Lord of Annihilation

NOTE: The thoughts of the Characters are italicized. The lines under single quotes (' ') are mental dialogue.

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'It's Olivia…she wants to talk to you. Let me connect the two of you.' Saying so, Ka'lor'ah fell silent. 

With Lucius ascending to Stage 2, the amount of soul power that Ka'lor'ah could utilize through their connection had also increased. This vastly increased their communication range, while also adding some other handy features.

One such feature being group voice chatting.

As Lucius silently waited, he noticed that the thread of soul power connecting Ka'lor'ah and himself suddenly enlarged in size becoming thicker. This change was then followed by the addition of foreign soul power, successfully completing the connection.

'This feels strange…' Olivia's mature voice resounded within Lucius' head.

'Talk quick, I can only hold this connection for so long!' Ka'lor'ah complained with a strained tone.

Due to the large distance between the two parties, it took considerable effort on Ka'lor'ah's part to maintain the connection, tiring her out rather quickly.

'Right! Lucius, can you hear me?' Olivia asked.

'Of course, he can hear you! Will you just get to the point?!' Ka'lor'ah admonished.

Feeling rather wronged, Olivia mentally thought to herself. 'This is my first time doing such a thing. How am I supposed to know how it works? Still, it's a rather convenient method of communication. With this, I can talk to Lucius whenever I want!' 

Alas, under the mental connection, even surface-level thoughts were clearly transmitted. 

That is to say, the other two clearly heard her thoughts.

'You wicked, girl! How dare you think of turning your teacher into a mere telephone line to contact your lover?!' Ka'lor'ah hissed with righteous anger.

'Wha-what?! Yo-you heard that?' With a surge of embarrassment, Olivia stuttered with an obvious fluster.

'I heard 'ALL' of that! And here I thought you were better than Lucius. The two of you are the same, always thinking of using other people as tools! That's it, I'm done with you! Humph!' Ka'lor'ah huffed, feeling cross.

'Wa-wait, Teacher! I-I didn't mean it that way! I'm terribly sorry!' Scared of offending her teacher, Olivia hurriedly apologized.

'Verbal apologies won't do! I need compensation!' Ka'lor'ah immediately replied.

'Comp-compensation?' 

'Of course! Thinking about it, what have you done for your teacher upon becoming my disciple? That's right, nothing! Not only was I not thanked, but you're even thinking of using me as a tool. What a terrible student, I take back what I previously said about you.' Ka'lor'ah continued with her childish tantrum.

'No, I'm very sorry! I'll compensate anything you wish for!' Olivia hurriedly placated. 

'Anything?' 

Ka'lor'ah's tone suddenly turned sharp. Her tone had similar vibes to a wolf staring down upon its prey.

'A-anything.' Nervously gulping, Olivia nodded her head.

'That's more like it. I forgive you now.' 'Showing' a victorious sign, Ka'lor'ah replied with satisfaction.

Hearing that reply, Olivia felt a strange sense of dread within her heart. This time, taking care to properly hide her thoughts, she wondered.

'Why do I feel like I was scammed?'

Having been witness to this childish squabble, Lucius finally intervened. 'Are the two of you done?' 

He then directed his thoughts towards Ka'lor'ah and asked. 'Weren't you having a 'hard time' connecting our thoughts? You seem lively enough.' 

'Oh, it IS hard, okay? However, I'm not that weak either.' Ka'lor'ah shamelessly replied.

Not in the mood to squabble with her, Lucius unceremoniously replied. 'I'm leaving.'

'Wait! I haven't said what I wanted to tell you yet!' Olivia instantly replied.

This time having learnt from her previous exchange, she quickly continued to talk before Lucius had the chance to leave.

'I forgot to mention this to you in my office; of the five Forgotten Warriors that you had left with me, three were destroyed during a sudden ambush and I was only able to protect the other two.'

'I'm extremely sorry about that. It was my fault for being too weak to protect myself.' Olivia's tone was guilt-ridden as she sincerely apologized.

Hearing her sudden apology, Lucius was taken aback for a moment. He thought for a moment, before coming to a realization. 'Right, she does not know about the 'immortal' characteristic of the Forgotten Warriors.' 

Thinking about it, no one other than Lucius and Ka'lor'ah was familiar with the immortal property of the Forgotten Warriors. 

