First Angel Wing

Lucivar took a couple of steps back in surprise.

He was expecting to have at least around 8 to 10, if a talented Hybrid, has at least 10, but he easily surpassed that number. Before him, the ego points were displayed clearly—and with a quick counting, there were 20, in each of the four upper wings, 10 in the four below, and 5 in the last two wings.

It was a spectacular sight, and he couldn't help but smile at this.

"Doesn't this mean I'm super, super, super talented?!" He exclaimed, excitement in his voice.

Not stopping at that, Lucivar saw 20 more appear on the egg's surface.

So in total, he has 150 ego points.

Eventually, the ego points dimmed once again, returning to be invisible to the naked eye.

Despite the ego points already fading—he could still feel his heart pounding hard inside his chest. Lucivar still couldn't believe that he had that many ego points, "Though I have a lot, I can't let that get inside my head. I'm still weak..."

Remembering how Leandra easily dealt with the dog creature, he frowned.

Had Leandra gone ballistic on him, she would've been able to crush him as easily as that.

Calming himself from the excitement within, Luciviar put on a serious expression, before he sat in front of his Supernatural Ego in a meditative position. He channeled his energy, and a small glowing orb instantly appeared at the center of his Supernatural Ego.

It was located right at the center of the egg, and the other 20 ego points also shimmered.

Using the statue as a map, he began to make the six-point sequence.

Only by making the unique six-point sequence could he activate the absorption technique.

Guiding his energy to make the sequence, feel like blowing a marble, through a maze—each pull requiring precision and patience. However, the fight from earlier where he was forced to use his power made forming the sequence easier.

Soon, he completed the six-point sequence of the Versatile Blooming Hyacinth technique.

As Delilah had explained, Hyacinths began to form around his Supernatural Ego.

It was as if it were soil.

Beautiful yellow flowers sprouted, covering nearly the entire statue.

Keeping his energy active, a vessel or a long tube protruded from the top of the statue and it reached, toward the ceiling of the Inner Chamber. Unlike the finger-sized protrusion—Delilah mentioned, his was the size of an arm.

Only when it was connected to the ceiling, did Lucivar pull out of his Inner Chamber.

Lucivar woke up in his room, and he turned to Delilah on the side.

Her eyes lit up with approval when she saw him nodding at her, smiling in success.

Upon seeing this, Delilah quickly handed Lucivar the blue power crystal.

"Now feel the energy inside the crystal—feel its amount, and flow, and think in your head to absorb it all through your fingertips," Delilah instructed, encouraging Lucivar to focus again, and he instantly did as he was told.

Closing his eyes again, yellow roots began to come out of Lucivar's fingertips.

It latched onto the blue power crystal and began to absorb its energy.

"Good, do not rush, absorb it slow, and steady," Delilah continued, paying close attention to the amount of energy Lucivar was absorbing. "Guide the absorbed energy through the tube connected to your Supernatural Ego, and gently swirl it until it blends with your ether"

Several hours had gone by, and Delilah was already sitting on a chair on the side.

Lucivar was already getting the hang of absorbing the energy.

"He's a fast learner..." She mused inwardly. "He should reach 2-star Neophyte shortly,"

On the other hand, Lucivar was absorbing the energy from the crystal quite well, and he was reeling at the sensation of his Supernatural Ego—being forged stronger by the energy. As he continued to draw in the remaining energy, he began feeling a slight discomfort in his back.

It was nothing at first, but that discomfort gradually turned into a burn.

At the start, it started mildly but grew hotter and rapidly became unbearable.

"RAARGGHHK!!!"

Unable to hold back the burning pain, Lucivar screamed, curling backward on the floor.

He felt his back burning as if he was being cooked, his golden ether also went out of control.

Naturally, Delilah rushed to help him, desperate to see what was wrong.

"Lucivar, talk to me, where is the pain coming from?" She asked, rolling Lucivar to face up but this made him scream even louder. Panic, she quickly rolled him, in the opposite direction, "I'll check your Supernatural Ego, but you have to let me in, can you do that?"

As opposed to answering or giving a cue, Lucivar pushed Delilah away instead.

Veins across his body were bulging and throbbing painfully.

Just as Delilah wanted to rush back and calm his rampaging energy, she was shocked to see blood splatter onto her face. Lucivar's skin around his left shoulder blade area abruptly burst open, and his screams intensified.

'It's my bloodline, I think it's reacting to something!' Lucivar pondered inside his head.

Upon realizing that, he feared that Delilah would know about his Angel bloodline.

He didn't want her to know.

"Get out! I want you to get out!" Lucivar yelled, telling Delilah to leave.

Not wanting to leave him in this situation, Delilah wanted to say something but Lucivar's eyes suddenly turned towards her, displaying the glowing golden light in them, "I said get out! I do not want you here! Don't come in until I tell you!"

