Firming what he needed to do, Lucivar placed both hands on her neck to choke her to death.
He wanted to put strength into his hands, but the expression on Delilah's face—resigned and accepting made it impossible. He tried desperately multiple times, but he couldn't muster the strength to crush an ant, let alone choke her to death.
Frustration surged through him.
In the entire mansion, Delilah was the one who connected with him the most.
She had helped him through his sleeping problems and was proud of his accomplishments when he bested—the others earlier. But she had not listened. Delilah had to barge into the room and find his secret, his secret that he wasn't a Garogyle Hybrid but an Angel Hybrid.
Bam!
In a fit of anger, Lucivar punched the floor right beside Delilah's head.
"Why...? Why did you come inside?! I told you to wait until I called you!" He shouted angrily.
He already told her to wait until he called, but she didn't listen.
Delilah's unwavering eyes held no fear, only concern for Lucivar despite the punch.
She then shed a tear and smiled gently, "It's okay, you can do it if you want to..."
Upon hearing this, Lucivar began to hyperventilate.
Eventually, his grip loosened, he released Delilah and rolled off, collapsing beside her.
Seeing this, Delilah rubbed her neck, eyes never leaving Lucivar, filled with understanding rather than anger, for him trying to kill her. She understands why Lucivar was about to do, what he was about to do.
Minutes later, both of them were now sitting on the bed.
Delilah already had a bowl of water on her lap, wiping the blood from Lucivar's body.
Naturally, silence hung heavy between them because of the earlier incident.
"I do not know what happened in your past, that made you hard to trust," She suddenly said, while tending to him. "And I know no matter what I said—I can't change that but regardless, I will say this... No matter what, I will keep this from anyone. I'll even help you hide it"
"E- Even from Tobias...?" Lucivar asked, his voice slightly trembling.
Hearing him talk, Delilah smiled warmly and nodded, "Yes, even from Tobias"
Lucivar's lips quivered as he heard her words.
His face was a storm of emotions on the brink of exploding, as he stared at Delilah, sensing the genuine truth in her promise. Despite something inside of him preventing him, from fully trusting her, he knew she would keep her word.
Tears streamed down his face as Delilah pulled him into her embrace.
Even when he killed his family, he didn't cry, but in Delilah's presence his emotions exploded.
"I'm... I'm scared," Lucivar said, pouring out the truth.
Giving him the care and love he deserved, Delilah rubbed his back as he let it all out, sobbing into her shoulder, releasing the burden he had carried inside, "It's okay, I am here... Whatever it is scaring you, I will always be there for you. Let it all out, I'll listen to all your troubles"
Under the powerful moment, Lucivar stayed in her embrace for a moment.
He then also finally confessed what made it hard for him to fall asleep.
Even though Delilah helped him sleep, she never asked what was haunting him.
But it didn't seem fair to Delilah—as she had been an immense help—and due to that, Lucivar found it in him to tell her what had happened to him before Tobias found him. Lucivar told her about his family, and how they treated him.
It was all in the past, but the mental scar was deep within him.
After that, Lucivar lay on Delilah's lap, staring at the ceiling while she gently rubbed his hair.
Despite the silence, the moment was profound—calming to the heart.
"Are there really Gods up there?" Lucivar asked the question that emerged in his mind.
Delilah smiled lightly, "Why do you want to know that?"
"I tried to do good all my life but I was repaid with bad things and ended up here, I'm starting to think everything I hoped by doing good is futile..." Lucivar muttered, closing his eyes as all the bad things that happened in his life flashed in his mind.
Upon hearing this, Delilah's hand stopped suddenly.
She then answered, "What does your question have to do with your predicament? No matter what the answer to that question was, it wasn't important. Karma is the balance of the world—as long as one does good, karma will provide fortune and it will always pay what was due"
"Even if there were no Gods, doing good will never be futile as you say" She added.
