Lord of Annihilation

BANG!

The control room inside the Expedition-1 intensely shook, due to the heavy impact of the vessel on a crystalized ice wall. Large chunks of ice fell atop the vessel with the speed of the spaceship decreasing.

"Engage the reverse thrusters. Output at 30%. Fire.....now." Lucius calmly instructed the ship's AI while manoeuvering the spaceship.

"Adjust the Anti-Gravity thruster's angle to 32°. Cut off the excess power at...." instructions continued to flow from his mouth, as the trembling of the vessel slowly subsided.

Through the window, Lucius could only view a vast expanse of white. The mountains, the skies, the lands, all of his surroundings had merged to form a single entity. Minutes passed in trepidation before the shaking of the spaceship finally came to a stop. 

Under Lucius' meticulous control, he stabilized the moment of the spaceship and made it hover in its current place. Dull thuds sounded out every few seconds, as large chunks of nice feel atop the spaceship's exterior.

"Scan for damages." Lucius indifferently commanded.

{Scannig... Damages found.}

{Exterior Hull: 33% damages detected.}

{Main Thruster(Left): 16% damages detected.}

{Main thruster(Right): 23% damages detected.}

{Note: No serious damages found. Light maintenance required.}

Reading the result of the scan, Lucius' tense heart relaxed.

'That was dangerous.' he thought inwardly.

While Lucius had been very careful during the descent, his vision of the surrounding environment was very limited. The scans of the ship's AI kept getting interfered with due to some unknown reason. Only being able to view through the front window of the spaceship, it was only a matter of time before he hit something.

And hit something, he did.

"Let's descend" Lucius spoke as he inputted a few commands into the ship's AI.

After ensuring that everything was in proper order, he rose from his seat and walked towards the main exit hatch. Olivia who had been waiting for him to speak followed.

Making it to the main exit hatch, Lucius spoke another command to the ship's AI.

"Maintain altitude. Open the exit hatch."

{Maintaining Altitude...Opening Exit Hatch..}

As soon as the AI's voice fell, the enclosed metal in front of his eyes, slowing opened. 

A blast of icy air immediately invaded the interiors of the spaceship. Icicles started to grow on the various metal components at a visible rate and whiteness started to spread within the spaceship.

Feeling the temperature drop around him by a great degree, Lucius started to circulate his soul power faster. With the movement of the stream of black energy within his body, the chillness receded.

Walking to the edge of the spaceship, Lucius looked out and observed his surroundings. Visibility was a little better, as Lucius scanned his surroundings for signs of danger. 

Measuring the distance to the ground with his eyes, Lucius estimated that they were currently floating 15m off the ground. The crash into the large ice glacier had unexpectedly brought them into an ice cave, the walls of which Lucius could now see.

The walls of this ice cave radiated with a faint icy-light blue. It was the only source of illumination in this otherwise dark room. Although not as bright as sunlight, it still performed its task of shedding light.

On the roof, a large hole was present with the cold blizzard leaking into the cave. The sounds of wind whooshing and snow falling were symphonious in the background.

Apart from the ice and cold, nothing was present

After intensely observing for a few more moments, he finally concluded that no danger was present. As such, Lucius instructed once again.

"Enable Power-saver mode. Continue current altitude and hover. Sync GPS with my watch." `

{Power-save mode enabled. Syncing with your watch... done!}

Having done that, Lucius directly jumped out of the spaceship. A height of 15m is approximately equal to the height of a 5 storied building. While a jump from such a height could seriously injure or maybe even kill a normal person. For a Stage 1 organism, it wasn't worth mention.

As such, Lucius smoothly landed on the ground. During his descent, he had even controlled his soul power and had it gather at the bottom of his feet. Detonating the gathered energy at the last moment, he effectively canceled his force. 

Not a single flake of snow was disturbed during the entire process. 

'Show off.' Ka'lor'ah spoke within Lucius' mind.

Lucius did not bother replying. While it may seem like he was showing off, Lucius was actually testing the result of his training for the past month.

