Lord of Annihilation

"Disappointing."

Standing at the front of a crowded conference room, Lucius looked at the pale-faced humans in front of him and stated.

"All of you humans are absolutely disappointing."

Hearing his declaration, the people seated within the conference room hung their heads in shame. The crow mostly consisted of people in the ages of twenties and thirties, with a sparse count of the older generation. After all, the relentless war for survival had rid Mankind of its experienced, older populace. 

"Three years, you were pushed to the point of near annihilation in three years. How did that happen?" Lucius rhetorically asked

"Jealousy, greed, avarice, in-fighting, betrayals, the more I learn of the happenings over the last three years, the more I realize…how pathetic this race truly is."

Lucius' face then turned towards a group of young soldiers centered around Anya. She was one of the only people who continued to look at Lucius' face while the latter was demeaning the crowd. 

However, her face did not contain anger or embarrassment like the others who had lowered their head. Her face seemed to say 'I will accept all responsibilities'.

Alex's disappearance had caused an unfathomable change in Anya's character. Her temperamental nature had disappeared, replaced by sternness and coldness. 

"You." Lucius' gaze landed on Anya and asked.

"You were one of the humans at the forefront of the war and high in authority, correct?" 

"Yes." Anya rose to her feet and curtly replied.

"Tell me,  why was the method to reach Stage 2 not publicized and instead protected and given only to a select few people?" 

"We believed that publicizing the method would create undue troubles within the population. We also judged that not all people will be able to reach Stage 2, thus having no point in publicizing the method." Anya stiffly replied.

Lucius was currently releasing his Stage 3 aura and a trace of his murderous aura. This coupled with his unfriendly, cold, and majestic aura, greatly pressured the people within this room.

For the people, it felt similar to standing in front of a scathing hurricane, blowing extremely cold wind at their bodies. A piercing feeling pricked at their bodies and even their souls, weakening them both physically and mentally.

Hearing her reply, Lucius looked into her eyes with his. 

"You expect me to believe that?" he coldly asked.

Staring into Lucius' blank, bottomless eyes Anya felt unnerved. 

It felt like staring into the abyss and having the abyss stare back at you.

"…no. Those were the reasons given by Illya. Due to our great trust in her, and the reason being somewhat reasonable, we went along with it." She honestly replied.

Hearing that absurd explanation, Lucius shook his head. There was no word to describe the degree of disappointment he felt towards this pathetic race. The Void Eater bloodline wasn't helping him in sympathizing either.

Turning his head to face the trembling Reyna, Lucius asked.

"You. You succeeded in making the Mind-Body-Soul synchronizers, didn't you? Using that device will increase the chances of entering Stage 2 by almost 60%. Why did you not release it?"

"I-I-I- S-Si—Illya—to-told m-me--" Reyna stuttered unable to form coherent sentences, faced with Lucius' overwhelming pressure.

"Speak properly." Lucius' blasé voice rose by a few degrees.

With fear overcoming her, Reyna managed to spit out her word in a great hurry.

"Illya told me to shelve it since the device was risky and there was a certain death rate."

"What's the death rate?"

"12%." 

"You're even more useless than I remember." Lucius mercilessly replied.

Reyna's legs gave out from their trembling as her body collapsed back onto her seat. Lucius' remark dealt a crushing blow to her mind and soul (figuratively).

He then looked around the room once more and increased the intensity of his aura.

"I allowed the fate of your race to be managed by your own hands. No more. Clearly, all of you are incapable and useless."

"Three years ago, Mankind had a population count of 14 billion. Today, its population stands at just over 10 million. That's less than 0.1% of the initial count."

"Starting today, this race will be under her command." Lucius' spoke, pointing to the dumbfounded Olivia standing behind him. 

"Her words carry absolute authority and demand complete obedience. Failure to do so…" Lucius intentionally slowed his speech.

A mass of swirling darkness expanded beneath his feet, following which twenty-three ink-black figures appeared behind Lucius. The Forgotten Warriors having completed their advancement appeared while radiating Peak-Level Stage 2 aura.

Under the gaze of their pitiless, ice-blue eyes the bodies of all humans within the room froze in pure fear.

"…will result in death!" Lucius forcibly declared.

