Lord of Annihilation

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

"It's trying to escape from the other side!!"

"Don't let it leave. Delay it."

BOOOM! BOOOM!!

"Lucius! I really need your help over here! This damned thing is on the verge of escaping!"

BOOOOOM!!"

"I'm a bit—" 

BANG! BANG! SLASH!! 

"—busy here. Grab onto it."

"AHH!! IT'S PULLING ME!! LUCIUS, IT'S PULLING ME AWAY!! HEEELLLLLPPPPP!!"

SLASH! SLASH!! BANG!!

"Hold on, I'm coming. All of you, gather and block this crowd for a moment." 

SWOOOOP!! 

"There, I caught you. You can stop screaming."

"NEVER ASK ME TO DO THAT EVER AGAIN!! I almost died!!"

"You're exaggerating."

"I AM NOT! It was so scary! *blergh*-I don't think I can fly again-*blergh*!"

Holding the desperately struggling piece of the Cloud Steel with his left hand, Lucius used his right hand to support Ka'lor'ah's wobbling figure, which had begun to suddenly vomit while complaining.

Tilting his hand to accommodate her better while also ensuring his hands were not sullied by her hurling. 

"You-*cough*-owe-*cough**cough*-me for this-*blergh*!"

Even at the cost of choking on her own retching, Ka'lor'ah ensured that her complaints were heard. Lucius, being 'understanding' of her sufferings, did not rebut and allowed her to vent.

Of course, his attention was elsewhere.

The portion of Cloud Steel within his grasp hadn't given up its struggles and was still desperately looking for an exit. Lucius, however, did not care for its struggles and started the sealing process.

Soul power forming complex patterns appeared above his left hand. These patterns then moved to form a cage-like structure that slowly started to lower itself onto his palm.

Feeling this cage near it, the Cloud Steel seemed to instinctively recognize its danger; it knew that if it were to be caught by this cage, it would become trapped forever. As such, its struggles increased in intensity. 

But alas, being suppressed by Lucius' strength, it was hardly able to move. The cage eventually lowered itself onto his palm and successfully trapped the Cloud Steel within.

The moment the Cloud Steel entered the cage, its struggles lowered in intensity and gradually began to die down. Less than ten seconds later, the material became still and lied peacefully at the bottom of the cage.

'That's the final portion,' seeing the sealing process succeed, Lucius inwardly released a sigh. He then immediately threw it into his [Void Storage], removing this frustrating material from his sight.

And oh, how frustrating it was!

Since the start of their chase eight weeks ago, the fleeing Cloud Steel had taken the ex-Stage 7 duo and twenty of the Forgotten Warriors on a grand tour of the planet.

From the west to the north and from the east to the south, the party of intruders had flown over nearly every portion of this planet in chase of this damned material.

Did they no plan to trap it, you ask? Of course, they did! 

However, the deviousness and stubbornness of this material seemed to be limitless. Additionally, the material had the property to split itself into portions, which further increased the difficulty of the chase.

Thirty times they had laid traps and thirty times the material had managed to escape. 

Every time that they managed to nearly grab onto it, the material intentionally dragged the party into the living areas of the Stage 3 beings, using the latter as obstacles to impede their attempts.

The damned material had managed to anger Ka'lor'ah to the utmost, and even Lucius had instances where he nearly lost control. The entire goose chase was infuriating to the extreme.

'I've heard about how difficult it is to capture this material. Now, I finally know. Fortunately, it's finally over,' Lucius thought to himself. 

No matter, the material was secured in the end. The portion which he had trapped inside a cage and thrown into storage was the final bit of the required amount.

"Say," wiping her stained mouth with the sleeves of her dress, Ka'lor'ah asked, "Are you not going to finish them?" 

She finished, pointing towards a crowd of enraged Stage 3 Sword-Winged Angels who were being held back by the twenty Forgotten Warriors. These Stage 3 angels were the 'obstacles' gathered to stall the party by the Cloud Steel.

The Forgotten Warriors had high combat strength and were un-killable to boot. However, due to lacking a complete soul, they were unfortunately not able to form a Domain or effectively fight within it.

Their opponents were able to effortlessly crush these warriors with their Domains. 

Nonetheless, with their un-killable characteristic, they were fantastic meatshields/cannon fodders. Although not being able to kill, delaying a motley crowd was well within their abilities.

"Right, I should," nodding his head, Lucius headed towards the crowd of Sword-Winged Angels and deployed his Domain.

What followed next was a simple slaughter.

----------

"Hey, you got a new record! You managed to slay 35 of those Sword-Winged Angels in sub-three minutes. Well done," Ka'lor'ah encouragingly said to the blood-soaked Lucius walking towards her.

Using [Annihilation Energy] to destroy the bloodstains on his armor, Lucius causally replied, "It was not much. They were too weak."

"A record is a record nonetheless. I can't imagine there being any other Stage 3 being capable of such a feat," Ka'lor'ah retorted.

"A Grimgar would be able to do it," Lucius answered, referring to a Wild Beast species, known for its inane strength and ability to slaughter Stage 3 beings. In fact, it was nicknamed the 'Nightmare of Weak.'

"Right," Ka'lor'ah hit her fist against her palm and nodded her head, "A Grimgar would probably be able to do it faster."

"But still," she encouragingly patted Lucius' knee and continued, "You can definitely surpass it if you try harder. Work hard, young man."

She then raised both of her hands and looked towards Lucius while blinking, "Now, lift me. I will not be able to fly for a while, thanks to my recent trauma."

