Lord of Annihilation

Standing before an anvil situated inside a well-equipped forge, Riker, holding a slim, silver hammer in his hands, gazed at the cluster of extremely rare materials before him with a serious gaze while quietly mumbling some calculations.

He then moved his gaze to the two weapons requiring the reforging. 

Taking the sword in his hand, he carefully studied it in close detail and noted some points on a sheet of paper spread atop the anvil. After sufficiently studying the sword, he then repeated the same process with the scythe.

"Okay, so," Lifting his head from the paper, he looked at the party of three individuals: Lucius, Olivia, and Ka'lor'ah, before him and spoke, "There are just enough materials for four attempts. Dividing it into two attempts for each weapon, this will be quite the challenging task."

"Have you forged a Living Weapon before?" Olivia asked.

"Attempted, yes. Succeeded, no," replied Riker, honestly with a plain face.

"Oh Lord," muttered Ka'lor'ah, quietly. She then sneakily looked towards Lucius and sent him a mental message, 'Are you sure he's the guy you want doing this? He's a good guy, don't get me wrong. But his personality is a bit…volatile and iffy.'

Without turning his head, Lucius replied, 'Do you know anyone better?'

'Well, no,' Ka'lor'ah shook her head.

'Then he's our only choice. I will need a Living Weapon if I want to make it through my first transcendence and he's our only chance at getting one.'

'Oh well, here's to hoping he succeeds.' Ka'lor'ah crossed her fingers and prayed.

Forging a Living Weapon was a daunting task for even the most experienced of Master Forgers. Even if they were to perfectly execute the forging itself, there is always a chance that the weapon simply fails to form.

Life itself was unpredictable. To imbue it into something non-living, even more so.

Sensing the uneasy moods of his guests, Riker wore a smile and spoke, "Please do relax. You have done a great deed for my family and I will do my hardest to succeed in the forging."

Lucius and Ka'lor'ah nodded their heads while Olivia softly thanked him.

"Thank you."

Deeply exhaling, Riker then closed his eyes and focused on himself.

Staying in that state for a few minutes, he then opened his eyes and solemnly spoke, "I will start with the sword since I have a better experience with forging swords. Please retreat to outside the forge and protect yourselves."

Taking Olivia's damaged sword in his hands, Riker finished, "I shall begin now."

The moment he finished speaking, Lucius immediately grabbed Olivia and Ka'lor'ah with his hands and dashed out. He continued to create distance between themselves and the forge, finally coming to a stop at around 200m away.

Stopping near a tree atop a small mound, Lucius released the two ladies and looked down at the forge in the distance. His face was serious and his eyes were focused. 

"Hey! Why did you bring us so far away? I wanted to watch the forging!" suppressing her dizziness from the sudden acceleration, Ka'lor'ah complained.

Lucius, however, paid no attention to her. He watched the forge for a few seconds, before abruptly clapping his hands together and thrusting them forward. 

With that one motion, almost all of his soul power was released out of his body and into the air. He then meticulously controlled all that soul power to form an extremely thick barrier around himself, his two companions, and some space around the tree.

The barrier continued to flash with complex shapes and patterns, before forming a cage-like structure composed of hundreds of individual hexagon and pentagon-shaped shields. From the outside, it looked as if the party was encompassed in a translucent football (soccer ball) shaped protective structure.

Lucius did not stop at this but instead controlled the remaining soul power to form layers of similar structures within the primary cage. In the end, he managed to form twenty layers, before running out of soul power. 

With sweat dripping from his pale face, Lucius spoke to Ka'lor'ah while heavily panting, "Draw some *huff* *huff* protective arrays.*huff*"

"Give me your blood," Ka'lor'ah did not question him but immediately got to work.

After waiting for Lucius to make a slit in his wrist and for the black-colored blood to pour put, she immediately dipped both her hands into the pool of blood and hurriedly drew some defensive arrays.

Taking a dozen seconds or so to complete, she then turned to Olivia and said, "Insert your soul power into this circular array."

Olivia nodded her head and got to work. Putting her hands on the circular array described by Ka'lor'ah she hurriedly inserted her soul power.

Streams of violet-colored soul power gushed forth from her hands and entered the array. Olivia's glowing face started to rapidly pale as she neared depletion. 

Just as she approached overdraft, the array suddenly stopped sucking her soul power and started to function. Mysterious letters and symbols started to shine and float, before disappearing into the layered cage shield, constructed by Lucius.

The two women then collapsed onto the ground, exhausted, while Lucius continued to stand and look at the distant forge.

