Lord of Annihilation

Left alone in the office, Lucius used this rare moment of peace to rest his mind. 

The continuous bouts of high-intensity battles and the need to maintain a high tension state had resulted in a fair bit of fatigue building up within his mind and body.

Due to the environment and circumstances in which he had lived in his previous life, Lucius was required to always remain in a 'battle ready' state. He did not have the luxury of sleeping and was constantly embroiled in high-intensity battles. 

All living things require sleep at one point or another. It was nature's most effective way to restoring fatigue. However, due to Lucius' inability to do so, he had to get creative. The result of that creativity was using soul power to remove fatigue. 

Soul Power by nature had the ability to restore and regenerate. With some clever application, the need for sleep could be completely removed.

While this method was not optimal as sleeping and was a rather wasteful use of soul power, it did allow the user to constantly remain in a 'high alert' state, while removing fatigue and eliminating the need to sleep.

This was the reason why Lucius never slept. Although his circumstances and environment had changed in his current life, some habits die hard.

While circulating his soul power through his body, Lucius took out his scythe and fed it his soul power. It had been quite a while since he had done so; the previous instance was before entering the Underground Labyrinth.

The scythe greedily absorbed the soul power radiating a sense of satisfaction with a soundless squeal of joy. With the improvement in the quality of his soul power, the effects of the meal were much more evident. 

A healthy cloud of blackish-crimson surrounded the length of the weapon with the creepy-looking scarlet veins pulsing with life. The pulsing increased in frequency and amplitude, visibly showing the scythe's improvement.

The feeding process continued for half an hour, after which Lucius retracted his soul power. The ominous-looking scythe emitted a feeling of unwillingness that its master consciously ignored.

'With the constant nourishment of soul power and blood, it was grown quite a bit. It's about time that I upgrade its base materials.'

Similar to how a stronger body is required to reach higher Stages, a weapon is required to be forged from stronger, more 'spiritually rich' materials in order to successfully become a Living Weapon.

'Once we are done with the issue with Mankind, I need to spend some time gathering the materials required for the upgrade. I also need to find a good 'Forger' to perform the upgrade.'

Forging weapons, especially high-level ones, required one to be of a specific vocation called Forger. The vocation focused on the manufacture of weapons and other such devices, similar to other production vocations like Sigilers and Artificers.

Forging, was in fact, the simplest and most common vocation in the production sphere. 

A person did not require a special soul type, a strange racial ability, or enormous talent to become a Forger, requiring only constant hard work and daily effort. Many people preferred to take on Forger, as a sub-occupation. 

However, having a lot of Forgers did not mean all Forgers were equally skilled. In fact, finding a Master Forger was similar in difficulty, if not harder, than a Sigiler (with the latter being the most difficult and exclusive vocation in the Universe).

Throughout his lifetime, Lucius has met a fair share of Forgers. However, the number of Master Forgers he had met could be counted with a single hand.

'Hmm…If I recall correctly, that guy's home planet should still be intact around this time. Perhaps I should make a stop over there before heading to the Grand Alcana Empire.'

The image of a certain individual flashed across Lucius' mind. 

'Of course, all of this depends on the successful resolution of the situation with Mankind. If a Lord really has figured out our plans, it's effectively game over.'

Worrying about this matter wouldn't get him anywhere; as such Lucius focused his attention on other matters. 

The recent battles with the Stage 3 Bertarian and Master of the Labyrinth had given him a deeper insight into this strength and powers, while also refreshing some of his older combat knowledge. 

The fighting methods of the Lower Stages (1-3) were vastly different from the fighting methods of the Higher Stages (6 and 7). The earlier Stages were solely focused on physical strength, personal skill, and soul power, while the latter Stages were entirely dependent on Domains and Rules.

To compare, if combat between the Lower Stages was like a game of 'Tek*en', then fighting between the Higher Stages was like a game of 'Starcra*t'. It was a difference of genre.

Being as such, to review and reflect after a battle was very important, especially to someone like Lucius. It also served to accurately evaluate one's strength, while simultaneously looking for methods to improve.

'The battle with the Bertarian was quite standard, there's nothing much that I could've done differently. Perhaps, deploying the Field at an earlier time might've reduced the duration of the battle. Some of the wastage of soul power could've been avoided…'

'The battle with that crimson soul was a first. To fight inside the Mindspace while utilizing my consciousness and soul body was a new experience…'

'There was no way I could've won in a frontal battle with that crimson soul. If not for me 'cheating' with the Stage 7 memory, I would've most definitely died.'

