Lord of Annihilation

Watching the sword's tip sink into the armor of the Rifleman, Zaine felt his surroundings slow down. 

What was originally a high-intensity scene, suddenly turned into a frame by frame slide. The movements of the golden mech, the sinking of the sword, the reaction of the Rifleman, all of it seemed unbearably slow in Zaine's eyes.

'Wh-what's happening?' Zaine was astonished. His thoughts were still agile but his body felt unbearably heavy.

Just as Zaine was feeling baffled, his pupils shrunk in shock. The tip of the sword, which had sunken into the armor of the Rifleman, was slowly rising out of the mech. The actions of the golden mech also seemed to rewind, as the actions of his arms which were previously stabbing forward were being drawn back.

The time surrounding Zaine was being rewound!

'I-is this real?!' Zaine found his current situation incomprehensible. 

His mind was suddenly attacked by a deluge of sharp pain, as he felt the soul power in his body being rapidly consumed.

'This is an effect caused by my soul power?!' Zaine was shocked.

The power to rewind time! It was no longer in the realm of extraordinary or special, but was at the level of being considered mythical!

At this point, the scene before Zaine's eyes had already changed. The golden mech had once again disappeared and Zaine's Rifleman had also returned to its previous spot, before his evasion!

His body was growing weaker by the second and his mind was slowly losing consciousness. Zaine bit down hard on his lips and forcibly halted the flow of his soul power.

With the consumption of his soul power stopped, Zaine felt a mystical sensation enveloping his surroundings suddenly disappeared. The scene before his eyes regained its original speed.

A special intuition appeared within his mind following which Zaine instinctively moved his body.

'Forward! To the right!' Zaine did not panic. He calmly raised the laser rifle and shot towards an empty spot.

The bolt of blue light flashed, sparking with electricity flew from the end of the rifle, towards an empty point in space.

Screech!

An inhuman roar suddenly sounded out. In the direction where the rifle had shot out, appeared a golden-colored mech. However, in the center of its head was a large hole.

Zaine's full-powered blast with his laser rifle had fatally struck his opponent with uncanny precision.

The golden mech's large, black eyes were filled with incomprehension and shock, as it stared towards Zaine. If it had the ability to speak, perhaps its parting words would have been.

'How did you do that?'

Alas, Zaine himself wasn't sure of the answer!

--------

Having successfully killed its opponent, The Rifleman stood unmoving. Seated inside its cockpit, was a heavily sweating, pale-faced Zaine whose face held the same amount of surprise as his dead opponent. 

'I-what was that?! What did I just do?' Zaine asked himself.

His current body felt unbearably heavy, seemingly filled with lead. He found it hard to maintain his consciousness, as a feeling of emptiness and weakness spread from inside his body.

Zaine was no stranger to this situation. He knew that this was an aftereffect of over-drafting his soul power. However, the current weakness and pain he felt was a hundred-no- a few hundred times greater than usual.

Underneath his pilot's uniform, Zaine's skin and muscles had torn apart at various places. Blood continuously fell from his body, resulting in an abnormally pale face. 

Just when Zaine thought that his situation couldn't become anymore dismal, a sudden explosion of information occurred within his mind.

[Rewind]- Ability to rewind time within a 5m radius of the user. 

Consumption of soul power will depend on the strength, the number of target parties, and duration of activation. At Stage 1, [Rewind] can only be activated during a near-death situation (provided that the user has sufficient soul power). 

'[Rewind]… so that's what happened.' Zaine understood. For a minute, he was at a loss for words: 'Such a powerful skill.' That was the only thing that he could think of at this moment.

Zaine's soul was called the [Chronometry]. It wasn't anything exceptional and only granted him the ability to speed up or slow down his actions. Apart from that, Zaine was also unusually perceptive of the passage of time.

Since it had no flashy effects and wasn't as effective as Felix's [Lightning Fist] or as pronounced as Hartman's [Superhuman Strength]. In fact, it wasn't even as useful as Hawk's [Eagle Eye].

As such, Zaine had kept the usage of his abilities minimal and only used his pure soul power when the situation called for it.

'To think that my abilities are directly related to time! My use of them has been too shallow!' Zaine took multiple intakes of air to stabilize his body. 

The pilot's suit that he had been wearing had already released specialized fluids to stop his bleeding and the pain inside his head had also decreased to a certain extent.

