Lord of Annihilation

The old man's face instantly paled. He could feel the dark, tangible killing intent prickle every single inch of his skin. 

"I-it wasn't intentional, I swear!" the old man stammered. Waving his hands in a panic he continued: "I wasn't expecting sir to suddenly walk in!"

"Oh? Then who were you expecting to walk in?" Lucius asked, intrigued.

"That…" the old man's eyes dogged about, as hesitation filled his face. He seemed to be having a mental debate on whether to reveal this info or not. Seeing his hesitation, Lucius further intensified his killing intent.

'Ah, screw it! If I don't this psychopath might kill me!' eventually the old man gave up. He realized that the person in front of him was a bona fide [Killer]. 

While Lucius' aura was only at Peak-Level Stage 1, the sheer density and intensity of his killing intent, made up for the lack of the rest.

"I'll tell you!" the old man screamed. His broad shoulders slumped powerlessly and a look of hopelessness appeared within his eyes.

He then began to explain his current situation.

Lucius patiently heard the old man's explanation. 

While he was indifferent towards the majority of others and even looked down upon them, treating them as ants or worms or whatnot, there were some exceptions to this behavior.

There were a very small number of individuals for whom Lucius held a trace amount of respect. These included the Lords, some Peak-Level Stage 7 monsters, and certain people who had a definite impact on his previous life.

This list included this blue-haired old man.

Baltmer. Leon Baltmer was the name of this old man. 

Baltmer had no meager cultivation of Low-Level Stage 1, an inconsequential amount of power to survive within the Pandemonium. He was a single father with a daughter, who was a little older than Lucius when he had come here in his previous life. (50 or so years).

He ran a small shop in this grey, rundown district of the Pandemonium for reasons unknown. In fact, Lucius did not recall anyone other than himself ever visiting this shop in his previous life.

In his previous life, when Lucius had arrived at the Pandemonium, as a grieving and lost youth who had witnessed the destruction of his race, he was forced into slavery by one of the gangs operating this city. Due to his status being that of a Traveler, he was treated as expendable human trash.

Possessing no strength to fight for his freedom, Lucius had no choice but to accept his fate. However, things soon turned for the worst as one of the leaders of the gang took a liking for Lucius' looks. He had then forced Lucius into becoming his s*x slave. 

During all of this time, the only person who viewed and treated Lucius as a person was Baltmer. Even during the end when Lucius had forsaken his will to live, it was Baltmer who had performed an untold amount of sacrifices to give Lucius the opportunity to escape and advance in his cultivation.

Almost a year later, Lucius had advanced from Mid-Level Stage 1 to Mid-Level Stage 2 and returned to the city…

Only to find that the old man was brutally killed by the gang and his daughter was sold into slavery, who then killed herself from shame.

Lucius had completely lost his mind to rage on that day and had slaughtered every single gang member. He did not even leave the others who had simply stood by and watched.

Lucius had truly become an [Killer] after this incident.

-----------

Returning to today.

Although Baltmer had no idea who Lucius was and was meeting him for the first time in his current life, Lucius felt that he owed him a favor.

'Seeing that he currently seems to be in trouble, I might as well pay this favor back.' Lucius concluded. In exchange for saving his life once, Lucius would save Baltmer's life for a single time. After that, all debts would be resolved.

It was not a fair trade? The favor he owed was greater?

Well, Lucius did not care about that. The only reason he had even decided to help Baltmer was to make the other feel indebted to him. While Baltmer had no strength, he was nonetheless a very resourceful man. 

Having the assistance of someone like him would make Lucius' life in Pandemonium much easier. After all, advancing in Stage sometimes required the assistance of certain resources. It would be too inefficient for Lucius and Olivia to search for them on their own.

'Also, I'm on a time limit. With that Bertarian tracking me down, I can only remain hidden for so long. Saving his daughter should count as repaying the favor.' Lucius finally finished hearing what Baltmer was saying.

Taking a moment to organize the information, Lucius took a breath and spoke.

