Lord of Annihilation

In an empty space surrounded by perpetual, all-encompassing darkness, the figure of Lucius appeared with his eyes closed.

'A mere worm dares to attack my laboratory. As payment for your crimes, I shall take over your body.' 

SNAP!

Just as the words of the Master fell, Lucius' eyes snapped open. His eyes blankly stared at the darkness for a few moments, before they regained their focus.

'Where am I?' Lucius asked himself, as he looked around the blank space. 

The surrounding space was completely void of any objects or structures, being virtually empty. As void of anything this space was, Lucius was strangely able to 'see' the darkness all around him.

'Strange, there is no source of light within his place. However, I'm somehow able to see my surroundings.' 

Directing his vision downwards, Lucius was able to see his own body. He was wearing some sort of white clothing that covered his chest, lower body, and legs, all the way down to his knees. The lower portion of his legs and his two arms were uncovered and plain to see.

Raising his hands to take a look at them, Lucius noticed that the charcoal-grey color of his skin had disappeared, returning his skin to its original pale-white color.

'I'm back to human form? When was [State of Devour] canceled?' Feeling confused, Lucius tried to dive into his mindspace to inspect his condition.

'?!!' 

His eyes flew wide open and clear shock could be seen reflecting in the depths of his eyes. Lucius could not access his mindspace. 

To be more precise, he couldn't feel it at all.

'What's happening?!' Trying, again and again, Lucius still failed to access his mindspace. He then tried to move the soul power in his body, only to realize that he had none.

Lucius' breathing grew quicker and shorter and his heart rate increased. The emotion of panic appeared within his heart, which was then quickly suppressed by his mind.

'Calm down. Take a deep breath.' Lucius reminded himself while following his own advice.

Taking a few deep breaths, he first calmed his mind before beginning to rationally think.

'Okay…the last thing that occurred was the surprise attack by that ghost. He mentioned taking over my body…did he use some kind of sealing or banishing spell to suppress my consciousness?'

'Likely. I remember hearing him inside my mind; therefore he must have forcibly invaded into my mindspace, and banished my consciousness using some sort of mental spell. With my consciousness absent, my mindspace is free territory and is unguarded against intruders, leaving my body and soul defenseless, leaving him to do whatever he wants to.'

'While the [Annihilator] soul is quite strong and can automatically respond to any attacks, the opponent is a Stage 5 soul, not to mention a clear master in matters regarding the soul. If he decides to attack, I will stand no chance.'

'This situation is quite bad.' Lucius sharply inhaled.

'However, seeing that I haven't died yet, it's clear that my soul hasn't been destroyed yet. Either he decided not to destroy my soul immediately or is delayed by something else.'

'The first case is unlikely, while the second case is more objective. As for the reason of delay…' Lucius' eyes suddenly shone with the light of understanding as he arrived at the answer. 'Ka'lor'ah!'

'She must've noticed something was wrong and intervened. With her intrusion, the opponent must have been delayed.'

However, in the next moment, the light in his eyes dimmed once more, as Lucius continued with his analysis.

'Still, the root issue is not solved. While the opponent was weakened by our battle, he is still strong. Much stronger than Ka'lor'ah in her current state. It is unlikely for her to win, and unknown how much longer she can delay him.'

Kneading his temple with his hands, Lucius concluded.

'The key issue lies in the fact that my mindspace is currently unmanned. To win, 'I' simply have to return to my mindspace.'

'This 'body' that I'm seeing right now, must be my consciousness. Seeing how I'm in some unknown dark space, this must be the place of the sealing/banishment.'

Lucius then tried to take a step forward. His right leg lifted into the air and moved some distance forward, before being lowered back into the ground.

It landed.

'There is a ground.' Having confirmed that, Lucius started to walk. He incrementally increased his speed, going from a slow walk, a casual stroll, brisk walking, a light jog, and eventually settled into a full-on sprint.

Running at his top speed, Lucius accurately noted that his current speed was very…slow. Not to the point that barely any distance was being covered and he was staying in the same place, the surroundings moved away at quite the rate.

However, Lucius could feel himself running at a very 'normal' speed. 

Speed had always been Lucius' forte. He could run very fast, even without the augmentation from his soul power. 

