Deep inside his core, inside the very chamber that made Hybrids, Hybrids, a statue trembled.
It was located right beside Loki.
As the darkness was shed away from the statue, outside, Lucivar could hear the smashing of currents, sea currents that seed to surround him, could not be seen, but could be heard clearly, as if Lucivar was at the center of the ocean.
He didn't budge as this invisible sea climbed from his foot level toward his waist level.
Not because he was the Blessed Oracle and wouldn't be hard, but because he already knew.
Earlier, the reason he could wake up despite Loki's suppression was because of this entity.
It was her way of praising Lucivar for cracking the thod on how to awaken her.
Splash!
A loud splash that seed to be caused by a tsunami thundered in his ears, and as he slowly looked up, a presence greeted him. One that couldn't be seen, but could be sensed. Lucivar's eyes narrowed at the massive dragon carrying chaos and destruction with her.
So powerful that even Lucivar, as the Blessed Oracle, could barely see her form.
Lucivar didn't react.
He kept on watching as the last shade of the darkness of the statue in his Inner Chamber faded.
Once it did, a surge of power coursed through his veins.
His energy flow felt full, almost as if the entire sea was pumped into him forcefully, drowning him from the inside, without any sign of stopping. It made him feel breathless—but at the sa ti, relieved, as this would be his new power.
For the third ti, he was changed.
Now, another source of power morphed him into sothing better, sothing more powerful.
And as the power settled inside of him, his Supernatural Ego glowed brilliantly with purple light.
A color that represented chaos.
Lucivar closed his eyes, reveling in this newfound power, and entered the Inner Chamber.
In there, he walked slowly towards the glowing statue.
He watched with his arms crossed until the glow disappeared, revealing the statue hidden behind it.
"A dragon," Lucivar mumbled. "No… the dragon."
Looming in front of him like a massive shadow rose a statue of a dragon, carved from stone and streaked with veins of glowing purple. She bore one head, draconic and crowned with two thorny horns. Both of her eyes were narrow and eternal, beating the birth of ages.
Her colossal wings stretched behind her, flared, casting a shadow heavy with forgotten wars.
Behind her were clouds of purple lumped into one.
Though her bearing was fierce, Lucivar saw through the cryptic line between appearance and intention.
He could interpret the statue differently from others.
Loki's statue was of him sitting on her throne, marking him as the apex of the arcana.
Seth's statue was of him mid-battle, the denomination of himself as the imposing and ruthless divinity.
Both of their statues imply their traits as Gods.
For this statue, Lucivar could tell that the dragon was only acting imposing, but in truth, she was doing more than that. She was protecting sothing. Behind her, the lump of clouds, upon closer inspection, Lucivar could see countless small pairs of eyes, monsters that were hiding inside the clouds.
At first glance, the dragon seed rely imposing—an eternal guardian cast in stone.
But Lucivar sensed there was more to what t the eye—her stance wasn't rely dominant, it was proactive. Behind her, right above her five tails, what first appeared to be a dense, lifeless lump of clouds stirred with quiet intent. As he looked closer, he noticed them.
Countless, glimring eyes, small and sinister, peered from within the mist.
Hidden monsters, watching. Waiting. Shielded by the dragon's formidable presence.
And from that, he knew that the dragon was protecting them.
Lucivar looked down and finally saw the na.
Tiamat, the Great Mother of Monsters.
Rumble!
As soon as he chanted her na, the entire chamber shook violently.
Instinctively, Lucivar looked around the chamber in alert.
His bloodline's innate ability to sense killing intent erupted like a warning siren.
From every single crevice of the chamber walls, countless dark strands—hundreds, thousands, no, even millions—slithered toward him like spectral limbs, carrying otherworldly malice. They reached with a silent intensity, and as they closed in, a deathly chill surged through his veins, turning his blood to ice.
"Now what?"
Lucivar mumbled, sweating profusely at the sight.
Just then, Tiamat's statue humd, halting these dark strands and sending them back to where they ca.
A frown crept to Lucivar's face.
He didn't understand what had just happened.
Gandr slithered from the other side and climbed onto his shoulder, also looking at Tiamat's statue.
"I wouldn't call her na if I were you."
"Again?"
Lucivar was at a loss for words.
It seed all the Gods, other than Loki, were pretty prideful.
"Seth is prideful because he holds himself in high regard—and he's powerful. As for Tiamat, well, it's not exactly her you need to worry about. It wasn't her who doesn't want you to call her by her na, it's her children."
Gandr answered nonchalantly.
A sense of pride could be felt coming from him.
Not because he was proud of Tiamat, but more like he was proud of being the first one to be here in this chamber. He was the senior, and it fell onto his shoulder to explain the other Gods to Lucivar, giving a brief introduction as to who he was really dealing with.
