Lord of Annihilation

A little over three hours had passed when Olivia finally felt herself regain her consciousness and her bodily senses. 

Her body had finally gotten used to the golden waters and the pain had greatly diminished. No longer did it feel like her entire body was being dissolved in acid, but rather, the pain had diminished to the point where it felt like a constant stinging sensation on her skin.

Feeling her taut muscles and stiff bones loosen, she finally felt a feeling of relaxation wash over her.

'Ah, it's so warm and comforting,' thought Olivia, as she sunk deeper into this feeling of comfort. 'This is how a bath should be.'

'Hmmm, wait, what am I hugging onto? Why can I feel a secondary heartbeat?' 

Opening her eyes in confusion, a blurry scene filtered into her mind. Using her soul power to protect her eyes from the water, Olivia finally saw the clear scene before her.

Her hands wrapped a slender, muscular neck. Her legs bound around a strong, chiseled waist. And finally, her mouth was biting onto something hard, yet strangely elastic.

Just as her brain processed this information, she suddenly heard a monotonous voice resound within her mind, "Finally awake?"

"AH!" 

Involuntarily letting out a scream, Olivia instantly released her grasp over Lucius and leaped backward. Moving a few feet from her previous location, she then started to suddenly choke, as the previous scream from pure shock had forced water into her throat. 

Flailing her arms rapidly, she hurriedly headed for the surface of the water, quickly breaking out of the watery surroundings a few instants later.

Arriving at the surface of the water, Olivia wheezed, "Cough! Cough!! Uh- GOD! Cough!"

After a few seconds of continuous coughing and still, the golden water did not seem to leave her system. Her violent convulsions only got worse, as she found it increasingly harder to breathe.

Just as the situation seemed to be taking a difficult turn, Olivia felt a palm touch her on her back. Before she could make complete sense of the new sensation, Olivia felt an immense energy slam into her body.

The energy smashed against her insides, shook her organs, and caused her to throw up. In the next instant, Olivia threw up mouthfuls of the swallowed golden water, greatly relieving the tense situation.

The palm then continued to gently pat her on the back while sending out small pulses of energy. These pulses continued to clear out the smaller areas inside her lung, where the water was still trapped.

"Better?" asked Lucius, calmly.

Spitting out another mouthful of water, Olivia answered, "Cough! Yes…thank you."

She then took a few seconds to calm down, regulate her internal flow of energy, and then slowly turned around. 

Facing Lucius, she wore an apologetic expression and hurriedly apologized, "I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to jump off you like that. It's just that, I was startled."

Her eyes then landed on a spot on Lucius' shoulder. Noticing the deep, bite marks, Olivia's expression became even more awkward. Timidly pointing her finger at that spot, she spoke, "I'm sorry for that too. I was out of it and didn't notice what I was doing."

Lucius looked at the spot she was pointing at and noticed the bite marks. Shrugging his shoulders, he sent a trace of void energy to that location, immediately repairing the damage.

Looking at Olivia, he then asked, "Are you feeling better now? How is the pain?"

Meekly nodding her head, Olivia awkwardly replied, "There's only a continuous stinging feeling. Kinda like when you get an electric shock." 

"I see," Lucius curtly replied, before swimming away.

He swam away to the other end of the bathe and quietly rested there with his eyes closed and his back leaned against the bath's marble walls. 

Floating in the middle, Olivia saw him quietly swim away without any further response. She then continued to awkwardly swim there for a couple of minutes, before gritting her teeth and swimming in Lucius' direction.

Arriving at a distance from him, Olivia similarly headed to the edge of the bath and quietly sat there, leaning against the wall. She then looked around, unsure of what to do.

The quiet atmosphere, the gentle rippling of the water, and the absolute lack of any mentions, whatsoever of what had happened in the last couple of hours by Lucius, made Olivia feel stifled and restless.

Well, of course, she knew what happened; her bear-hugging Lucius with her bare body, that's what happened.

