Lord of Annihilation

A slim, dainty-looking lady walked on the opposite side of the street. Her body and face were hidden beneath a thick, dusty robe, exposing only a fair amount of her shoulder-length black hair and her pale-white arms.

Her slender hands tightly clutched onto a wooden basket and her footsteps were quick and panicked. Just a second ago, she had accidentally gazed towards the two guards, only to be spotted by the Terran.

The Terran guard, being a Peak-Level Stage 1 had eyesight that was superior to the regular people. In that short moment, he had caught a glimpse of her face.

'So beautiful!' he was completely enchanted. 'Those sl*ts at the brothel come nowhere close to her beauty. If I can get my hands on her…' his face formed a lecherous smile.

"You! Stop right there!" he bellowed and immediately ran towards this lady. 

The lady quickened her footsteps and almost broke into a run, however, her pursuer was a Mid-Level Stage 1. Someone a regular person like her could not compare with.

"Caught you!" The Terran quickly caught up to the lady and forcibly held her by her arm.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" the Lacerman belatedly followed.

The Terran guard did not reply. He used his hand to remove the hood covering the lady's face, revealing her grime and dust covered-face. 

Laying their eyes on her exquisite face, the two guards found themselves speechless. 'Such a…' they wanted to describe her beauty, but couldn't find the appropriate words. 

"Gulp." They loudly gulped. The more they looked, the more they felt their eyes being drawn into her.

"..pl…ease let me go…" the lady spoke in a soft voice, reminiscent of a rat's squeak. The fear and panic in her eyes were evident.

Hearing that request, the Terran exploded into loud laughter: "Hahaha! To think I would have such good luck!"

His eyes grew menacing as he continued: "You want to leave? Of course you can, after properly serving me!" he growled and neared the lady's face. His breath grew increasingly heated and his eyes lustful.

"Hey, wait a second." The Lacerman interrupted his partner's action.

"What do you want?!" the Terran bellowed in rage. Blood had already started rushing to his lower facilities.

He quickly turned around and glared at his partner's face. However, he found something to be wrong, the eyes of his partner were completely blank.

Just as the Terran guard was about to voice his confusion, he heard an emotionless voice sound next to his ears: "Quite the mental fortification you've got. My [Charm] almost didn't work." 

The Terran felt a chill pass through his spine and quickly turned around. His vision was drawn into a single golden eye which shone brilliantly.

And with that, the Terran found his sight blackout. His consciousness was forcibly destroyed.

'Phase one is over.' Lucius concluded as he stared at the two guards. 

With clever use of [Annihilation Intent] and his unique ability [Charm], Lucius managed to forcibly wipe out their consciousness and converted them into mindless zombies.

His plan was nothing ingenious, but rather a simple play on emotion. By using his appearance and appealing towards the guards, he managed to create a flaw in their minds and ruthlessly exploited it.

In fact, it was only recently that Lucius had learnt that his [Charm] had undergone an upgrade, an increase in its usage to be precise. 

As long as the soul cultivation of the target was lower than that of Lucius, he could now forcibly hijack their minds. 

Commands which were harmful to the target, such as 'kill yourself' which did not work previously, now worked on a fixed probability. As for what that probability was, further tests were required.

'With the two guards under my control, I can enter the compound. I just have to be careful not to reveal any flaws while approaching their leader.' Lucius concluded.

Clapping his hands twice, five shadows quickly appeared next to him.

"On my order, start sweeping up from the outer perimeter. Be quick and do not make any noise. Cut their vocal cords, before going in for the kill." Lucius instructed.

The five Forgotten warriors nodded their heads before disappearing into the darkness. He then ordered the two guards to bind his hands, before letting them lead him into the compound.

'Starting Phase two.'

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

With the two guards leading the way, Lucius had no problems entering the compound.

'That was easy. Now all I have to do Is avoid the others and make it to their boss.' Lucius quietly whispered his orders to the two guards.

Unlike the Forgotten with whom he was connected, Lucius could not mentally command these two guards. His orders had to be manually spoken and could not be overly complex.

Entering the gates, led the group across a large lawn. The lawn was mostly barren, with a cactus-like, brown-colored plant growing sporadically. Pectron did not have an abundance of green-colored flora.

