Lord of Annihilation

『All of you can now die for your sins!』 a guttural roar resounded within the minds of all human soldiers. 

The humans were not able to understand the meaning of the words, but the savageness ingrained within that voice greatly unnerved them. The feeling was akin to facing a wild beast in the middle of the wilderness.

Hearing that voice, Zaine finally understood the feeling within his heart. 

'I've heard this voice before!' he immediately the final moment in the escape capsule before he lost consciousness.

"Who's there?!" The humans immediately became alert and looked around for the source of the voice.

The sensors within their mechs instantly fired up scanning every single inch of their surroundings.

"I've got nothing!"

"Me too."

"There are no readings of any kind."

One after the other the scouts voiced out the results of their scans. Compared to the sensors of the other mechs, the Scout-Type mechs contained the most sensitive and potent sensors.

Gulp.

The sudden sound of a loud gulp resounded within the group's comms. 

"O-over there. Tha-that's an…" an Assault-Type mech pilot stammered and pointed in a certain direction. The rest of the group instantly turned and looked in the direction of his pointing.

Carelessly floating in space a few meters away was a solitary figure.

The figure was 2.3m tall and was completely clad in black armor decorated with golden lines forming complicated and mystical patterns. Its head was oddly shaped; being wide and flat and its two exquisite compound eyes stared emotionlessly at the group of soldiers.

Its arms and legs were similar to humans, but the tight-fitting armor revealed the abundant muscles possed by the other. Two antennae-like appendages rose from its head and faintly shone with a mysterious light.

What was unnerving was that none of the sensors of the human's mechs seemed to be able to detect this figure. They could only see this figure with their eyes.

"Sh-shoot! Shoot that thing!!" Zaine thundered within the group's comms. Every second he stared at that figure, the sense of foreboding multiplied within Zaine's heart.

Without waiting for the others to follow, Zaine raised his laser rifle and unhesitantly shot towards the black-figure. 

A burst of colorful lights left the tip of his rifle, traveled through the empty void of space, and landed on the black armored figure. And then….

…the lights sunk in!

The space surrounding the armored figure strangely rippled and like droplets of water sinking into a pond, the shots of compressed, high-density energy sunk in and disappeared.

Zaine pupils shrunk to form tiny slits. Seeing this strange sigh, panic-filled his mind, and the unease within his heart increased.

The other soldiers followed Zaine's example and unreservedly shot towards the black armored figure.

"Kill! Kill! Kill those invaders!"

"Death to the invaders!"

"For my dead comrades! I will kill you!!" 

A cacophony of cries mixed to form a strange symphony.

Cries filled with anger, despondence, hatred, grief, and myriad other emotions poured forth from the soldiers and headed towards the armored figure along with their bursts of colorful shots.

Alas, nothing happened.

The space surrounding the figure continued to strangely ripple and dispersing the plethora of attacks shot towards it. Not a single attack reached the black armored figure!

The invader continued to stand still and coldly watched the human soldiers. Seeing its opponents slow their rate of fire, it indifferently transmitted its voice to their minds.

『Giving up?』

『Well, it was foolish of you pathetic worms to even think that your weapons could pierce through my Runic Armor.』 a tinge of arrogance tainted its words.

Runic Armor.

It was a high-level artifact that condensed the power of the Runes into wearable pieces of equipment. It was the crystallization of the Universe's research into Runes and was considered a strategic asset amongst various species.

The quality and quantity of Runic Armors possessed by a race were proportional to their strength and wealth within the Universe. A group of soldiers wearing Runic Armor could single-handedly change the outcome of a losing war. 

Runic Armor and other artifacts similar to it were made by Sigilers. [Sigilers] referred to both the name of a soul type and an occupation of people. This was a very rare and prestigious occupation that only those with both excellent talent and luck, could hope to become.

The number of Sigilers was extremely low with less than a thousand of them currently living within the vast Universe. In short, they were as rare as a grain of white rice amidst a vast desert of sand.

