Lord of Annihilation

The Universe.

It is a boundless expanse that contains everything within its vast sea of stars. To travel and tame this expanse has always been one of Mankind's greatest wishes. 

'To be its one and only ruler.' is a dream that had been inherited from times immemorial. While the wish seemed to be ostentatious and lacking in reality, it was something that was deemed quite possible when they entered the IE- Interstellar Exploration era.

A wish that their predecessors had deemed to be impossible was met with great success in this era. Glory belonged to all of humankind.

Mankind explored the uncharted. 

Tamed the untamed. 

Discovered treasures beyond its wildest imaginations. 

And recorded sights that are too incredible to describe with words.

It is truly the era of Man.

If one was born in the Earth Alliance anytime within the past hundred years, the above lines were part of every citizen's basic education. The Earth Alliance spared no effort on propaganda; spreading words about Mankind's greatness and the glory of humans.

However, if these lines were to be spoken to any of the other species within the 'Universe', they would simply scoff at the speaker and ignore him.

The 'real' Universe was impossibly large and was filled with an innumerable number of species. It was so large and chaotic that even the Primordial Races such as the Heavenly Sovereigns and the Abyssal Rulers; races that have existed since times immemorial, wouldn't dare to boast of such ambitions.

There are sayings that go: 'Ignorance is Bliss' or 'A frog in a well, wouldn't understand the vastness of the skies'. Mankind's situation could be summarized with these.

The total area explored by Mankind, constituted for less than 0.01% of total area covered by the Universe.

The so-called Frontier Planets, which Mankind had deemed to be the situated at the 'end' of the known universe, in actuality wasn't even within the real Universe's realm of influence. This area was considered to be too poor in resources and as a result of which ignored.

Pectron, which Lucius and Olivia were currently at, was itself considered a 'backward' planet situated at the edges of the Universe. However, compared to Mankind's 'known universe', Pectron was at the very least recognized by the others.

To explain Mankind's division of the known universe, imagine a target board with concentric circles. (The kind used for archery, with a yellow centre, followed by rings of red, blue, black and white.)

The 'white ring' constituted of what Mankind calls the Frontier. This area was still in the process of exploration and contained many exotic and valuable resources. It was lost by Mankind, right after the Ascension.

The Frontier was also the region that lied closest to the 'real' Universe. Using hyperdrive, it would take a ship 8 months to reach Pectron. Deatov and Fortun lied in the Frontier. 

Followed by the 'white ring', was the 'black ring' which constituted of the Outer-Rim. Mankind had already expanded into this region and possessed moderate amounts of development. It was also the region where Alex was currently battling in.

The Outer-Rim was the region where the invaders had arrived into. The Formicians had already occupied a majority of the Outer-Rim, effectively encircling Mankind.

Going further inward was the Middle-Rim or the 'blue ring' on the target board. The Middle Rim was where the majority of Mankind's 'working class' resided in and contained the majority of the human population. 

It was in the Middle-Rim, where Lucius and Olivia lived and were raised from childhood. They had left the Middle-Rim to travel inward to attend the Earth Alliance Academy, in Mankind's homeworld Earth.

The 'red ring' was the Inner-Rim, also called the business and upper-class sector of the Alliance. An approximate 30% of humanity lives here, most of who are the 'white-collared' workers. 

The Alliance HQ and many of the Alliance's families homeground, lies in the Inner-Rim. The Inner-Rim was also the capital of the Alliance.

At the very centre of the target board is the 'yellow centre', or in Mankind's case, the Core Region, also called the Galactic Centre!

It was In the Galactic Center constituted of only Earth and the original solar system. Its area was tiny in comparison to the other regions, but was one of incomparable importance.

It was a place of heritage and the region, where the 'rich' lived their noble lives in. The Earth Alliance Academy established here is the first and oldest branch to exist, the place where our main characters studied in.

This was the classification of Mankind's occupied regions and the general makeup of the Alliance's territories.

Seeing how the Alliance's territories have been distributed, it could be assumed that the invaders have already boxed Mankind in.