Feeling compelled, Delilah with her ragged breath left the room and locked the door.

Lucivar felt immense relief when she left the room.

Pressing his forehead against the wooden floor hard while gritting his teeth, he tried to make sense of what was happening. In reflex, he returned to his Inner Chamber—and there he saw that the left top wing of the egg statue was beginning to flare open.

"A- Am I growing my first wing...?" He muttered in aghast as he saw this.

Seeing the wing was slowly flaring, he was sure that was the case.

Gritting his teeth so hard that a couple of his teeth broke to endure the excruciating pain—he crawled toward his Supernatural Ego. As he reached its base and looked up, he was met with a glowing rune on the flaring wing.

He recognized it almost instantly as it was the first rune he had seen in the book.

It was the heavenly rune of Generosity.

Swoosh!

But then, the rune began to change, shifting from a golden glow to a greenish light, morphing into another rune, that Lucivar didn't recognize. Still reeling from the pain—he forcefully went back to reality and scrambled to retrieve the book he had hidden under the bed.

Frantically, he searched for the unknown rune as the pain kept climbing higher.

However, he couldn't read, the pain was already too much.

Even though he had already tasted the pain of almost dying, this one was utterly different.

Suddenly, he was pulled back, into his Inner Chamber, confronted once again by the turning rune that was now shaped like a verdant glowing diamond. Exhausted, sweating—and dizzy from the pain, Lucivar's last vestiges of willpower kept him conscious.

As he watched, the unknown rune began to manifest a levitating green writing near it.

A word in a language he could understand.

Only then did Lucivar realize what the unknown rune was.

The written word was 'Mischief' in deep, green light.

Realizing what the unknown rune meant struck him like a hammer, no Angels has that kind of power, but the weird instances and different paths he took—it was all connected to this new realization.

He was not a normal Angel, his power was not the light—he was corrupted.

At that conclusion, Lucivar endured the pain alone in his room.

It lasted more than five painful minutes, easily the most painful moment throughout his life.

Eventually, like all things, the excruciating pain came to an end, leaving Lucivar drenched in a mixture of sweat and blood. Slowly, the burning sensation faded, but he was already fatigued beyond measure.

Lucivar lay on the floor for several minutes, trying to regain his strength.

He looked at the wall blankly, glad that it was over.

Strugglingly, he pushed himself off the ground but a steaming sound emanated from over his back, causing a sharp sting that forced him to hiss and stop. It was not as painful as before—so it was not that bad.

Managing to stand on both feet, Lucivar looked around the room, now a chaotic mess.

All the furniture was misplaced.

It seemed in the moment of pain, he kicked, grabbed, and tossed everything he could reach.

Stumbling to the mirror in the corner, he looked at his reflection.

Nervous, Lucivar took a deep breath and turned to examine his left shoulder blade, and was surprised at the sight of a grievous tear marring his skin, and a small limb covered in pristine emerald feathers protruded from the wound.

Unlike what he expected, it was only half the length of a finger.

If Lucivar was unsure before, he was sure now that he was indeed an Angel Hybrid.

"Just as I suspected—a wing," He mused in a whisper, inspecting the juvenile appendage. "I feel much stronger than before—probably because I've reached the second-star Neophyte. Does that mean the wing grew as my power increased?"

Earlier, Lucivar had felt that he was nearing a breakthrough as he absorbed the crystal.

Since he was at rock bottom, it was not a surprise he broke through that quickly.

But he didn't expect that his breakthrough would cause this.

A Hybrid would complete their bloodline's characteristics as they grew stronger, but this was too fast—even for the most talented Hybrid. Lucivar was showing characteristics of an Angel too fast, and that was not good.

"How do I hide this now...?" Lucivar muttered inwardly, the wing was also still steaming.

As he was busy inspecting his newly grown wing—fully focused on his new look, Lucivar did not realize that the door handle was twisted—and someone stepped inside. He was startled when a voice greeted him from behind, "L- Lucivar...?"

Instinctually, Lucivar snapped his neck around at the sound of a familiar voice.

His heart skipped a beat, when he saw Delilah, standing in the doorway—her eyes wide with shock as they locked onto the small wing protruding from Lucivar's back. She was extremely worried earlier, and when the painful screams finally receded—she decided to check on him. 

But this was beyond her expectations, she didn't expect Lucivar to be an Angel Hybrid.

Not hesitating, Lucivar's eyes glowed as he dashed at Delilah.

Lucivar grabbed Delilah by the collar, yanked her into the room, and slammed the door shut.

He then proceeded to knock her legs and pin her on the ground, his hand gripping her neck, poised to tear her jugular if needed. Nobody could know his secret, not even Delilah. If word got out, he would be hunted down and killed.

In a burst of emotion, Lucivar looked at Delilah murderously, 'I need to kill her...'