Lord of Annihilation

"[Scene Capture]!" finishing the chant with a yell, intense light shone upon the room.

Upon the shining of the light, the colors within the room suddenly deepened. The reds became richer, the yellows became deeper and the greens became even more verdant.

As of this moment, every scene that would occur inside this room would be recorded in full detail and be deeply ingrained inside Ka'lor'ah's memories.

The range of the spell was limited to inside this room and its duration depended on the amount of energy possessed by Ka'lor'ah.

"You can begin now," Ka'lor'ah said cheerfully.

Used to such eccentricities Lucius did not bother to protest. To be honest, Lucius was quite curious about this matter too.

Reaching the dead remains, he tore off an arm and took a large bite.

Under the assault of hundreds of sharp, pointy teeth inside Lucius' mouth, the tough bones of the Silver Fist Ape quickly crumbled and headed into his body.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

'Mhmm, very crunchy… the muscles inside the arm are also very tough and chewy.' Idling thoughts occurred within his mind. 

"Say, say, say, how does it taste?" Ka'lor'ah eagerly asked.

Taking a second to finish eating the arm, Lucius quietly stood for a moment to recall the feeling. With his eyes closed, he passed his judgment.

"The flesh was tough and gamey, while the bones were hard and bland to taste. The blood itself had a rather unpleasant taste to it and was very coarse. The bone marrow was the only thing that tasted a little better than the others."

"On the whole, it was barely any better than food found inside the garbage can." 

"Pity that the soul has already passed on. The taste of a soul is rather, exquisite." He concluded.

Hearing his review, Ka'lor'ah stood dumbfounded for a moment. He was rather shocked by Lucius' speech.

'He—did he just give me an actual, serious review?' she doubted her ability to listen. 

'Could this be a dream? Am I dreaming? No wait, I can't dream.' She quickly denied that possibility and fell into astonishment again.

Knowing Lucius, Ka'lor'ah was expecting a short and curt reply, something like a; 'It's bad' or 'I don't taste anything.' 

It was beyond her wildest expectation to receive a proper food critique. 

"Lucius, are you okay?" Ka'lor'ah's voice suddenly became one of concern, as she slowly approached him.

"Are you feeling unwell? Is there something wrong?" she continued with her questions, going as far as to scan his body with her senses.

Opening his eyes, Lucius indifferently stared at her and replied.

"No." he then turned around and continued with his eating.

'Strange, tasting it gave birth to a weird sensation within my heart.' 

The more he stuffed himself with the remains, the greater this sensation grew. The more this sensation grew, the greater was Lucius's desire to continue eating and 'tasting'.

'The sinews of the joints are very chewy and have a slightly bitter taste to them. The livers and the heart have an intense odor and are very pungent to taste. These bones are starting to get annoying… still, my desire to eat is becoming greater.'

'Strange, the flow of blood and the beating of my heart is becoming relaxed and steadier. My mind is also feeling clear, with my mood improving for the better…'

'very strange,…what is this sense of satisfaction and warmth that I'm feeling within my heart?' The clearer his mood became, the more confusion Lucius was starting to feel.

He did not quite know how to describe this feeling of warmth and contentment that he was currently felt. The more Lucius tried to grasp it, the easier it slipped and farther it moved.

'This feeling…no, this emotion… why does it feel strange, yet familiar?' Lucius' brows furrowed as he seemed to recall something. 

Just as this question popped within his mind, the calmly floating [Annihilator] soul suddenly reacted. A strange power originating from the depths of the soul gathered and condensed, forming invisible streams of energy. 

The energy condensed into a miniature ball was on the verge of explosion, when the dormant black sea, forming the floor of his mindscape started to quake. Waves started to roll and pools of swirling currents started to form in various places, crazily drawing the invisible power.

Sensing the danger from the black ocean, the sphere of mysterious energy hastily exploded. The turmoil in the black ocean also grew, as more and more energy was being pulled and digested.

Just as the mysterious, invisible energy was about to erase Lucius' thoughts and feelings, the swirling currents having formed a hurricane, sucked the majority of the invisible energy.