"In short, the Minaccia Gang has kidnapped your daughter in exchange for ransom. If you fail to make the payment, they will sell your daughter to slavery."

"Yes." Baltmer nodded his head bitterly. 

"How much?" Lucius questioned.

"15,000 Spirit Coins," Baltmer replied.

Spirit Coins were the Universal currency of the Universe. They were mined and shaped from naturally occurring Spirit Veins, which are a physical manifestation of Spiritual Energy.

Since spiritual Energy was an attribute less unit of energy of the Universe it had a multitude of uses, runes, enchanted weapons, crafting, etc. Spiritual energy was also required for the cultivation and advancement of soul power.

In the absence of sufficient spiritual energy, the soul might collapse during advancement. (Remember when Lucius advanced to Mid-Level Stage 1 on the spaceship before the 'Ascension'. His soul had almost collapsed due to insufficient presence of spiritual energy).

'15,000 coins for that weakling. What a joke.' Lucius inwardly thought. 

"I'm not sure how sir had found this old man's shop, but if you're unrelated to the Minaccia Gang, I advice sir to leave the premises right now. I wouldn't want to drag sir into my troubles." Baltmer honestly spoke.

He had never expected Lucius to help him out of the graciousness of his heart, nor did he expect any help. In the Pandemonium, where its 'kill or be killed' environment no one in their right mind would needlessly offend an establish gang.

In fact, if Lucius had offered to help him, Baltmer would be absolutely convinced that something was fishy or that a deeper ploy was in place.

"What's the strength of the Minaccia Gang?" Lucius suddenly asked.

Baltmer was caught off-guard. He cautiously observed Lucius' face only to find the other completely expressionless. Not wanting to piss him off, he replied honestly.

"The total number of people associated with that Gang is 30. Their Leader is a Low-Level Stage 2, who is in the cusp to breaking through into Mid-Level. The Vice-Leaders must be Peak-Level Stage 1 with the rest being lower than that." 

"Affiliations?" Lucius continued to ask.

"They are one of the numerous lackeys of the 'Five Big Ones'. As for which one among the five, I don't know." Baltmer replied.

"Location?" Lucius asked.

Baltmer smoothly replied once again. As for how he knew such specific facts, it was his secret.

Hearing his reply, Lucius quieted down. Except for the pained screams of Olivia in the background, who was still struggling with the Babel Fish, the rest of the shop was silent.

Minutes passed and Baltmer managed to summon the courage to ask a question: "Ma-may I ask why sir wishes to know these things?" 

"Obviously to save your daughter." Lucius absent-mindedly replied.

"Wha-what?! Why?!" Baltmer shrieked. His wariness instantly rose by a thousand-fold.

Having awakened from his thoughts by that scream, Lucius looked into Baltmer's eyes and casually spoke.

"She and I are Travelers who have just recently arrived on this planet. As such, I need you to discretely register our identities. As you can see, I have no coins to pay for your services."

"Tra-travelers!" Baltmer was shocked. As stated before, Travelers are extremely rare, especially on planets like Pectron.

"Also, I have offended the Governor of the Stellar Light City by killing his children and destroying their bodies." Lucius nonchalantly dropped another bomb.

This time Baltmer was no longer able to handle his shock. His knees weakened and his old body collapsed onto the ground.

'Hea-heavens! Of all the people, he had to offend the Bertarians!' Baltmer thought. No sane person would do such a thing, however, considering that Lucius seemed to be a [Killer] Baltmer suddenly found this disturbing matter to be…'normal?'

'As expected of a [Killer]' he unsteadily climbed to his feet and wiped the sweat of his forehead. His frizzled blue hair had already become damp from nervousness.

"Okay. This is doable." He suddenly saw the 'psycho' nod his head and speak.

"Look after her until I come back." Lucius blandly stated before turning and walking towards the exit.

"Wa-wait! Where are you going?" Baltmer scream.

"To get you, your daughter back," Lucius replied without turning around.

"How?!" 

Lucius paused at the door for a moment and replied. His calm and mechanical words resounded within the shop.

"Simple. Kill them all and find your daughter."