Lord of Annihilation

Subject to that roar, Alex and Olivia felt the metaphorical sledgehammer smash against their heads. Unable to hold the weight of their bodies, their knees buckled under the pressure.

Intense dizziness pervaded their minds as blood started to steadily flow from their facial orifices. Still, holding onto their remaining bits of consciousness with all of the willpower they could muster, they locked their gazes on the 5m tall giant and tracked its movements.

If the creature was to head towards them, they would be powerless to resist and indubitably die.

Fortunately, the creature seemed to turn its head in the opposite direction. After sniffing at the air a few more times, it bent its humongous knees before leaping up with incredible might.

Seeing this Olivia let out a huge sigh of relief. However, Alex saw his face pale further.

"We have to chase him!!!" he yelled, spitting out a mouthful of blood during the process.

Olivia, who had her eyes closed and was focused on treating her injuries, uncaringly replied.

"And then what? Die? That's an actual Stage 3 existence, Alex. If we approach it without a plan, we will definitely die."

"But the residential camps are that way! If we let that thing go, hundreds of thousands of people will die!"

Hearing his cries, Olivia did not reply. Having personally come in contact with them, she understood better than Alex about the real strength of Stage 3 beings.

They were an existence that couldn't be surpassed by the likes of Stage 2 beings. In this part of the Universe, they were god-like beings.

Still, unlike Lucius, Olivia possessed a trace of a human heart. 

The thought of tens of thousands of innocent men dying, women violated and children eaten, at the hands of a vile creature like a Scrofanian, angered her to no small extent.

"We cannot win against that creature. We simply cannot." Olivia slowly spoke.

Disappointed at her answer, Alex was about to furiously retort when Olivia interrupted him first.

"But we cannot let that thing roam freely either. We need to draw it away and try our best to kill it." 

Having sufficiently recovered from her injuries, Olivia stood up, albeit from shaky feet, and extended her hand towards Alex. 

"Get up. Every second that we waste, more people die." 

Looking at the figure of this beautiful woman whose countenance overflowed with heroic grace and majesty, Alex felt his emotions stir. Respect, awe, and a variety of other emotions filled his heart.

For a moment, he could not help but think: would he have looked the same way had he followed Lucius on his journey? Would he have achieved power that was equal or greater than this?

Shaking his head, Alex grabbed onto Olivia's hand and rose to his feet. There was no regret in his eyes. Instead, clear determination filled his face.

"You seem to understand that creature better. I'll follow your instructions." Alex announced.

Hearing that, a small smile appeared on Olivia's face as she asked.

"Glad to hear that. But first, I need to know about everything that this planet has. Secret weapons, hidden forces, and the likes. If we want to have any chance at all, we cannot hold back."

Nodding his head in understanding, Alex started to tell her everything. 

The light within Olivia's eyes continued to shine brighter and brighter as she heard his explanation. A plan formed within her mind, as a peculiar smile appeared on her face.

"Get these two to safety and gather every officer you can. Send a team to the Orbital Control Station, a team to the Artificial Weather Control Station, a team to the—" Olivia started to rapidly give him instructions.

Alex earnestly nodded his head. Although he couldn't understand Olivia's plan in its entirety, he still chose to trust her words. 

"—the ambush will be here." Pointing to a map on her watch, Olivia continued. "As for leading it there, leave it to me and my men."

"Did you understand everything?" Olivia asked to which Alex nodded his head.

At this point, a few minutes had passed since the Stage 3 Scrofanian's arrival. Time was ticking by rapidly, and they had to immediately act.

Turning around and walking towards the now-windowless window, Olivia looked down to estimate the distance and gave Alex his final instruction.

"Good. Keep your comms on and immediately report to me when the teams get in place." 

With that, she leapt out of the window.

Alex blankly stood there for a few seconds, before shaking his head to recover from his stupor. He moved to wake Illya and Reyna, all whilst thinking to himself.

'You sure are one lucky guy, Lucius.'

His mind then flashed him an image of his wife, at which point, Alex's smile grew brighter.

'But I guess I'm not that bad either.'

