Lord of Annihilation

"…Nine-hundred and ninety-six."

"…*huff*Nine-hundred and ninety-seven."

"*huff*…*huff*…Nine-hundred and ninety-eight."

"*huff*…*huff*…Nine-hundred…*huff*…and ninety-nine…*huff*."

Pulling up her tired body one last time, Olivia finished the final repetition for her aerial crunches.

"Uuuggghh…one-thousand!! *huff*…*huff*"

Thud!

Releasing her leg-holds from the metal pull-up bar, Olivia fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Lying on the floor with her fours limbs outstretched, Olivia's abundant chests heaved in breathlessness. 

The sweat covering her smooth, white skin shimmered against the dim lighting of the floor. Droplets of sweat pooled underneath her body, as the air conditioner within the room worked hard to decrease temperature.

Lifting her hand, Olivia pulled on her damp sports bra, the only article of clothing on her upper body, to prevent it from sticking to her chest. This action allowed cool air to enter the crevice between her breasts, bringing her a pleasant relief.

Olivia continued to lie on the ground and started to operate her soul power. The Mid-Level soul power smoothly flowed through her body and eased her tired and damaged muscles. After doing this for a few minutes, she stopped the flow and preserved the remaining soul power.

Forcing herself to her feet, Olivia stretched her entire body once more. This time, greater attention was paid to her abdomen as a sore, dull pain was felt from that area, courtesy of the strenuous exercise. Using her long finger, Olivia gently eased the taut muscles.

'Jeez, my muscle lines on my stomach are getting more and more defined after these exercises. At this rate, I might start looking like a bulky bodybuilder.' 

Imaging herself with large, weighty muscles, Olivia quickly shook her head in disgust.

'Never! Slender muscles are the best!' (AN: Indeed.)

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!  BEEP!

Just then, an alarm suddenly started to sound from the watch on Olivia's wrist. Raising her right hand, Olivia hurriedly looked at the alarm.

{0300- Anatomy Lesson in Common Room.}

{Current Time: 0255}

"Already?!" after yelling so, Olivia started to quickly move.

Rushing towards the single bed, situated in the corner of the room, Olivia quickly grabbed a towel and rushed towards the bathroom.

After hurriedly undressing inside, she quickly got into the shower, rinsed her sweaty body under the cold water, got out, wiped herself, and clothes herself with an attire similar to the one that she had just removed.

After grabbing the sweaty clothes and putting them into a hamper, she quickly exited the bathroom and ran towards a study table, opposite the bed.

Grabbing onto the roughly strewn books on the table, Olivia then exited her room and ran towards the Common Room at breakneck speeds. Arriving before the closed door, she quickly looked at her reflection on the metallic surface and observed her appearance.

'My hair's a bit messy.' Gathering her long, partially wet hair, Olivia quickly fashioned a high ponytail, before entering the room.

Seated at the center of the room with his eyes closed was Lucius. Sensing Olivia's entrance, he opened his mouth and coldly uttered.

"You are thirty seconds late. Thirty pebble shots as punishment." The instant he finished speaking, thirty small, round pebbles appeared in the air surrounding Lucius. 

Looking at those tiny black pebbles, despair appeared within Olivia's eyes, as he quickly closed her eyes and braced herself.

The number of times that she had been hit by these tiny pebbles over the past three weeks was inestimable. At this point, the sudden sharp pain was all too familiar to her.

Swoosh!

All the pebbles moved in unison and accurately struck Olivia at her weakest points. Lucius avoided her fatal points, emphasizing pain over fatality.

"Urgh…" Biting hard on her lips, Olivia tolerated the pain. She did not resist or evade the punishment with her soul power, as doing so would result in more severe punishments. 

She had tried once and had immediately sworn to never do it ever again.

"You can sit now." After what felt like an eternity of agony, Olivia heard Lucius speak again.

Opening her eyes, she wordlessly walked forward and sat on the floor. Lucius got up from his chair and started to pace around the room.

"Before we start with today's lessons, show me your progress with your soul power materialization," Lucius announced. 

Hearing that, great excitement shone within Olivia's eyes. She quickly raised her palm and started to gather her soul power over it.

Violet-colored soul power started to appear over her palm, and Olivia meticulously controlled it to form strands. The strands started to quickly form and multiply soon reaching twenty in numbers. 

Twenty strands were the limit of Olivia's control and the results of her tireless practice over the last three weeks. Controlling these twenty strands already required a great amount of her focus and creating anymore resulted in total collapse.

Like an excited pet that had learnt a new trick, Olivia raised her head and stared at Lucius.

"How's that? Two more than yesterday." She smugly spoke with a smile.

Lucius did not comment and quietly stared at the twenty strands. He then replied.

"Fuse them and form a ball."

Seemingly having expected that Olivia quickly moved the twenty strands and formed a spherical ball. Although the process looked effortless, sweat had started to appear on Olivia's forehead.

"Make a cube." Lucius continued.

Olivia moved the strands once again and accomplished his request.

"A cone."

One after the other, Lucius started to name geometrical shapes and Olivia controlled the strands to meet his request. Lucius started to gradually increase the difficulty and complexity of the shapes, forcing Olivia to work harder.

After a few minutes, the strands started to tremble and Olivia found herself out of breath. 

