Lord of Annihilation

Anya used her watch to project a holographic screen into the air and spoke. 

"The Alliance has re-established comms between the majority of its forces. With Foturn being the last, all frontier colonies have undergone their Ascensions."

"The planet's belonging to the Outer-Rim sector of the four regions are beginning to show preliminary signs of undergoing Ascension. According to Alliance's predictions, the Ordeals may start anytime within the next few weeks."

"Our orders are to finish our duties here and head back to the HQ to report." she finished.

Hearing that, Alex's brows involuntarily furrowed as he asked.

"Wasn't our duty to support all the planets undergoing Ascension? Why are they asking me to head back to the HQ already?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. This is the order that I received." Anya briefly replied.

After a few minutes of silence, she continued.

"However, if I had to guess the reason, it might them wanting to temporarily relieve you of your duty."

"What?!" Alex slammed his fists on the wooden table. He was furious.

Not paying any attention to Alex's rage, Anya nonchalantly continued.

"You should understand that your role as the 'Head of Military' was forcibly decided by the Alliance Head without considering the opinions of the others in the World Council. As a result, there have been many people who were discontent with this choice and have been finding ways to remove you from this position."

"While you have performed a great deed by saving 38 colonies over these past six months, it was not without any losses."

"The vast majority of these colonies have barely any survivors left and their key resources are badly damaged. 13 colonies were abandoned after rescuing the survivors, due to facing fierce retaliation from the newly appeared aboriginal alien species."

"Not to mention, we have also failed in rescuing seven colonies including this one. Three of which were important resource hubs, essential to the Alliance. Those of the opposing factions in the Council are using these points to attack your position by suggesting incompetence."

"According to their reasoning, if an experienced general had been holding this position, the losses might have been less severe. Their voices are too great to be ignored and their cause is righteous. Not even the Alliance Leader can forcibly suppress them anymore."

"Actually, the situation is already quite good since they have not used these reasons to publically defame the Hellwig family. This is a veiled threat and also a warning."

Anya coldly analyzed the scheme set up by the Council.

Realization dawned upon Alex, as he understood the intent behind this sudden order. However, this also caused his anger to flare.

"They would dare?!"

"Yes, they would." Anya expressionlessly replied, snuffing out Alex's impassioned roar.

This was how harsh reality was.

While Alex managed to ascend to the position of Head of Military, he had done so suddenly and without any prior standing. This had resulted in him involuntarily offending the interests of many parties within the Council. After all, the position held benefits that were simply too great to ignore.

Even if Alex had no intentions of capitalizing these benefits and wanted to save the people, purely out of the goodness of his heart, the others would not view it this way.

To use an analogy, Alex's current situation was that of a young boy holding a great amount of treasure but had no strength to protect it from the bandits. With the bandits banding together, he had no choice but to give up his treasure.

While the Alliance Head was willing to support him, there was a limit to the influence of a single person. In face of the masses and public opinion, even he was helpless. After all, the concept of a single person's strength being greater than that of an entire group was yet to be realized. 

If Alex failed to acknowledge their orders, he would be framed as a traitor of the Alliance. The Hellwig family would be publicly defamed and their influence and foundation would receive massive damage. This was the worst-case scenario.

He wasn't like Lucius either, unfettered and shackle-less. He was bounded by his responsibilities as a leader and that of a Family Head. He could not simply ignore the consequences of his betrayal like Lucius.

Alex keenly understood this fact, as a result of which he felt even more helpless. Turning to face the serious-looking young woman in front of him, Alex sighed and weakly spoke.

"Seems like I have no choice but to head back to the HQ. Once we are done here, let's go."

Without waiting for a reply, he walked past her and paused near the door.

"I will be staying in my room for the rest of the journey. I don't want to be bothered. Inform me once we reach our destination." saying so he left without turning back.

Anya who stood within the office silently sighed and shook her head.

'Poor kid.' she thought to herself, before leaving the room.

