CHAPTER 411: UNDER THE RAIN (1)

That night, as Lucivar spoke with Master Tobias, he couldn’t help but find it strange.

Everything had been unfolding according to his plan perfectly, but Master Tobias had suddenly cast it all aside, chaining himself to Vanessa. All he needed to prioritize was to survive, and the family would be on his back as he wanted.

From then on, he could play smart and make the family hate the Valerius Supreme House.

But instead, he stayed behind and tried to save Vanessa.

For someone who had manipulated the entire family for years, it was odd for him to suddenly do that when his goal was right in front of his eyes. It was rather wasted for him to throw everything he had worked for in the name of a woman he barely knew.

In Lucivar’s eyes, it was rather sudden.

Now he knew that the change didn’t come out of nowhere.

Instead, Bob happened and changed his mind.

Lucivar wasn’t joking when he said he was impressed; he really was.

Out of the entire family, he had a feeling that Bob was the most dangerous, which was why he never really messed with Bob. Had Bob not died in the hands of Master Tobias, things would probably be a lot easier than they are.

Moreover, it wasn’t a simple guess either.

Lucivar was quite sure about how Bob died, as he also noticed another thing.

’Bob certainly coaxed Master Tobias with words since even the blood lance impaling him through his chest, he didn’t even try to block it. Had he done that, there should be scars on his palms from him trying to catch it, but there wasn’t.’ Lucivar glanced at Bob; there was genuine respect behind his eyes. ’Maybe if not for him, Master Tobias would’ve run away and things would get more complicated.’

He smiled inwardly, praising Bob inside before he focused on the others again.

"Like I said, he died doing what he wanted." Lucivar headed for the entrance to the chamber. "I’m going to call the emergency services. I deliberately let Bob’s corpse unattended—so you guys can say your goodbyes, so go on ahead. You’ll have about half an hour."

Upon saying that, Lucivar walked out, taking a phone from his pocket to make a call.

Ravenna wiped her tears and approached Bob along with Nnerissa.

As for Leandra, she looked at Lucivar’s disappearing back with a clear confusion etched on her face.

’That’s not Delilah’s phone. He broke it that night.’ Her brows dipped into a frown. ’Is that a new one? Since when did he use a phone?’

Moments later.

After bidding her goodbye, Leandra walked out, leaving Ravenna and Nerissa behind, who said they were going to stay until the people who would handle the corpse came. She stepped outside and looked up to the sky, finding that it was already cloudy.

"It’s going to rain soon," She mumbled inwardly.

Looking around, she couldn’t find Lucivar anywhere, only the Hybrids who were tasked with a lookout.

"Where’s Lucivar?" Leandra asked, turning to one of them.

"Sir Lucivar?" He repeated, startled to find her talking to him. But he recovered quickly and pointed at the gate. "I think he went outside. He said he was going to make a call, so he’s going to step out—for a bit."

"Thanks." Leandra shot him a faint smile and headed for the gate.

Just as she promised last night, she was going to be more compassionate towards Lucivar.

She wanted to become a place where Lucivar could show his true emotions.

So that he wouldn’t need to bury everything inside.

’I wanted to see how he was doing,’ Leandra thought, suppressing her tight chest from the grief of losing Bob, who was like an older brother to the family. ’He’s not close with Bob, but there’s no harm in asking how he felt. But why am I feeling like this...?’

Leandra wasn’t lying.

She came out to see how Lucivar was doing.

But now she couldn’t help but feel this tugging pull telling her that Lucivar was up to something.

Upon nearing the gate, she stopped when she saw Lucivar through the fence.

As soon as she saw him, the rain started.

The first drop struck her shoulder like a warning tap.

Then another, cool against her arm, followed by a scatter of droplets that pattered on her clothes with a rhythm too deliberate, too persistent to ignore. Through the fence, Leanndra’s gaze fixed on Lucivar’s broad back.

He stood by the sleek black sedan, instead of a phone to his ear as she had assumed.

He was leaning over the car, one hand resting casually on the roof.

His back was turned, broad shoulders shielding the identity of the person inside the car—that he was talking to. The sheen of rain made the glass gleam, and the misty veil of the storm obscured even the faintest outline within.

No matter how much she squinted, the person who sat inside the car remained hidden.

Almost deliberately so, and the secrecy twisted unease deeper into her chest.

As if feeling the weight of her stare, Lucivar shifted. He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes finding hers through the haze. For a heartbeat, it was as though the rain itself ha paused, the steady drumming dulled under the sharp crackle of tension in the air.

He spoke a few more words to the passenger, words swallowed by the hiss of rain.

Then, the tinted window slid shut with quiet finality, and the sedan rolled away.

