Loki's Trial (1)

Lucivar sprung from bed, startled by a loud crash that assaulted his eardrums.

Glancing to the side—he frowned, "Hmm...? Where are the others?" He asked inwardly seeing that the others were not on the bed with him. Confused about the situation, another crashing sound resounded from outside, pulling his attention. 

Before he could react, a violent impact sent him crashing to the opposite wall behind him and slid down to the floor as the window beside the bed shattered—along with part of the wall. A steel pipe had speared through the room, embedding itself in the ceiling.

Fortunately, no one had been near the window.

If someone had then they would've been gruesomely impaled by the steel pipe.

Lucivar looked over to the shattered wall—eyes wide with shock. Carefully, he moved across the bed and peered through the massive and jagged opening on the wall. The street outside was eerily empty, the early morning darkness still clinging to the air.

"Where is everyone...?" He muttered to himself.

The commotion should've woken the entire neighborhood, yet not a single soul was seen.

Shifting his gaze to the side, Lucivar's heart lurched instantly.

He saw a wave of green energy barreling toward him with terrifying speed, and he barely had time to tilt his head, and duck, the force of the impact sending him hurtling, through the air. It was sudden, and he realized now that he was falling.

"Argghh!" Lucivar hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

Even though he fell straight from the second floor, he was fine, the pain was minuscule.

"Something is wrong," He mused as he climbed to his feet again.

Naturally—the first thing that came to mind was that the town guards knew what he did and were now apprehending him. But there was no one around. Lucivar looked in the direction of the attack, and he saw a figure standing in the middle of the deserted street.

"Isn't that..." Lucivar frowned, he recognized the figure. "No, that can't be. It's not possible"

Upon seeing this figure, Lucivar's heart pounded as he leaped over the fence.

His eyes locked on the mysterious form.

As he stepped into the center of the street, right across the figure, the figure's details became clearer, and his eyes widened in disbelief. He wasn't mistaken, the figure was exactly who he thought, "D... Delilah?" He whispered, his voice trembling in shock.

Delilah stood before him, dressed in the same clothes she wore when she died.

Even the torn fabric at the center of her chest was there.

But there was no gaping wound there, it was as if she had never died in the first place.

Her expression was so cold, it was unlike the Delilah Lucivar knew, he did not even know that she could wear such a mask. Soon, Lucivar shook his head, dispelling his shock, and focused on the greenish energy enveloping her from head to toe like a shroud.

Despite the sight rekindled his hope that she might not be dead, he needed to think straight.

He saw Delilah die with his own two eyes.

Moreover, the green energy was familiar to Lucivar, and it was not Delilah's power.

"It felt the same as the green sphere, Loki's power..." Lucivar muttered and squinted his eyes, realizing that this might be a ploy, from the bloodline within him. He knew from Mirel, that the bloodline of a Hybrid could grant skills through various means.

Some could instantly know and use the skill and some only know and need to train to use it.

Other versions of this skill bestowal exists and this was definitely one of them.

"The God of Trickster... this must be a test I need to pass to obtain his skill" Lucivar nodded.

Lucivar's attention snapped back to Delilah as she made her move.

Making a fierce stomp—she launched herself toward him, her hand crackling with a vicious surge of energy. Lucivar barely leaped back in time as she struck the ground where he had stood, leaving a deep fissure that made him swallow hard.

'One punch and I'll definitely be killed!' He exclaimed inside his head.

Seeing what the force of Delilah's punch did to the earth, his bones would've been shattered, and even outright kill him. Gritting his teeth, Lucivar spun around and sprinted in the opposite direction, with Delilah close on his heels.

Knowing this was a test, Lucivar frantically scanned his surroundings for anything.

A clue or anything that could help him pass this test.

If Loki had indeed orchestrated this as a test, there had to be a way out. But, a small part of Luicvar could not shake the nagging doubt that Loki might be doing this purely for the cruel thrill of watching him struggle with a challenge that had no solution.

Still, there was no other choice—fighting Delilah head-on would be suicide.

As he glanced over his shoulder, he slightly felt relieved.

Although Delilah possessed ridiculous strength, she wasn't impossibly fast, just a little faster than him. That—at least, he could manage. Rolling to the side, Lucivar avoided another blow, only to have his back slam into a wooden fence.

Regaining his composure, he raised his gaze to look at Delilah but was stuck elsewhere.

His eyes caught a glimpse of something glowing green in a second-floor window across the street. Something is in that room—and it might be something he needed but he had no time to investigate.

Looking to his left, he saw a few heavy boxes began to tremble.

Lucivar soon realized that it was Delilah's doings.

In the next moment, the boxes flew at him with deadly force.

