Lord of Annihilation

Nodding his head calmly, Lucius replied.

"I'm fine now." He shrugged, dusting off his clothes.

"What the heck happened? Why did you soul and void energies suddenly go berserk?" asked with concern. She felt a little troubled by Lucius' nonchalant attitude. 

"The conflict of energies was the result of a hidden injury that I had sustained some time back." Done dusting his clothes, Lucius calmly explained.

"In the fight against the Bertarian squad, the usage of [State of Devour] had overdrawn the bloodline of the Void Eater. After the fight, I was unable to use my racial abilities for some time."

"At that time, I hadn't thought much of this and shook it off as a side-effect of drawing too much power and exhausting my body. However, when my abilities returned a few weeks back, I noticed that their powers had significantly increased."

"Here is where the issue lied; some amounts of the Void Eater's primal instincts had actually polluted my mindspace. A large mass of black-colored energy, containing pure savagery and madness was trying to alter my consciousness."

"The mindspace being the domain of the soul, my soul instinctively counter-attacked. However, what was unexpected was that, instead of chasing the mass of foul energy away, the soul tried to completely destroy it."

"The mass of energy was the essence of the Void Eater bloodline. If it is destroyed my body would wither, which would result in me dying."

"Such a result is of course, intolerable. Without any method to stop this conflict, I could only watch on and wait until you woke up."

"Here comes the second issue. Soul power will be automatically replenished with the passage of time. Void energy, however, requires me to devour things, in order to replenish it."

"That is why, I came to the Dark Shade Forest to hunt and devour, in order to maintain the balance between the soul power and the void energy."

"Any lack or excess of either of those energies would result in this delicate balance being broken and result in my death. Over these last 3 months, I have been hunting and devouring to replenish the deficit while taking away the excess."

"What was unexpected was that your evolution stirred the natural energy around this area, which in turn agitated the two energies within me. This caused them to suddenly go berserk and go for a final attack."

"That is what happened. Fortunately, your spell seemed to have solved the issue. Thank you." Lucius performed a perfunctory bow. 

He then sat down cross-legged and started to recover his soul power, being completely unbothered by his near-death experience.

Hearing the lengthy-expression, the crystal lightly shook, while alternating with brightness and dimness. Ka'lor'ah found herself at a loss for words.

Lucius' tone and expression during his explanation were neutral. His explanation almost sounded as if he was describing someone else's situation and not his own.

'This guy...' looking at Lucius' expressionless face, she sighed to herself and did not think further.

To others, obtaining a second chance to live their lives meant making up for the regrets of their past life, or perhaps, achieving a goal that they had failed to in their previous life. 

They would strive to live their lives to the fullest while treasuring every single second.

Many did it for the sake of seeking revenge. Some strived for fame, others tried to become the strongest existence in the world. A few, even strived for eternal life, seeking to become immortal.

Lucius, however, was none of these people.

He had no desires or wishes, was indifferent to fame and fortune, and sought to neither become the strongest nor become immortal.

He simply wanted to execute his plan. 

And his plan was… to make this Universe free from the control of the Lords. 

To escape from the bindings of 'Their' wills and to truly become 'free'. 

Nothing is truly free in this Universe. Even in death, one's soul returns to the Beyond, before being used to create a new life. 

Each and every single living being is bound by invisible constraints that dictate and manipulate their pasts, presents, and futures, influencing each of their actions.

This restriction is called by many names; Destiny, Fate, Chance…In its essence, however, it is but a form of binding. 

The restriction of freedom.

And to escape from this control was his objective.

This was his sole purpose for living and growing in strength each day. This was the goal, for which he would not hesitate to sacrifice anything and everything. 

Even if the price was his own life.

And being another who shared this goal with him, Ka'lor'ah knew that nothing she could say otherwise would stop his almost suicidal struggle.

'A little at a time. I can only try to convince him to care more for himself, a little at a time.' 

