Lord of Annihilation

The Dark Shade Forest was home to the largest Wild Beasts population on the planet of Pectron. It occupied almost one-third of the planetary surface and contained a plethora of resources and natural treasures.

Containing ores, herbs, wild beast materials, the Dark Shade forest was the source of revenue for many cities and individual awakened who hoped to make a living.

Its name Dark Shade originates from the year-round darkness that plagues the forest. Trees that are tall as 400-500m in height, densely populate the entirety of this forest, blocking sunlight and creating an eternally darkened domain,

Although the Dark Shade Forest promises a lot of opportunities to become rich, its level of danger is also naturally high. Myriad types of Wild Beats, ranging from millions of Stage 1, tens of thousands of Stage 2, and almost a dozen Stage 3 beings, also call this forest their home.

Any person that does not understand the limitations of their ability would know their limits upon entering this forest. 

The deeper one goes, the higher the level of difficulty and danger increases, so much so, that even the Stage 3 residents of Pectron do not venture into the inner depths of this forest.

And today, at an unknown depth inside this forest, a fight between a single youth and a group of Stage 2 Canis was occurring.

"Roar!!" a wounded Canis let out an enraged roar before lunging towards Lucius. 

Its eyes were bloodshot and its pristine, silver-colored fur had a long cut leaking with blood and exposing its entrails. 

It had to be known, that the fur coat of a Canis was strong enough to block attacks from a Low-Level Stage 2 being. 

Lucius, holding onto his fully extended scythe was occupied with facing against three other uninjured Canis. His face remained impassive and his eyes gazed indifferently. 

Feeling the wounded Canis lunge towards his exposed back, Lucius let out a sigh, before stomping at the ground. 

Soul power exploded beneath his feet, pushing him into the air. Due to sudden movement, the wounded Canis which had already jumped into the air barely missed his body and fell atop the three uninjured ones.

Making use of this opportunity, Lucius drew an elegant arc in the air with his scythe, sending a wave of dense blade energy towards the entangled beasts.

Slash!

The dense dark-colored blade energy that was further boosted with his scythe technique, [Dance of the Death God- Second Movement: Shred], tore into the skulls of two Canises and shred their brains apart.

Dropping onto the ground, Lucius immediately controlled his void energy activating [Void Hands]. The shadow underneath his feet grew a shade darker and extended to a distance of 30m. 

Double of what he could do previously!

Eerie energy radiated off of this shadow carrying along with it, 50 tentacle-like appendages. Being supple yet firm, these tentacles instantly shot towards the two remaining Canises and firmly wrapped around their limbs.

Once secured, the appendages then pulled taut, spreading the four limbs of the Stage 2 Wild Beasts in four different directions. 

Canises resembled the wild wolves present on Earth. The only difference was, a Canis was 4-6m in length, possessed tougher fur and harder teeth, were innately intelligent and cunning, and also had their souls awakened at Stage 1.

Not stopping at immobilizing them, the [Void Hands] continued to pull, intending of tearing apart its limbs.

The Canises tried to struggle to the best of their abilities. However, with the long battle against Lucius draining their energy, his constantly active [Annihilation Intent] hurting their soul, and the injuries accumulated on their bodies, their remnant strength was insufficient to break free.

Meanwhile, Lucius who was the one controlling these [Void Hands], rose up and calmly walked towards the struggling beasts.

Seeing this person walk towards them expressionlessly, these Stage 2 Canis, which possessed intelligence on par with an average person, gazed at him with terror. They let out ghastly howls and cries, seemingly begging Lucius to let them go.

Naturally, Lucius ignored their cries. Approaching their bodies, he raised his scythe into the air, gathering his soul power to deal the final blow.

However…

Zhisst!

A bolt of lightning suddenly flew from within the dark forest behind him, aiming towards the back of Lucius' head. This dark-blue lightening was the ability possessed by the Canis' soul, [Lightning Wolf].

Seeing their 'hidden' member finally attack, the look of fear vanished from the eyes of the bounded beasts, replaced by derision and savageness.

After sacrificing three of their members, they had finally gotten a chance to deal a fatal injury to this person. The large, beastly maw slightly opened revealing what seemed to be a 'smile'.