------------

Making her way through the collapsed rubble and broken buildings, Olivia tried contacting her forces.

"Hello? Captain Wilkes? Ro'an? Hughes? Can anyone hear me?" 

No reply came through, except for the white noise of static. A few dozen seconds, when a reply finally arrived after dozens of repetitions.

"Boss? You're fine! Thank the gods!"

"Captain Ro'an? Are you guys good?" Olivia hurriedly asked.

"Just a few tears and scratches here and there, nothing major. That roar was terrifying though, most of us had our eardrums explode." Ro'an light-heartedly replied.

Soul power had the miraculous effect of even regenerating lost limbs. In comparison, broken eardrums were minor injuries.

"That's good. Listen up, gather everyone able and meet me at this place. " Olivia quickly sent him a location.

"Are we fighting that thing, Boss?" Ro'an asked.

"Why? Are you scared?" Olivia challenged.

"Hahaha! Not at all, Boss! My hands have actually been itching to fight that thing. I wonder how killing a Stage 3 would feel like." Ro'an confidently announced.

"You will find out soon. Get moving and meet me there soon!"

Closing the comms, Olivia accelerated her pace.

A fight with a Stage 3 being was looming on the horizon and this time there was no Lucius or Ka'lor'ah to help her.

'I must succeed!'

-----------

Ten or so minutes later, Olivia met up with Captain Ro'an, Captain Wilkes, and the remaining two hundred plus of her group. A few from the group had died due to being caught off-guard by the Stage 3's attack, but alas, there was no time to mourn them now.

While moving, Olivia explained her plan to the rest of the group. After confirming that all of them had a sufficient understanding of the plan, she split them into numbered groups and gave specific instructions to each group.

Before long, the group had traversed nearly a hundred kilometers on foot, arriving before the residential encampment, where she had last seen the Scrofanian heading.

Seeing the broken walls, raging fires, and eerie silence within, Olivia immediately knew that she had arrived too late. The group then proceeded to enter the encampment, after confirming that no traps lay on their path.

It was a hellish sight.

Broken buildings, half-eaten corpses, women whose bodies were twisted in horrible manners after having unspeakable acts forced upon them, men whose heads were crushed and bodies were stepped on upon.

The asphalt roads lay broken with sewage water flooding the streets as a result of broken pipes. The dirty water was further tainted with crimson blood, as the recently deceased bodies of the human inhabitants continued to silently float.

The group carefully traversed these lands, taking care to not accidently step on a corpse.

BOOM!!

A sudden explosion made all of them flinch and assume battle posture. However, the few seconds of silence following that explosion informed them of the true nature of that explosion.

"Some gas or fuel-based explosion. It's not an attack." Olivia announced.

They released a unison sigh of relief, before continuing onward. However, the harrowing sights surrounding them still dampened their moods.

"F*ck! What a beast!" one of the soldiers spat hatefully, as he saw the mangled corpse of a female child.

While the people from Pectron may be of a different race or species it did not stop them from feeling for the dead humans. Mankind was remarkably similar to Terrans, albeit being smaller and leaner.

Seeing a fellow intelligent race in such a distraught state, made them feel angered nonetheless.

Although none of them possessed the soul type to hear or see the spirits of the dead, they could still sense the bemoaned cries of tens of thousands of wronged spirits.

When the group had almost made their way out of the encampment, Olivia's watch buzzed and Alex's voice followed.

"Olivia, I'm almost done gathering the survivors and organizing the teams. Have you caught up with that beast yet?"

"No." Olivia replied disheartened, "It has already destroyed the nearest encampment. Not a single person survived."

"Wha--?! But it's only been thirty minutes since its arrival!!" Alex screamed. 

"Stage 3 are completely different existences. We are on our way towards the next encampment. Hopefully, we catch up to it." Olivia announced.

Taking a few seconds to calm himself down, Alex replied with a heavy tone.

"Roger that. I should be done on my side by then and will head towards the ambush site. Let's kill this beast!!" The call was then cut.

Turning to face the group following her, Olivia announced.

"We are picking up our pace. Let's catch that bastard at the next encampment!"

At the fall of her words, the group accelerated once more.