Lord of Annihilation

"Please continue with your tea and don't mind this. I'll take care of it," answered Riker, politely.

He then put down his teacup onto the short wooden table beside him and rose from the soft leather armchair. 

Walking towards the doors of the study, he exited the room before closing them behind his back. He then turned around and walked towards the main door of the manor. 

His current facial expression, to describe in a word, was chilling. Dense murderous intent lied hidden within his amorous green eyes and his entire body emitted an unfriendly aura.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The banging on the door resumed once again, followed by an impatient shout, "Open up! This is the police! We know you're in there!!" 

'Hah, so they are keen on ruining the moods of my most esteemed guests,' Riker thought with his lips forming a cruel smile.

Stepping towards the door, Riker clutched the handle and gently bent it, thus opening the door. He then looked at the authorities in question and saw two uniformed elf officers. 

One of them was a young male elf, wearing an impatient expression. His gloved right hand remained raised in the air, as it seemed to knock on the doors of the manor once more only to be interrupted by its opening. 

'Mid-Level Stage 3,' Riker immediately read his aura. 

He then turned his eyes to the middle-aged elf, standing with his hands behind his back and sporting an indifferent expression.

Riker managed to instantly read his strength, and scoffed within his mind, 'A mere Low-Level Stage 4.'

Wearing a mocking smile on his lips, Riker spoke, "What would two officers want with a humble doctor in such late hours?"

His tone was polite, but the look in his eyes was definitely not so. 

Perhaps, hearing the mockery and haughtiness in Riker's voice, the young elf quickly flared up and thundered, "How dare a citizen look down upon us! Do you want to be cour—"

"Shut up!" The middle-aged elf immediately stepped in and interrupted the ramblings of the young officer. 

He then placed himself in-between the young officer and Riker and spoke to the latter with a polite expression.

"We're sorry for disturbing you at such late hours, good doctor. It is just that we were called to the nearby town a few hours ago, regarding an unprompted attack on elven citizens by a Traveler. We are simply here to ask if you know anything about it."

"I don't," Riker curtly replied. "If that is it, then I shall be getting back to bed." He then moved to close the door.

"Hold it," the middle-aged elf immediately stopped Riker from doing so. 

He then looked at Riker with an expression that seemed both friendly and hostile, and spoke, "I don't appreciate how you're treating us, good doctor. You might be stronger than us, yes. Yet, as a citizen, you are required to display certain respect to us, the authorities."

"I have to respect you? Hah!" Riker coldly laughed. "I don't know where you were brought up, 'Sir'. But where I come from, one is required to display a minimum amount of respect to gain it."

"You, however, have been nothing but rude to me since the start," Riker monotonously stated.

He then stopped suppressing his murderous intent and released it in its entirety alongside his Peak-Level Stage 4 aura. 

Instantly, the middle-aged officer and his younger subordinate felt the world surrounding them, collapse into them. Their control over the surrounding Rules was immediately cut off, trapping them within a provisionary Domain.

The two officers felt entrapped within a solidified block of space. An immense pressure bored down upon their bodies, as their minds and souls screamed of the obvious danger.

Seeing the struggling expression appear on their faces, Riker causally continued, "Additionally, I'm not a citizen."

He extended his left hand forward and caused a strange symbol to appear in the air. On the symbol, written in Elven characters, read.

"I was the Vice-Commander of the 1st Special Operations Division of His Majesty's Army. Honorably discharged."

Looking at the colors on the faces of the two officers rapidly change, Riker continued, "Do you have anything further to ask?"

"N-n-no, w-we apo-apologize f-for the trouble. W-we h-hop—" 

"Good, then you may leave," Riker interrupted their stuttering replies and waved his hand. 

A tremendous amount of energy rushed forth and abruptly hit the bodies of the two officers, flinging them out of his manor's ground and far into the distance. 

To him, who was half a step away from entering the Stage 5 realm, dealing with these two officers was hardly any effort.

Closing the door, he then turned around before returning to the study. Seating himself on the comfortable armchair, Riker crossed his legs, lifted the teacup from the nearby table, and resumed drinking.

"I'm sorry. Where were we?" he nonchalantly asked, turning to his guest.

Ka'lor'ah, who had been listening in on the events at the entrance, immediately asked, "Sooo~, you were in the king's army, huh? Why did you leave?"

Releasing a tired sigh, Riker replied, "I grew tired of it." 

"That's not a reason," Ka'lor'ah immediately rebutted.

Emptily chuckling at her retort, Riker lowered his head and replied with a colder, hatred-filled voice, "I couldn't stand serving under that despicable man for one more second, after knowing what he did to my family." 

Flashing a smile of her own, Ka'lor'ah replied, "There it is."