Lucivar lingered, watching it go, then turned back toward her.

A faint smile touched his lips—enigmatic, unreadable, almost taunting in its calm and utterly unreliable as to what it implied. When he stepped through the fence gate, he carried with him an umbrella that had not been there a moment before.

He unfurled it with a snap, raising it overhead.

Right on time, he hovered the umbrella above Leandra right as the skies broke open in earnest.

The downpour crashed around them in a deafening torrent, yet the umbrella shielded Leandra so perfectly that not a single drop touched her. Across from her, however, Lucivar stood drenched, rain streaming through his clothes.

And still, though the blur and haze of the storm, it was her thoughts that thundered the loudest.

That fleeting glimpse, that secretive exchange—it was the first crack in the mask Lucivar wore.

Or was it only in her mind? Or perhaps it was a deliberate glimpse that Lucivar showed her?

Leandra didn’t know for sure.

It had always been like this.

Even though she could develop an intuition that could detect anytime Lucivar might be making a move to his enigmatic plan through understanding his purpose and reasoning, what truly lies behind Lucivar’s mind will always be a mystery.

Lucivar had sometimes referred to himself as the Devil.

If that was the case, only Gods could read through his mind.

And Leandra was no God.

"If you’re going to stand in the rain, at least cover yourself with ether," Lucivar said.

His eyes were glowing under the shade of the cloudy sky and the umbrella.

In Leandra’s eyes, he looked inhuman right now.

"What about you?" She forced out words after a long pause. "You’re drenched."

"Me? I wanted to be drenched. It felt rejuvenating." Lucivar grabbed her hand gently and handed her the umbrella. Then, he smiled. "Besides, I’m going to throw away these clothes anyway. Might as well get them wet."

"Throw them away, why?"

"Just to tie loose ends."

Lucivar strode back towards the warehouse.

One might think that he was going back inside to shelter from the rain, but Leandra knew better.

She couldn’t really understand how this happened, but right now, she could see it—the sizzling haze that Lucivar was emanating. The naked eye couldn’t see it as the haze wasn’t ether or any other kind of energy.

It was bloodlust, the intent to kill, the desire for malice.

Lucivar stopped a good space away from the warehouse, chest opened, staring at the Hybrids who were now also looking at him curiously. All of them thought Lucivar had another task for them, but the truth? It was the other way around.

Guarding the warehouse would be the last task in their lives.

Under Leandra’s gaze, Lucivar’s hand stretched forward and grasped nothing but thin air.

Then, surprising the onlookers, he dragged something from a dimension unknown to man.

A small tear was torn in the fabric of the dimension, and from it, bronze splashes of energy emerged.

Lucivar dragged his hand and pulled out a black sword from that unknown dimension, one that made Leandra’s heart skip a beat and her breath stuck in her throat as the sword was the one that Lucivar used to stab her with.

It was a divine weapon—a Divine Armament.

One that belonged to Sutekh, Lord of the Red Sand.

"I’m grateful for your help," Lucivar announced, swiping the sword to the side—the blade was so sharp that it made a whistling sound as it cut through the air. "But do understand, everything here is extremely classified."

Hearing this, the Hybrids’ faces turned pale as they shuddered at Lucivar’s horrifying presence.

Before any of them could react, Lucivar blurred and vanished from his spot.

The following scene was something that shocked Leandra to her core.

Leandra’s pupils quivered as the scene unfolded before her eyes.

The Hybrids knew death had come for them, Lucivar made it clear—the dread clung to their breaths, heavy and suffocating—but Lucivar moved faster than thought, faster than a heartbeat. He didn’t pull back anything and exerted his strength to the maximum.

Leandra’s gaze turned to the right, catching the crimson arc of blood slicing through the rain-heavy air.

Two Hybrids collapsed mid-scream, their torsos torn from their legs in a grotesque instant. Their agony rang out, raw and guttural, but the pouring rain swallowed every note. Even if someone stood just by the gate, they would hear nothing but the relentless hammering of rain.

It was as though the world itself had conspired with Lucivar, setting the sky, the storm, and the silence as the perfect stage for slaughter. Like he was the king of the world, and the world listened to every decree he made.

A pair of Fire Mage Hybrids flared in desperation, blasting themselves skyward on bursts of flame.

Both went in two opposite directions, too, forcing Lucivar to choose one.

For the briefest heartbeat, it looked as though they had escaped.

Then, a blur appeared beneath them, indistinct in the haze of rainfall, and with nothing more than a snap of its fingers, their bodies ruptured into showers of flesh suddenly as the air concentrated with a massive amount of ether, pulling them in, before exploding.

Blood and meat rained down, only to be erased in seconds by the downpour, washed away like trash.

Like the earth itself refused to remember them.