The invisible energy roared and struggled, but was unable to escape from the hurricane's force of suction. Helpless, it could only erase a small portion of Lucius' current emotions and thoughts, before being completely sucked and digested.

Outside, Lucius' eyes flashed with momentary madness and indifference, before turning calm. His eyebrows were still furrowed, as he was unable to recall the familiarity of this strange feeling. 

That fleeting feeling suddenly vanished, making Lucius all the more confused. 

Taking a deep breath, he calmed his mind.

'That was very strange…appearing and disappearing like that.'

'Well, whatever it was it's now gone. There's no point in brooding over such a strange thing.' His eyebrows eased and his face returned to its calm aloofness. 

Rising from his position, he could see Ka'lor'ah, alternating with brightness and darkness. With his knowledge and experience, he realized that Ka'lor'ah was using her computational ability to the fullest.

Growing curious, he asked.

"What are you doing?"

The radiance of the crystal suddenly paused, followed by Ka'lor'ah's excited chatter.

"Of course, I'm making saves of this moment right now! Hahaha, the ex-Stage 7 [Killer]'s whose always so distant and chilly, made his very first food review!"

"How can only 1 save of such a precious thing be enough! I have to make backups and backups for my backups! Losing this would be my greatest sin!!"

Ka'lor'ah's voice continued to grow higher in pitch, giving voice to her current levels of exhilaration.

"Dammit, I cannot save it to the cloud (main body), currently! Perhaps, I should dedicate some area in my core to save this recording…" she continued to chatter on.

Lucius lost interest in her nonsense and made his way outside of the room. Standing on the edge of a thick branch, he inhaled the scent of the air.

'Even the air smells and 'tastes' a lot richer and detailed right now. Is this an ability gained from [Devour] or an inherent ability of the Void Eater?' he wondered.

'The smell of my surroundings and the places where I battled are very different. In those areas with a large number of deaths, I can smell a unique scent… is this the scent of death?'

'The trees and the leaves also have their unique scents, being vibrant and fresh, a direct contrast of the previous case.'

'The areas where these annoying monkeys lived, the areas that are relatively isolated, the lake, the sky, everything has a unique and distinct smell.' As he continued to smell, Lucius grew more and more enraptured.

In fact, his sense of smell had become so sharp that Lucius could vaguely 'smell' the natural energy of the world and the soul powers used during battle. 

'Although it's currently vague if I can master this ability, my ability to identify and distinguish my opponents would grow greater. At that point, I could simply 'smell' their strength and soul type.' 

'Going further, perhaps at a certain point, I might be able to 'smell' their thoughts and intents.' His eyes flashed with brilliance.

Lucius continued to smell and distinguish the various scents in the air. He also started to memorize their characteristics, exploring and refining each unique scent. 

Not remaining at this same place, Lucius started to move around, stopping at places with intense scents.

The scent of death, the scent of food (dead remains), and the bloody scent in the areas where he had slaughtered a large number of people, under Lucius' careful observation and distinguishing, these scents grew more defined and unique.

For now, he ignored the vague, background scents and focused only on the ones which he could directly perceive. After increasing his strength and when his perception would increase, Lucius would then try to sense these vaguer scents.

Traveling around, Lucius at the banks of the large, crescent-shaped lake.

This lake was the main resource-point of the Stone Skin Tribe and was the entire reason for their self-sustaining lifestyle and current level of growth.

On the surface, the lake did not seem very special. However, under Lucius' sense of smell, he immediately noticed something different.

'The scents in here are very, very rich when compared to the surroundings. Somehow, it feels a bit odd.' Just as Lucius felt the strangeness of the lake, his pupils suddenly shrunk.

Hidden beneath layers of the lake's rich scent, Lucius could perceive an intense odor. This scent was intensely concentrated and condensed, and most importantly, it was a scent that extremely intoxicating for Lucius.

'…the scent of life!' Lucius exclaimed, his eyes faintly changing in color.