Lord of Annihilation

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

"Aaaa-nd done-zo! Phew, this really took a lot of effort."

Wiping the sweat gathered at his forehead, Dorian stood up and pocketed the wrench in his hands. He then stared at the result of his labor with a proud, satisfied smile.

"That good customer lady did not lie. This thing is waa~ay more complicated than anything I've seen before. Still, performing maintenance on this ship was an invaluable experience."

Dorian then stared at the watch in his hand. Reading the time, a startled expression appeared on his face.

"Crap, I missed lunch again!" he voiced in panic.

Quickly moving, he first removed the tool belt on his waist and carefully put it down on the nearby counter. He then grabbed a rag, wiped his dirty, oil-stained hands on it, and then proceeded to remove the earphones from his ears.

The loud metal music blasting into his ears was immediately quelled but was soon drowned by the sound of the generators and the various other machines running. 

Hearing the familiar sound of his workshop once again, a smile appeared on Dorian's face. Closing his eyes, he appreciated the noise, "No matter how many times I hear this same noise, it never gets old."

After a few seconds, Dorian snapped out of his daze and slapped his forehead, "Oh, crap! Lunch!"  He then began rushing once again.

Just as his figure was halfway out of the doors of his workshop, Dorian suddenly came to a stop and hurriedly turned around.

"Crap, I forgot to close the maintenance hatch!" 

Rushing towards the sleek, black spaceship, Dorian grabbed the metal maintenance cover shield that was open and pushed it down. Pressing some weight onto the cover, Dorian kept exerting force on it until he heard the satisfying 'click' sound.

Grabbing the clean cloth by the side, he quickly wiped the dirt and grime off the cover, returning it to its previous, spotless look. 

Stepping back, Dorian appreciated this piece of mechanical marvel before him and remarked, "What an amazing piece of technology."

He then noticed some dents and deep scratches on its hull and thought out loud, "Should I perform some buffing and polishing? They didn't specifically request for it, but—"

"DORIAN!!" A sudden yell distracted Dorian from his thoughts.

Turning his head to look outside the half-open main hangar doors of the workshop, he noticed three figures rushing towards him from a great distance away. Well, four…Dorian corrected himself after looking carefully.

After the initial look of confusion, Dorian's eyes started to shine as he recognized the party of individuals heading towards him. 

Cupping his mouth, Dorian started to yell, "MISS CUSTOMER! SPEAK OF THE DEVIL; I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT YOU!"

"DORIAN! PREP THE SHIP!!" Ka'lor'ah yelled at the top of her lungs.

"PRESS THE WHAT?" Dorian yelled back, confused.

The noise of the rampant generators and machines affected Dorian's hearing. 

Seeing Dorian's unmoving figure, Ka'lor'ah yelled once more, "PREP THE SHIP!!!" 

"BREAK THEY SHI—"

"PREP THE SHIP!!"

Dorian's yell was interrupted by Ka'lor'ah intervention, as the party landed at the entrance of his workshop and quickly rushed in.

"Oh, got it!" Dorian quickly nodded his head. His eyes then turned to greet the other members of the group, when he suddenly jumped back in fright and exclaimed. "By the grace of Mekhos!"

He then hurriedly calmed himself and concernedly asked, "Are you alright, sir! Should I go and call the medical—"

"For goodness sake Dorian! Please just prepare the ship!" Ka'lor'ah yelled impatiently.

Swallowing his questions and concerns, Dorian unsurely nodded his head, "O-okay, okay." He then moved towards the mechanical console, connected with many wires.

Meanwhile, the party of four individuals who had appeared with great haste towards Dorian's workshop talked between themselves.

"We need to leave this planet before they close it down and restrict the exit. I'm afraid our actions have been too high profile," said Riker, seriously. 

He then looked towards the blood-covered, unconscious Lucius, who was being carried by Olivia, and softly muttered, "Your friend is illogically strong."

Even now, that final attack by Lucius was fresh within Riker's eyes. 

A single, incomplete slash and more than five kilometers of the earth and sky were forcibly torn apart. Riker's combat instincts honed over countless years and battles warned him that if that attack was to land on him, his injuries wouldn't be light.

To remind you, Riker was a Peak-Level Stage 4 existence, on the verge of stepping into Stage 5. He was a genius of incomparable pedigree.

Shaking his head to recover his thoughts, a confused look appeared on Riker's face as he asked, "That attack was clearly beyond his abilities? Why did he try to forcibly execute it?"

At that question, Ka'lor'ah let out a tired sigh and replied, "He grew too excited after getting his hands on a Living Weapon."

Excited? Him? Was a Killer even capable of becoming excited? Riker found it beyond his comprehension and became silent.

Ka'lor'ah, however, had no intention of growing silent as she quickly turned towards Olivia and asked.

"Still, I can't believe that he willingly entrusted himself to you in that state," she said, pointing to Lucius' current unmoving, unconscious state as he rested in Olivia's hands.

"What exactly happened inside the bath yesterday?" she continued with a strange voice.