What tensed Olivia and made her feel nervous and restless was the complete lack of consequence for her actions. Lucius had neither reprimanded her nor thrown pebbles at her forehead. 

Did she want to be reprimanded and punished? Of course not. 

However, the apparent lack of any consequence whatsoever was even more terrifying. 

A dozen or so minutes passed, when Olivia opened her mouth, "Well, this is awkward, huh?"

"Uh-huh," voiced Lucius, uninterested to continue.

Silence descended once again causing Olivia to feel even more uneasy.

She sneaked glances at Lucius' face and thought to herself, 'Is he feeling mad? He's totally feeling mad, right?'

'Ugh, what am I thinking? Of course, he's feeling mad! He's probably livid! Why wouldn't he be? I've been holding onto him and biting him for hours underwater!!' Olivia sunk into the water and tore at her hair.

'He's totally pondering about some horrific punishment. Something terribly sinister and brutal, that would make me shudder from just thinking about it!'

'Argh! Why can't I have more self-control?! Why did I have to give in to my desires at that moment and latch onto Lucius?!! Dammit, stupid body and idiotic brain! You've just reset all of our progress with your perverted blunder!'

Being alone with your thoughts was a scary thing. Especially when you've done something bad and have to remain alone in silence with your guilt, waiting for the verdict to be passed.

'Should I apologize again? He simply shrugged off my first one. Should I beg for mercy? Will that even be effective?'

'Ahh, I just want to disappear! I want to dig a hole, enter it, and never come out!!'

Submerging the majority of her body underwater, except for her eyes and the parts above, Olivia stared holes into Lucius. Her mind continued to wander aimlessly, churning out one scenario after another.

Feeling her intense gaze on him, Lucius furrowed his brows and opened his eyes. Turning to face the 'hidden' Olivia, he asked, "Do you want something?"

Gathering resolve, she peeked out her head and nervously asked, "Lucius are mad at me?"

Tilting his head, he asked confused, "For what?"

"Y-you know, for what happened before…underwater…" stuttered Olivia.

"Oh," realization struck Lucius, as he answered. "Not really. I was annoyed at first, but then simply stopped caring after a while."

Peeking more of her head out of the water, Olivia continued, "So you're not angry at all? I'm not going to be punished?"

"I…don't think so," replied Lucius, unsure of why she was asking him this question. 

If he was going to punish her, wouldn't he have already done so? 

Plus, wasn't the pain from the golden bathwater enough?

'I don't get it.' Lucius found himself unable to understand Olivia's mind and promptly gave up.

"Phew." Rising out of the water, Olivia relaxedly leaned against the marble walls of the bath. Continuing her sigh, she spoke, "I really thought I was in trouble there for a moment."

The nervousness and anxiety melted away and Olivia regained her usual demeanor. 

Extending both her hands and resting them against the wooden floor behind her back, she visibly relaxed her tense body and finally started to enjoy the bath.

Her beautiful face sported an expression of bliss as her head rested against the soft wooden flooring. Her wet hair laid scattered against her back, with a few strands falling on her front.

The majority of her exquisite body continued to soak in the water, except for her hands, head, neck, and a partial portion of her soft, white breasts.

Minutes continued to pass in silence, as neither Lucius nor her conversed. 

Lucius had already gone back to keeping his eyes closed while submerging all of his body except his head underwater and Olivia occasionally snuck glances at him. Each time, a beautiful, honest smile would appear on her face.

To take a break from the constant stress of training and fighting and killing was honestly relieving on both the body and the mind. Olivia even felt her soul settle down and fall into a state of relaxation.

After spending an hour in pure silence, Olivia spoke up, "It's been a long time since we took a bath like this, huh? Do you remember the last time we did it?"

"No," Lucius shortly replied.

Staring towards the glass roof and into the slowly darkening sky, Olivia replied with a smile, "If I remember correctly, it was just before we entered adolescence. I was twelve, you were eleven, and we had just returned home covered in mud after getting into that silly fight with Betty Walton." She chuckled.

