Lord of Annihilation

"[Eviscerate]" 

A voice that carried with it the will of Death resounded near Jaros' ears. Lucius' scythe containing an incredible amount of [Annihilation Energy] swung down.

Hardly having had the time to react, Jaros had barely finished turning his head when a wave of energy-containing millions of threads of compressed light crashed down upon his body.

"ARGH!!!"

Similar to a hot flame meeting a pool of fuel, the [Annihilation Energy] met Jaros' body and tore through it with similar intensity. Ignoring the exterior armor, it entered his physical body and started to, quite literally, eviscerate his body, energy, and even his soul!

"ARGH! STOP THIS!! IT BURNS! IT BURNSS!!!!" Jaros uncontrollably howled, unable to bear this pain.

'That should do it.' 

Having delivered the finishing fatal blow, Lucius' body went slack and the Field surrounding him disappeared. Although he possessed a ridiculous amount of soul power within his mindspace, a full-fledged battle against a veritable Stage 3 had completely drained him.

The very instant the Field surrounding him disappeared, the pressure of the Domain pressed upon him. Like a comet crashing onto Earth, Lucius' body started to fall towards the ground at great speeds.

Breaking past the cloud layer, Lucius' body started to gain momentum as it approached the ground while constantly gaining speed. The force with which his body would slam against the ground was scarcely imaginable.

However, not a single sign of tension could be seen on Lucius' face. His bald, unclothed body clutching onto his scythe with his right hand was as calm as ever.

'With this guy dead, that brings the kill count to two. Three more and I will be able to ascend to Stage 3. With the current conditions, I should be able to achieve it before long.' 

Leaving himself to the mercy of the wind, Lucius calmly thought to himself.

'First things first, I need to find out where I am. I cannot feel Ka'lor'ah's presence anywhere near me and our soul link is extremely faint. Looks like she went ahead towards Mankind's territory to check the situation there.'

'I need to get over there soon.' 

Having almost neared the ground, Lucius, lazily falling at gravity's mercy, suddenly moved. 

Curling his body into a ball, he reoriented himself, facing his feet towards the ground while extending the scythe diagonally. 

At the very instant, he made this change the swampy ground beneath him suddenly bubbled and a large mouth jumped towards his body with visible excitement.

The very moment Lucius' body was within his range, it immediately chomped down, intending to rend his flesh with its teeth.

Alas, Lucius did not allow that to happen.

Just as the beast's teeth were inches away from his body, Lucius rolled the horizontally placed scythe in his hands in such a way that its bladed end hooked onto the gap between the teeth of the beast. 

Having successfully hooked the weapon, he then exerted force to drive the blade in, impaling its soft flesh.

GROWL!!!

A beastly roar of pain that threatened to tear apart the atmosphere sounded out. An unimaginable amount of pain assaulted the beast's mind, as it desperately floundered to rid itself of this foreign entity. 

However, the struggles of the beast only served to worsen the situation as the scythe's edge started to dig deeper into its flesh.

When most of the blade's edge had impaled itself into the beast's mouth, Lucius exerted his entire weight on the tail end of the scythe, while using the teeth of the beast as a lever. 

Lucius had effectively constructed a springboard, mid-air, with one end lodged deeply, a tooth acting as a lever point, and the counter-force exerted by his body's weight!

CRACK!

Letting go of the scythe, Lucius jumped outward while being assisted by the counterforce and exited the beast's deadly maw. Rotating once final time mid-air, Lucius firmly landed on the muddy ground with his feet.

'That worked well.' 

Looking at the beast thrashing about, struggling to remove the source of its pain –the scythe- from its mouth, Lucius thought to himself with satisfaction. 

His aerial maneuvers were a fantastic display of bodily control and gymnastics!

As for the scythe that was still lodged into the beast's mouth, Lucius wasn't too worried. He would simply have to wait for the Domain to disperse and for the beast to disappear, before simply collecting the scythe of the ground.

'Although, I definitely did hear an audible crack in that final moment. It's definitely damaged now.' Lucius sighed.

The pressure surrounding his body slackened and started to slowly disappear. The ground, the clouds, and the winds started to dissipate and dissolve into nothingness.