Faced with that question, Olivia's heart skipped a beat and a faint pink blush appeared on her cheeks. However, she almost immediately calmed herself down and calmly replied, "Nothing."

While Olivia's reply was quick and unflustered, the observation ability of the two people before her was even quicker. Her faint blush hardly went unnoticed.

Riker simply rubbed his chin and spoke in a dreamy voice while staring far away, "Ah~, youth." Whereas, Ka'lor'ah instantly pounced on the opportunity and questioned.

"Like hell, nothing happened! Something definitely happened! What was it?!" Her voice was filled with great excitement and burning curiosity.

Facing Ka'lor'ah 'forceful' advances, Olivia tripped, "I-I'm telling you! Nothing happened!" 

"Did you two kiss?!" questioned Ka'lor'ah, shocked.

"WHAT?! NO! Of course, not!" Olivia immediately denied it. She then silently mumbled under her breath, "I wish."

She then hurriedly shook her head.

"What else then? There's no way you can make so much progress in just one day, if not for something significant happening," Ka'lor'ah grumbled, unsatisfied.

She then looked at Olivia with a 'fierce' expression and heavily said, "Miss Olivia Mayer, if you don't answer honestly to my question right now, then you can forget about me supporting you in this matter in the future!"

"You're kidding?" Olivia half-seriously asked.

"I am not," Ka'lor'ah seriously answered.

"Haah," Olivia wore an aggrieved expression and let out a sigh. She then looked down at Lucius, who seemed to be sleeping in her arms.

Forcibly executing the Fourth Movement in a moment of excitement greatly depleted not just his soul power and void power, but also his mental energy. 

After completing the attack, Lucius barely had the energy to stuff his weapon into [Void Storage], call out to the dumbfounded group, and collapse onto Olivia, unconscious.

"Tell me!" Ka'lor'ah yelled once more.

"Alright, fine!" Olivia yelled back, before letting out another sigh. She then briefly explained.

"It was nothing serious. At least, there was nothing physical…except the part where I hugged him and tightly latched onto him…for a few hours." the last part was said in the quietest voice possible.

"WHAT?!" Ka'lor'ah literally backpedaled and gazed at Olivia with shock.

"I didn't mean to do it, okay! No one told me that the bath would be so painful to enter!" Olivia quickly explained herself and glared towards Riker.

"No need to thank me," Riker generously waved his hands. There was, however, a sly smile on his face.

"Then what happened?!" Ka'lor'ah pushed on.

"Then we just talked about some childhood memories…I washed his hair, Lucius then taught me some interesting tricks with manipulating soul power, we then talked some more…just general, standard stuff."

"General, standard stuff, my a--!" Ka'lor'ah hurriedly contained herself. She then couldn't suppress her excitement anymore and continued, "You are going to describe to me everything that happened! And by everything, I mean every single detail that—"

"Uhm, excuse me. Miss Customer," Dorian's nervous voice interrupted Ka'lor'ah.

The party immediately turned to face the young mechanic in unison. Feeling their intense, pressuring gazes on him, Dorian stuttered and spoke with great struggle.

"U-uhm, y-your ship is re-ready," he softly declared.

"We'll continue this conversation later. Let's go now," said Ka'lor'ah, firmly to Olivia before turning to face Dorian.

"Thank you for all your effort, Dorian. You have been of excellent service." Said Ka'lor'ah with honest appreciation.

The moment she had entered the hanger, Ka'lor'ah had already scanned the entirety of the spaceship with her senses. Seeing it in a state better than which she had left it in, spoke to her volumes of Dorian's skill and service.

"Th-thank you, ma'am!" Dorian blushed at the straightforward compliment and scratched the back of his head.

Ka'lor'ah, then faced Riker and asked, "Are you coming with us?"

Wearing a polite smile, Riker replied, "I would be grateful if you could drop me at any one of the other planets within this Elvenheim."

"We are heading towards the head planet. Is that alright?"

"Of course. That's more than alright," Riker answered with a nod.

"Get on, then," Ka'lor'ah prompted before asking Olivia to do the same.

Carrying Lucius carefully within her arms, Olivia entered the spaceship first, followed by Thorn, followed by Riker. 

"Thanks again, Dorian. I hope to see you in the future," Ka'lor'ah thanked the young mechanic once again, before entering the ship and closing the entrance.

She then headed towards the control room and took control of the flight. Controlling the ship to exit the hangar from the now, fully-opened hangar doors, she pitched the nose of the ship and blasted off towards the nearest planetary highway.

Dorian also exited the hangar and waved off the departing group. 

With his hands on his hip, Dorian inhaled a fresh lungful of air and looked around with satisfaction. 

"That's a job well done." 

He then randomly looked towards the sky behind him and noticed a streak of blackness in the far distance.

"Was that always there? What was that?" he thought aloud when the watch in his hand suddenly started to vibrate.

Seeing the title of the timer that just went off, Dorian's face paled, causing him to break into a run.

"Crap! The canteen is about to close!"