Lord of Annihilation

A mysterious female voice was heard within Olivia's mind. Olivia was about to scream in shock when she suddenly felt her mind being pulled into a different space.

The feeling was similar to when one feels dizzy. Her body suddenly felt weightless, and she was assaulted by a floating feeling. Olivia found her view point suddenly switching to float above her own body.

From here she could, see her unmoving body which wasn't breathing, that unknown young man who laid paralyzed next to her. All the various guards slowly approaching their position.

One thing to take note, was that all this movement was extremely slowed in her eyes. It was similar to watching a video which was played in slow motion.

The trajectory of the bullets, the nervous beating of their hearts, movement of their bodies, the scattering of the dust, all of these details, that one would not usually notice were clearly reflected in Olivia's eyes. Focusing her eyes, she could vaguely see the presence of some vague, 'white' gaseous clouds within the bodies of all the men present here.

Shocked by the scenes reflecting in her eyes, Olivia subconsciously moved her hands to pinch her cheek. She wanted to see if it hurt, to validate the reality of her experience.

Moving her hands towards her cheek, her fingers simply phased through her body. Her mind was hit by a bolt from the blue. Olivia stared at her own hands in absolute shock.

Rather than calling them 'hands', gaseous clouds were a better explanation. Her 'body' was entirely composed of the very gaseous clouds she had noticed in the others, with only one thing different. Unlike the 'white' color she noticed in the others, Olivia's was a dark violet.

Olivia simply stared at her body speechlessly.

'What the...' before she could properly express her astonishment, she felt her body being pulled towards Alex. To be more precise, she was being pulled into his pocket.

-----------------------

'It's too dark.'

These were the first words Olivia thought, when she became conscious. She was not able to see anything other than pure darkness. A kind of darkness that did not induce fear, but rather provided warmth.

The kind of darkness, similar to being inside a mother's womb. A calm, all encompassing darkness.

And then.

There was Light!

A ray of white light, cut through this darkness before rapidly expanding to completely encompass this domain.

Olivia found herself being blinded by this radiance for a second. She closed in eyes in reflex only to find the white light still filling her vision.

Her view point was completely painted white, with no object in sight.

'Where am I?' Olivia somehow managed to form this question within her mind.

{You are within my mindspace.} An ethereal voice sounded out. The voice reminded Olivia for her dead mother. It was filled with warmth, care and a motherly sense. Still, Olivia knew for a fact, that this wasn't her mother's voice.

The voice she heard was simply too pleasing.

'Who are you?' Olivia tried to speak the words, but was unable. Remembering that her body was made up of gaseous clouds, therefore having no mouth to speak with she 'thought' about her question.

That ethereal voice chuckled once, {You are the first one I've met, to immediately figure out how to talk. You possess quite the sharpness.}

{To answer your question. My name is Ka'lor'ah, The Myriad Species Queen!}

Her voice strongly assaulted Olivia's mind, completely shaking her thoughts. The voice still carried that motherly feeling but also contained a regal presence. Olivia felt as if she was in the presence of a Monarch.

Taking a few seconds to gather her thoughts, she spoke out once again.

'Are you the one who offered me power?'

{If not I then who else.}

'What do you want in return?' Olivia asked cautiously.

{Why do you think I want something?} the voice asked, clearly amused by Olivia's cautiousness.

'Isn't there no such thing as a free lunch?' Olivia asked in an innocent manner.

{Indeed. You are correct. But before I grant you power, tell me. Why do you seek power? Not mentioning, getting out of here alive, I sense a deeper motive to your need for power.} The voice asked her.

Olivia sensed that she absolutely needed to answer this question. It felt as if, her entire fate depended upon her answer. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she slowly but solemnly voiced out her belief.

'Weakness is a Sin. I am very weak, therefore I seek to acquire strength. Strength that would allow me to guard my beliefs and pursue my dreams.'

These words came from the depths of her soul.

{Weakness is a Sin.} the voice mirrored Olivia's words.

Strangely Olivia felt the ethereal voice to be dismal and bitter. It felt as if, she was recalling a sad, distant memory.

After a few minutes of painful silence, the voice spoke once again.

[Very well. I shall offer you power.}

'And in return?' Olivia doubtfully asked.

{What I want, You cannot give me. Therefore, let's not speak about it.} the voice gently explained.

Then, in a deep regal tone, it declared.

{Olivia Mayer. Receive your power.}

{The power that comes from within!}

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Outside, Alex stared at Olivia's unmoving and un-breathing body.