However, right now within his dark space, Lucius could clearly feel a limiter placed on his speed.

'Movement speed has a limit within this space.' Upon confirming this, Lucius maintained his current pace and ran aimlessly.

Time continued to pass by and after an unknown period of time, Lucius' figure came to a halt.

'3600 seconds or 1 hour has passed. I have been maintaining my top speed for the entire duration of the run and currently feel zero fatigue. This body does not feel tired.' He concluded.

"Test! Test! TEST!!" Lucius then howled into the air. After screaming at the top of his lungs for some time, he quietened down and silently thought.

'No echoes can be heard, however, sound does propagate, meaning that a medium for propagation does exist within this place. However, there is no presence of air.'

'Breathing was mostly symbolical. I cannot feel the presence of any air within this place. Even while running, I felt zero air resistance. Some other medium exists which allows for the propagation of sound waves.'

'My current location is unknown. Even after running for an hour, the surrounding scenery remained the same. A solid dark ground, and surrounding darkness within which nothing exists.'

Scanning around once more, Lucius asked the question once again.

'Where am I? How do I get out of here?'

He then moved his arms and legs to confirm the state of his body, After making sure that everything was alright, Lucius was about to continue performing some more tests, when he suddenly heard something.

"…h…r…"

The sound was extremely faint and distorted. However, to Lucius who lacked any idea of what and where this place was, this sound was salvation. It was the metaphorical oasis in the middle of a desert.

Lucius immediately stopped all his activities and focused only on listening to the source of the sound. He focused entirely on hearing for any and all sounds.

Minutes passed in trepidation with the darkness seemingly looming over everything present. Absolute silence filled the air and absolute stillness filled the space.

Just as the previous sound seemed to be an illusion another extremely faint noise sounded once more.

"….r…..n…"

Lucius' head cracked 50°  to the right and immediately locked onto the direction of the source. Without wasting a single instance of time, Lucius immediately started to run in the target direction.

"….a…..c…."

"ab…mi…es…" 

"…they…hav…..rrounde…s."

"….quick, ove….that pla….."

The sounds eventually grew louder and closer, while becoming increasingly coherent. Lucius continued to run at the maximum allowed speed, while cautiously observing his surroundings.

Just as the darkness seemed to stretch on forever, Lucius' speed suddenly slowed tremendously. His body felt restricted as it seemed to have hit some sort of gelatinous barrier that slowed his actions.

'What's happening?'

Just as the thought occurred within Lucius' mind, an audible 'pop' sound was heard and Lucius' body was released. The darkness surrounding him rapidly retreated, with color and light filling the surrounding.

Lucius found himself standing on a solid stone ground filled with a variety of scars, scratches, and holes. Fragments of rock and stone flew everywhere and a thick scent of blood filled Lucius' nose.

As Lucius looked around in confusion, trying to make sense of his surroundings, a heavy, foreign voice announced in a grim tone.

"Over there! Archers, direct your attacks to that spot!!"

The moment this voice landed, tens of thousands of colorful light immediately appeared within Lucius' vision. All of them, heading towards Lucius.

Lucius' face paled and his eyes shrunk to form pinholes. A single word appeared within his mind, to sum up, the situation.

'Ambush!'

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

Meanwhile, within Lucius' mindspace.

The golden figure of a woman and the crimson figure of a man was locked in an intense battle. Multiple attacks both visible and invisible flew towards each other.

As the intensity of the battle grew, the golden light shining off of the woman grew dimmer and dimmer, while multiple wounds both large and small in size appeared on the man.

Their figures zoomed about in the air, as each occasionally closed in and retreated after their attacks and the intensity of their attacks grew in magnitude.

BOOM!

Just as the golden-robbed woman was about to deliver an attack on the crimson figure, a crimson fist suddenly surfaced to her left, accurately striking her from a blindspot.

The woman's body was thrown back by a large distance, with the light surrounding her figure dimming by a large extent. The battle came to a temporary standstill, with both opponents being out of each other's range.

Sizeable wounds suddenly appeared on the crimson figure's body with his body shaking violently. Forcibly stabilizing himself the crimson figure raised his hand and pointed towards the golden figure.

"You-! What in arcane's name are you people?!!" the crimson figure screamed, feeling bewildered.