Lord of Annihilation

Less than 20 minutes later, Olivia followed by an entourage of 300 armored guards entered the pirate spaceship and met with Ka'lor'ah in the hangar.

Seeing the floating golden crystal, Olivia promptly announced. "I'm here, teacher."

"Mhm. What's with the group?"

Nodding to her disciple's announcement, Ka'lor'ah gestured to the large group of warriors curiously scouting the interiors of the spaceship.

"I just thought that we might need some manpower for our journey. All of them are Stage 2 with the five directly behind me at Mid-Level." Olivia explained, while pointing to the five armored guards directly behind her.

Noticing a foreign gaze land on their body, the five Mid-Level Stage 2 guards unconsciously stiffened up. They looked at the golden floating crystal and felt an indescribable pressure upon their soul. Terrified, they quickly lowered their eyes.

Olivia's thoughtfulness served to improve Ka'lor'ah sullen mood. 

"Good job. I suppose you can have them start by helping out around this spaceship."

Sighing to herself, she continued. "We have a slight manpower issue," pointing to the 30 pirates lifelessly staring at the large group.

Knowing that this wasn't the right time for questions, Olivia quickly split the armored guards into multiple groups and appointed leaders for each group. The five Mid-Level Stage 2 guards served as her deputy and overlooked the groups. 

With the division of labor complete, the guards quickly got to work. First, they started to unload the various crates containing essentials, like food, water, clothes, armor, weapons…etc. 

A few boxes which contained Olivia's items were left untouched and were carefully placed in a secure place within the hanger. These boxes contained Olivia's personal belongings, including her enormous wealth.

The above process were efficiently completed within 15 minutes, after which the guards started to get to work within the ship. Led by the original inhabitants of the ship- the pirates- they started to help out.

Olivia then asked a few questions pertaining to the readiness of the ship and the time required for departure.

"If everything goes to plan, the ship will be ready to depart in about an hour." The pirate in charge of Ship Operations, answered. 

Upon answering her questions, the man did not dare to waste any more time and quickly got to work. Just imagining the angered face of that monster made him tremble at his knees.

With everyone leaving the hanger to get busy with their assigned jobs, the only ones left were Ka'lor'ah and Olivia.

"What happened? Why the sudden urgency? Where's Lucius?" Olivia beautiful violet eyes stared worriedly at her teacher.

Sighing aloud, Ka'lor'ah repeated the explanation previously given by the pirate, filling Olivia in on the details. 

The more Olivia heard, the paler her face became. When she heard that Mankind was on its last legs with most of its territories and people lost to the war, tears started appearing within her eyes.

But this wasn't the time to cry. One mustn't resign themselves to hopelessness without first fighting back. 

Olivia knew this and hence forcibly held in her emotions while taking deep breaths to calm her mind. Once calmed, she looked at Ka'lor'ah and asked.

"How long will it take us to get there?" 

"According to the guy in charge of navigation- two weeks." 

Olivia nodded her head. The sooner they could get there the better would be their chance at turning around the situation.

As for how they would do it, she had no idea.

Olivia mind started coming up with plans based on her understanding on the situation. However, she found herself unable to properly focus and was frequently distracted.

Looking at the cluster of emotions and complex feelings within her eyes, Ka'lor'ah came to an understanding. Flying closer to Olivia, she asked.

"Follow my instructions and draw this formation on the ground using your blood."  While saying so, she transmitted an image of a runic array into Olivia's mind.

"What's this formati--?"

"Stop asking questions and just do as I say!" Ka'lor'ah sharply rebutted.

Obeying her teacher's words, Olivia quickly began with the drawing. This being her first time drawing an array, Olivia made a lot of mistakes. 

Of course, Ka'lor'ah being as understanding as she is, responded in like.

"Hey, hey, what the hell is this? You call this a straight line? This is as straight as a Bronchian's sexuality!" (AN: Bronchian's are a unique race known to reproduce with members of the same gender. Interestingly, all Bronchian's are males…let that sink in.)

"No! The circles have to be thicker! Use more of your blood, idiot!"

"Tch, it's incorrect once again! Erase and redraw this part."

"No, no, no, the letters are all wrong! What are you trying to do? Summon a demon?"

