Lord of Annihilation

"The concept behind [Absolute Evasion] is quite simple; it is to observe an attack in its entirety, thoroughly understanding its nature and composition, and superposing a part of your body onto those properties."

"This will allow you to temporarily reach a state where the nature of the attack and your body will be the same, thereby rendering the attack ineffective on your body." Lucius lectured in a calm voice.

The recipients of his lecture were Olivia and Ka'lor'ah, both of whom were intently recording his teachings. 

Both seated on the floor, the former used a notebook and a video recorder, while the latter recorded everything with a spell.

The content of the lesson was the greatest movement technique in the Universe and a prized technique of Lucius; [Absolute Evasion].

Although Lucius was primarily teaching Olivia, he allowed Ka'lor'ah to sit on their lessons and watch his teachings. He did not mind sharing the technique with her, as he no longer had any reason to guard the technique.

Of course, Lucius remembered to imposed the 'No Talking' policy on Ka'lor'ah, which barred from interrupting or asking any questions.

"What exactly do you mean by superposing?" Olivia, being the actual student, asked.

Stopping his pacing, Lucius pondered for a few seconds before replying.

"You should know about Mankind's Quantum Superposition Theory, right?"

Nodding her head, Olivia replied, "The quality in which matter existing in specific states can be added together to form another valid and improved state."

Quantum Superposition is one of the most fundamental theories of Mankind's sciences. In fact, the field of Interstellar Mechanics out of which technology such as warp travel was born out, was based upon this theory.

It sufficed to say, that it was a very important, not to mention well-known, theory.

"Good," Lucius affirmed her reply, "The fundamentals of the technique are based upon that theory."

At his reply, Olivia did not seem completely convinced as a look of doubt appeared on her face. She quizzically looked towards Lucius and voiced her question.

"But how is that possible? Isn't it impossible to thoroughly observe the properties of each state, since some of them are beyond the means of observation? If observation of the state is not possible, then how do we mimic them for the technique?"

Olivia's valid question earned a pebble-strike to her forehead. Letting out a small yelp in response, she raised her hand and rubbed her forehead.

With his fingers still assuming a flicking posture, Lucius coldly replied.

"Think it through before asking the question. Why would it be impossible to observe or understand all states, if you know their fundamental building blocks?"

Feeling a little incensed, Olivia retorted, "Yeah, but the fundamen—" her pupils suddenly narrowed as an answer appeared within her mind, "…the Rules." she unconsciously muttered.

Nodding his head, Lucius explained, "That's right, the Rules."

He then released a sizeable amount of his soul power from his hands and controlled them to assume some complex patterns. The soul power turned into strands, which then formed beautiful arrays that glowed with complex lights and mysterious symbols.

"Rules are the fundamental building block of this Universe. Everything and everyone in existence are constructs of the Rules. This ship, your clothes, our bodies…even souls are constructs of the Rules."

The arrays then flew over to the intently listening duos' heads and settled over them. Lucius then pumped his soul power into the arrays causing them to shine brighter and release a light hum.

"Empty your minds and do not resist." He casually uttered and activated the arrays.

Olivia and Ka'lor'ah suddenly felt their minds, or to be precise their consciousness, separate from their bodies and arrive at a lightless void. They subconsciously moved their heads to look around but found the surroundings completely absent of everything.

There was just darkness, followed by more darkness.

'What is happening?' The duo asked the same question in unison.

They instinctively looked down to confirm their body's condition, but realized to their horror, that they had no bodies.  In fact, they did not have any sort of form at all.

Not only did they not have any forms, but they did not have any size, weight, or any sort of sensations at all.

They were a formless cluster of consciousnesses that had no sensations within a lightless void.

If not for their ability to think and their intact memories which realized that the current situation was a product of Lucius' technique, they might have questioned their very existence!

After an inordinate amount of time, during which the duo felt the limits of their sanity be tested, a change occurred.

"This is a space without any Rules." 

A voice, which could be recognized as Lucius', sounded within their minds.

"There is no space, no time, no forms…there is nothing. Just perfect nihility."

"Now, if you were to add the Rule of Space and Dimensions," Lucius' voice continued to sound and suddenly endless white lines started to appear within this blank space. 

The lines started to stretch and define the borders, giving this black void, a veritable shape, and form.

The duo no longer found this blank space endless and could instinctively feel the limits of this space. It had a shape, and therefore it had an end.

"Add the Rule of Time and you have movement. Basic three-dimensional space is constructed."

The instant Lucius' words fell, Olivia and Ka'lor'ah could feel their formless bodies move. They could not control their movement or measure how fast they were moving, but could nonetheless feel themselves progress.

"Add the Rules of Creation and Matter, you will have objects." 

Space started to visibly twist as more lines started to appear. These lines were innumerable to count and were varied in color. The lines started to twist, turn, and take shapes forming visible matter.

Still, the objects felt lifeless and unrealistic. The duo could see the objects, but could not feel them with their senses like with space and time. 

The objects seemed to lack sustenance and appeared illusory.

"Keep adding Rules like Gravity, Energy, Motion, etc and you will have what is called 'perceivable and functional matter'," Lucius echoed.

The blackness of the space had mostly disappeared as light and objects started filling the surroundings. Lines continued to appear and disappear endlessly as Olivia and Ka'lor'ah saw the world around them manifest and take form.

