Lord of Annihilation

"Whoa! Careful old geezer, I know you hate me but trying to harm your savior is just plain wrong." A pompous sounding voice teased the old commander.

"You…!" Hearing that voice, the old commander's face was filled with astonishment. He tried to speak, but his throat only managed to eke out a single word.

"Hahaha, seeing that look on your face never gets old. Ahh, I remember that day, when you caught me with your daughter in bed, that shock and anger on your face, it was the same as today. Simply priceless." The youthful voice adopted a reminiscent tone. 

"YOU!!" this time the old commander's eyes flew wide open and became bloodshot. His body radiated with wrath and savageness, seemingly intent of wanting to tear this person to pieces. 

"Oh yeah, speaking of your daughter. How is she doing these days? I haven't had time to visit her after this whole 'Ascension' and whatnot."

"Has she decided to follow this young master and join my harem? I won't mistreat her, ya'know." The voice continued to speak, but the old commander heard nothing of it.

His eyes looked towards the fallacious-looking door composed entirely of pure white light without blinking. It was then, that the voice behind the old commander's hatred finally stepped out.

He was a youth with blue eyes, blond hair, an aquiline nose, and a faintly upturned smile, that teased. Looking at his face, one would find themselves at a loss for words at his handsomeness. 

Wearing a close-fitting white-colored armor, that highlighted his slender body, he carried a thin, sheathed rapier, exquisitely carved on his waist. An aura of purity and holiness overflowed from his body, making him look like a celestial.

His entire person seemed to radiate the 'harmless' and 'heroic' aura, making him seem like the 'Handsome White Knight' that is the object of dreams of many maidens. 

However, the old commander's believed nothing of what he saw. His eyes spewed fire, wanting nothing but to take this youth down with him to the underworld!

In fact, the old commander wasn't alone in his wish. Numerous fathers, husbands, and brothers of the Great Families in the Alliance wanted to do the same thing.

For he is, 'The Debauchee of the Alliance', 'The Wastrel of Mankind', 'The Wife Hunter', 'The Maiden Stealer', the human-shaped Incubus whose dreams were to seduce all of the beautiful women in the world.

"Heir of the White Family, Jack White. Here to save you wonderful gentlemen and beautiful ladies." The youth declared with a smile.

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"I'm here! How bad is the situation?" Alex arrived next to Anya and asked in a grim tone.

Anya sporting a bleak expression shook her head and replied: "Not good. The Formicians have reorganized their lines and are mounting a full-fledged attack."

"Of the thirty, Stage 2 Awakened who entered the battle, only twelve returned. This is after including you and me."

Hearing that Alex's expression turned sour. While he might have some disagreements with the personality and behavior of those awakened humans, they were still a very precious resource on which the Alliance had spent a lot of time and money to develop.

Losing them at the first battle, was very disheartening to hear making Alex worry about the future of Mankind.

'No! We can still win!' He immediately shook his head and banished such pessimistic thoughts.

Turning his head to face Anya, he then asked: "So what's the plan? How are we going to attack?"

Anya gave a dry chuckle and pointed around.

"Look around. Are these men in any condition to mount an attack? Making them fight would simply be sending them to their deaths." 

"But-" Alex tried to retort but had no words to reply.

He raised his head and scanned around the hanger. Indeed, as Anya said, all the soldiers had their heads hung low, some crying in despair. Their hearts and minds had already been broken.

Seeing Alex grow silent, Anya reached out her hand and grabbed onto it. Feeling the warmth flow from his hands, Anya looked into Alex's eyes and spoke with determination.

"Whatever your choice is, I will follow you." Her face then slightly blushed, but her eyes remained unwavering. In a solemn voice, she continued: "In sickness and in health. In life and in death!"

Hearing her confession, Alex's eyes grew warm. Tightly gripping onto her hand, he said.

"We will not die today. I will not allow any of these men here to die today!" he declared.

Anya simply smiled in response but did not save anything. She knew that getting out of here alive, would be impossible.

'At least, I get to die on the battlefield with my lover. I haven't let down the Balliol family name.' she steeled herself.

It was then that an announcement resounded within the Hanger.

{ATTENTION ALL PERSONEL. PLEASE FORM AN ORDERLY QUEUE AND HEAD TOWARDS THE COMMAND CENTER.}

{ ATTENTION ALL PERSONEL. PLEASE FORM AN ORDERLY QUEUE AND HEAD TOWARDS THE COMMAND CENTER.}

Although the AI's announcement was sharp and resounding, many of the soldiers failed to take note of it amidst their wallowing. Their minds had already numbed from despair.

"DID YOU NOT HEAT THAT, IDIOTS?!! GET YOUR ASSES IN LINE AND START MOVING! YOU ARE GETTING RESCUED!!" Jack's soul power enhanced scream tore through the desolate atmosphere.