Olivia who was full of life, just until a few seconds ago, suddenly resembled a statue.

'What is happening to her?' Alex was worried.

This heavenly beauty had saved his life a few moments ago. Alex had originally come to save her, only to completely exhaust his soul energy after killing a dozen men. Before this, whenever he cultivated with Ka'lo'ah's guidance, his soul power had always increased and had never decreased. This fact, coupled with him not having any practical experience using his soul power, led to this embarrassing scenario, where he rushed to save a beauty, only to be saved by her in return.

Alex greatly admired her mental fortitude and her bravery. Seeing him, suddenly become paralyzed she did not freeze up in fear, but immediately took the best course of action.

Alex felt mysterious feeling sprout in his heart. Something, he hadn't felt before in his life.

Now, seeing her unmoving like this, his heart suddenly tensed in worry.

'Why am I feeling like this?' before he could make sense of his own feelings, Olivia's body suddenly started spasming.

"Are you ok...!!" he hurriedly moved to ask when he felt the crystal in his pocket suddenly heating up.

'Don't tell me.' his mind suddenly thought of a possibility.

Olivia who had her eyes closed for a past few seconds suddenly opened them, her blue eyes had tiny specks of dark violet in their depths. Her body which was previously spasming also suddenly stopped. A faint layer of black-ish filth was was expelled from the pores of her body.

Olivia currently felt her body filled with a mysterious energy. An energy that made her very cells feel excited.

"So this! This is power!" Olivia spoke in an excited voice.

Holding the rifle in her hands, Olivia suddenly jumped over the cover, beneath which she and Alex were hiding.

"Wait! That's dange....." Alex tried to voice out his concerns, before he was interrupted.

"Let her go." Ka'lor'ah spoke out in a tired voice.

"Did you just connect her Body and Soul?" he questioned her.

"Indeed."

"Still, she has never circulated her soul power before! It's still to dangerous." he tried to convince her.

"Haha." Ka'lor'ah gave out a light laughter.

"What's so funny?!" Alex was infuriated. His emotions were currently in a turmoil and seeing Ka'lor'ah laugh at Olivia's precarious situation served to inflame his anger.

"You worry too much. And about the wrong thing." Ka'lor'ah spoke in a cryptic manner.

"Explain properly!" Alex roared.

"He is here. What you should be worried about is, how you are going to protect me. Don't tell me you forgot your promise immediately upon meeting a beauty. I am hurt you know." Ka'lor'ah found the mood to tease him once again.

"Him....?" his mind was confused, when his pupils suddenly expanded.

Right on cue, the heavy metallic front doors of the warehouse suddenly dropped. A figure dressed in black robes stood behind it with an expressionless face.

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Olivia whose Body and Soul had just connected, came into contact with soul energy. A mysterious type of energy which seemed to come from within the depths of her body and empowered her every action.

Like Alex had pointed out, she did not know how to use her soul power effectively and was simply having it rush to every limb in her body. While this was wasteful, Olivia simply did not care.

The feeling of tangible power flowing through her body made her feel ecstatic. So ecstatic that, she no longer felt revolted on killing the guards.

'They tried to kill me but did not have the ability to. Since I have the ability, I must kill them.' Lucius' teachings religiously flowed through her mind.

Catching the approaching guards unawares, Olivia was quickly able to inflict terrible damage. Her accuracy with the rifle had increased by a tremendous amount, owing to her enhanced physique.

Before the incoming guards were able to mount a proper defense against her, Olivia quickly claimed the lives of 5 more people. Similar to Alex, she did not stay in a single spot and kept moving to avoid the bullets. Unlike him, she had no reason to get closer to kill the guards.

Still, she now possessed power, but not the experience to effectively use it. In less than a minutes, she had completely used up her soul energy and was scraped in her arms and legs by the stray bullets. And she had to retire into cover.

'Damn it! I was too rash?!' she cursed within her mind. Just as she was about to think on how to proceed with the situation, a loud noise was heard.

SHIRRINK! BANG!

The sound of metal being twisted and them falling down was heard. Everyone, including Olivia turned around to look at the source of the noise.

The heavy metal door barring the entrance had fallen. The edges of the door connecting the hinges were giving off a thick black vapor. They were visibly shrinking and falling apart, similar to metal corrosion.

Behind the door stood a young man, wearing a black robe. His face was expressionless and his eyes were cold. In contrast to his white skin, his hair was pitch black. His eyes were half black and half red, with the red forming a crescent ring inside his pupils.

He looked at the people inside and spoke two words.

"Found. You."