----------

Almost an hour passed before Lucius finally stopped his meditation. With the help of Ka'lor'ah's spell, he had finally stabilized the disharmony and dissonance between his body and soul and resolved the hidden problems.

"Are you finished recovering?" Ka'lor'ah softly asked, to which Lucius nodded his head.

"Finally, I was starting to get creeped out by this forest. Let's start moving!" exhaling a sigh of relief, Ka'lor'ah cheerfully stated.

"So what's our game plan? Now that you have resolved your problems, are we staying here or…?" Ka'lor'ah asked.

Lucius had originally come to the Dark Shade Forest to devour the living things inside, replenish the energies in his body while waiting for Ka'lor'ah to wake up. 

Now that his main purpose was completed, Lucius started to ponder his subsequent actions.

"We should continue staying here. I had some enlightenment on the conditions for my advancement, staying here to battle would perhaps provide me with the opportunity." Lucius stated.

"Though so, you battle-freak. I can only hope that my second disciple isn't like you," Ka'lor'ah shook her 'head', "That poor little girl whose pure heart was tainted by your twisted world view." She jested.

Ignoring her words, Lucius prepared to move in search of Wild Beasts to kill.

However, Ka'lor'ah suddenly interrupted: "Wait a second!" 

"What?" Lucius turned around and asked the floating crystal.

After her evolution, Ka'lor'ah was able to use the natural spiritual energy of the world to sustain herself. She was no longer strictly reliant on Lucius' soul power, thus allowing her to move around more freely. 

"Oh oh oh, aren't you interested in my 'newly' unlocked abilities?" Ka'lor'ah spoke in a mysterious tone, containing a hint of gloating.

"Not really." Lucius shook his head and curtly replied. He then started to move once more.

"Hehe, of course, I'll tell….wait what?" Ka'lor'ah started off with a pleased tone, only to hear Lucius' curt reply. 

Seeing his complete disinterest in her, Ka'lor'ah stiffened with shock. Seeing him heartlessly turn around and abandon her, Ka'lor'ah finally moved.

"WAIT, DON'T GO!" she flew at full speed and arrived before Lucius' body, blocking.

"Jeez, wait for a second!" she complained, her tone filled with resentment.

"Stop wasting time." Lucius cruelly replied.

Ka'lor'ah seemed to grow angry at his response. With a grumpy voice, she heartlessly exposed him.

"Do you know where you currently are inside the forest?"

Silence.

"Did you bring a map, detailing the location and terrain of this forest?"

Silence.

"Did you at least leave some sort of marking to find your way out of this forest?"

Silence.

"Hehe, you have no idea which portion of the forest you are in, right? In other words, you're lost, aren't ya?" Ka'lor'ah smugly concluded.

Lucius quietly lowered his head and did not reply. Ka'lor'ah's words were completely true.

Currently, Lucius had no idea where he was, what the terrain of the forest was, the distribution of the beast groups, the forbidden areas, etc. Heck, he didn't even know the way out!

Upon entering the forest, Lucius simply moved in a fixed direction, until he came across a group of beasts. He then fought them, killing them and consuming their remains, and repeating the above actions once again.

While this method had worked for a while, its effectiveness was slowly dropping with his continued hunt. So much so, that he was only able to hunt 1-2 beast groups every three days when at the beginning he managed to hunt 3-4 beast groups every hour.

Having lived with Lucius for almost 30 years in their previous life, Ka'lor'ah was familiar with most of his habits. 

"Thought so," Ka'lor'ah stated.

"What ability did you gain?" Seeing that he had no way to argue with her, Lucius simply gave in and asked her.

"Hehehe, glad you asked," having her vanity satisfied, Ka'lor'ah giggled before continuing, "For you see! I have just the right thing, to solve your problem!"

"Behold my latest skill, [Greater Area Detection]!" she exclaimed.

Waves of invisible energy spread in all four directions, with Ka'lor'ah being the center. She then projected a screen of light on which, a 'mini-map' was being compiled.