the buildings beside him.

Not expecting this, Caldaros couldn't properly dodge their pounce.

Crash!

Caldaros was tackled mid-air and slammed into a nearby building, his body smashing through glass and steel as he tumbled down its structure. Gravity dragged him mercilessly in a brutal descent until he hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

Before he could recover, the two monstrous wolves—Oval and Heart—lunged at him.

Their jaws clamped down on his limbs, tearing into his flesh, and ripped away bloody chunks.

Enraged, Caldaros' body exploded with sunlight, pushing the two wolves away from him.

Moving with savage intent, Caldaros grabbed Oval by the jaws—upper and lower—with his bare hands and tore them apart with monstrous strength, ripping the monster in half like a barbarian. But before the mangled corpse hit the ground, Heart sank its fangs into his shoulder, wrenching a hiss of pain from the Sun Goddess' avatar.

Snarling hideously, he ignored the agony, backhanded Heart across the face, then leapt onto its back.

His arms wrapped around its thick neck, ready to snap it like a beast in the wild.

But before he could, Lucivar's dagger flashed.

Slash!

Lucivar slashed the blade across Caldaros' face, flinging him off Heart's back in a streak of blood.

Dashing with incredible speed, Lucivar and Heart attacked at the same time.

However, as they neared, Caldaros' body began to shimmer with sunlight.

His ether climbed higher to a terrifying degree.

Just then, he roared thunderously as the sky near the opening portal was suddenly split open.

Lucivar glanced skyward and saw a massive beam of sunlight descending down on them, and he knew that there was no getting out of this in time. In that fraction of a second, he turned to the side and saw a man, crippled, crawling on the ground.

It was then, he immediately fired a Night Piercer at the ground beside that man.

Perfectly, the force from the spell knocked the man towards Lucivar.

He was now within the radius of the beam of sunlight.

Caldaros saw this, but he didn't stop—or rather, he doesn't want to stop.

At this moment, Ciri's safety is his priority, and one or two casualties are nothing.

Kaboom!

Lucivar was instantly pressed down, gritting hard as he endured the scorching pain.

His wings provided cover, but the sunlight still found a way to seep through.

On the side, Heart whimpered like a puppy as its body dissolved completely.

It was the same for the crippled man.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, but since he was normal, his body dissolved in three seconds.

A swift death, but one that someone like Caldaros, as an avatar of the good side, shouldn't allow.

Once the beam of sunlight ended, Lucivar's body steamed as he gasped for air.

His upper back and wings were entirely scorched, exposing burnt flesh, as he struggled to breathe.

Lucivar has only a few God strands left, not enough to completely heal his wounds, and since Caldaros was already away, he couldn't replenish them. His ether was also not any better, it was running low. He couldn't use his light attribute to heal himself.

From an outsider's perspective, Lucivar was done.

No chance he could catch up to Caldaros again.

And it was the truth, there was no way he could keep up with Caldaros.

But he didn't have to.

Kneeling on the ground with a tattered body, Lucivar gazed up toward the manifesting purple dungeon. His eyes stared straight at it, but in reality, he was looking through it. Not at the world on the other side, but above it, beyond it, a higher power that started his journey.

Karma.

"Come on, your favored person is in trouble here!" Lucivar shouted.

Shouting at the sky made him look like a lunatic, but he didn't care; he knew Karma was listening.

"I made an avatar of 'Good' commit—that vile act!" Lucivar snarled, jabbing a finger at the scorched smear beside him that was once a man, the crippled man from before. "I forced him, twisted him, to do it! He could've stopped, but he didn't! That sin is mine! That black karma is mine!"

His eyes gleamed with frenzy.

For the things he did, he must be repaid.

"You hear me?! You owe me! I've racked up enough bad karma to drown a saint, and now you're going to pay out! That's how it works. That's the truth! I bled for this luck—you owe me my fortune!" Lucivar screamed, glaring at the sky as if he was staring straight at karma in the face.

Caldaros heard his scream.

He didn't look back, focusing solely on saving Ciri before the catastrophe descended fully.

Caldaros had finally shaken Lucivar off his tail, wings beating furiously as he surged through the air.

But then, he made a sharp inhale when a shadow enveloped him.

Out of nowhere, two colossal purple orbs emerged from the gaping crack in the sky.

Both dwarfed the others that had fallen before—massive, dense, and so heavy with power that the sound of the wind shrieking against their surface could be heard even from down where Caldaros was. The air itself buckled under their presence, pressure building like the breath before a scream.

Then, in a thunderous spectacle that rattled the heavens, the two orbs slammed into eacy other.

Just the impact alone unleashed a violent pulse that tore across the skyline.

It warped clouds and shook the world.

Under the stunned gaze of those below, the fused orbs ruptured, splintering into countless smaller orbs of varying sizes. Each aflame. Each lethal. Raining down like a meteor shower from the rift above, with only the purpose to destroy.

High above, the governor acted fast, using his power to intercept the descent.

But it was enough.

Too many broke through.

And all of them were streaking toward one man.

Caldaros.

Upon seeing this grand sight, Lucivar erupted in laughter.

It was like a roar, shaking his frame with such force that he clutched his stomach, barely able to breathe through the hysteria.

He does not doubt his victory.

Why? Because karma was on his side.