Silently calculating the size, Lucius found that the dimension of this front lawn was almost equal to a large spacecraft hangar. In other words, it was enormous.

Under the hood, his brows slightly furrowed: 'There is little to no cover here. The Forgotten will be spotted easily if they try to enter.'

'A distraction is required.' Lucius quickly drew up a plan. He leaned in and whispered a few words to the two guards.

Crossing the lawn, Lucius came up to what seemed to be a checkpoint. It was manned by five guards, each Mid-Level Stage 1 judging from their aura.

"Halt! What are the both of you doing here?" the leader of this checkpoint asked.

Wearing a neutral expression, the Terran loudly proclaimed: "A delivery for the boss." He pointed towards the hooded Lucius.

Hearing the soft whimpers coming from within the hooded person, the leader-guard quickly understood: "A slave?" he asked.

"Aye. We are bringing her to the boss." The Lacerman explained.

"I need to verify her." The leader-guard spoke. Having lived with the Terran, he knew about the latter's lecherous personality.

'This lustful guy is actually bringing a female slave for the boss? Something's fishy.' He slightly raised his guard.

To the leader-guard's surprise, he actually complied. The Terran lifted the hood of Lucius' face and exposed his face to the other soldiers.

Instantly, sharp intakes of air could be heard.

"So pretty…" "Someone like this exists?" "If only I was the one who caught her…" "Such a shame, she's flat"

Many involuntarily mumbled, while looking at Lucius with a heated gaze.

Lucius for his part played his role quite well. His face wore the expression of shame and hopelessness and tears continuously dripped from his closed eyes. Inside his mind, however, he was completely calm.

'This is a chance!' He suddenly threw his body sideward, breaking off the Terran guard's hold. With a flustered scream, he started to run in the opposite direction.

Along with his scream, the dazed guards awoke from their fantasies.

"After her! Make sure not to hurt her!" the leader-guard screamed in panic. The others immediately complied. Their breaths were ragged and resembled that of rabid dogs.

"Stop running!" "Little girl, I have candies. Come to uncle!" "Don't be scared beauty! I'll protect you!" 

Myriad types of screams and shouts filled the scene as the guards employed their soul power to close in on Lucius. 

Since he was in disguise, Lucius had completely suppressed his soul power with not a trace of it leaking out. Outwardly, he resembled an ordinary person without any soul power.

In a competition of speed, a normal person who is not using their soul power could not compete with these guards who could. 

Lucius however, was not a normal person.

'Left.' His honed instincts instantly traced the movement of the closest guard. With a movement akin to stumbling, Lucius tilted his body towards the right.

"Shit!" the guard who had leapt towards Lucius, barely grazed his body and landed face-first onto the ground.

Lucius gave a surprised yelp and continued to run.

Right. One from above. A pincer.

He methodically observed their movements and aptly responded. Lucius disguised his evasions as lucky trips, stumbles, pauses, turns, etc. He kept circling and moving erratically like a headless fly.

All the guards including the wary leader-guard joined in the capture. After approximately 30 seconds of running around, Lucius received a signal from the Forgotten warriors noting their successful infiltration. 

'That was solved.' He promptly stopped running and 'weakly' collapsed next to the Lacerman guard.

"..Plea..se let..me go." Of course, he remembered to act.

The Lacerman did not reply and simply lifted him off the ground and carried him on his shoulder. Lucius stopped his struggle and laid limply, seemingly having lost hope.

A series of 'nooo's were heard coming from the check-point guards. The leader-guard also felt regretful, but quickly recovered his demeanor. He was old and with his abundant life experience he quickly figured out the two guards' scheme.

"Eager for a promotion from the boss, eh?" he snickered.

The Lacerman guard ignored him and the Terran guard replied with a faint smile. The two with Lucius on tow continued walking towards the main building. The check-point guards had their backs turned and watched the beauty be carried away.

"Tch, tch. Such a high-quality product. The boss is surely going to ecstatic and will heavily reward those two." the leader-guard remarked.

Hearing his words, realization dawned upon the other guards. Their mouths silently cursed at the unfairness of the world and the incredible luck of those two guards. Of course, they also lamented at the fate slave, knowing that she would become the exclusive property of their boss.

Unbeknownst to these guards, five shadows quietly sneaked up behind them. They collectively reached their hands in and…

Snuffed them out.