The floundering beast beside Lucius also started to turn mechanical in its movements, as its body started to stiffen and break down. 

This marked the dissolution of the Domain and the death of Jaros. 

-----------

After waiting for the Domain to completely dissolve, Lucius then retrieved his scythe and inspected it for damages. 

A good number of chips and cracks had appeared on the blade's edge, with the most noticeable damage being a long fracture running along the length of the body.

'Serious, but not as bad as I thought. It can still be used.' 

Ignoring the silent cries originating from the weapon, Lucius swung it a few times before placing it within the [Void Storage].

He then extended his soul power, scanning the surroundings. 

'A large crater has formed on the ground over there. That must be where his body must've fallen.' Confirming the location, Lucius used [Void Travel] to instantly close the distance and collected the body. 

Due to missing the 'five-second window', Jaros' soul had already returned to Limbo and only his body remained. Lucius did not regret the loss and carefully inspected the body.

A large amount of [Annihilation Energy] could still be felt rampaging within the body, destroying the muscles and cells within the body. Lucius calmly waved his hand to quell the energy, stopping it from causing any further damage.

'The battle drained a significant amount of energy. Eating this must allow me to replenish most of the spent energy.' 

Just as Lucius was about to start his meal, he suddenly stopped and look towards a certain hill. The instant his eyes transfixed themselves towards the hill, he noticed a very quick movement beyond the hill's mount.

Ignoring the body, Lucius instantly used [Void Step] to appear near the hill. The very instant that he arrived, he was met with the cry of a singular Terran. 

"Please don't kill me!!" 

Sprawled on the barren surface with tears on his face, the Terran Vice-Captain whose body noticeably shook from fear, begged Lucius.

"I beg you! Please don't kill me!! Please!!"

'Oh, I forgot about these guys.' Lucius belatedly realized.

Between losing control of his body, nearly dying due to his recklessness, and the life-or-death battle against Jaros, it was no wonder that Lucius had forgotten about these small fry pirates.

"Weren't there more of you?" Lucius curiously asked as he remembered seeing twenty or so alive before his battle against Jaros.

"Th-they a-all di-died with-hin the Do-domain." The Terran nervously spat out.

'I see.' Lucius nodded his head. He then asked. "How did you people get here."

Seeing that he wasn't going to instantly die in the hands of this monster, the Terran calmed down by a large extent and gathered his wits. He then started to explain.

"We got here using one of the spaceships of the crew."

Lucius' eyes glowed at that answer and asked.

"Is it still there? Did it get destroyed?"

The Terran pirate gave a bitter smile, before answering.

"It should still be safe and currently in unmanned orbit. We were just about to call it and leave, when…your battle happened." Absolute terror flashed across the Terran's eyes when he referenced the battle.

'That solves the issue of transportation.' Lucius felt relieved. 

"Call the ship down here. We will leave this planet in a moment." Lucius instructed before turning back.

Hearing that instruction, the Terran pirate was greatly surprised and involuntarily asked. "You aren't going to kill me?" He then immediately shut his mouth in horror.

'Ah, you idiot! Why wouldn't you let bygones be bygones and instead ask such a question! You should've rejoiced when that monster didn't immediately kill you!'

Despair appeared on the Terran's face, as his thoughts continued.

'Well, this is the end of the line I guess. My luck was already pushed to the limit when I somehow survived that hellish battle.' 

He closed his eyes in resignation.

It was then…

"Why would I kill you?" Lucius turned around, before continuing. "That ship is not going to pilot itself." 

Staring at the dumbfounded face of the Terran, the look in Lucius' eyes sharpened as he asked.

"Unless you don't know how to pilot? Then I suppose…"

"NO! I CAN!! PLEASE SPARE ME!!" Immediately jumping to his feet, the Terran pirate started to run in the opposite direction while fiddling with a device mounted on his arm.

'I need to be productive, lest that monster kills me!' With the singular thought of survival within his mind, the Terran pirate ran.

"Wait!" 

That was until Lucius' cold voice stopped him at his feet.

"Undress and leave behind your clothes first." 

Horror appeared within the Terran's eyes, albeit this time for a completely different reason.