Lord of Annihilation

Finding himself returned to the familiar blank space -the one in which he had previously been- Lucius powerlessly dropped onto his knees. 

"…was that…me?" 

His pitch-black eyes, eternally stoic and emotionless, were now filled with confusion. 

As his mind processed the scenes from the memory which he had just witnessed, Lucius' first reaction was to unequivocally deny it. 

"No…"

"It can't be."

"That cannot be me." His tone was hurried and his voice was rather hoarse. 

However, the look within his very own eyes, now filled with hesitance and confusion, denied his declaration. Rather than say he denied the happenings entirely for it being false, Lucius wanted to deny it as he believed it to be the truth.

Her voice… Her scent… Their touch…

The more times the memory replayed within his head, the more Lucius was unable to deny their veracity.

Still, he had to deny it. 

The truth that he had been thrown away, just mere moments after his birth by his very own mother was a truth that he could not accept.

And for what? For being born?

For simply existing?

What crime had a child, who had just come into this world, committed that it warranted an instantaneous death?

If his birth was such a mistake. 

Such an irrevocable sin.

Then why bothering having him at all? Why not kill the child, just as it had formed, within the womb itself?

"WHY?!" 

Lucius screamed into the darkness, and the darkness returned in silence.

"WHY WOULD YOU SHOW THIS TO ME?!!"

Unable to contain himself, Lucius screamed into the void. 

Strange sensations. 

Foreign feelings.

'Emotions' which he had given up for his power…all came rushing back, assaulting Lucius in this moment of weakness.

These emotions which he could not name further filled him with confusion. 

Lucius himself did not understand these feelings. 

For him who had not relied on anyone in his quest for power. 

For him, who had been denied of friends, denied of a family, denied of respect, of dignity, of status, of love, of hope, of dreams. 

For him who had been denied almost everything for 300 years of his life, all that remained was his identity.

Identity, or the proof of one's existence, was the only thing that Lucius could call his own. All his life he had sought for power, almost mindlessly chased after it, discarding everything that would hinder his path, all for the sake of validating this identity.

If he, who had lost everything, loses his identity too, then what would he have? What would he be?

And now upon being shown that memory, he was being denied of his identity too.

He, who had always believed himself to be a human born within Mankind, was now told otherwise. 

This he failed to understand.

Lucius' confusion led to incomprehension and incomprehension led to irritation.

"WAS ALL OF MY THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF LIFE, ALSO A LIE?!!"

Lucius cried out loud, as he repeatedly smashed his hands against the dark floor.

Irritation, anger, resentment… dozens of emotions that had been previously suppressed by his soul, exploded at this instant. A terrifying mixture of feelings, all of which were unfamiliar to the jaded Killer, constantly battered him. 

And his inability to properly identify them only served to increase his frustration, irritation, and anger.

A long line of unfamiliar liquid originating from his eyes flowed across his cheeks and quietly fell to the ground. Feeling the stream of warmth on his face, Lucius raised his hands to touch it.

'Tears…' Observing the unfamiliar liquid in his hands, Lucius belatedly realized.

He was crying. 

But why? 

He himself couldn't understand.

Never in his previous life had he sought the truth behind his birth. In fact, he had never found the need to do so. All his life, he had believed himself to be a human.

While the racial transformation in his current life had sparked some questions within him as to how Lucius had never once doubted the fact that he was human. Or at least, was.

But now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

----------

A long while passed within his unfamiliar 'void of a space'. Lucius' emotions continued to pour out for a long time, before he managed to suppress them once again, this time albeit, manually.

In his inability to understand these emotions, Lucius could not sort them, much less resolve them. All that he could do, for now, was to bottle them up once again.

As for the questions regarding his birth, his origin, of that woman who regarded his existence as a stain to be ridden of, Lucius decided to push them aside for now. Perhaps one day, in the distant future, he might search for the answers.

Right now, the 'Great Plan' takes absolute priority. The quest to rid the Universe of its Lords cannot afford any delays or distractions.

"In the grand scheme of things, matters of my identity and birth are hardly of any real importance. No distractions can be afforded during the execution of the plan."

His eyes and face had lost all traces of the previous cluster of chaotic emotions and had returned to its signature 'emotionless' state. Only this time, Lucius himself performed the restriction. 

He had willingly chosen to become this blank, emotionless monster.

A monster with a singular purpose.

Getting up onto his feet, Lucius looked around.

"Now, how do I get out of here?" 

