Lord of Annihilation

Facing the same question for a second time, one among the thirty figures, heroically mustered courage and stepped forth.

With an audible gulp, he spoke in the calmest voice that he could muster. "H-h-he's n-not h-he-here, s-s-sir." 

Of course, upon meeting Lucius' eyes all of his courage flew out of the window.

"Where is he then?" 

"Y-y-you k-ki-killed h-hi-him, s-sir." Biting his lips to the point of bleeding, the surviving pirate answered.

"Oh." Lucius curtly replied before falling silent.

'Haah! And that is why I keep telling you, 'Don't kill everyone and keep some of the stronger ones alive.' Of course, you never listen.' Ka'lor'ah mentally sent a message.

'I needed to devour them to recover my abilities.' Lucius calmly answered.

'All of them?! You only ate around a hundred and fifty. What about the rest?!' Ka'lor'ah exasperatedly replied.

'…I was practicing a new technique.' Pausing for a second, Lucius gave an excuse referring to the technique he used to kill the first Terran pirate.

Hearing his ridiculous excuse, Ka'lor'ah found herself speechless. She simply stared at Lucius for a few seconds before shaking her head.

'Haah. This aspect of him hasn't changed yet.' She sighed to herself.

A [Killer] did not require justification for the act of killing. He did not need a reason, motivation, or any prior cause…he killed for the simple sake of killing.

This might be a little difficult to understand, so let me phrase it this way.

Why do humans do anything? 

Why do they breathe, eat, sleep, and procreate? 

The fundamental answer to these questions was simple…to live and to continue life.

For a [Killer], to kill was his definition of life. One could say, it was their very motive for existence. Therefore, the act required no justification or reason. 

This was the reason why [Killers] were feared and shunned. In these eyes of civilized beings, they were equal to a bunch of rabid dogs that needed to be put down. The only catch was, [Killers] were awfully strong and unafraid of death. 

Lucius, having been a Stage 7, 300-year-old [Killer], it was a habit that he could seldom control. Every single time he started to kill, it would result in a massacre. 

With the passage of every second, the pressure within the command center of this spaceship did not lessen but steeply increased. 

All of the thirty survivors within this room knew that the person before them was a [Killer] ([Annihilator] is a mutation of [Killer], therefore it's easily mistaken for the latter.) 

And [Killer]s put it simply, were senseless psychopaths who were no different from Wild Beasts. Hell, even Wild Beasts were smarter than [Killer]s.

With their lives in the hands of such a person, one who might suddenly start swinging his scythe, just because he felt like it, they were hardly at ease.

"Who's the second in command then?" While regretting(?) the loss of the leader, Lucius continued with his questions.

Perhaps having crossed a critical point of sorts, the pirate who had stepped forth to answer Lucius' questions, seemingly lost all traces of his fear. His expression turned dull and his demeanor became languid.

'What's the point in fearing? In the end, he's going to kill us anyway.' Under such intense pressure, this pirate had surpassed his fear of death.

"The second in command was the person leading the trio to negotiate with the leader of the city, sir." The pirate answered blankly.

'Oh, it's the guy you killed at the very beginning. How did such a rash guy become the second in command?' Ka'lor'ah pondered.

"Who's the highest-ranking person amongst yourselves?" Ignoring Ka'lor'ah's rants, Lucius continued.

"That would be him, sir." The pirate pointed towards a certain bulky, middle-aged Terran.

Seeing the eyes of the monster turn towards him, the person in question, completely lost control of his legs and collapsed onto the ground, losing consciousness in the process. Underneath his collapsed figure, a small puddle of pungent-smelling liquid started to gather.

The man had lost control both over his mind and body, out of pure fear.

"Tch." Lucius clicked his tongue with annoyance. Seeing that questioning in such a manner would not get him any answers, he returned to questioning his reliable 'ally'.

"Tell me, what is a division of your pirate group doing over here, in Pectron?" 

Lifting his head and looking at his questioner with blank eyes, the pirate started to confess. 

And the reason was…grave, to say the least.

"4 months ago, our group, the 'Flying Dutchman', received intel that a new, Grade 3, technology-based species was undergoing Ascension somewhere in the neighboring star system.  The big boss decided that this was a good opportunity to strengthen and expand the pirate group."

"We arrived at their territory two months ago but realized that someone had already beaten us to the punch. A bunch of alien bugs had already wrecked the majority of the territory and occupied its resources. The boss was super pissed and ordered all forces to attack those alien bugs."