Not remembering this memory, Lucius asked, "Betty Walton? Who's that?"

"You don't remember Betty Walton, that short-tempered, twin-tailed girl who used to always pick on you because you kept refusing to get along and play with her? Now that I think about it, she probably had a thing for you," said Olivia, giggling.

Lucius simply shook his head in response. 

Three hundred years was a long period of time, which had caused him to forget a lot of the smaller events throughout his life. Warm, memorable memories such as this were one of the first to be forgotten, due to the [Killer] soul's suppression and erasure.

Shrugging her shoulder, Olivia continued, "Well anyway, that particular day was her birthday and she invited you, I think. However, since the weather getting a bit terrible, you refused her invite. Oh boy, she was not pleased."

"Then there was this big fight between the two of you and the class also started getting involved. Somehow, I also got involved in the fight and by the end of it everyone was caked in mud and rain."

"We then managed to slip out and eventually returned home. Hehe, Dad was furious when he saw us return like that. He directly grabbed us and threw us into an ice-cold bath. Hahaha…" Olivia started to laugh.

It took her a few seconds to stop laughing. Wiping the tears off her eyes, she faced Lucius and concluded, "So yeah, if I'm recalling correctly, that was the last time we had a bath together. Then we started growing up and couldn't take it together like before."

Lucius stared into her slightly sad, violet eyes and felt a strange feeling within this heart. 

Hearing her passionate recalling of the memory made it evident how important and treasured this memory was to Olivia. However, Lucius simply couldn't remember it.

No matter how hard he tried or how deep he searched, he simply couldn't find any memory remotely close to this within his mind.

This just made Lucius question, 'How many such memories have I forgotten? How much of my three hundred years of life do I actually remember?'

Silence descended inside the bathhouse and the sky eventually darkened. The insides of the bathhouse quickly turned dark, with only the moonlight to light up the interiors.

Of course, there existed torches and lamps on the walls of the bathhouse, but neither Lucius nor Olivia were of the mind to get up and alight them. 

Both their bodies continued to change and improve under the effects of the golden water. They were being rid of impurities, hidden injuries, and extraneous Rules. 

The main Rules which composed of their respective bodies were, in turn, strengthened, as their bodies continued to become paler and more translucent.

Looking closer, their bodies, in fact, seemed to be faintly glowing.

With the dim lighting within the bathhouse, the pale moonlight shining into the shimmering golden water vaguely illuminating the insides, and the faint mist of spiritual energy covering the bath and enshrouding the two figures within, the entire scene looked enchanted and mystical.

An aura of melancholy, coldness and grace surrounded Lucius, while Olivia's aura of dominance, impartiality, and majesty. 

Another hour or so passed, when Olivia spoke up once again. This time her eyes were unflinchingly staring into Lucius, as she spoke with a clear voice, "Lucius."

Opening his eyes, Lucius voiced, "Hmm?"

"Can I wash your hair?" 

Surprised at the sudden, not to mention, random request, Lucius asked, "What?"

"I want to wash your hair," Olivia maintained her eye contact and continued in the same, clear voice. "Can I?"

Remaining silent for a minute or so, Lucius softly replied, "…okay."

Not talking further, Olivia simply sported an honest, brilliant smile, and moved. 

Climbing onto the wooden floor, she first walked towards the wooden shelf on the side, filled with various bathing products. 

Taking the ones required alongside a towel, she carried them towards Lucius and sat on the floor behind him. Gently lifting his sleek, wet, waist-length, black hair and taking it into her hands, she soundlessly got to work.

Neither of them spoke any words and each turned to their own silence.

----------

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Whoever lives inside, open the door! This is the police! We are here to ask some questions regarding an investigation," A deep, somber voice coldly stated.

Riker, who was amidst an interesting conversation with Ka'lor'ah, heard the shout and frowned. 

"They came after all," sighed Ka'lor'ah.