Lord of Annihilation

Alex's gaze was fixed upon the blurry silhouette as he waited for the smoke to clear. His instincts, honed through three years of battle warned him of the assailant's danger.

'Such dense murderous aura. This person is dangerous.' 

Thinking as such, he moved the crying Reyna behind his back and started preparing for battle.

'Question is…who is this person? And how did they get in here?'

It was then, that the smoke finally cleared and the face of the assailant was revealed. 

Looking at that beautiful figure, Alex was first confused, before being overcome with shock.

"Wait is tha—!!" His shout was stopped mid-cry as Olivia attacked.

"[Strengthen Self]. [Reveal Lies]." 

Having completed her dual chant, violet soul power moved to empower Olivia's body. 

[Strengthen Self] was one of the earliest spells of the [Soul Suppressor], and had the effect of increasing all of the user's physical abilities and senses by nearly 200%.

[Reveal Lies] was a spell from the Arbiter inheritance and had the effect of exposing all that is false. To simply put, it could detect lies and render feints useless, as it allowed the user to very closely observe the target.

The two spells dropped Olivia's soul power reserves by a noticeable amount but had also elevated her combat prowess by one level.

Carrying strength that equaled a Peak-Level Stage 2, Olivia dished out her first attack. She had noticed Alex's flustered demeanor and exploited it to her advantage.

"Wai- Ah, shit!" 

Seeing the sword unhesitantly head towards his throat, Alex was forced to react. Flames covered both of his arms, which he then raised to block the attacks.

BANG!

The sword's edge landed on Alex's arms and resulted in a loud explosion. Olivia stumbled back a few steps while Alex was sent flying. He then crashed onto the white walls of the room, resulting in a minor cave-in.

'Fuu...' Taking in a deep breath, Olivia spread out her soul power and scanned the caved-in area to find Alex. She knew that he wasn't dead and had managed to withstand the force of her attack.

"ALEX!!" Reyna cried out loud, which earned her a cold stare from Olivia.

"Shut up." Olivia curtly ordered.

Staring into those glowing violet eyes, the fear from earlier returned, prompting Reyna to immediately shut up. She used her trembling hands to cover her mouth and tears started to flow down her eyes once again.

Of course, Olivia couldn't care less about her feelings since any relationship that the two previously had, had been rendered null the moment the latter (Reyna) had ordered to kill the former (Olivia).

Anyways, Olivia's glowing eyes sharpened once again as her soul power detected the rising temperature at the scene of the cave-in. Intense heat started to radiate within the room as a blue-colored light appeared within the dust.

Rising to form the silhouette of a full adult figure, the blue light suddenly flashed as it moved with great speeds. Seeing Alex charge towards her, Olivia did not retreat but instead, met his charge.

In the three years spent in Pandemonium, Olivia had always trained her body to improve her speeds to a point where it could match Lucius'. While she did not succeed in matching him, she did get very close.

That is to say, while the human-shaped blue light was fast, Olivia was faster under the empowerment of her soul power.

Raising her sword up high, energy started to flow in her weapon and crescent-shaped energy took shape. Upon reaching a suitable power, Olivia swung down her sword releasing three slashes of blade energy.

The three slashed quickly closed the remaining distance between the two figures and was aimed at Alex's head, chest, and legs respectively. However, the attacks weren't effective as it was soon revealed that Alex's combat experience was on a whole 'nother level compared to the guards.

Effectively estimating the reach and distance of the three attacks, Alex moved his body in an ideal manner. 

Tilting his head solved the first attack, twisting his body solved the second, and jumping up with both his legs solved the third. However, just before he could celebrate, his pupils suddenly shrunk as Olivia's sword appeared in front of him.

With [Reveal Lies], Olivia had preemptively predicted Alex's evasion pattern and simply waited for him to appear in a position, where he could not dodge.

With his head turned, body sideways, and legs in the air, this was the most opportune moment. 

Watching himself rapidly approach the sharp tip of the sword aimed at his heart, Alex lost his composure and panicked. If he failed to react properly, his heart would be destroyed by Olivia's attack.

Sure, Alex had gained a lot of battle experience from the three years of war. However, his battles were always planned and he had never fought with an opponent stronger than him. That is to say, Alex lacked life-threatening encounters.