Then, he nudged her chin at the ground underneath his feet.
Lucivar tilted his head down to look and realized that there was a crack right underneath him.
It wasn't there when he ca here, and he was quite sure of it.
"You almost got dragged, but Tiamat scolded them," Gandr continued, explaining the crack. "So, unless you want to open a portal to the Primordial Sea and let the creatures there drag you into its depths, don't say her na out loud. It would be a hassle, even for Tiamat to get you out of there if you get dragged."
"Then what should I call her?"
"Call her Tamtu, that should be fine."
Lucivar looked back at the statue and nodded.
"Now I know why Tamtu liked Nerissa," He murmured with clarity. "Nerissa's desire to protect and the others, along with her bloodline belonging to the Siren Queen, in a way, she's exactly the type Tamtu would want to protect."
"And now, Great Mother wants to revive her."
A voice rang.
Both Lucivar and Gandr turned to the statue's behind—and saw an ember of fire erge from one of Tamtu's five tails, turning into a creature. It took a couple of seconds before it could form, a small purple creature that resembled a dragon.
It was the size of a housecat, the size of Sha in that matter.
Its entire body shimred with a deep violet hue.
Lare, luminous eyes blinked without nace, giving it an oddly endearing presence—despite the very dark aura it exuded. Its wings hovered at its side, unattached by flesh or bone, yet never straying too far away, floating as if suspended by unseen threads of will.
Small claws that seed harmless, and a tail curling in slow, thoughtful loops.
Despite being born of the Primordial Sea, this creature looked more like a sorcerer's curious familiar.
A little too cute for comfort… and perhaps that was the point.
As opposed of introducing this small dragon, Gandr cast a slight nod and disappeared.
Once he did, the small dragon approached Lucivar.
"You're Tamtu's familiar?"
"Oldest son, Sirrush. And unlike Gandr and Sha, you need not be formal with ."
"Hmm, alright then, why are your form so cute, Sirrush?"
Upon hearing this, an angry vein bulged on Sirrush's forehead, but he didn't explode.
"On second thought, be formal with ."
"Struck a nerve? Well, alright. Let's revive Nerissa."
Lucivar exited the Inner Chamber and went back to reality again.
He still saw Tamtu's presence right in front of him, and before he could say anything, Tamtu dived into Nerissa's corpse like an endless torrent of energy. Seeing this, Lucivar sweated a little as he hadn't reminded Tamtu not to change anything about Nerissa.
It would be really bad if Nerissa were resurrected and turned into a monster.
Tamtu is the Great Mother of Monsters, so it was a real concern.
But fortunately, as the purple energy invaded every part of Nerissa's body, nothing seed to change.
A few seconds are all it takes for Nerissa to recover so shade of her color.
She was resurrected, exactly as Lucivar predicted.
'I used Nerissa to awaken Tamtu, yes, but Tamtu was a new player with Loki and Sutekh being present before her, so she must make an impression on ,' He thought, turning around to leave. 'All of them could certainly resurrect mortals from the dead, and with Nerissa being favored, there's no way she'd be left for dead.'
Of course, the opposite could happen.
Tamtu might not want to create an impression.
Instead, she might ask him to prove himself to her first.
In that case, Nerissa would stay dead, and that would be bad.
Lucivar took a gamble.
He gambled with Nerissa's life for the sake of awakening Tamtu, but he won.
Even if in the end he lost, and Nerissa would die for real, he had already accepted that risk.
As he turned around, he stopped, his face remained as cold as ice.
'I tried to minimize the risk as much as possible, to make sure I won the gamble, to make sure Nerissa stayed alive, not for her, but for Delilah's sake. That should still count for sothing, right? You would not be angry at , right?' He clenched his jaw and looked ahead. 'Either way, as long as I win, it does not matter.'
Lucivar walked away.
He stopped by Ravenna, telling her to look out for the others, and went on ahead, tracing the street.
Ravenna stood up and tried calling him, asking where he was going.
But he didn't answer.
…
Once the purple dungeon miraculously disappeared, Sunhold City began to recover.
Hybrids from the Hybrid Association sweep the entire city in case there are more proselytes, and even investigate the crosser energy level in the sky to see whether the purple dungeon was really gone. A lot of Hybrids from other independent cities also ca.
All of them ca rushing the mont the purple dungeon disappeared.
It was a performance, a carnival of two-faced people.
But that wasn't important.
People were relieved that the catastrophe had co to pass, and now, they could step out of the bunkers.
On the other side of the city, back in the stadium, a man could be seen walking inside.
Lucivar walked inside with purpose and headed for his locker room.
Upon reaching there, he imdiately reached for a bag and took out a phone from it.
He flipped the phone and rubbed the rose sticker on the back, sighing inwardly.
Glancing to the chair, he sat down and placed the phone against his ear, calling soone.
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