"Well then, tell me more of it. Why did you join in the first place? Why retire to this random, low-level planet at the fringes of the middle regions? Obviously, you should've had the dough to settle in any one of the premier, more high-level cities."

Seeing Ka'lor'ah excited expression and honest tone, Riker chuckled with amusement and answered.

"Well, at first I did not know anything about the truth surrounding my family. For the longest time, I believed myself to be an ordinary guy coming from a regular family. My parents were normal people, working regular desk jobs. There was nothing extraordinary about my life, theirs, or our surroundings."

A reminiscent look appeared within Riker's eyes as he continued.

"To serve the elven race has been my dream for as long as I can recall. My parents did that through administration, and I wanted it to do by joining the army."

"Of course, it was only after joining did I realize I was nowhere near ordinary and was far different from the rest. I had talent. Talent that was far, far superior to the rest of my peers."

"What it took others months of practice and hard work to achieve, I managed to learn in weeks. By the time my fellow enlistees were doing entry-level missions, I was already being deployed for solo advanced-level missions."

"Being the talented and 'loyal' young man, I was, they moved me from the regular camps and enlisted me into the special operations division. It was there, that my talent started to truly grow and I was finally able to meet my match," a tender look appeared within his eyes when he spoke the final line.

Ka'lor'ah instantly noticed this and immediately pushed on. Flying closer to Riker, she teasingly asked, "Oooh, I'm picking up a love story here. Give me the deets!"

"Well, there's not much," Riker simply waved his hand in denial while looking away. 

He then suddenly turned towards Ka'lor'ah while wearing a big grin on his face. "Except that we had a small bet between us where if I manage to outrank her, she would agree to marry me!"

"Did you succeed?" asked Ka'lor'ah, with great excitement.

"Well, I wouldn't be called 'Vice'-Commander if I had succeeded, would I?" Riker helplessly laughed. "Nope. She always stayed a rank above me. I had to spend most of my time in the special operations divisions taking orders from her."

"Not that I'm complaining. I never liked to lead or manage, so I was quite happy taking orders from her and having her boss me. It was the happiest and most fulfilling time of my life."

It was then that Riker's expression took a sharp turn, turning cold, detached, and full of hatred.

"When I ascended into Stage 4, the 'main branch' of my family contacted me and told me the truth about our situation. Obviously, I didn't buy it at first, but with some investigations of my own, I came to see the ugly truth."

"You see, the truth is that originally, my family (tribe) used to be a line of Holy Shamans, who communicated directly with the World Tree. It was thanks to my family's efforts that the Elven species managed to flourish and reach the height it is today."

"We served no one and were equal to the line that called themselves the 'Rulers' of the entire race."

A frightening aura radiated off Riker's body as he exposed his murderous intent to its fullest. The intent was directed at no particular person and was loosely released into the air.

"However, that filthy, backstabbing, two-faced 'ruler tribe' lead by that despicable, insecure bastard plotted against us and stole our claims to the World Tree. He placed his daughter, that bi*ch Sophia, into our tribe, who corrupted our Holy Son and made him commit an unforgivable sin against the World Tree."

"Not only did we lose our authority over the World Tree, but we were also looked down on and ostracized by the entire elven species. All of the hard work, achievements, and sacrifice that generations of my family's ancestors had offered were rendered null."

"Not only do we descendants have to live our entire lives hiding our real identity and lineage, but even our children and their children will have to continue doing so. Just thinking about this, makes my blood boil!"

Throughout the entire course of his monologue, Ka'lor'ah stayed silent. She simply listened to him pour out his emotions, but did not comment on it.

As for the rouge murderous in the air? She hardly noticed it and was nowhere near affected by it.

Compared to the one released by Lucius when he was pissed, the one released by Riker was like a firefly before the sun. 

Riker took a few moments to recover from his tumultuous emotions and calm down. He then stood up, bowed, and apologized to Ka'lor'ah.

"I apologize for that behavior. I, once again, lost myself within my emotions."

"Please don't be sorry. It was my bad for asking you such sensitive questions," Ka'lor'ah bowed and apologized in response.

Riker simply nodded his head and continued, "I hope you'll excuse me, as I'm going to retire for the night. Please feel free to use any of the rooms within my manor for the night. The same goes for the two other guests too."

"Will do. Thank you for your hospitality," Ka'lor'ah politely replied.

Riker then left the study to return to his room, while Ka'lor'ah silently waited in the lounge for Lucius and Olivia to return from their bath.

'I wonder how it's going in there,' she vacantly pondered to herself. 

'Well, as long as they're having fun, it shouldn't matter too much. I only hope that Lucius opens up a bit.'