Lord of Annihilation

Tak. Tak. Tak. Tak.

The clanks of hurried footsteps echoed endlessly throughout a long, desolate metal corridor. His fingers desperately clutched onto a stack of translucent sheets, while his face was pallid from exhaustion and desperation.

This person, a Terran pirate belonging to the Flying Dutchman was an Information Coordinator who worked in the main ship of the pirate group. In charge of handling information operations of the western sector, what started as a seemingly usual day quickly took a turn to the worst.

A mysterious, unknown entity with Stage 3 strength had arrived and was destroying the group's personnel in the Western Sector. Since its arrival approximately 14 hours ago, the entity had already wiped out all of their forces in the western sector accounting for 900+ personnel, 15 Light-Type Scouting vessels, nearly 30 Supply Transit Vessels, 115 Single-Pilot Spaceships, and one Armored Battleship in charge of the area.

While the losses of the personnel and smaller vessels could be easily overlooked, the loss of a Large Armored Battleship was exceptionally heavy. 

It had to be known that not only was its sale restricted by the two ruling factions, making them exceptionally rare and expensive to buy in the black market, the 'Flying Dutchman' only had 3 of them making each one extremely precious.

Usually, each Armored Battleship would be protected by a Stage 3 member of the group, however, due to sudden increase in the intensity of the war against the Formicians, all three of the Stage 3 beings belonging to the Flying Dutchman were called back to the main ship for a meeting.

And it was to this very meeting, that this Terran Intelligence Coordinator desperately running too.

No one knew who this mysterious entity was, but one thing was for certain. Its bloodlust was not stated and it was heading towards them.

Running for a solid five minutes, the Terran officer finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Lighted by a small luminous object was a single door. 

Arriving before the said door, the Terran officer stopped for a moment and hurriedly recovered his breath. When his panting eased slightly, he raised his hand and heavily knocked on the singular metallic door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The sharp noise of a metal sheet grating against another metal surface sounded out. A small slit appeared on the surface of the door with a pair of bloodthirsty crimson eyes staring at the Terran Officer.

"What?" the voice from the other side of the door asked with irritation.

"Emergency news! We are facing a crisis. Danger Level: Catastrophe." The Terran officer clearly answered. 

Having worked in the heart of a pirate group for many years had helped him gain considerable courage and mental resilience. Although tense and nervous, his delivery of the news was extremely clear.

Hearing that answer, the eyes of the person behind the door shrunk. Without a word, he stepped back, opened the door, and led the Terran inside.

Closing the door after the Terran officer stepped inside, that crimson-eyed person, whose body radiated Peak-Level Stage 2 aura and intense bloodlust, closed the door and sourly said.

"Follow me."

The Terran Intelligence Coordinator hastily nodded his head and followed behind this person. With his eyes lowered, his heart shook with fear and reverence as he recognized this person.

This person covered with an intense bloody aura belonged to a rare Beast-Human tribe called Leos. 

Golden hair covered his face forming a beautiful mane behind which was a handsome lion-like face. His body was nearly 7 ft tall, weighing around 250 kilograms of pure muscle and violence. His two arms, which were enormous compared to a human, were adorned by sharp, retractable claws and contained enough strength to bare-handedly crush rock.

The name of this exquisite hunk of a specimen was Leg'lor, known within the pirate circle as the 'Crazed Lion'. He was one of the nine generals of the Flying Dutchman, standing at the peak of the group.

"When did the news come in?" While leading the Terran officer, Leg'lar steely asked.

"Well…the first report come in approximately 14 hours ago, but the signal was corrupted and the message was unclear. It was only around eight hours later that we were able to make sense of the situation." Pushing up his glasses which shone with intellectual light, the Terran officer explained.

Hearing that Leg'lar did not ask any further and simply nodded his head.

The pair continued to walk briskly for a minute when they arrived in front of a partition. Behind this satin-like material partition, was where the leader and two of the vice-leaders of the Flying Dutchman, all Stage 3 existences were having a meeting.