Delilah then hummed Lucivar to sleep as he needed to rest his body after their conversation.
Lucivar also needs to rest as he will need it for tomorrow.
He didn't realize when he fell asleep, but Delilah saw that he fell asleep pretty fast.
Exhaustion made him fall asleep quickly.
Brushing his hair gently with her fingers, Delilah looked at Lucivar's face before the moment from earlier flashed inside her mind. It was bizarre—and she was uneasy recalling what had happened earlier.
Even then, she felt pity for Lucivar as his story was tragic.
"Your true self and your Mother are fighting inside of you," She whispered, feeling pity for the poor Lucivar, as his story was very sad. "I can see them struggling, don't let your Mother win. Persevere... let your true self win"
Click!
As she said that, Delilah was startled when she heard a soft sound coming from the door.
She gazed at the door before her eyes widened, "Who was that...?"
A day passed, and as always—Lucivar woke up extremely early and found that Delilah, was nowhere to be seen. Naturally, he felt uneasy as she might tell Tobias—but that uneasiness was wiped away when he saw a full bandage on the base of the bed.
Seeing this, he smiled as it must've been Delilah.
But then, he sighed and looked at his own two hands, 'I can't kill Delilah...'
'I couldn't bring myself to do it. If she hadn't been so kind, I would've been killed' He sighed.
Despite promising himself to be more selfish, changing his nature is hard.
Lucivar could only try to forget about it and move on.
Not wasting a single second—Lucivar used the bandage to wrap the wing tightly before he wore his training clothes. He had time to kill before the morning exercise starts, and he was going to check his new power.
"I still hadn't gotten an innate ability, I only used my ether to enhance my fist," He mused.
Just like Leandra's telepathic ability, a Hyrbid would gain an ability from their bloodline.
Once again, this depends on the purity of the bloodline but it was rare for a Hybrid to get not a single ability, from their bloodline. Lucivar was expecting his—but it seemed he still needed to be even stronger to unlock his first ability.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he took the Preliminary Angel Bloodline book under the bed.
He still remembered the weird morph of his heavenly rune clearly.
Even then—he was already quite sure the book wouldn't have anything about the unknown rune as it didn't seem like an angelic power. As expected—when he read through the entire length of the book, he couldn't find anything regarding the Rune of Mischief.
"It's more like a Demon rather than an Angel, what am I really...?" Lucivar mused inwardly.
Naturally, the wing showed that he was an Angel Hybrid.
But on the other hand, the Rune of Mischief engraved on his first wing said otherwise.
"Regardless of what I really am—I reckoned this has something to do with my awakening. I saw two trails of energy back then, and I chose the dark one. I think my angelic power was responding to that choice of mine" He muttered firmly.
Lucivar still had a lot of questions in his mind, but he was sure he was not normal.
He was different compared to the other Angel Hybrid.
If he wanted the answers to all of his questions, there was only one thing to do.
"I need to get stronger..." Lucivar nodded, that is what he was going to do.
Since he already promised himself to be more selfish as to not be the one sacrificed, his only way to achieve that, was to get stronger, exactly like what Tobias said. Only the strong could be free, the weak don't have any voice.
Firming his resolution, Lucivar went to lock the door and sat on the bed again.
"Should I learn the technique in the book or cultivate?" He mused inwardly.
He saw that there was a preliminary spell an Angel Hybrid could use called Radiant Burst.
But even then, he decided to take the gold sphere Dorian dropped and cultivate.
Now that he had learned an absorption technique, he could try using it on this gold sphere.
Making the same sequence as before, yellow roots began to protrude out of his fingertips as he began absorbing, the gold sphere. At the first strand of energy, from the gold sphere—his eyes widened in shock.
"It's way denser than the blue power crystal, much denser..." He gasped in utter shock.
Lucivar could also feel the connection he had with the energy from this gold sphere.
An energy that was tailored only for him to absorb.
