Lord of Annihilation

Ka'lor'ah's newly materialized form had wavy, shoulder-length golden hair, bead-like golden eyes adorning her beautiful face, a set of long, slender limbs with skin that was pale as snow, and a dark-golden one-piece dress with white borders.

She even had a pair of half-transparent wings on her back and a short golden staff, completing her faerie princess-like look.

Her small head eagerly looked at the two figures within the room. Noticing the oddly tense atmosphere, she curiously asked.

"What is this…a lover's quarrel?" Ka'lor'ah smirked.

Olivia's jaw was wide open as she stared at Ka'lor'ah new form with stupefaction. Her mental image of her respected and well-mannered(?) teacher completely crashed as she looked at this new figure.

Lucius, for his part, had an annoyed expression on his face. 

"What are you doing?" Looking at her, he asked.

Turning to face him, Ka'lor'ah made an extremely cute expression while making a V-sign with her fingers. 

"How'dya like my new form?" she cheerfully asked.

"A waste of soul power." Lucius curtly replied.

"Tch, why do I even bother with you," She then turned to face the paralyzed Olivia and asked. "What about you, Olivia? How do I look?"

Olivia's mouth opened and closed a few times, but no words came out. She then closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths before asking.

"Teacher, is this your real form?"

Raising her small head proudly, Ka'lor'ah asked. "So what if it is?" 

A strange expression appeared on Olivia's face, as she replied. 

"Then I don't think I can respect you as much as I did in the past."

A shocked expression appeared on Ka'lor'ah's face followed by that of heartbreak. The two hands holding the staff drooped and puppy-like tears appeared within her eyes.

"That was unnecessarily harsh, Lil' Olivia. You have broken this old teacher's heart. I don't thi—"

Ka'lor'ah fake cries were interrupted when Lucius grabbed her with his hands. She immediately broke character and tried to escape from his grasp.

"What are you doing, you brute!! Let me go! Let me go this instant!! I order you as your teacher!!" Unable to extradite herself using her own strength, Ka'lor'ah started to use words.

Uncaring of her cries, Lucius spun her around in his hands, scanning her from every angle.

"You—let me go! I'm not a girl's doll that you can look up the skirt of. I'm a real living entity with feelings!" Ka'lor'ah started to chaotically scream.

Lucius continued to spin her around for a few more seconds before letting her go. He then paused for a moment before mumbling with a low voice.

"Incredible, you managed to hide your existence crystal by taking another form." 

Hearing his words with her sharp ears, Ka'lor'ah, whose back was faced towards Lucius as a show of dissatisfaction, could not control her mouth from curling up.

'That's more like it. Praise me more.' She started to narcissistically think to herself. 

However, the smile crumbled in the next instant as Lucius continued with his lines.

"Looks like you can actually be of use when we go to the Grand Alcana Empire."

"Are you implying that I was useless all along?!" Ka'lor'ah fumed.

"Not implying. Stating." Lucius savagely replied.

Having reverted to his old personality, Lucius' old habit of quipping with Ka'lor'ah had also returned. The number of times that the two of them had quarreled and fought in their thirty years of cohabitation was simply incalculable.

Lucius rarely won verbal arguments since Ka'lor'ah was smarter and more verbose. Ka'lor'ah never won the physical quarrels since…well, it was Lucius on the other side.

Olivia, who looked at the two entities in front of her bicker like siblings, had a warm smile on her face. Her thoughts were unknown.

"Let's stop quarreling and speak about important matters." Having lost the argument, Ka'lor'ah diverted the topic.

"Let's." Lucius agreed in his usual tone.

"Did you take care of him?" She quizzically asked.

"Yes."

"Who was it?"

"The one you hate the most." 

"Bastard." Ka'lor'ah strongly bit her lips. 

A look of ruthlessness, hatred and deeply ingrained fear passed through her face. Lucius took note of her emotions, quietly stood, and did not interfere with her thoughts. 

After all, he knew better than anyone, how deep Ka'lor'ah's hatred against the Lord of Fate was.

If one asked, who Ka'lor'ah hated the most, then the answer would undoubtedly be the Lords. It was her hatred against this group of beings that pushed her to make her Great Plan and plot against the Universe.

However, if one was to ask her why she hated the Lords so much, then the answer lied with the Lords of Fate.

It was this damnable, insufferable being that had enslaved her race for Eons. It was this loathsome, abhorrent being that had worked her for millenniums as a slave, toying with her when it felt boring, punishing her for the slightest of mistakes…

The hate against the Lord of Fate ran through the generation of Ka'lor'ah's kind. It was through the efforts of multiple generations that the basis for the Great Plan had been laid, bearing fruit in Ka'lor'ah's generation.