Parting the material out of the way, Leg'lar stepped in before gesturing the Terran to follow. Entering the room, the Terran officer's eyes landed upon a sizeable round-table seated by three figures. 

Standing behind each of the three figures were two more people, bringing the total count of the room to 10 with the inclusion of the new arrivals. 

The moment the duo entered the room, all discussion immediately died down with their eyes focusing on the duo. Curiosity, irritation, anger, scorn, each pair contained a different emotion.

Disregarding the looks thrust upon him, Leg'lar clearly spoke.

"Boss, we got a problem."

"What is it?" The only hooded figure within the room calmly spoke.

Leg'lar gestured to the Terran Officer to speak up. Noting his actions, the eyes of everyone within the room landed upon the Terran officer.

Feeling each of those gazes scanning his body, the Terran officer nervously gulped. His legs had already begun trembling as the pressure from 6 Peak-Level Stage 2s and 3 Stage 3s, were too much for a measly Low-Level Stage 2 like him to handle.

"Don't be afraid and speak up." Having felt the tumultuous emotions of the man, the Boss gently encouraged him.

"Y-yes, boss!" The Terran officer quipped. Taking a deep breath he then started to explain.

"A mysterious existence, suspected to be a Stage 3 being has attacked our forces stationed in the Western sector. As of the last fourteen hours, it has wiped out all of our forces within the sector and moving elsewhere. Here are the losses…" saying so, he passed on a few sheets from his hand to Leg'lar who then passed it to the table.

"Having lost all our men within that sector, we are currently unable to track this entity's whereabouts. However, according to our predictions, its course is direct and is heading towards us here." 

"Additionally, we believe that this entity isn't working alone as we noticed the presence of another ship closely following this entity. We also managed to receive some images of them plundering our ships."

"Oh.." "This is?" "Is that our ship?"

"Are these images correct, pirate?" cutting across the chatter, the Boss raised a certain picture and questioned the Terran.

"That is correct." Nodding his head, he continued. "After some investigation, we realized that the ship was 'Deadman One' which was sent on a refill mission to Pectron. Clearly, it has been occupied by foreign forces with unkind intentions." 

"We still don't know the strength or number of forces on the other side, as our information is currently lacking. The Information Department has already sent probes to the area, hoping to gain some info."

"Is your department sure that this isn't an attack from those filthy bugs, or from those weak, toy-users struggling on their last breaths?" The Boss questioned, referring to the Formicians and Mankind respectively.

"Positive. This is another party. As for their relations with the former two, we have no information on that." 

"I see." The boss said as such and lowered his head in thought.

"Here are the images we managed to capture of that unknown entity. Its speed seems to be quite high, as the only thing we managed to capture is a blurry shadow." The Terran elaborated, passing on a blurry picture of a shadowy figure.

The Boss was in quiet contemplation for a few moments and none of the others dared to interrupt him. After the passage of a few minutes, he raised his hooded head and spoke. 

"This matter comes at a rather unfortunate time, but…oh well, Jaros." The Boss called upon a name.

"Yes, boss!" One of the seated figures immediately stood up. His figure was immediately recognizable as a Lacerman. 

"Since the Western Sector was previously under your oversight, you will deal with this matter. Eliminate this hostile, alongside that rouge group. I trust I can count on you to complete this?" 

"Yes, boss!" The Stage 3 Lacerman immediately responded.

Nodding his head, the Boss stood up from his seat and spoke.

"That settles it then. We will go ahead with the plan discussed in this meeting. This farce has gone on for long enough. It's time to end this war and return with our spoils."

"Apart from Jaros, all other personnel will immediately head towards the final base of that pathetic race and finish them. After clearing that annoying rabble out of the way, we shall deal with those filthy bugs finishing this war."

A chilling look emanated from the hood as he sharply spoke.

"I've had enough of waiting around. If those Stage 3 bugs hiding behind the frontlines won't show up for battle, then I shall take the battle to them!"

"Meeting dismissed. Get moving immediately. 

"Yes, Boss!!"