Lucius who had noticed this attack as it entered the 5m radius of him, suddenly smiled, before disappearing. His body was suddenly overcome with darkness and disappeared from the line of the lightning attack.

The Canises open maws froze in shock. Before they managed to comprehend what had happened, the lightning ball landed on their bodies shocking and burning them.

The bodies of the struggling Canis grew stiff for a second, before turning limp. With them no longer struggling, the [Void Hands] effortlessly tore them apart, separating their heads, limbs, and bodies.

Plop. Plop.

Two lifeless bodies fell onto the ground with their blood and organs pouring out. The tentacles retreating into the Void, dragging the remains of the beast along with them. 

Once entered, [Devour] was automatically activated turning the remains into pure, void energy. A hazy, flickering shadow was also pulled into the Void, which was then converted into pure soul power.

Lucius who had evaded that attack using [Void Steps], currently stood atop a branch of a tree. His indifferent eyes calmly stared at the 'hidden' attacker, who stood stiffly with confusion. 

Not bothering to waste any more time, he jumped down, curled his hands to form a fist, and punched towards the Canis' head. 

His strength, enhanced by both soul power and the Scrofanians' stolen traits, brutally smashed its head apart. Blood and brain matter spilled out, tainting Lucius' hands and his clothes.

Silence returned to the forest.

Closing his eyes and reviewing the process of the battle, Lucius made mental notes of possible improvements. Having entered the Dark Shade forest almost a year ago, he made it a habit to review after an intense battle. Each time, he used a different method, corrected existing methods, and improved the efficiency of his hunt.

'Instead of using [Void Steps] during the last attack, I could have used [Flaw Detection] to evade it. The cost of energy would have been lesser, while the duration of the battle would have increased by 13 seconds.' 

'Also my blade energy slash was off target by 1.3°, reducing the effectiveness of that attack by 0.2%' he analyzed.

During this time of analysis, the shadow underneath his feet continued to pull in the remains of the Canis, digesting them, converting them into void energy, before suffusing it into Lucius' body.

In just a few minutes, all of Lucius spent energy, both void and soul was completely replenished.

'[Devour] is very useful. I do not have to waste any time resting to recover my energy.' Lucius thought to himself. His eyes shone with brightness, as a thought occurred to him: 'During a fight, as long as I have materials around me to devour, I will never run out of energy.'

Fight. Kill. Devour. Fight. Kill. Devour. And so on…

Void Eaters were bona fide perpetual machines. Not only will they never run out of energy, but they would also actively absorb the strengths of their prey to continuously grow in power!

No wonder they are the most abhorrent species in the Universe.

Being done with his analysis, Lucius was about to crouch down and personally eat the Canis in front of him, when his inner pocket suddenly shook.

Deactivating the scythe and placing it on his waist, Lucius reached into his robes and brought out the source of the disturbance. 

A dark-gold crystal increasingly grew in brightness while rapidly quivering. Lucius then controlled his soul power pouring it into the crystal.

Similar to a ravenous beast dying from hunger, the crystal greedily devoured Lucius' soul power. The more it ate, the more the golden radiance increased, and the faster it shook.

Wrooong!

With a sharp humming sound, the crystal suddenly started to revolve around its axis, while floating up into the air. It resembled a miniatures sun, providing intense brightness to this dark, dreary forest. 

Feeling his eyes sting from the brightness, Lucius hurriedly closed his eyes, spreading his soul power to observe the changes. The revolution of the crystal grew faster and faster, releasing waves of condensed, soul power.

The golden crystal was evolving!

Swooom! Swooom! Swooom!

The crystal had already stopped devouring Lucius' soul power, instead, forming miniature tornados, drawing the world's spiritual energy. Forming a cocoon of light surrounding the crystal, it continued to evolve.

Crack!

With the sound of glass shattering, the brightness disappeared, the tornados dissipated into thin air, and the cocoon of light cracked. 

Releasing a wave of pure, materialized soul power, a beautiful voice sounded from within the cocoon.

"Ya'hallo! The super, amazing, shining star, beautiful, Ka'lor'ah is finally awake! Did ya' miss me?"