Lord of Annihilation

After killing the Bertarian siblings, Lucius turned his head towards Olivia.

She had her head turned away and eyes closed tightly. Her dainty fists were firmly clenched, as her eyes refused to see the scene of Lucius killing those two.

Olivia's face looked very pale, with a pained expression present on it. She could understand the logic behind Lucius' actions, but couldn't come to accept such cruelty yet.

'Was it the right thing to do? Could there be a different outcome?' she questioned herself. 

With his experience, Lucius could easily sense the internal conflict that was undergoing inside Olivia's mind.

All along, the people Olivia had killed or seen killed, were either enemies or monsters. However, the Bertarian siblings were obviously neither of these. They had been innocent.

It was just the case of being present in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Although Lucius understood this, he did not move to comfort her.

'This is something she will eventually learn. The sooner she learns this, the better.' he expressionlessly stood and watched from the sidelines.

People died every day. Whether it be due to natural or unnatural causes, the end result was the same...death.

Death was inevitable. This was an indisputable matter. 

'If one wants to survive in the Universe, things like morality or sense of honor must be abandoned. Those who mindlessly stick to their principles like, 'justice' or 'chivalry' will have no future.' this was the lesson Lucius had learnt during the 300 years of his life.

Kindness? Tolerance? The strong must protect the weak?

Such concepts might have worked on Earth but did not hold any value in the Universe. Here, the only law was the law of the jungle.

The strong prey upon the weak, while the weak perishes.

If one wanted to survive in the Universe, they had to learn this concept by their heart. There was simply no other choice.

Dozens of seconds passed and the expression on Olivia's face softened. Her fists also gradually loosened. Opening her eyes, a streak of brilliant violet light suddenly flashed. 

'...I see. So this is the path of a [Soul Supressor].' she had a moment of sudden realization. 

"Did you have some gains?" Lucius asked.

Olivia nodded her head and replied: "I had some sudden realization about my soul. I have a vague idea about my advancement." 

"Good." Lucius praised. He then turned and kneeled next to the two corpses.

"You might not want to watch this next part." saying so he dug his hands into his 'meal'. Unable to use his racial abilities, Lucius had to do this manually.

What was done was done. Recovering his strength was his current priority.

Olivia's face turned as white as a sheet. She held in her urge to vomit and ran towards the spaceship.

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Olivia spent the next dozen minutes, scavenging through the debris of the spaceship. She was naturally looking for any items, that would be of use to their journey.

'That last attack from Lucius was really powerful.' while scavenging, she naturally ran the scenes of the previous battle and was analyzing it, in short, she was revising.

It was very important to revise. Only with constant revision would one be able to identify one's flaws and improve upon them. This was a necessary process, that was the key to becoming successful.

'If an attack of such power was directed at me, could I survive it?' Olivia pondered. 

Her hands moved absent-mindedly, as her mind was focused elsewhere. Lifting a heavy beam out of the way, Olivia's eyes caught sight of a small object pulsating with dim golden light.

'Ka'lor'ah!' She naturally recognized the crystal and reached in and grabbed it. Just then, she heard a voice: "Found the crystal?" 

Turning her head back, Olivia saw Lucius standing above the mound. His handsome face was no longer sunken, and his sickly-looking body had also returned to its previous, peak state.

Seeing him like this, Olivia was partly glad and also partly remorseful. She knew that Lucius' recovery, meant the bodies of the Bertarians had been consumed.

Shaking her head to get rid of these depressing thoughts, she replied: "I just found her." 

"Throw it towards me." the crystal was thrown and Lucius quickly caught it. Seeing that the crystal was undamaged, Lucius then instructed: "Find the fuel-cell core of the spaceship and destabilize it." 

Realizing the meaning of his words, Olivia was shocked.

"We are going to blow up the spaceship?" she asked. 

Destabilizing the core, meant that the fuel cells would begin to overheat, resulting in a meltdown. The result would be a fantastical explosion. 