Surely, this was his natural energy, providing more effectiveness compared to the absorbed external energies from crystals or other energy sources. Moreover, Lucivar didn't even need to swirl the energy as it instantly blended with his Supernatural Ego, strengthening it.
Due to that, the gold sphere the size of a fist was gone in a mere minute.
His blue power crystal was still half even though he already absorbed it for hours.
But this gold sphere was gone in a mere minute and provided much more energy.
Looking at his hand, Lucivar clenched it a couple of times in disbelief, "I reached the second-star Neophyte yesterday—but I can feel it, a couple more of those gold spheres and I'll reach the third-star Neophyte rank for certain. Just what is that gold sphere? How do I get more?"
Despite the mystery behind the gold sphere, he knew that it was tailored for his ether.
And he swore to find out how to obtain it more as that would be his ticket to strength.
Later that night, Lucivar and Mirel were resting after a spar.
"Phew... I guess that blue power crystal had done some good work on you, huh?" Mirel said.
Upon hearing this, Lucivar smiled wryly, "I reached the second-star Neophyte already,"
"Figured, you've become much stronger. Of course—you wouldn't be able to beat me without proper knowledge in martial arts, but you're quite good without proper training," Mirel replied, rubbing his nose pridefully.
Naturally, Lucivar chuckled as he got beaten badly during the spar.
He might get stronger, but he was still incomparable to the others.
Just as the two were resting, Lucivar, suddenly remembered something, "Oh, I'm still unclear about something. Delilah said that enough ego points would help in casting abilities or skill— but what is the deal with having many ego points?"
Since he had 150 ego points if all wings were flared, Lucivar was curious about this.
Even now, he has 20 ego points already.
Despite his fatigue, Mirel turned to the side and drew something on the snowy ground.
Since the barrier needs to be repaired, snow seeped through to the yard today.
He created twelve dots which signifies the energy points.
"Let's use me as an example. Let's say that I have twelve ego points, and in order to cast the Lightning Empower ability, I need to make a six-point sequence," Mirel explained, connecting six dots together. "There are still six more ego points that are free at that exact moment that I could use. So, as I used Lightning Empower—I could simultaneously cast another ability say Paralyze that also requires a six-point sequence"
"So more ego points means I could use more spells simultaneously?" Lucivar asked.
Mirel nodded in response.
But then, he continued, "More ego points mean more spells to use, but there's more. What if I did the six-point sequence for the Lightning Empower two times? Since I have twelve, I could do that if I want to"
Upon hearing this, Lucivar frowned as he didn't quite follow.
Seeing this, Mirel smiled, "If I made the exact sequence two times, then the power doubled!"
"With my Lightning Empower ability, I could easily crack a rock, as big as a car. If I cast it two times? I could easily crack twice the size of the rock. Now—imagine if I have some ridiculous amount such as sixty ego points, how strong would my ability be?" He added as a finale.
On the other hand, Lucivar gasped as that would mean Mirel's ability would be destructive.
As he saw Lucivar's amazed expression—he laid back on the ground chuckling, "Of course, it is not that simple, there's a limit as to how many times my body could endure. But simply put, having more ego points would make you a stronger Hybrid overall. Moreover—you could also exploit your free ego points to lessen the ether cost of casting a skill, the usage is not limited only to that, there are many other use cases"
"Don't think too much about it for now. Do you even have an ability yet?" He asked.
Lucivar shook his head, "Nope, I still don't have any, not even one"
"Don't fret about it, you could learn some once we get into an academy" Mirel replied.
Confused about this, Lucivar turned to look at Mirel in confusion, "Academy? When?"
"I was lucky enough to overhear Master Tobias' conversation with Delilah—but after his deal in this town was done, we would go to the Supreme Vampire House's territory—and enroll in an academy there. To help us develop I think..." Mirel explained nonchalantly.
Meanwhile, Lucivar was stunned when he heard this, "Huh, we're going to be students?"