Just as his mouth finished wording the question, Lucius heard a faint cry from afar. 

"…Luc.ius.. wa..ke up." 

Lucius' head locked in the direction of the voice, as he recognized it. Without wasting a single instant's worth of time, he rushed in the direction of the voice.

It was about time that he had returned.

-----------

Within Lucius' mindspace.

What was previously a careful balance between the golden sun, an endlessly dark ocean, and boundless clouds of pure soul power was currently a scene of an utter apocalypse. 

The golden sun was split in half, the clouds of soul power were almost inexistent and the seemingly endless ocean of void energy was utterly empty. 

Two figures, one crimson and the other golden darted about within the mindspace. Their surroundings were completely filled with glassy fragments, each of which played a certain scene, or rather, a memory.

The crimson spectre weaved within the space, something hiding behind a memory fragment, sometimes rushing into it, and sometimes absorbing the fragment within itself.

The golden figure, in turn, chased after this spectral soul, trying her level best to stop the intruder from messing with her partner's memories.

"Secrets! So many secrets! Wonderful, TRULY WONDERFUL!!" The master of the labyrinth screamed with elation as he digested a certain memory fragment of Lucius'.

The memory fragment held the data of a certain ruin, that Lucius had explored in the past (his past).

"More! I need more!" The Master maniacally laughed, as he evaded another spell thrown by Ka'lor'ah. He then turned to look at her in disdain, before casually flicking a finger in her direction.

Seeing a bolt of crimson lightning approach her figure, Ka'lor'ah hurriedly dodged the attack, by jumping into a nearby memory fragment and reappearing from within a different one.

"Tch! So annoying. What happened to your previous displays of bravado?" The Master taunted, to which Ka'lor'ah replied with an annoyed grunt.

How many eons had it been since she was last taunted by an inferior being like such!

Alas, there was nothing she could do but reply with a grunt. The intruder was a Stage 5 soul, while she herself was the remnant conscious of a dead Stage 7 being. 

No matter how majestic she had once been, in her current form she was very weak!

'This infuriating worm! If only my real form had been here. I would have you to the hounds! No, for what you have done to my adorable student that is too easy of a death. I would trap your soul within a limbless motionless body and sentence it to eternal damnation!' Ka'lor'ah venomously spat within her head.

Currently, the situation is as follows.

The Master of the Labyrinth, who was running around in the form of a crimson spectre, had already recovered from his previous wounds sustained from his battle with Lucius. Upon making a full recovery, he had easily turned the table on his battle against Ka'lor'ah.

Ka'lor'ah on the other hand had barely been sustaining herself for the entire duration of the battle. If not for Lucius' soul instinctively realizing that the intruder was after its memories and voluntarily releasing a majority of it, thus keeping the intruder occupied, both Ka'lor'ah and Lucius' soul would have been wiped out by the other party.

As such, the current battlefield was filled with millions upon millions of fragments of Lucius' memories from when he was a Stage 1 all the way up to Stage 5. The Stage 6 and Stage 7 memories were not released into the battlefield, as their presence would create unknown effects.

With Lucius' soul using this hard-earned time to hide within a random memory fragment and Ka'lor'ah doing everything she could to delay the crimson spectre, the battle was in a dangerous phase.

If and when the Master decided to focus his efforts on finding either of them, their fates would be sealed!

'Where are you, Lucius! You need to wake up!!' Ka'lor'ah continued to direct a part of her efforts into searching for Lucius' consciousness. Only after his return would they have extra cards to deal with this scenario.

It was then, that a change occurred within the battlefield.

"Impossible!!" The Master screamed shrilly.

Standing in front of a particular memory fragment, that was way larger than the rest, his entire body trembled with exhilaration and shock.

"YOU HAVE SEEN THE OTHER SIDE!!!"

----------

Author's Note:

I'm sure a lot of you have a lot of questions regarding the continuation of this novel and the reason behind my almost-two month absence. Well, here's the answer...

I have NO intentions of dropping or discontinuing this novel. It will be finished (within this year itself, if everything goes well) and that is a promise!!

About the two-month-long absence, to put it briefly I was EXTREMELY BUSY. With my school term finally coming to an end (Hooray!), there was a ton of overdue assignments, not to mention the end of term exams themselves. Now that those are done, I'm finally free.

Therefore, starting Monday (3.5.21), we will be back to 2 chapters/day. 

Apologies for those excruciating two months, and thank you for sticking with me. I hope the reader (both old and new) will continue to stick with me until the end of this novel. 

Over and out!