Olivia on the other hand was the exact opposite. She had been placed in an environment where everyone was stronger than her and the slightest of mistakes would result in death. And having faced such an environment, she had come out victorious.

'Checkmate.' Olivia mentally thought to herself, as she felt the tip of her sword cut through Alex's barrier of fire.

At this moment, faced with certain death, Alex's potential seemed to explode.

He instinctively detonated the barrier of Mid-Level Stage 2 flames surrounding him, trigger a large explosion.

BOOOM!!!

Caught off-guard, Olivia was not able to fully react. The force of the explosion broke her stance and disarmed her of her sword. Waves of heat assaulted her body, with her violet soul power furiously working to stave off as much as possible.

She was sent flying back and multiple burn marks appeared throughout her body. Still, the damage was mitigated as much as possible, as her armor and robes lessened the impact of the explosion by a large amount.

BANG!

Alex was also flung back by the explosion and hadn't managed to avoid the effects of the explosion. While one's soul power shouldn't be able to harm its user that is not the case when it is detonated. 

Detonating soul power results in the release of pure, destructive energy. If mishandled it would explode and that is why control over one's soul power was important.

The two figures slammed into walls on opposite sides of the room. Alex was slightly better off since his main attribute was Fire and therefore sustained lesser damage. However, the explosion had knocked him unconscious.

Olivia, on the other hand, had more injuries compared to him but was the first to recover.

'Argh…shit this is bad!' Cursing within her mind, Olivia suppressed the pain and forced herself to stand up. 

Her vision was blurry and her heady was dizzy, both aftereffects of the explosion. Still, with the effects of [Strengthen Self] in effect, he managed to recover faster. Observing the battlefield, she noticed that Alex hadn't gotten up and slightly relaxed.

'42% of soul power remaining and more than a minute has passed.' 

Circulating the remaining soul power, Olivia started to heal her injuries. Her armor had multiple burn marks and had mostly blackened on the front, while her robes had multiple tears and singes.

'I need to get out of here.'

Staying here meant facing the reinforcements with her tired and injured body while running away would buy her some time to recover.

Still, the situation would still remain grim as she was amidst enemy territory and had no knowledge of the said territory.

'Enemy territory...heh, how ironic.' Olivia mentally scoffed and began to move.

It was then, that the sounds of dozens of footsteps echoed through the tunnel accompanied by shouts.

"Reinforcements had arrived! We have this area locked down! What's happening?"

"Is this an attack by the Formicians?! Have they discovered our teleportation arrays?"

"Alex?! Are you in there?" 

Less than four minutes had passed since Olivia had started fighting and reinforcements had already arrived.

Seeing that the precariousness of her situation had gone through the roof, Olivia immediately moved.

Grabbing her sword which laid on the ground, she instantly appeared next to the trembling Reyna and placed the sword on her throat.

"Everyone stop! Move and I'll kill her!!" Olivia bellowed.

The reinforcements who had just arrived paused for a moment to understand what was happening. 

A broken teleportation array, multiple collapsed walls, dozens of dead bodies and dozens more unconscious ones, a purple figure holding on to their Vice-Leader at sword point, the scene was complex…to say the least.

Olivia keenly observed the incoming reinforcements and her heart sank at their numbers.

'At least fifty Peak-Level Stage 1 gunmen with ten Low-Level Stage 2s leading them in the front. The black-haired woman and the blonde-haired man in the front are at Mid-Level Stage 2, much weaker than me but unfortunately in peak condition.'

'I need to be smart about this to survive.' 

Olivia's mind furiously churned as she tried to come up with a solution to her predicament. 

She currently found herself alone in a weakened state, surrounded by multiple enemies. Save for the struggling Reyna whom she held as a hostage, Olivia had no advantage in this current scenario.

'I should've brought some of my men with me.' She belatedly thought to herself.

"Whoa, what happened here? Who's the purple beauty?" a fickle voice, which Olivia recognized to be the blonde-haired man, spoke first.

"Who are you? Identify yourself!" the following sentence was spoken in a stern tone by the black-haired woman.

These two arrivals were Jack White and Anya Balliol, respectively.