"All of you may leave now." 

Following his words, the Forgotten Warriors retracted their pressure. The bodies of the humans within the room trembled and their bloodless faces hurriedly bowed, before running out of the room.

Soon, only Lucius and Olivia, along with the twenty-three Forgotten Warriors remained within the room.

Sighing to himself in exhaustion, Lucius took a seat. The previous meeting, which lasted for approximately twenty minutes, had exhausted him more than the three weeks of continuous battles.

'I hate doing this.' He mentally complained to himself.

Lucius was a solitary person. He always had been. Asking him to work together with a team, not to mention, manage them like in this case, was similar to asking for his death.

Actually, if presented with these two choices, Lucius would most probably choose the latter.

Getting back to the point. 

While he hated doing such things as leading a meeting, this was a special instance that required him to do so. 

As the strongest being within Mankind, he had to intervene and establish his power, before passing on authority to Olivia. Doing so would make the others obedient to her, in fear of his power. 

Thus, a temporary but immediate solution to their management appeared.

Why was it temporary?

Because holding authority through power, would never last long. Given time, people would start to forget the object of fear, and rebellions due to oppression would appear.

Fear was effective, but it was only temporary.

However, Lucius was not concerned with such issues. It was something for Olivia to solve with her own power. If she failed to garner trust and willingness from the people, this temporary solution would give way and many problems would arise in the future.

But how was one to garner trust and willingness from the masses, if it was them who forced the masses to work under fear? How could a tyrant ask for his people to willingly follow him?

Politics was a delicate art. Lucius being a brute, and unsympathetic towards others could never understand the art of politics.

"Lucius…" Olivia softly called out his name.

Opening his eyes, Lucius blankly looked towards Olivia who was looking at him with a serious expression.

"Hmmm?"

"I can't do this." Olivia directly spoke.

"What?" a cold answer exited Lucius' mouth.

"I mean I'm incapable of doing this. It's impossible!" Olivia answered.

Having stayed with Ka'lor'ah for a sizeable period of time, Olivia knew that Mankind, as a whole, was important to the plan (whatever it might be). Being talented in the art of politics, Olivia had made considerations of her own.

Short-term management was possible. Long-term management, which the plan required, was impossible.

Or at least, Olivia was not skilled enough to do so.

Olivia was aware of her limits and her abilities. Had this been something risking her life and unrelated to Lucius, she would have zero hesitation in accepting the task, like Pandemonium for example.

However, Mankind was clearly not the same. Not only was its scale on a completely different level, but it was also of incomparable importance. She did not want to mess up a critical part of the plan, out of her own ignorance. 

Hence, being unconfident of her skills she did not dare to shoulder this responsibility. 

"Why?" Lucius asked.

"My abilities are not so great as to manage an entire civilization. I'm afraid that I might mess up something, or cause an irresolvable problem." As much as it pained her to disappoint Lucius, Olivia had to be honest at this juncture.

She once again felt helpless at how unhelpful to Lucius she was. When he needed her help, she was unable to deliver.

'I'm useless.' A depressing thought appeared within Olivia's mind, as she tightly clenched her fists.

"Didn't you properly manage Pandemonium? Isn't this the same thing?" Lucius questioned, his tone turning colder.

To him, there was not much difference between Pandemonium and Mankind.

Yes, their respective sizes and scales were different, but the sheer difference in their powers was different too. 

"It's not the same." Olivia quickly shook her head and explained. "In Pandemonium, we were the oppressed party fighting against the oppressor."

"Here, right now, it's the exact opposite, we are the oppressing party. Asking the oppressed party to unconditionally trust us and work for us, it's not…at least I don't think it's possible."

Just as Lucius was about to reply, he felt an intense vibration from his pocket. Reaching in, he retrieved a dark-gold crystal that was causing the vibration.

The moment Lucius took the crystal out of his pocket, it jumped out of his hands and started to float within the air. Blinding light started to flash from its body, blinding the two people within the room.

The light continued to last for a few moments before slowly retreating, at which point a voice leaked out of the crystal.

"To rid this Universe of its darkness, Magic Girl Ka'lor'ah has arrived!!"

Following which a tiny, 30cm tall figure materialized within the air.