Lucius continued to state Rules one after the other causing the space to continue filling and completing itself.

Olivia and Ka'lor'ah had already exceeded the bounds of awe and speechlessness. They simply stared and observed the surroundings take shape, blankly. 

However, something still felt missing from this entire picture, as there was a noticeable feeling of dissonance between all manifested objects. The Rules appeared to be out of sync with each other, as each existed individually without any coherence.

"Finally, add the Rules of Cause and Effect, and everything is complete."

"A free unordered, chaotic universe with no set path and destination, and one with true Freedom. One that will exist for an infinitesimal instant."

The moment Lucius added the final pair of Rules, that missing sense of unity appeared and all Rules started to interact with each other. 

However, in less than an infinith-of-a-second, everything collapsed in on itself and disappeared. Space was reset to its previous state of nihility with nothing in existence.

"Without order, there can be no sustained existence. Chaos will last less than an instant before disappearing into nothingness." 

"Nothing is ever truly free and everything is bounded by the chains of destiny. Everyone is a slave of an ordered Universe."

Lucius' words echoed for a final time before Olivia and Ka'lor'ah found their consciousnesses blank and return to their bodies.

Opening their eyes they found themselves in their bodies, staring at an expressionless Lucius. His face was unusually pallid and a stream of blood was leaking from his facial orifices. 

Lucius wobbled for a moment, before stabilizing himself by leaning against a wall. He opened [Void Storage] and recovered a snack, an arm, and started munching on it to recover his energy.

Olivia and Ka'lor'ah dumbly sat as their minds struggled to process the contents of what had just transpired. After all, they had just witnessed the creation and end of a universe with their own eyes.

Of the two, Ka'lor'ah was the first to recover given her greater mental faculties and wider knowledge. She looked towards Lucius in absolute shock and asked.

"How?!"

The things that she had witnessed were mindboggling, to be fair, and the experience was a first in her very long life. 

Hell, she had never even heard of anyone capable of the feat that Lucius had just pulled.

To witness the creation and end of a universe…Ka'lor'ah was a hundred percent sure that even the Lords of this Universe hadn't witnessed what she had just witnessed.

Sure, the Lords were nigh-invincible beings that embodied a Rule, but in the end, they were just that; an embodiment of a concept that already existed! 

To make it simpler to understand, imagine different flavors of soda. The Lords were the equivalents of the cups used to hold and serve the soda. They had no relations with the composition or the making of the soda.

What Lucius had just shown her was no longer in the realm of the Lords, but of something that was beyond it. It was like a character of a story, gaining sentience, realizing his fictional state, and being able to read the book.

It was nonsensical, and beyond what should be technically possible.

However, this only led her to more questions. How was Lucius knowledgeable of matters that even the Lords shouldn't know about?

He himself never reached the Lord realm and had a pitifully small life when compared to the other beings that have lived for hundreds or thousands of years.

How could he, a mere [Killer], a being so broken that Ka'lor'ah had to pick the pieces and glue them back together, hold such knowledge?

Hearing her question, Lucius simply turned to look at her and softly spoke.

"I'm sorry. But I cannot answer your question." 

His voice was soft and weak, but the intent behind the refusal was firm. Lucius was absolutely unwilling to share this piece of knowledge with her. 

Closing his eyes and tuning out his senses to ignore Ka'lor'ah's frenzied protests, Lucius zoned in on silence. His thoughts were ordered and without any hurry.

Just now, the spell that he had used on the duo was a spell that he had experienced when he was in Stage 3. That spell was the reason Lucius was able to create the ludicrous technique called [Absolute Evasion] and was the reason behind much of his future strength.

While hiding from the forces of the Universe and inching closer to death's door with each passing moment, Lucius had entered a place that no living being should be able to enter.

A place where he met with the single most important and greatest fortuitous encounter that allowed him to ascend into Stage 7 in the shortest time possible. 

One could say that it was that place and the encounter that Lucius had in there that made him what he was today.

Remembering that grey, lifeless place which was independent of the Universe but strangely intimate to him, Lucius shuddered as he silently recalled the name.

'Limbo…'

Firmly forcing himself to stop thinking about that place, Lucius focused on recovering his depleted energy. He still had some leftovers from the Stage 3 beings he had killed, but his stock was quickly running low.

After losing control of himself for the third time, Lucius strictly restricted the use of his racial abilities. Apart from [Void Storage] and [Void Travel] when necessary, he used the other abilities of the Void Eater as little as possible.

The trouble with losing control outweighed the benefits of using the other abilities. 

'It will take us a few months to reach the second place. I should amply stock up on my reserves after reaching that place.'

A few minutes later, Lucius opened his eyes and stared at the scene ahead. Ka'lor'ah seemed to have left the room and was sulking in some area of the ship after being met with Lucius' vehement refusal.

After confirming her location, Lucius left her alone. 

The memories of what happened to him within Limbo were his alone. Lucius absolutely refused to share the details with anyone, even if it was Ka'lor'ah who was the closest to him.

Walking up to Olivia, who continued to sit dumbly while being lost in her thoughts, Lucius tapped her on her head and woke her up.

"Did you understand something from what I showed you?" he asked.

Hesitantly nodding her head, Olivia answered, "I think."

"We shall see then. Get up. I will start imparting the first set of footwork for [Absolute Evasion]." 

"You will reach initial mastery in the technique before we reach the next location."