"The bugs weren't that strong either and only seemed to be keen on attacking that native species. Thanks to that, we managed to occupy around 60% of their territories and wiped out a good portion of those nasty bugs too. We managed to obtain a good haul from them too."

"However, it was at this point that things started to become more difficult. Finally taking notice of our aggression, the alien bugs started to earnestly attack us. Of course, noticing these changes the native species also joined in."

"Both of these opponents, while individually weak, are seemingly limitless and extremely annoying. They keep attacking our forces in succession, seemingly without a care for their own. For every ship we lost, they lost five." 

"While we managed to dispose of a majority of them, our forces took a considerable hit too. That's why we were sent here, the neutral planet of Pectron to purchase some war provisions and hire some mercenary forces to fill our ranks."

"The boss also wanted us to rope in a Stage 3 being, to join the war efforts. With our newly gained riches, payment wasn't an issue. We, however, had the misfortune of meeting you…" The pirate muttered the final line in a quiet voice. Having given up on his life, it did not matter whether he slighted the monster in front of him or not.

Lucius, however, was in no mind to punish him. He stood rooted to the ground with his eyes blankly staring with shock.

The minds of both Ka'lor'ah and Lucius whirred at astronomic speeds as they processed this huge influx of information. The more they processed, the more their questions multiplied.

Not minding to hide, Ka'lor'ah appeared before the pirate's face and stormed a series of questions. Her tone was of the utmost seriousness and her voice, deeply grave.

"I have some questions for you…" 

The pirate was surprised for a moment at the appearance of a talking crystal. However, he did not pay it much mind and started to truthfully answer her.

He was going to die either way, so there was no point in lying.

Ka'lor'ah's series of questions let the duo gain a comprehensive understanding of Mankind's situation. The pirate, who worked as an 'Intelligence Officer' for the Flying Dutchman, answered to the best of his abilities.

In a nutshell, the situation was as follows;

The pirate group, Flying Dutchman, helmed by three Stage 3 beings was the strongest party amongst the three forces. Their coffers were full, but their forces were lacking. 

In terms of weapons and ammunition, they were self-sufficient owing to the newly gained resources and constant foraging. Being an experienced pirate group, they did not lack stellar battle experience.

The second strongest party was the alien bugs (Formicians), who due to their unique nature were effectively unending and highly adaptable. 

They held the advantage in weapons and technology but lacked experience with their troops and leadership. However, this weakness was quickly disappearing over the constant course of battles. 

Their attention, however, was split between the pirate group and mankind, with their high-level combatants having yet to make an appearance. 

The final party, the native species who originally owned the territories (Mankind), was on its last legs. Both their forces and technology were greatly dwarfed by the two other parties, and they held only a tiny portion of the overall territory (Only the Core Region.) Due to their recent exposure to Rules and Soul Power, their battle experience was also severely lacking.

And as if these factors weren't serious enough to exterminate the species, according to the pirate's words, there also seemed to be some sort of internal conflict amongst the native species. 

There existed two groups of people, one who called themselves 'Sors Fides', who assisted the Formicians with their activities, while the other called the 'Alliance of Mankind' and were against the former.

This internal conflict with both parties actively denouncing and warring with the other, only served to hasten the destruction of the species as a whole.

There was no doubt that the currents events were extremely dire and were the worst outcome possible. Mankind's extinction meant the failure of the 'Great Plan'.

"He's not lying." Having used a spell to confirm the validity of his statements, Ka'lor'ah grimly declared.

She then turned to face Lucius, only to find the latter sporting an extremely malevolent expression. Scathing Peak-Level Stage 2 soul power surged forth from his body. 

"Three years…those pathetic wretches couldn't hold on for three fu*king years!" His fists were so tightly clenched that his nails dug into his skin causing it to bleed.

Looking at Ka'lor'ah with glowing, discolored eyes that leaked with tangible murderous intent, Lucius spoke.

"Tell Olivia to get here this instant. We are leaving immediately."

In all the time that Ka'lor'ah had known the guy, this was the most expressive she had ever seen him. 

Lucius was absolutely furious. And the lid suppressing his emotions was completely off.

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NOTE: Lucius is currently at Peak-Level Stage 2, owing to devouring nearly 400 Stage 2 existences. All racial abilities, other than [State of Devour] were also unlocked during the process.

{Stage 3 Advancement Condition: Kill 5 Stage 3 beings]

[Completion - 1/5]