Lord of Annihilation

"Who are you? Identify yourself!"

Following alongside the stern threat, Anya stepped forth while placing her hands on her weapon by her waist. Her entire demeanor overflowed with heroic majesty and authority.

Of course, this 'majesty' was nothing more than pretend in the Arbiter's eyes, as Olivia unflinchingly replied.

"Do not move, unless you want the headless corpse of your Vice-Leader." Olivia coldly replied, while pressing her sword harder against Reyna's throat, making a light cut.

Seeing the line of blood slide down Reyna's neck, Anya immediately stopped. She understood that the woman in purple was not threatened by her words, and found her aura overshadowed by the latter.

Stopping in place, she instead resorted to glaring at Olivia while waiting for her to make her demands.

Seeing this reaction, Olivia was pleasantly surprised although she did not show it.

'Seems like Reyna is more important than I thought.' She summarized.

'Told ya.' A relaxed Ka'lor'ah replied to her thoughts.

'The value of my chips has increased. If I can correctly use it, I can turn this situation into a more favorable one.'

Realizing this, Olivia did not immediately speak but started to stall for time. She understood that her opponents were in a greater hurry and seized this opportunity to her advantage.

Minutes continued to tick by as tension continued to mount. Both sides were completely silent, save for the quiet whimpers of Reyna.

Seeing that their opponent was not willing to talk, Anya found herself unable to hold back her anger and opened her mouth to speak. Alas, just as the first words were about to leave her mouth, Olivia interrupted her.

"Where am I right now? Specifically, which planet?"

"The Main Base of the Allied Liberation Army situated in the Eastern Continent of Earth." Holding back her anger, Anya replied.

"Date and day?"

"2nd of February, 2325. It's a Wednesday."

"How many soldiers are on the base and what are their strengths?"

"…I can't tell you that." 

Hearing that response, Olivia gently smiled. Her eyes, however, were exceptionally cold and the hands holding the sword moved.

Olivia pulled her sword horizontally at a slow pace creating a fairly deep, clean cut on Reyna's smooth, pale neck. Crimson blood started to trickle down, staining the collars of her silver uniform

Seeing this scene, Anya hurriedly screamed. "Wait, WAIT!!"

Pausing her movements, Olivia looked up and prompted.

"Well?"

Visibly gritting her teeth, Anya spoke through her fuming nostrils. The redness of her face revealed the extent of her anger.

"This base currently houses 30,000 Stage 1 soldiers and 100 Stage 2 officers."

In response, Olivia showed a bigger, more brilliant smile and replied.

"That's a lie. Seems like her life doesn't possess much value." 

[Reveal Lies] was still active allowing Olivia to thoroughly read Anya's expressions and behavior. That being the case, Anya's lie pertaining to the number of soldiers was easily revealed.

Olivia tightened her grip and moved her sword with an extravagant movement. Ka'lor'ah's instructions were still clear in her mind and Olivia did not plan to kill Reyna.

She only wanted to use this opportunity to intimidate them and gain the greater initiative in the negotiation. 

Seeing a copious amount of blood fall from Reyna's throat alongside her startled screams, Anya's face finally lost its composure, resulting in her intervention.

"Please stop that! It was my fault for lying! Please stop hurting her!!"

Listening to her pleas, Olivia did not reply but patiently waited.

"There are 30,000 gunmen of which 25,000 are Mid-Level Stage 1 and 5,000 are Peak-Level Stage 1. One hundred and twenty officers of Low-Level Stage 2 and four Mid-Level Stage 2s, inclusive of me, Alex, Jack, and Illya, make up our forces."

"Apart from these, there are thousands of service and non-military staff, who are of Low-Level Stage 1 strength."

This time, [Reveal Lies] did not show any response.

'Seems to be the truth. Their individual battle experience seems to be very weak and they are not aware of many of the soul power usages and abilities. If I can get my men to teleport here, I will have the strongest combat force on the base.'

'I instructed Wilkes to gather all the forces near the cave in an hour's time. There are still 40 minutes to go.  I need to buy more time.'

Arriving at this conclusion, Olivia took a peek into her mindspace to see how much soul power had been refilled. 

'90% after healing all of my injuries… If I go all out, I can take out everyone gathered within this room.' 