"Mind telling us why we just did that?" Ka'lor'ah asked.

Just as Lucius was about to open his mouth to answer, the soft sound of metal clanking against metal, rang out from within the forge.  Followed by that soft, sonorous ringing was an overwhelming wave of chaotic energy.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The rampant waves crashed against Lucius' barrier and produced a deafening sound. Almost instantly upon making contact, the outermost layer was instantly torn apart, followed by the layer behind it greatly cracking.

Ka'lor'ah and Olivia immediately sat up in shock, while Lucius softly muttered. 

"That happens…"

----------

Inside an opulently furnished room, situated within a certain planet millions of light-years away from Rivendell, was a young elven woman drowning within the sea of paperwork atop her desk.

Having lowered her head to an extreme degree, her long, scattered hair which was part golden and the other part emerald green hid the majority of her face and its breathtaking facial features. 

Her clothes consisted of a dark-green uniform gilded with thin, golden borders. The numerous stripes and symbols on her shoulder pads, coupled with the golden badge signifying the World Tree that she wore on her chest hinted at her illustrious position within the Elven Army.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Rhythmically and monotonously stamping the papers in front of her with her assigned insignia, she was just about to finish her duties for the day, when the door to her office suddenly slammed open.

An exhausted-looking elf frantically ran inside and stopped a few feet away from her desk. Holding onto his knees, he heavily panted as sweat dropped from his face into the red-velvet carpet on the floor.

"Captain! Captain, you've got to look at this!!" he hurriedly exclaimed, waving the black-colored orb within his hands.

Lifting her head to look at this exclaiming newcomer, she narrowed her eyes with seriousness and asked, "What happened, Vice-Captain Tidor? Is it another attack by the Dwergi?"

"Not at all!" Tidor hurriedly replied. Raising the orb within his hands, he projected a holographic screen into the air, before exclaiming. "We might've found traces of Vice-Commander Riker!!"

Hearing that name, the female elf's body froze and the stamp within her hand dropped onto the table. A look of loss flashed across her eyes for a second before refocusing once again.

Rising from her seat, she slammed both her hands on the table causing the mountain of papers to collapse. With an incomparably serious tone, she asked. 

"Are you sure?"

Hearing that tone, Tidor calmed his overflowing excitement and neutrally spoke, "We are not completely sure but from the information that we managed to receive, there's a solid chance that it is indeed him."

"What was the information?"

"A man matching his description was seen flashing the Vice-Commander's old insignia. The officer who saw it sent a message to the HQ asking for validation," Tidor continued, his voice betraying his suppressed excitement.

"Riker's insignia…" the female elf absent-mindedly mumbled. Her eyes contained emotions of relief, joy, love, and most evidently, seething hatred.

Tightly clenching her fists in anger, she thought to herself, 'Son of a b*tch, why did you suddenly quit the army? And why did you not say anything to me?'

'Even though you were inches away from winning our bet…'

"Captain!!" 

"Huh!" recovering from her daze, the female elf voiced.

"Your orb is ringing, Captain!" Tidor quickly urged.

Releasing that the dark orb atop her table was softly vibrating, the female elf hurriedly grabbed it with her hands and answered.

A solemn voice exited the device.

"Royal Captain Valentine, His Majesty has something to say to you." 

Hearing those words, both Valentine and Tidor immediately dropped to the ground and assumed a respectful stance; head bowed, hands lowered, one leg against the ground, and the other kneeling.

The dark orb quietly floated in the air and a holographic image exited the device, projecting the image of a richly clad, overly handsome elven man.

"Captain of my Royal Knights, I, the 51st Elven King, command you to lead my Royal Knights, to the capital of the Grand Alcana Empire to assist my dear friend with his royal succession."

"You shall take your men and leave immediately. I wish you success."

""As you command, Your Majesty.""

The projection cut off and the orb dropped to the ground. Valentine and Tidor remained in their posture for a few minutes before getting up in unison.

Gazing at Tidor with a serious gaze, Valentine spoke, "Gather the Royal Knights immediately. We shall leave in six hours."

Tidor wordlessly nodded his head. He did not immediately leave but waited for the captain to continue.

Releasing a small sigh, Valentine continued, "As for the matter with Vice-Commander Riker, we shall leave it as it is for now. His Majesty's orders take priority."

"Understood, Captain!" Tidor saluted and left the room.

Valentine stiffly stood for a few seconds before thinking to herself.

'Why would you leave, Riker? Wasn't your dream to serve Elvenkind until death?'

'What changed?'