'I was also caught off-guard multiple times and fell prey to his mental attacks. If not for Ka'lor'ah interruption, the outcome would've been different.'

'Seems like I need to come up with some countermeasures against Mind-type opponents. They are my direct counters.'

The current balance between the [Annihilator] soul, the Void Eater bloodline, and his 'self', was unstable. While Ka'lor'ah's spell did alleviate some of the problems, it did not solve the root issue. If his opponents were to target this weakness of his, it would no doubt be a fatal blow.

This wasn't the only problem, as the battle with the Master of the Labyrinth, had reopened some of Lucius' most terrible wounds, his past memories and the emotions that stemmed from them.

Previously, this wasn't an issue as Lucius' soul took care to eliminate these dissident feelings. However, the recent change with the [Annihilator] soul resulted in the removal of this convenient feature. 

Lucius had to personally maintain a lid on these tempestuous emotions at all times, effectively bottling them up and putting a lid on them. This was hardly a solution but was the only one that Lucius could come up with.

'Olivia is a Mental-type. Perhaps, I can use her to come up with some countermeasures…hmmm, this is worth looking into.' Lucius nodded his head while in thought.

As he continued with his ponders, he suddenly remembered something. 'Right, I forgot to ask her about the two Forgotten Warriors.'

Using the connection between himself and the Forgotten Warriors, Lucius tracked the whereabouts of the two, tasked with protecting Olivia.

A few seconds passed when Lucius' eyes suddenly snapped open.

"They are in this building.' Lucius muttered.

Rising from his seat, Lucius returned the scythe to its 'off' state and placed it into [Void Storage]. He then left Olivia's office and followed the thread of soul power that connected Forgotten Warriors and himself.

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Navigating through multiple corridors, evading dozens of anxious government workers, slipping past multiple guard details, and after multiple flights of stairs, Lucius finally arrived before a closed-door in the depths of the large Governor's office.

Lucius looked around a few times and noticed the distinct lack of any presence in the vicinity of this area.

'I can't detect the presence of any living being in the vicinity. This place is completely isolated.'

He then focused his attention on the connecting thread between himself and the two puppets.

'The two Forgotten Warriors are behind this door, I can strongly feel their presence.'

Strangely enough, when Lucius sent tried to order the two puppets, he received no response.

'Are they disobeying me? That shouldn't be possible. As long as the soul connection exists, they are under my absolute command.'

'More importantly, what are they doing in such a remote location? How did they get here in the first place?'

It was safe to say that if not for the soul connection pointing the exact location of the two puppets to Lucius, the chances of finding such a remote location were extremely slim.

'No point in standing here and thinking about it. I'll just enter and see for myself.'

Placing his hands on the handle, Lucius tried to open the door only to find it locked.

'Oh,' The look in his eyes sharpened when Lucius realized that the lock on the door was far from normal. 

'An Energy Pulse Sequencer Lock. Only with the input of a specific type of energy following a specific pulse sequence can open the lock. The door itself is made from a Semi-High Grade material, built to last against attacks from a Stage 3 being.'

The Energy Pulse Sequencer was like the 'fingerprint identification lock' of the Universe. It was a High-Level artifact that was difficult to procure even in some relatively advanced worlds.

For a backward planet like Pectron to possess such an advanced lock induced suspicion.

'Breaking the door would require a lot of effort and would draw needless attention. More importantly…'

'Why are my puppets behind this door and who placed them there?'

'Why are they not responding to my orders?'

'Why is this room underneath the Governor's office?' 

With the appearance of each subsequent question, the look within Lucius' eyes grew colder and colder. 

At this point, even the dumber ones would arrive at an obvious conclusion. There was only one factor that was common between all these questions.

"Olivia…" Lucius muttered in his signature emotionless tone.

It was at that moment when he received a mental message from Ka'lor'ah.

'Lucius, are you there? There is something important to inform you about.'

'It's Olivia…' Ka'lor'ah's tone lacked the usual playfulness and was rather serious. 

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UPDATE: New laptop is arriving sometime tomorrow, so we'll be going back to the previous release rate. (Finally, I can stop going to an internet café to write!)

Anyways, this chapter and the two previous ones were mostly a recap. As you all know, it's important to have a recap before any important scene. This is all the more important, seeing as how we are approaching the end of Vol 2. 

If I have failed to mention any major (or minor) detail, please do tell me in the comments. While I'm confident of having covered all details, I am human after all.

Minor Spoiler: What do you think will happen when Lucius makes to Mankind and sees its current situation? 

My answer; Disappointed and extremely pissed, in that exact order.