『Well, what do you know anyway? For the sin of disrupting the Great Ba'lorks assault, you humans must all die!』 saying so, the black-colored figure flashed before instantly appearing before a heavy mech.

Drawing a golden sword from nowhere, it raised its hands high and slashed downwards.

RIP!!!

The heavy mech was effortlessly bisected into two halves. Seated within the cockpit that was located in the chest of the mech, the pilot gruesomely died without managing to even utter a scream.

The Formician withdrew his swords and slowly wiped the crimson blood stained upon the golden blade. His actions were smooth and artistic. 

He then raised his head and stared towards the other mechs which were frozen within fear.

『The hunt had begun. Do scream before you die.』

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

'Dammit! How did this happen?!' Zaine screamed within his mind while controlling his mech to run away. 

His body was soaked in blood and sweat, and his mind was burning up from pushing himself to the limits. 

'How?! How?! HOW?!' 

'How can such a monster exist?!' 

A formidable Formician Warrior wearing a Runic Armor. No matter what type of attack the human mechs used, the strange ripple surroundings its body, instantly absorbed and nullified their attacks.

Laser shots. No effect.

Plasma Bombs. No effect.

Short-charge Nuclear Missiles. No effect.

Even physical attacks had no effect against that monster.

Starting from the heavy mechs, the invader picked off the human soldiers one by one. Every time he moved, he effortlessly killed the opponent in one slash. The humans on the other hand were not able to deal a single attack on their opponent.

After losing 6 mechs, Zara the Captain of the squad sounded for a retreat. The invader neither intervene nor stopped them. In fact, it gave them a two-minute head start.

After two minutes, its incomprehensible cold voice, laced with a tinge of amusement sounded out within their minds once more.

『Scurrying like rats. How pathetic.』

Starting from the ones falling behind at the very back, the invaders picked them up one by one. And before long, Zaine was the only mech left.

'Captain Hartman! Captain Zara!' Thinking about these two people, Zaine's eyes blurred with tears and his heart writhed with pain.

Knowing that they would not be able to make it to the battlecruiser in time, they decided to stop their retreat and buy time for Zaine to retreat.

"Get to the base, kid! Tell them about this abnormal bastard!" Hartman's harsh but warm voice

"Don't look back and don't worry about us!" Zara's calm and relaxing words.

'All of them died and I did not possess the strength to save them!' Zaine soundlessly laughed. Seeing the increasingly shortening distance between the invader and the Rifleman, Zaine had fallen into despair.

He did not look back. He ran and ran and continued to run.

Yet, the distance between both the hunter and the prey never increased. Rather, the Formician with the name Ba'lorks had already entered the 30m range of Zaine.

'What's the point in even running anymore.' 

'To think I wanted to get revenge from such a being. How laughable.' Zaine laughed at the ignorance of his thoughts.

Seeing that the invader had almost reached his mech, Zaine stopped running. He turned around to face the black-armored invader and widened both his arms, exposing the chest of the Rifleman containing the cockpit to the enemy.

"Just kill me." He lightly spoke, his voice devoid of all hope.

Although the Formician was unable to understand the human language and therefore Zaine's words, it nonetheless recognized the hopeless voice of the other and his action of surrender.

『How disappointing.』 it shook its head in disappointment.

It bothered not to waste any more time playing with prey that had already given up.

Rasing its sword it slashed down, one final time.

'It's finally over.' Zaine closed his eyes and waited for the warm darkness to engulf him.

Seconds passed, yet neither the pain nor the darkness arrived.

'Huh?' confused, Zaine opened his eyes and saw something that he would then forever remember for the remainder of his life. 

A man burning with blue-colored flame floated in front of the Rifleman's chest. His right hand was slightly raised and was grasping onto the Formician's golden sword.

With his inferno-like red hair waving in the absence of air, his blunt and widely arrogant voice sounded.

"Pick someone your own size, bastard!"