"Who's your leader? I want to speak with them." Olivia demanded.

"Our leader is Lady Illya from the Roseberg family. If you want to talk to her I can take you to her. If you could just fol—NOW!!!" Amidst her recitation, Anya suddenly screamed before kicking off the ground.

Being at the highest stage of alert, Olivia had been closely monitoring every single action of the people gathered before her. As such, the instant Anya acted, Olivia promptly reacted.

First, she threw Reyna behind her, creating distance between the humans and her. 

Next, she exploded out with her aura coupled together with [Intimidate], forcing the assailants to instinctively slow down.

'Now, starting with the two Mid-Levels in the front…' 

Just as Olivia was about to use their delay to dish out the first blow, her body suddenly stiffened as an invisible wave hit her.

The soul power within Olivia's body suddenly turned sluggish and started to rampage within her body. Intense pain, similar to her body being cut from the inside filled Olivia's mind.

"ARGH--!!" A scream involuntarily escaped Olivia's mouth, only to be forcibly suppressed by her conscious will.

Forcing her eyes open, Olivia bit down upon her lips with enough intensity to draw blood. She couldn't afford to lose herself to the pain when faced with the furious assault of two Mid-Level Stage 2s.

'Must endure!!' This single thought resounded within Olivia's mind.

'Strange. Very strange. They seem to have some sort of attack aimed at making one lose control of the soul power within one's body. Split a part of your focus and block the waves assaulting your body. You should regain control of your soul power then.'

Ka'lor'ah who hid within Olivia's armor analyzed her current situation and responded.

She had mostly been quiet previously, with no intention of inserting herself into Olivia's predicament. Apart from instructing her not to kill Reyna, Ka'lor'ah silently watched.

After all, in her eyes, everyone here apart from Reyna was completely worthless. They had no value in the Great Plan and hence, no interest in the eyes of this ex-Stage 7 entity.

However, the strange attack on Olivia had aroused her interest, prompting her to help her disciple out. Having said that, Ka'lor'ah once again turned silent.

Only through conflict and danger could a person grow. To bring out the full potential of a person, they had to constantly face death.

Nodding her head to her teacher's words, Olivia acted. 

Enduring the pain assaulting her mind, Olivia who was now unable to properly control her soul power, kicked off of the ground and jumped back. 

The attacks of Anya and Jack were already upon her and she needed to evade them, before buying a few moments of peace to sort the issue with her body.

BANG!

Anya's heavy spear and Jack's sharp sword light landed in the position where Olivia had previously been in. Their fruitless attack did not dampen their spirits as they continued to chase after Olivia with visible passion.

"To dare threaten me with the life of a friend, you will pay for this!!" Anya bellowed.

"Such a gorgeous looking face and fantastic body, coupled with fearless personality. If you're willing to surrender and submit to me, I wouldn't mind taking you in as my wife and protecting you. I allow no harm to befall my women." Jack's shameless shout soon followed.

Olivia, however, heard neither of them and was completely focused. She used part of her attention to dodge the attacks of the two Stage 2 beings by a hair's breadth and the remainder of the attention on stopping the invisible waves from striking her body. 

The furious attacks continued and Olivia's nerve-racking evasions put the onlookers at the edge of their seats. With her experience and foresight, Olivia was able to barely keep up with the soul power fueled attacks and movements of the two.

This fight made clear the difference between the combat prowess of humans within Mankind's territory and Olivia, who had left for the Universe. (Although, the comparison isn't exactly fair, since Olivia was personally tutored by Lucius -albeit only on the basics- who was known as the 'Strongest below Them'.)

Dozens of attacks and minutes of fruitless engagement started to wear down on the patience of the two Mid-Level attackers. Anya, who was the first to lose her patience, used her ability.

"[Wind Cutter]"

Soul power solidified outside of her body and formed five green, crescent-shaped blades of wind. Locking onto Olivia's figure, they instantly disappeared and headed towards the target.

Unable to use her soul power, Olivia was unable to immediately identify this attack. As such, when it arrived next to her body, it was too late to react.

'I can't dodge this!'

Closing her eyes, Olivia curled her body to mitigate the maximum damage possible. 

It was then….

"ALL OF YOU!! STOP AT ONCE!!"

A figure suddenly appeared next to her and blocked the blades of wind.