"Oh Lord, how can a person be so hopeless in drawing a simple array? Was I too hasty in choosing her as my disciple?" Ka'lor'ah mumbled in a hesitant voice.

"Teacher!" Olivia was on the verge of crying. 

She was subject to more mental and verbal abuse in the last 30 minutes, than she had ever received in the entirety of her life. 

While Ka'lor'ah was usually easy-going with the people she took a liking too, she never held back when it came to the subject of teaching. 

To tell the truth, it wasn't Olivia's fault at being so bad at drawing runic arrays. One required a special talent to handle runes. 

A talent that appeared only in less than 1% of all living things, making one suitable to become a Sigiler.

While Olivia was very talented in other things, she was simply too normal at handling runes.

"If not for this array requiring the user to draw it for it to function, I would've never let you butcher this sacred art!" Ka'lor'ah coldly scolded.

Another 30 minutes passed before the runic formation was finally complete. Olivia collapsed next to it, severely drained of energy and blood. Her soul power started to passively operate and slowly replenished her blood.

"This will do…it's barely passable." Ka'lor'ah's voice sounded from somewhere above.

"Now infuse your soul power into this array." 

Too tired to ask anything, Olivia dragged herself up and placed both her hands atop the runic formation. She then started to infuse her soul power into the complex array.

Time ticked by and complex, mysterious letters started to glow and appear atop the array. Olivia's eyes were drawn into these mystical patterns, growing enchanted at their sights.

The mysterious letters continued to flash for a few minutes, before collapsing in on themselves and forming a new symbol at the center of the array.

The symbol was composed of a regular-looking tree surrounded by a large number of strange mechanical ants. Atop the tree's canopy was a small-sized sun fiercely burning, providing warmth and nourishment to the tree.

Olivia looked at this symbol with a confused expression, before turning to face her teacher.

Upon seeing Olivia's confused look, Ka'lor'ah chuckled before asking. "You were worried about your father weren't you?" 

Olivia's pupils froze and her hands faintly trembled. Holding back her emotions she asked with a hoarse voice. "…is he alright?"

"Well, you can see that symbol, can't you? That array has the simple function of divining someone or something's current situation. Since you drew it with your own blood, the divination points to your only blood relative."

"In simpler terms, he's doing absolutely fine! Actually, he seems to be more than fine. Thriving, in fact." Ka'or'ah gently explained.

The moment Olivia heard that she felt an indescribable sense of freedom and relief wash over her. Tears slowly dripped from her eyes carrying away her guilt and worries. 

"Thank you," she spoke while wiping away her tears.

Getting up from the ground, Olivia performed a complete bow signifying her gratitude to Ka'lor'ah. From this moment forth, Olivia respected Ka'lor'ah from the bottom of her heart, completely accepting the latter as her teacher.

Of course, Ka'lor'ah recognized this change and wholeheartedly welcomed it. Albeit lacking a face, a smug aura radiated off of her crystal body.

Tremble! Tremble!

The whole ship suddenly trembled with mild intensity as it rose into the air. Just then, an armored guard could be seen running towards Olivia.

"Lady Governor, all preparations are complete. We can start the journey with your command." The guard spoke with suppressed excitement. After all, it was his first time leaving this planet.

Olivia turned to look at Ka'lor'ah who nodded her body as a show of affirmation.

"Relay my instructions. We can begin." 

And with that, the group finally left Pectron heading towards the war between a pirate group, an invading species, and Mankind.

----------

"Now to address the bigger problem…" Walking through the ship's long hallways constructed out of some strange metal, were the duo of Ka'lor'ah and Olivia.

Coming to a junction, the duo turned left and walked further into the heart of the spaceship. Unlike the previous areas which were populated with the people whom Olivia had brought aboard, this area was completely secluded.

Walking for a few minutes, the duo simultaneously came to a pause. It wasn't that they couldn't go further, but that their bodies refused to move past this point.

An unimaginable amount of pressure forced their minds and bodies to freeze. Looking into the empty corridor, one could see bloodlust and murderous intent materialize into the air in the form of ominous crimson winds. 

Each time the wind blew within the corridor, deep scratched formed on the walls and floors of the corridor. This was not the result of a direct attack, nor did it contain any amount of soul power.

These scratches and gullies were the results of uncontrolled murderous intent released by Lucius' soul.