Losing the Outer-Rim has turn Mankind into a prey that has been cornered. The Formicians would have to aggressively push inwards to concur and destroy, whereas Mankind would have no choice but to passively defend the invasion.

The moment Mankind lost the first and second battle with the Formicians, their outcome had already been decided.

Defend in the hopes of destroying the enemy. Mankind had lost the initiative.

Thinking along such lines, it was natural why the Alliance had decided to forsake the Outer-Rim and shift the frontlines. 

Rather than dump resources into a territory that was dominated by the enemy, they would rather invest it into their own creating an infallible defense. Rather than going to the enemy, they would wait for the enemy to come to them.

Was it too passive? Lacking in aggression? 

Yes! But for a race that had remained uncontested for a long period of time and considered themselves to be the most intelligent, such was their instinctive choice.

Mankind had already lost its edge. Its previously hot, warring blood had turned cold. Their arrogance had blinded them from seeing the truth.

And this was why, Mankind was fated to fail.

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With the inky darkness of space serving as the backdrop, two sides were having a standoff. 

On one side, we had Mankind. 

Three Battlecruisers formed the majority of their remaining forces in the frontline, behind which stood one Planetary-Class Weapon, a few dozen support ships. A few hundred single-man space shuttles along with a thousand space-type mechs were all that remained of the common soldier.

Their formation was shaped like a bucket, with the 'bottom' and 'sides' consisting of the three battlecruisers that served both as the base and shield. Protected inside this bucket were the singular Planetary-Class and the dozens of supply and support ships. 

The space shuttles and mechs filled the remaining gaps and adopted a classic, 45-men squadron formation. 

The entire formation constantly moved, rather than remaining stationary. However, instead of progressing forward, humanity's forces constantly retreated. Orders had arrived from the Alliance to retreat as soon as possible. 

The Outer-Rim was already lost.

Facing this retreating, low-morale army was…what could be considered a golden 'mist'.

Unlike the solidarity that the human battlecruisers possessed, the golden mist seemed weak and illusory, but was omnipresent and firmly surrounded the human forces.

Innumerable golden dots formed a dense swarm. They mainly consisted of the Golden-Mech Warrior, Formician Space Warriors, the sparsely spread golden boat-like vessels which held the commander, and a large, spherical ship whose purpose in the enemy lines was unknown.

If one had to talk about their numbers, it would easily surpass one million. In other words, Mankind was facing more than a million Stage 2 beings!

A mind-numbing amount of power.

Of course, each and every invader could not be compared to a traditional Stage 2 being. 

While they could use soul power, their function in battle was usually determined. They did not possess the adaptability of intelligent beings.

For example, the Golden-Mech Warrior was a pure close-combat fighter. They possessed no long-range attacks, with their main attack patterns being fixed and unchanging.

The Formicians sitting in the golden boats were Command-Type Thinkers. They were suited only for leading the Warriors and possessed very little combat ability

Bo'larks, who had fought Alex, was also of this type.

Apart from the Thinker and the Warriors, the majority of this golden swarm consisted of the Worker Type Formicians. Their numbers were the greatest at almost 500,000 present in the battlefield.

Although, Workers were also Stage 2 beings, they possessed little to no combat ability. In fact, they were so weak that a normal, unawakened human soldier could face a dozen of them singlehandedly with the support of a mech.

The tension on both sides was at an all-time high, with one side planning to run away and the other planning to destroy and scavenge their resources.

With a little push, the third battle between Mankind and the Formicians would start. And this push came in the form of a small, human group.

"This is the range of our communicators. Any more and the enemies disruptors will affect us." Alex explained to the group of awakened humans.

The team was approximately 1000m away from the lead battlecruiser. The Formician had used a strange interference device that restricted human comms. This was the reason, Zaine was unable to request backup when his team was ambushed.

As for the team of awakened humans, the confidence and disdain that they previously showed had disappeared. Facing the swarm-like Formicians, their faces were pale and their eyes were filled with panic

With a serious expression filling his face, Alex raised both his hands and quietly chanted. His blood-red eyes stared at the Formician swarm with absolute calmness.

"To start us off." He slowly spoke.

"[Flame Sweep]!"