Lord of Annihilation

After receiving concrete information and proof about the Ascension, the Alliance followed Alex's advice to systematically release the news to the general public. The event was explained logically to reduce fear and panic amongst the general populace.

Of course, the magical nature of the event could not be hidden, nor did the Alliance try to hide it. After all, this was something that everyone was bound to learn about in due course of time. Rather than have the populace panic then, it was better to release the information right now and educate the public.

Man fears what he cannot understand. If one is learned he no longer fears the unknown.

The alien species were told to be the invaders and it was mankind's test to survive their invasion. Humanity needed to unite against a common foe. A classic tale of good versus evil.

While it might sound cliche or even out-dated, it was nonetheless an excellent method to explain propagate the news. The simpler and less complicated it was, the lesser people would panic.

Mankind's current goal was to survive and ascend with minimal losses. To do this the general populace was also required to participate in the battle. After all, the number of soldiers was limited and they couldn't be at all the planets at the same time either.

Courage was required to face the enemy and hope was required to sustain this courage. 

In order to gain hope, mankind needed to know that these magical invaders could be defeated. They needed an image, a hero to say.

The battle of Deatov was precisely this hope. And the handsome youth who single-handedly faced the enemy was the hero.

Having come to understand Lucius' personality, one would know that he wasn't the showy type. He was indifferent to fame and fortune and cared even less about the opinion of others about himself.

This leads us to a question. Why did Lucius heroically fight against the army of alien bugs in Deatov?

It was precisely to become this hope.

This was the chance he gave mankind.

A chance for survival.

During the battle of Deatov, Lucius did not appear at the very beginning of the battle and waited for the perfect moment to take action. He had always known about the existence of the young woman who was recording the battle and had intentionally fought within the range of the camera.

He had then proceeded to extravagantly face the army and single-handedly fight against them. The showdown against the Leader Bug was also a part of this elaborate play. Of course, to say that he had everything perfectly planned would be a total lie. 

Often times plans cannot keep up with changes. That deadly battle against the Leader Bug had almost gone wrong and the subsequent events were out of his calculations.

In Lucius' previous life, almost none of the Frontier planets survived the Ascension. Reyna's awakening had been too late and the re-establishment of communications was severely delayed. At this point, mankind had already begun to horribly lose and the rest of humanity was in the dark about these events.

By the time the Alliance had received and verified the information about the Ascension, it had already been too late. What was worse, was that the higher-ups greatly underestimated the severity of the situation and chose to suppress this information from the general public.

The result was... horrific.

Mankind faced tremendous losses after the first battle, with nearly 70% of the entire population dying in the Ascension. Facing such disastrous losses, mankind's annihilation was a foregone conclusion.

The fact that they had lasted for 30 years was something worthy of praise.

Therefore, Lucius' actions in Deatov were extremely crucial and important. Reyna's early awakening, Alex's warning, the survival of the soldiers in Deatov, the recording of the battle, all these seemingly insignificant factors had combined to form the decisive detail which changed mankind's history and cause.

As such, the actions taken by the Alliance was undoubtedly a step in the right direction and had managed to grasp onto the chance that Lucius had provided. This was the importance of information.

Seeing the news broadcast by the Alliance, Alex nodded his head in approval.

'With this, the general populace and the army will have sufficient time to prepare. No other planet will be lost!' his fists involuntarily clutched together.

"Such an astounding person!" just as he was lost in thoughts, he was woken up by the sound of Anya's praise.

"What?" Alex mumbled.

Anya pointed at the screen which showcased the zoomed-in video of Lucius' fight against the bug army. 

"I'm talking about that person. Such an astounding person. So heroic and selfless." words of praise flowed from within Anya's mouth.

Her eyes shined brilliantly and her mouth involuntarily parted.

'Heroic? Selfless? That guy?!' Alex absent-mindedly thought.

"What the f*ck?" he couldn't help but curse.

He then looked at Anya, as if he was looking at a crazy person and spoke.

"That guy is the farthest you can get from being selfless and heroic. He's an evil, selfish, petty, small-minded, uncaring bastard!" he thundered.

Seeing the raging Alex, Anya's brows rose in interest.

"You know him?" she asked curiously.

"Of course I know him! I was there in that battle with him!" Alex responded.

Without waiting for a reply he continued.

"He thinks himself to be invincible, doesn't have any consideration for his friends, selfish and petty, calls the rest of us 'trash' or 'worms', doesn't give a damn about orders! Always act so sagely and mysterious, like what does he even want us to do?! Why not simply tell us to do so, instead of calling us a disappointment and such?!" Alex poured out his grievances. 

Truth be told, he did not hate Lucius, in fact, he greatly admired the other party. However, that did not mean that Alex was void of any complaints. 

Looking at Alex's passionate fervor, Anya smiled and spoke.

"Seems like you do have a friend after all."

"Who's friends with that bastard?!" Alex snorted furiously. 

Getting up from his table he spoke,

"Anyways it's almost time for our reporting. Let's get going." 

Anya nodded her head and the duo started to head towards the Academy.

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

Just as the duo was about the enter the Academy gates, a young child suddenly walked up to Alex. It was a frail-looking boy, with white-pasty skin. His eyes were golden and shone with obvious zeal.

"Mister, could you wait for a second!" she shouted towards Alex and ran towards him.

Seeing that the young boy had called out to him, Alex paused. Looking around Alex noticed that other than the three of them, there were no other people on the streets. The surroundings were eerily quiet and abandoned.

This wasn't unusual as the people roaming about in the streets had a sharp decline, after the Alliance's news broadcast. There wasn't any mass panic, but the grimness of the situation could still be vaguely felt.

As such, he did not think much and watched as the young boy ran up to him.

"Ah, *Huff* *Huff*...thank you for waiting mister." the young boy roughly panted.

The boy then reached into the satchel that was hung on his shoulder and brought out a rough-looking paper. Handing it towards Alex, he explained.

"Mister must have seen the news. This Ascension, the Ordeals, the battle for survival, all of this is nothing but a test by the Lord! It's His reckoning!" the boy's eyes shone brilliantly as he explained.

"He controls the fate of all living things and it is only by His mercy that mankind was allowed to survive for so long! What He has giveth He can taketh it away!"

"Rather than struggling against this fate, all of us must unite to pray for our salvation. He knows what's best, as He is Everything, the Ruler of Destiny! It is the sole duty of us, His pious followers to worship and preach his Holiness!"

"Mister and Miss must consider joining us in our daily sermons. For it's not too late to seek forgiveness and correct your path."

He then performed a deep bow. "Thank you for listening!" saying so, the young boy ran off once again.

Alex and Anya stood at their spots stiffly. A variety of complicated emotions crossed their mind, chief of which was confusion.

After a few moments, Alex hesitantly spoke. 

"...did we just get a religious lecture from a young child?" 

Anya blankly nodded her head.

Alex looked down into his hand and read the paper pamphlet that he was holding. 

"...Sors Fides." he absentmindedly read the title.

Alex was deep in his thoughts when Anya called out.

"We need to get going. It's already time." saying so she started walking towards the Academy gates.

Alex nodded his head and followed behind her. Dropping the paper on the ground, he shook his head and threw this matter to the back of his head.

' Just some crazy cult.'