Upon death, the Forgotten Warrior would return into Lucius' shadow where it would undergo a cooldown period before it could be resummoned. As such, no one had seen the same Forgotten Warrior twice (or had lived to tell the tale).

Therefore, it was understandable that Olivia considered the Forgotten Warriors to be a finite resource. Her guilt stemmed from her belief that she had 'wasted' three of these precious troops given to her by Lucius. 

Although to be fair, they did die in the process of saving her life, hence completing their intended duty.

As such, Lucius did not pay much attention.

'It's fine.' He replied. 'They are meant to be expendable in the first place.'

'But—'Olivia tried to intervene but was interrupted by Ka'lor'ah.

'It's okay Lil' Olivia. Those things cannot die for as long as Lucius is alive. In a word, they are immortal.'

'I see…I'm glad then.' Olivia replied followed by a sigh of relief. She felt a massive weight lift off her chest.

Just as Olivia was about to continue with her narration, Lucius interrupted her.

'Why are the two remaining warriors locked behind a door and why are they unresponsive?' He asked coldly.

Surprised at the question, Olivia asked. 'Oh, you found that place?'

'They are connected to me so I can track their locations. Answer my question, why are they locked behind an Energy Pulse Sequencer?'

'I was about to tell you about that…but I think it's better if you see it for yourself. I didn't set a unique energy signature, so just input your soul power according to this pattern.' Following which Olivia recited the energy pulse sequence.

Lucius stood confused for a moment, before inputting the correct sequence into the lock with his soul power. With an audible click, the locks gave way, and doors were freed.

Pushing the heavy doors aside, Lucius walked into the mysterious room.

A few old-fashioned lamps hung on the walls dimly lighting the interiors of the room. Along the top of the two side walls, iron-gated vents could be seen spewing cold air into the room.

Upon the plain stone floor were dozens of tightly packed crates, neatly arranged into proper rows. The crates seemed to be made of a special material, seeing as to how they eagerly sucked in the cold air. 

However, all these smaller details were overshadowed by the elephant in the room. At the center were two enormous black-colored cocoons that radiated with differing levels of energy.

Feeling those familiar energy signatures, Lucius was fascinated.

'This is…'

'Approximately a week ago, the two shadow warriors suddenly formed a cocoon surrounding their bodies. The process was spontaneous and I'm not sure what triggered it. In order to not draw too much attention to this strange phenomenon, I moved them into that refrigeration chamber.' Olivia explained.

While listening to her explanation, Lucius approached the two cocoons and laid his hands atop their smooth surface. Closing his eyes he felt analyzed their energy, trying to make sense of this phenomenon.

Similar to the calm sea waves, the energy within the cocoon ebbed and flowed, while gradually growing stronger. This change was very slow but gradual.

'Lucius, what's happening? Talk to me.' Ka'lor'ah's eager inquiries joined in.

'This is…ascension? They're entering Stage 2?' Lucius wondered.

He then delved into his Void Space using his senses and analyzed the other Forgotten Warriors within. 

'It's the same with the others inside. They are all slowly ascending into Stage 2. I see…my ascent into Mid-Level Stage 2 must have triggered the process. So that's why they are unresponsive to my commands, they are in a state akin to sleeping.'

'Talk to me, Lucius! What is happening over there? I'm dying of curiosity over here.' Ka'lor'ah exclaimed with impatience.

Confirming the situation once more, Lucius then proceeded to explain his findings. Ka'lor'ah occasionally replied with an 'Oho' and 'That makes sense', while Olivia silently listened. 

'So it is safe to assume that every time you reach an 'X-Stage Mid-Level', the Forgotten Warriors will go through a metamorphosis of sorts.' Ka'lor'ah summarized.

'That's how it seems.' Lucius affirmed her thoughts.

'How long is the duration of the process?' Ka'lor'ah asked.

'Unknown. Judging from the amount of energy I can sense, they are approximately 40% of their way there.' Lucius replied.

'This is new. I need to make notes of this.' Ka'lor'ah replied before leaving the call, leaving only Lucius and Olivia.

An awkward silence descended as Lucius continued to study the two eggs in silence, while Olivia was unsure of what to say. While she had been witness to the duo's technical exchange, Olivia had understood none of it.