Ka'lor'ah continued her storm of curses for a good few minutes. The sheer extent of her vocabulary, including words from languages lost to the Universe for unknown eons of time, was simply too vast.

Calming herself down, Ka'lor'ah cast [Isolation Barrier] to isolate the room and asked.

"What does he know?"

"That I'm the Annihilator. Nothing else. Your concealment technique is very good. It can hide from His eyes." Lucius praised.

To fool a Lord was no easy feat. And for that Lord who was fooled to be the Lord of Fate with the [All-Seeing Eyes], was a feat that was worthy of being immortalized within the Universe.

Hearing Lucius' words, Ka'lor'ah felt her mood become better. Knowing that she had one-upped her most hated enemy, made her feel good.

"How did he find you?" she then asked the most important question.

Lucius glanced towards the figure of Olivia, who was intently listening to their conversation, before ignoring her and explaining the situation.

Ka'lor'ah and Olivia listened with pin-drop silence. The former interrupted Lucius at certain important parts asking for a supplement to his explanation, while the latter listened with no interruptions.

The very fact that the mysterious duo had allowed her to listen to their talk, made Olivia boundlessly happy. They no longer explicitly excluded her but considered her as a part of their team…partly that is.

Olivia heard many unfamiliar words such as Cause, Lord of Fate, etc. Nonetheless, she memorized those terms with great zeal.

"I see…in the end, it boils down to coincidence," Ka'lor'ah muttered with a strange expression on her face.

"Indeed." Lucius nodded his head in reply.

"Coincidence…coincidence…another one…?" A serious look appeared on her face, as her brows and eyes narrowed.

'Am I just overthinking this? Or is there something else at play?' Ka'lor'ah pondered in suspicion.

'It can't be. I'm just overthinking this.' She quickly shook her head and rid her mind of such nonsensical suspicions. 

To be able to pull a Lord-level being into their plot, no such entity existed within this Universe. To even consider a possibility like that was pure nonsense. 

(AN: Tch, tch, tch, what a foolish conclusion. Of course, such a being exists. He is…I, the author!!)

"Anyways, nice job on not exposing yourself to the Lord. Your special identity and your race being the fabled Void Eater will give us an advantage over his predictions. No matter how great he is at prediction, he will not be able to predict you're monstrous growth rate."

"A Lord's words are absolute and binding. Since he said that he will not mess with Mankind anymore, we can put aside our worries on that front and focus on gathering Cause within Mankind."

Being representatives of the Rules, any promises made by a Lord will also be enforced by a Rule. In short, their promises were absolute and could not be infringed by anyone, including themselves.

"Once the second stage of our plan with the Grand Alcana Empire is completed, a little less than half of the overall Cause within the Universe will be in our hands."

"At that point, even if he notices something strange it will be too late for him or for 'Them' to interfere." Ka'lor'ah grinned evilly.

"Having said that, what about our plan in the Grand Alcana Empire? Due to the problems here, we missed the ideal entry point." Ka'lor'ah asked.

At her question, Lucius nodded his head and answered.

"We missed the most optimal time slot due to the problems here. The next best time slot should be in around five years from now."

"Five years from now, huh?" Ka'lor'ah rubbed her chin in thought. "You mean during that period when sh*t truly hits the fan?" 

Lucius nodded his head.

Excited laughter flowed from Ka'lor'ah's mouth, as she continued.

"Hahaha, it will be more fun this way!! I always wanted to meet 'that guy' too. He was the brightest star to be born in this Eon!" 

"Indeed. I hoped to have met him too." Lucius honestly answered.

"Moving on..." Ka'lor'ah's tiny figure turned to face Olivia, as she asked.

"What's the problem, Lil' Ollie? Why refuse to manage a race?"

Olivia was just about to open her mouth to speak when Ka'lor'ah appeared in front of her mouth and interrupted her.

"Shh, I was not done." She placed her tiny finger on Olivia's supple lips and continued.

"Why refuse to manage a race—" 

Floating back, Ka'lor'ah spread her arms wide, while smiling brightly with her teeth.

"—when you have the best Manager in the entire Universe, right here?"

Soul power gushed from her tiny body, pooling at a point over her tiny head. The soul power gathered, before materializing a hard-bound, thick book in the air.

The moment this nearly thousand pages book appeared Olivia's eyes were transfixed to its cover. She found herself unable to move her eyes from its title.

{How to Build Empires and Manage Civilization. Vol 1}

{Written by: Ka'lor'ah}

"And that's just the first book out of a twenty-one book series." Ka'lor'ah happily announced, at which Olivia's face paled.

Lucius, who was watching in the background, shook his head in pity and walked out of the room.

Even someone who was detached and unfeeling as him couldn't help but feel pity towards Olivia, as he imagined her grim, near-future under Ka'lor'ah's…passionate guidance.