Just when Lucius had requested an icosahedron, Olivia finally lost control over her soul power, resulting in the strands dispersing.

She lowered her head to hide the disappointment in her eyes and heavily panted. Controlling each strand was similar to controlling an extra limb. It was a completely foreign, not to mention, technically demanding task.

'I—I failed again.' Olivia was incredibly despondent. 'I still couldn't do it.'

Failure was common and was not a feeling for Olivia. During these past three weeks, she had failed an innumerable amount of times at controlling her soul power. However, today was different.

The many sleepless nights of practice and mind-numbing effort had paid off and her control over the number of strands reached twenty, the number Lucius had instructed her to reach, in order to move onto the next lesson, last night.

Olivia was incredibly excited to show it to Lucius and was confident that she would pass. However…she had still ultimately failed.

For a moment, she felt all of her hard work and effort become invalidated and the time spent, meaningless.

Firmly shutting her eyes to stop her tears from flowing, Olivia braced herself to be punished once more. The pain from the thirty previous strikes continued to sting, and the new round of punishment would only add to this number.

It was then…that Olivia felt a cold hand pat her on her head, twice.

"Not bad. You reached the requirement a week prior to my prediction." She heard Lucius' toneless voice, praise her.

Raising her head in amazement and confusion, Olivia stared into Lucius' expressionless face. It was blank as usual and there was not a single trace of feeling, like a cold stone wall. 

She then watched as his thin, pale lips moved once again.

"Stop sitting dumbly and suit up. Today's anatomy lesson will be postponed to later. Instead, we will be doing some practical lessons starting now."

It wasn't congratulation or praise and was rather plainly rude and insensitive. However, hearing those words swept away all of Olivia's dismal emotions.

Smiling brightly, she got up to her feet and replied.

"Got it!"

-----------

A few seconds ago.

'Hmm, this level of control…It's not good, but it's not bad either. It's barely passable.' Looking at Olivia complete the requested shape, Lucius thought to himself.

'She should fail in the next shape.' Thinking so, Lucius continued his request. "An icosahedron." 

Just as he expected, the soul power strands dissipated and Olivia failed.

'Not ideal, but this should do. It's not like we have time anyway.' 

Just as Lucius was lost in his thoughts, he heard Ka'lor'ah's displeased voice resound within his head.

'Good Heavens, how inconsiderate can you be? Can those eyes of yours even see properly? You're making that poor girl cry! Again!' 

Although Ka'lor'ah was not physically present inside the room, her detection and observation abilities underwent another upgrade, after her ascendance into Stage 3.

Looking down, Lucius found Olivia with her head lowered and shoulder trembling. He then quietly clicked his tongue, as he put the two and two together.

'What should I do?' Lucius asked. Personally, he couldn't see what the problem was. It wasn't like she had failed and was about to be punished.

'My god! You're seriously hopeless. It's like you've returned to being that hard-headed, insensitive jerk you were when you were in Stage 7.' Ka'lor'ah fumed.

'What should I do?' Lucius asked once again, unbothered by her accusation.

Physically face-palming herself, Ka'lor'ah then heavily sighed before replying.

'Pat her head gently and give her a word of praise. Validate her efforts. It's not like she didn't pass your test. If anything, she surpassed your expectation by reaching twenty strands in three weeks.' 

Taking her advice, Lucius did just so.

'I didn't literally mean 'A WORD'!! You—I can't! I just can't with you!' Ka'lor'ah heaved in exasperation before giving up.

'Heads up, we have arrived at your destination. All I can see is a planet made up of a bunch of rocks and ominous blue-green light shining between it.'

'Noted. Get the ship close to the planet and stop it there. We'll be getting off.'

-----------

A few minutes later, the trio exited the spaceship and started to descend towards the planet. 

Lucius held Olivia in his hands as he descended as the latter was not strong enough to overcome the planet's immense gravitational pull on her own. Ka'lor'ah, for her part, sat atop Lucius' head and held onto his hair.

A bubble of soul power encompassed the trio as they closed in on the ominously glowing planet. 

In size, the planet was a tiny bit smaller than Earth but was nowhere near as habitable. No oceans or landmass could be seen from afar, as a dense layer of fractured and fragments rocks encompassed the entire atmosphere. 

Even the ominous green glow could only be seen from between the gaps of the rocks. In short, it looked less like an actual planet and more like a large, spherical collection of space stones held together by the immense pull of gravity.

"What is this place?" 

Seated comfortably within the bubble, Ka'lor'ah asked. Olivia, who was also curious, perked her ears.

Unlike previously, she was no longer shy or embarrassed by skinship with Lucius. Rather, clothed in the purple-variant of Lucius' armor, she comfortably sat within Lucius' hold, cherishing this rare chance.

Faced with that question, Lucius looked at the glowing planet with his endlessly blank eyes. His gaze was cold and his voice was even colder.

"A well (the kind that holds water) within which I fell into after I escaped from Pectron."

Hearing his answer, Olivia looked confused, while Ka'lor'ah understood it as a reference to his previous life. Nevertheless, curiosity appeared in both their eyes.

"Brace yourselves." 

Saying that Lucius accelerated and the trio disappeared behind the layer of rocks.