A white figure suddenly flashed and appeared atop a spaceship hung from the ceiling inside the Hanger.

"MOVE MOVE MOVE! WE DON'T HAVE A LOT OF TIME! WE HAVE TO LEAVE BEFORE THE FORMICIANS GET HERE!!" he screamed once more.

Jack joined both of his palms together and closed his eyes, a gentle look appearing on his face. Looking at him, he resembled a pious believer.

"[Blessing: Courage]!" he softly spoke, when a white light exploded forth from his body, shining upon all the people inside the hanger.

The white light was gentle and holy, falling upon these men and suffusing into them. It was a gentle rain of white light. It was then…

"That's right!"

"We can still live!"

"Quick, quick, start moving. We have to go before the invaders reach us!" 

…that an astonishing thing happened. The previously gloomy and pale-faced soldiers immediately gained a shade of color on their faces. Their hopeless looking eyes, shone with life as they quickly started to move towards the Command Center.

Seeing that they had begun to move, Jack smiled before turning into a white flash once again and disappearing from their sights. 

Alex with his enhanced physique naturally recognized the white-armored figure. Rather than becoming happy, his eyes were filled with confusion and caution.

'How is he here? And when did he advance into Stage 2?' 

Jack White wasn't a member of the Saviors and apart from the Saviors, no other organization should have the correct method and knowledge of the advancement.

Not only that, from the spell that Jack had cast, Alex could faintly feel the depth of his soul power.

'He's a Mid-Level just like me.'

As he was thinking this, Anya had already pulled Alex along and moved along with the crowd.

With a few minutes, they had already appeared within the Command Center, devoid of any Officers. Upon the Commander's platform was a large, flickering door. Actually, rather than call it a door, it would be better to call it a gateway.

A gateway, that led from inside the battlecruiser, into another world!

The soldiers entering this gateway phased from inside the Command Center and appeared on the other side. Alex and Anya followed behind the soldiers and entered the gateway.

Walking through the gateway, the sensation was akin to walking through a gelatinous wall. A formless resistance met their body, which was resisted with pure force. 

Passing through this 'barrier of sorts', Alex felt a cool wind brush against his cheek. Absentmindedly he wiped his cheek, only to suddenly smell the scent of fresh air and green grass.

Appearing inside a temple of sorts, they looked around only to see verdant green fields, a blue sky, and hundreds of human soldiers exiting similar gates, kneeling to the ground while kissing the dirt and crying.

Seeing this scene, Alex and Anya had their minds blanked from shock. They had quite literally, walked through a Teleportation Gate.

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Inside the MedBay.

After hearing the AI's announcement followed by Jack's manual command, the doctors and nurses were first dazed and then joyous beyond words.

They immediately started moving and along with the help of some robots and started to transport the patients. Those whose conditions were a little serious were placed into temporary stasis before being transported.

At one of the corner of the MedBay, lay an unconscious Zaine.

"Be careful with this one. He's an acquaintance of the General." The doctor solemnly instructed the robot helpers before moving elsewhere.

The robots firmly abided by the command and started to carefully transport the floating stretcher, upon which Zaine lied. Moving through the long corridors of the battlecruiser, the robots suddenly paused for a moment reaching an intersection.

Their bodies shook for a moment, before suddenly disjoining from the line and turning to the left. On the wall, before them, a holographic arrow mark pointed towards the right with the words 'Command Center' written above it.

Passing through the long, dim-lit empty corridors, the robots moved further and further away from the human crowd arriving at an empty landing.

Their bodies then shook once more, this time the intensity of shaking being very high. With the sounds of metal scrapping and circuits sparking, they collapsed onto the ground with a trail of black smoke exiting their bodies.

Step, step, step.

Along with the sound of heavy footsteps, a large, thinly-built man shrouded in dark robes arrived before the unconscious Zaine from within the darkness. 

He used a hand-held device and scanned at Zaine's face. After ensuring that there were no problems, he lifted Zaine's body and walked into the darkness once more.

After walking for a couple of minutes, he entered an empty room filled with escape capsules. Approaching a random capsule, he gently placed Zaine into the capsule, before inputting the instructions into the console.

Whoosh!

The mouth of the capsule closed, firmly securing Zaine inside. The robed man gazed once more, at the unconscious Zaine before pressing the button titled 'Eject'.

Fwoop!

The lonely capsule was sent into Outer Space. The man then hurriedly turned around, rushing towards human crowds. While running he removed the robe shrouding his body and carelessly threw it on the ground. 

Underneath the robe was a surprising revelation. The man was wearing an Officer's Uniform with a badge of a Commander pinned onto his chest.

His face shockingly belonged to… Commander Lockhart. 

The Commanding Officer of BS-Lawon.

Joining with the crowds, he calmed his panting breath and softly recited.

"Sors Fides. May you lead us to paradise."