'But this condition for activation is a little—'

"OI, KID! STOP SPACING OUT AND HELP KILL THESE BASTARDS!!" Hartman's roar awoke Zaine from his musing.

He instantly snapped out of his daze and realized the situation he was currently in "s-sorry!"

Zaine felt his slapping himself in his face: 'I'm such an idiot! I'm spacing out while we are in the midst of a battle!' He instantly turned the Rifleman and aimed with his rifle.

After the initial panic, the humans had already reorganized themselves, after grasping the crux of the enemy's ability/

They adopted a circle formation, with the heavy-mech forming an impenetrable wall and the spear-wielding mechs positioned right behind them. Artillery mechs were protected inside this wall, dishing out the majority of the damage.

Activating the comms, Zaine hurriedly shared his experience with the rest of the team.

"Everyone, those golden mechs can go invisible!"

"WE SEE THAT GENIUS!" Hartman bellowed with frustration. 

Go invisible? Of course, they could see that! 

But that wasn't the issue. The actual issue was...

"Dammit! The armors of these things are too strong!" a member cursed.

"They're moving so fast too!" another member screamed.

"AHH!! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

Zaine realized his stupid mistake and hurriedly cursed inwardly. He then recalled the scene of his battle and tried to recall a weakness.

'Weakness…weakness…Right, their head!" Realization struck Zaine.

'They died after a single shot to their heads!' Zaine immediately raised his voice and screamed into the group comms.

"Everyone, aim for their heads! At their foreheads to be exact!" after saying so, Zaine shot with his rifle towards the exposed mechs.

Most of his shots went wide, but a few lucky ones landed on the heads of the golden mechs. A single shot even struck the center of the forehead of a mech, instantly killing it.

"Holy shit! The kid's right!" a member piloting a sharpshooter voiced his happiness.

"Engage Aim Assists! Show these fu*kers what you've got!" Zara immediately instructed the squad.

With a path to victory in their sights, the squad of human soldiers did not hesitate. They immediately focused their fire and aimed to shoot and stab at the head of the golden mechs.

The golden mechs seemed to be just as eager as the human soldiers to engage in battle. As such, they suddenly abandoned their use of invisibility and attacked the humans with increased fervor increasing the burden on the heavy mechs acting as the walls.

A few mechs also headed towards Zaine, hoping to finish off this lone mech. However, with his increased understanding of his soul and its abilities, Zaine gained renewed confidence to face multiple enemies.

He had less than 30% soul power remaining, but with intelligent use of his ability to speed up and slow down his body and his mech, Zaine managed to evade fatal attacks while kiting his enemies.

After a few minutes of intense struggles and some tragic losses, the humans finally managed to clinch victory over their inhuman opponents.

"We-We won!!"

"HELL YEAH! WE WON!!"

"TAKE THOSE MOTHERFU*KERS! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR ATTACKING US!"

The soldiers roared in joy as they rejoiced! It was a short but unquestionably intense battle. With the amount of mental pressure faced by these frontline soldiers due to the Alliance's constant losses, a victory, no matter how minor, was something worthy of celebration.

"Good work people! All enemies are accounted for. We got them all!" Zara praised. The tiredness in her voice was evident for Zaine to sense.

"May the souls of our comrades, forever rest in peace." She then solemnly followed.

Having participated in his first 'actual' battle, Zaine was also feeling quite happy. Although he had approached death's door multiple times, he was ultimately the victor.

'Still, what is this odd feeling that I'm having right now.' He, however, found himself unable to smile. Zaine felt his heart weighed by an ominous sense of foreboding.

"Good work, maggot. You were better than I expected." Hartman approached the Rifleman mech with his own Heavy-Artillery mech. 

"Thanks." Zaine gave a perfunctory reply.

"What's wrong?" Hartman asked sensing the odd state that Zaine was in.

"Its….how do I explain it?" Zaine struggled for a few seconds, unable to find the right words to express his feeling: "It feels like this isn't over yet. That something was missing from that battle."

'It seemed too easy' were the words that popped into Zaine's mind. However, considering how rude he would sound, he ultimately chose not to say it.

"Cheer up. Everyone feels like that after their first battle. You will feel fine after the adrenaline settles." Zara, who had heard their conversation, spoke with a light smile.

"I hope so." Zaine politely replied.

It was then that his pupils suddenly shrunk! The ominous feeling in his heart suddenly exploded. A familiar feeling suddenly enveloped his mind, reminding him of his close encounter with death!

『All of you can now die for your sins!』