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

Two weeks passed and Alex finally arrived at the Alliance HQ once more.

During these two weeks, Alex had spent most of his time, locked within his room while cultivating his soul and practicing his spells.

[Ruler of Flames] was a battle-oriented soul type, proficient in offense and overwhelming power. It granted its owner the power to control all types of flames and freely manipulate them according to his wishes.

Thanks to unrelenting efforts and prodigious talent, Alex was a Mid-Level Stage 1 being. He was able to control his emotions to a certain extent and curbed his rashness.

His control over his soul power had also improved, as he is able to bring out greater results with lesser costs. He had 50% confidence in winning against Lucius if the latter used the same strength he had during his fight against the Leader Bug.

The recent events had allowed Alex to rapidly mature, making him less rash and hot-blooded. As the saying goes, tough times make tough people, Alex had risen to the occasion and had grown, both as a person and as a leader.

While he was initially angry at the decision of the Council to remove him from his current position, after great consideration, Alex realized that currently this the best decision. 

He was inexperienced, immature, and most importantly, he was weak. Lacking in these aspects, he realized that handing over his power to a more experienced person was more ideal when considering the safety and survival of mankind as a whole.

'Perhaps, if father was in my position, he might have saved those seven planets.' Alex thought to himself.

He could no longer be selfish in his consideration and had to account for the greater picture. As such, he was no longer averse to the idea of giving up his position. He did not care about petty profits and benefits, what was important to him was the safety of the people.

Landing on the piece of space rock, which constituted the Alliance's HQ, Alex accompanied by Anya headed directly towards the meeting hall.

Entering the large hall once more, Alex noticed that the seats were sparsely populated, with the majority of the family heads being absent. All of them had returned to their respective bases and were planning to use the Ascension to promote their own strengths.

The existence of souls and soul power represented a new trend. One that was sure to completely change the direction of mankind's growth.

As seen from the examples of Lucius and Alex, the strength of one man had the power to go against a small army. Realizing the strength of such superhumans, all the families moved to develop their own forces in this aspect. Any astute person would immediately capitalize on this situation and aim to secure maximum benefits.

The weaker families could use this opportunity to surpass the stronger families and the strong families could use this to become even stronger.

In the end, one's power would decide the benefits that one could attain. If Alex had greater power, he would not have been forced from his position.

Alex walked towards the center with a heavy heart. He was soon called upon the stage and was given his verdict. The result was as he had expected.

"Alex Hellwig, you are temporarily relieved of your duty as the Head of Military. You are requested to head back to Earth. where your assistance is required in your next position." the sound of the gavel striking the table was heard.

Alex stiffly nodded his head and walked out of the room. Anya silently followed behind him.

"Why are you following me?" he asked the young lady.

"My orders were to continue training you. Therefore, I'm coming with you." she briefly spoke.

Hearing her answer, Alex gave a wry smile and spoke.

"Let me guess. In other words, you will be my monitor and make sure I don't cause any trouble. Isn't that right?" 

Anya's steps froze for a second before she nodded in reply.

"That's right. Good, you're learning the nuances of such words." 

Alex soundlessly laughed. Without stopping, the two of them quickly headed towards the spaceport and boarded their assigned ship. 

Seating themselves in their respective seats, they waited for the spaceship to begin its journey.

"Do you have any idea on who's the next Head of Military?" Alex asked.

Anya nodded her head and replied.

"From what I've heard, it's Major Peter Eyler." her tone turned sour while mentioning his name. It was obvious that Anya disliked this person.

Hearing that name, Alex froze. The face of a middle-aged man with a cold smile appeared in his mind.

'Oh, it's that petty bastard.'

His thoughts immediately grew complicated, as Alex grew concerned about the fate of the planets undergoing Ascension.

He naturally held no good-will towards the other party and knew of his cowardly nature. He could only trust the judgment of the Council and hope that the Major would perform competently.