Since there was no time to get out of the way, Lucivar channeled his ether and punched the first box and parried the rest. He made a rough defense that worked—and quickly leaped as Delilah charged past him, crashing into a tavern.

Making use of this chance, Lucivar climbed the house across the street.

He opened the window forcefully and entered inside, only to find a man was there.

But the man was emanating this green light, and Lucivar could feel that something within him was reacting. Following his instinct, he approached the man with quick steps as the man was crawling back in fear.

"Don't come closer! Please... go away!" the man pleaded, tears welling in his eyes.

Even then, Lucivar didn't stop and squatted in front of the man.

Lucivar reached out his hand to grab the man's wrist but out of nowhere, the man smiled in a devious manner when he saw Lucivar was near. The man took out a knife and tried to kill him by stabbing him in the neck, but Lucivar caught that.

From the incident with the proselyte before, he had already learned to always be ready.

And now, the man's sudden move didn't surprise Lucivar.

Swiftly, Lucivar knocked the knife out of the man's hand—gripping his wrist, with an ironclad hold. As he did, he felt something unusual—coalescing energy, ether, within the man. On top of that, Lucivar felt like he could control it too.

Trusting his instincts, Lucivar began to draw the ether from man in a steady stream.

His instinct began to create a fifteen-point sequence, activating the ego points within him.

As opposed to costing ether, doing this only strained his physique.

To Lucivar's surprise, the man showed no signs of pain, only mild discomfort.

Glancing down at his hand, he saw the man's ether pulled, and seeped into his skin—and as the process continued, Lucivar felt no changes at all. He didn't feel any increase in power as he did this.

It was as if the energy was being transferred without effect.

He kept doing this until the man's body dissipated into nothingness, evaporating like mist.

But as soon as that happened, Lucivar heard a piercing howl echoing from outside, a cry that sent a shiver down his spine, followed by a thudding sound. Pivoting around quickly—Lucivar saw that Delilah was already in the room with him.

Her eyes were staring at him murderously with a surge of energy sparkling in them.

Lucivar gulped as he had nowhere else to go, trapped here in this room.

Seeing that Delilah was poised to strike, Lucivar gritted his teeth to make his stand here.

Channeling his ether into his arm to empower his punch—his eye flared open when he felt another pool of ether—that he could take energy from within him. All ether came from the Supernatural Ego, and this came from there too, but its source was different.

'This didn't come from the egg statue, this came from Loki's statue!' Lucivar pondered.

At that realization, Delilah struck, making a savage swing towards him.

In retaliation, Lucivar did the same and met her fist head-on, pouring everything he could.

Boom!

Both of their fists collided, and Lucivar instantly coughed a mouthful of blood as the bones in his knuckles cracked, and shattered. It was clear that his strength was not on the same level, as Delilah.

Despite the excruciating pain, he tried to fight back.

Just then, he felt the same sensation he felt when he touched the man earlier within Delilah.

Pushed to the corner, Lucivar did the same exact thing.

He siphoned Delilah's ether, claiming it as his own.

And with that accumulated energy he channeled it into his fist, creating a sudden swirl of his golden power around it. In the next instant, the point of impact between their fists erupted in a violent explosion.

Kaboom!

Lucivar breathed heavily, his right fist was in a mangle of dangling flesh.

Gazing ahead, he found that he was still rooted in his spot, while Delilah was nowhere to be seen. He looked at his fist in shock, "This... I think this is my first skill. I could absorb others' energy and use it for myself. Wait... isn't that what I did against the Fire Primordial?"

Thinking back to that moment, he remembered being able to deflect the fireballs it threw.

Moreover, he could even corrupt its fire and turn it green.

Though he didn't know the exact usage, this skill must've been what he had used back then.

Feeling the remaining absorbed energy within him, separate from his ether, he found that there was still some remaining. Drawing upon that energy—a green energy appeared and swirled on his hand.

Surprisingly, Lucivar saw that the energy was mending his mangled fist.

In a few seconds, the energy healed his fist to normal.

"Not only could it enhance my ether, but it could also heal my wounds. This energy is really strong, a versatile energy..." Lucivar muttered in shock, he was mesmerized by this energy, the energy from his newly acquired skill.

Healing his fist used the remaining energy, and the green swirl disappeared.

Focusing back on the situation, Lucivar looked around with a frown.

"I already learned the skill, but the test is still not over? What's more to this?" He mused—and leaped, and landed on the street again. A few paces to his left was the supposed Delilah, she was badly wounded.

Clenching his jaw, he approached Delilah, expecting that he would need to kill her.

Just then, however, he was greeted by another surprise.

A surprise that it wasn't Delilah who lay on the street, but another person instead.