It was a standard case of 'I know the meaning of the words individually, but together they make no sense.' It was a situation of an illiterate person listening in on a scientific lecture.

A few minutes passed tensely before Lucius broke the silence.

'Are you done with that issue with the war?' he asked.

'Almost. Showing them the dead body of their commander was more effective than I thought. Upon confirmation, almost all of them immediately lost the will to fight and ran away. I'm just in the process of tying up some loose ends.' Olivia enthusiastically explained.

'Do you have any questions pertaining to that discussion?' Lucius continued.

'Well…I didn't understand most of it. It almost seemed like the two of you were speaking a different language.' Olivia awkwardly laughed.

'I see. Your basic knowledge is quite lacking. I'll have to remind Ka'lor'ah to start teaching you from there.' Lucius blandly replied.

Hearing the words 'basic knowledge' and 'lacking' Olivia felt the corner of her lips twitch. It wasn't that Olivia was lacking illiterate, but it was because all of Olivia's knowledge pertained to topics and sciences conceived by Mankind. Her knowledge of the Universe, soul power, Rules, etc, were relatively new and very lacking. 

'By the way, how can you understand all of this? Didn't we go to the same schools and study together?' Olivia jokingly asked.

It had always been a big mystery to Olivia how Lucius was so knowledgeable about such alien concepts. What was even stranger to comprehend was how Lucius was so good at fighting, using a weapon to boot. 

It had to be known that in the time prior to these strange events (since Lucius was adopted into the Mayer family), she had never once seen Lucius get into a fight. Even during their early childhood squabbles, it was Olivia who used to mostly win due to her taller physique. 

Seeing how much he had changed now, it was almost as if Lucius had already lived for a long time. 

'There is also that strange transformation where he eats others.' This was a mystery that was even more foreign.

The boy whom she had known for the longest time and most intimately had suddenly become a stranger. This pained Olivia's heart the most.

In response to Olivia's question, Lucius indifferently replied. 'I learnt it recently too.' 

That's a lie. Olivia bitterly thought to herself but did not rebuke his reply.

Lucius might have changed a lot, however, she could still immediately identify whenever he lied. It was a fact that made her feel closer to him.

'What are these crates?' Lucius interrupted Olivia who was lost in her thoughts, referring to the neatly packed crates.

'Those are actually for you. I saw how you enjoyed eating those…' things', so I gathered as many bodies as I could. If you're feeling hungry, you can eat them.' Olivia explained with a smile.

Growing interested, Lucius opened one of the crates and peered into it.

Inside the crate were the neatly packaged corpses of Canis, the wolf-like Wild Beast. The corpses were properly dismembered and perfectly preserved under refrigeration.

Looking at the dozens of crates within the room, Lucius asked with surprise.

'How many bodies did you gather?'

'117. I tried to gather three bodies of every kind I could find. They range from rare Wild Beasts to Peak-Level Stage 2 corpses. However, some were harder to collect due to certain…well, 'supply' issues.' Olivia calmly replied.

'117! Devouring more bodies will decrease the cooldown period of [State of Dvour], rendering me to use my racial abilities sooner. This saves a lot of time and effort.' Lucius thought to himself.

'Thank you very much, Olivia. You have saved me a lot of time. I owe you a favor.' Lucius sincerely thanked her.

Knowing that he might potentially face a Lord or at least someone related to a Lord, Lucius needed all the power he could get his hands on. The issue of his unavailable racial abilities was something that had been bothering him for some time. 

The only way to resolve this situation was by devouring. However, finding suitable opponents, killing them, and then proceeding to devour would consume a lot of time...something that Lucius desperately lacked right now. 

Olivia's efforts had come in a clutch, offering some much-needed assistance. Hence, Lucius had meant every word he had said when he thanked her.

With a method to respite in sight, Lucius promptly cut off the mental link and promptly dived into the buffet of corpses to feast.

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Somewhere near the tall walls of Pandemonium.

A tall, masked woman with violet eyes and purple armor stared into empty space with a blank look on her face. A single line resounded within her mind.

'I owe you a favor.'

"What are you grinning like an idiot for?" Looking at the foolishly grinning Olivia, Ka'lor'ah asked with concern.

Perhaps no one other than Olivia herself understood her thought process at this moment.