With the advancement in his soul cultivation, not to mention the fact that his soul had changed in the process, Lucius had to relearn the process of controlling it from scratch. After receiving the [Annihilator] soul, the quality and properties of his soul power had undergone a complete change. Such being the case, Lucius had to forget his previous method of controlling and retrain.

To give an analogy, imagine two cars with Lucius being the driver. His [Killer] soul can be represented with a normal car and the [Annihilator] soul is equal to a sports car.

Although the concept behind the control of both the cars remained the same, the actual process itself was completely different. They had different reaction times, different peak speeds, different rates of flows, etc.

Getting back to the story, just as Lucius was musing his next set of actions, the sound of the sudden impact was heard behind him. A dull thud reminiscent of a heavy object falling on soft ground was heard.

Turning his head, he saw a human-shaped hole on the snow and a red-faced Olivia climbing out of it.

"Pathetic." he curtly said before removing the crystal from his pocket.

"Which direction does 'it' lay in?" he questioned Ka'lor'ah. 

Ka'lor'ah gave a slight hum in affirmation. The dark-gold crystal atop Lucius' palms, gently flew into the air and began to hover. Intermittent flashes of dim and bright, golden light flickered from the crystal.

Minutes passed within the icy cave. with only the sounds of the blizzard and the breaths of two humanoids being present. The temperature within the cave continued to drop, with more snow falling in through the roof of that cave.

Having nothing to do, Olivia silently distanced herself from Lucius and started to explore the interiors of the cave. Such a fantasy-like adventure was a first for her and her innate curiosity made her explore.

After what seemed like an eternity, Ka'lor'ah's voice finally sounded out.

"Found it. It's.....underneath us?" she sounded unsure of her answer.

"Underneath us?" Lucius furrowed his brows. "Do we have to dig?" he continued.

"Yes.... but this doesn't seem right?!" she exclaimed.

"What?"

"I can vaguely feel the presence of the Catacombs, but... it's a few thousand feet beneath us. We can't dig through that!"

Hearing her answer, Lucius remained silent, seemingly in deep thought.

"Are you sure about your detection? Is there no interference?" after a few moments, Lucius questioned.

"I'm using 'its' Causality to sense it. There is no way to interfere with my detection." Her body shook itself, as she denied his doubts.

'Was it a mistake in coming here?' Lucius pondered.

Well, there was no point in regretting his decision now. He had chosen to come to this planet and had even found the object of his seeking. Regrettably, he could not get to it.

Just as Lucius had decided to get on the spaceship and go to another planet, Olivia's voice resounded.

"Lucius! I found weird writings here!" her voice echoed inside this icy cave.

'Writings?' Lucius' interest was invoked.

Kicking off the ground, he instantly neared Olivia's location. On the wall in front of her was a small crack, with a passage that led into this glacier. From the way it was positioned, Lucius was not able to detect it from his previous location due to a rock-face that stood adjacent to this crack.

Towards the left of this crack, were characters carved into the ice wall. Fluid and smooth curves, decorated with lines and dots combined to form beautiful writing. It was written in an unknown tongue, which radiated a sense of ancientness. 

Ka'lor'ah who hovered next to Lucius immediately identified this language.

"It's Primeval Tongue!" she exclaimed.

Primeval Tongue was a language that was common during the time of the previous 'Order of Lords', commonly called an 'era'. To reiterate, 'Primeval Tongue' was the universal language of the previous era.

With the fall of the previous 'Order of Lords' and the eventual reset of all Cause and Effect in the Universe, this language was also lost in history. Records of it belonged only to the most primordial of races or to the survivors of the previous era. 

Due to the nature of Ka'lor'ah's race being very special, she was one of the holders of a complete record of 'Primeval Tongue.' As such the next part was easy.

-Warriors of yore, slumber within these sacred lands. Disturb and perish!-

"Wow, people still talk like that? It sounds very lame. It isn't even a decent warning." Ka'lor'ah remarked.

"Well, from those words, we can confirm that this is indeed the place of the 'Catacombs'. Looks like we don't need to dig the ground anymore. Nicely spotted, Olivia." She appreciated.

"Onward," Lucius ordered before entering into the crack on the icy wall. 

As for the danger that lay within, he was willing to take a risk. After all, risk coexisted with opportunity.