Nodding his head, Lucius continued: " This group had already sent a request for reinforcements, which should be arriving soon. We do not have any time to clean up our traces from the battlefield."

"Having the spaceship explode, would be the quickest and most efficient way to destroy all traces of the battle," he explained.

Olivia nodded her head and quickly started to look for the fuel cells. Lucius stayed on the mound and played with the golden crystal in his hand. His eyes were vacant as he seriously pondered.

'Those two kids have some serious backing. What were those guards saying back then....' 

'G..Geh..Gho..' he analyzed their words and tried to translate their words. It has been a long time since Lucius had learnt the language of the Bertarians.

He remembered that he tried to learn this language, when he had arrived on this planet for the first time, in his previous life. However, he had quickly stopped doing so, after finding a 'better solution' to solve this problem.

Right now, however, he was yet to gain that 'better solution'. As such, Lucius dived into his memories and tried hard to remember the mnemonics of the language.

'Go...Goveh...' Lucius eyes suddenly shrunk. He realized the meaning of the word: 'Governor. Those kids are actually the children of the governor.' Lucius bros furrowed in worry.

Massaging his temple with one of his hands, Lucius thought to himself: 'The situation just got a whole lot more complicated.' he sighed.

'All Bertarians are complete nutjobs...Killing his children, he will never let this matter go. I have to rework some of my plans.' closing his eyes, Lucius started to reconsider his future plans.

His original plan was to head to an [Neutral-Good] established city and quickly grow his strength in a safe environment, that had a lot of resources. With sufficient resources, Lucius could quickly grow in strength and would have a chance at reaching Stage 3 in three years.

However, now that he had 'involuntarily' offended the Bertarian Governor, this plan was no longer possible.

'Stellar Light city, the city that the Bertarian Governor is in-charge of is one of three biggest cities on this planet. One that wields sufficient influence over the forces in this planet.'

'He also has a lot of connections with the other cities and wields an enormous amount of power.'

'If we are to enter a [Neutral-Good] city, we have to register ourselves. Having no prior connections or records, we are sure to turn-up suspicious when he begins to investigate.'

'After that, it will only take a little effort to find out the truth behind the incident.'

'Once he finds the truth, that nutjob will surely lose his mind. We will end up with a fate worse than death.' This would be the most likely outcome.

Of course, there also existed the possibility of their identities not being exposed, due to some oversight or luck. However, this was very unlikely. Lucius wasn't willing to let his fate to chance either. 

'Looking at the terrain, we are near the Greystone Valley. If I recall correctly, there are 6 cities nearby. Excluding all the cities which have a connection with Stellar Light city... and also factoring the range of his investigation, I only have a single choice.'

'..Looks like I have to go to that hellish city once again.' Lucius sighed to himself. A plan formed within his mind.

It was the city, where Lucius had struggled for almost 15 years, after the destruction of mankind.

It was the city, where Lucius had experienced the dark side of the world and the cruelty of the Universe.

It was the city, where Lucius had begun his journey as a...[Killer]

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"Found it!" a pleasant female voice, woke Lucius' from his daze. He quickly recovered his thoughts and spoke in his signature emotionless voice.

"Destabilize the containment field and begin the meltdown process." 

Olivia quickly got to work and before long, the detonation countdown had started.

{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 1 MINUTE}

{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 59 SECONDS}

{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 58 SECONDS}

Olivia figure quickly left the crater and arrived next to Lucius: "It's done. Let's leave quickly!" 

Lucius nodded his head and started to run at this full speed. Olivia didn't tarry and quickly chased after him.

Only the sound of the AI's countdown was left behind. 

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{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 45 SECONDS.}

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{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 30 SECONDS.}

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{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 15 SECONDS.}

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{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 3 SECONDS.}

{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 2 SECONDS.}

{CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS: 1 SECONDS.}

BOOOOOM!