Sighing at her actions, Lucius bent forward and picked her tiny body up. Placing her within one of his pockets, he asked, "Was it that bad?"

"Imagine being blitzed by a blender as you're slowly being sucked into a black hole. Got the picture? Now multiply that by a hundred," Ka'lor'ah monotonously explained, "That's how it felt hanging onto that damned thing."

"I felt sensations in places that I didn't even know existed. I felt things that shouldn't even be felt," Ka'lor'ah's eyes lifelessly stared at Lucius, as she continued, "I've been scarred forever, Lucius. Forever."

Faced with such a reply, Lucius was honestly unsure of how to reply. Eventually, he chose to sigh and remain quiet.

"A lot of time has passed on this chase. There should only be a wee—" 

"Lucius," Ka'lor'ah's grim voice suddenly interrupted Lucius' words. "The spell I left on Olivia just went off. She's in trouble."

"Serious trouble," Ka'lor'ah emphasized her point once more.

Realizing the implication of her words, Lucius had a change of expression. A trace of anger appeared on his otherwise cold face, as he angrily spat out, "That stupid girl!"

Leaping off the ground with tremendous strength, Lucius raised his speed to the extreme while asking, "Where is she?"

"You have to move in that direction for…," Ka'lor'ah was not in the mood to joke. She was too worried about her disciple's situation to make a joke.

For the spell that had gone off would only do so only in one of two situations: Olivia was either dying or already dead.

Either way, the situation was extremely bad.

----------

BOOM!!

Breaking past the cloud layer, Lucius appeared on the upper layer of the planet. He habitually scanned around to ensure that there were no traps or ambushes, before dashing in the direction of Ka'lor'ah's pointing at full speed.

His aura was noticeably frostier than usual making it evident that he was in a bad mood. A terrible mood even.

'That foolish little—"Lucius thought to himself in irritation, 'Even after I specifically warned her not to fight a Stage 3 being, she still went and did it!'

While the duo continued to head towards Olivia, Ka'lor'ah used her spell to gain a better understanding of her disciple's situation. After some effort, she learned more about the situation.

Fortunately enough, Olivia wasn't dead…yet. However, this discovery did not serve to lighten their tension as it meant that Olivia was in an extreme situation where she was currently dying.

With the duo's understanding of Olivia's strength and character, they knew that this situation was not the result of her falling into a trap or fighting simultaneously against hundreds of similar-level opponents.

Olivia's character was cautious, making her immune to the first scenario and her strength ensured that she would be able to run away when faced with the second. 

Having removed these possible scenarios, only two remained; she was either caught off-guard by a Stage 3 opponent or had voluntarily challenged one.

Of the two situations, Lucius estimated the first one to be impossible.

With her level of strength, being ambushed by a Stage 3 opponent would've definitely resulted in her death.

Even if she managed to avoid the initial attack of the ambush by pure luck, her weak body made it so that she would not be able to survive the following ones!

Moving on to the second scenario; voluntarily challenging a Stage 3 opponent. The most likely scenario according to the duo's estimations.

This was peak foolishness since there was absolutely no way for Olivia to kill a Stage 3 being.

This wasn't Lucius underestimating her, but rather a fact that was born from analyzing her strength and specialties. He had even made sure to include her strange Arbiter abilities while compiling this evaluation.

Put it this way, even if Olivia had managed to enter the realm of [Perfect Control], learned the usage of sword energy, mastered [Moving Field], and even put all her strength and skills on the line…she would still be unable to kill a Stage 3 being.

This was because she lacked the final, most crucial piece that allowed a lower Stage opponent to kill a higher Stage one. It was a piece that Lucius had yet to teach her.

[Power Unity]

[Power Unity] was the ability to unite the strengths of all three of a user's center's of power; body, soul, and consciousness. This ability gave its user not only the required strength but also the 'authority' to cross the threshold of Rules and killer a higher Stage being.

Authority was incredibly important.

Why was a Stage 7 being unable to kill a Lord, even though they possessed the strength to literally move and shake the Universe? 

It was because they lacked that crucial authority to transcend the Rules!

[Power Unity] can either be a racial skill, a special ability, or even a technique. In Lucius' case, his scythe technique [Dance of the Death God] was his [Power Unity].

The sword technique that Lucius had created for Olivia was supposed to be the [Power Unity] that would help her to cross the threshold. 

Without it, she (or anyone similar for that matter) would be unable to kill a Stage 3 being! 

'According to Ka'lor'ah's estimations, not much time must have passed since the start of her battle. Seeing as to how she's not already dead, but slowly dying, the Stage 3 opponent must be toying with her,' Lucius' mind analyzed the situation.

'She cannot die! She holds too much value to suddenly die now!' 

Not to mention the time and effort Lucius had spent in personally training her, Olivia was also a crucial component of his Stage 4 ascendance.

If she were to die now, who knows how long it would take him to find an alternate path into Stage 4?

'Dammit, this speed is not enough!' Lucius' skin turned into a light shade of grey, as he continued, 'I need to use this damned ability.'

"Hold on tight," Lucius warned Ka'lor'ah and activated [Void Travel].

His body disappeared into the Void, replaced by a small, pitch-black line that moved at almost five times his previous speed.

Using his Void Eater abilities was dangerous and increased the chances of him losing control. However, now was not the time to skimp on its use as Lucius desperately needed its speed.

'You better not have died when I get there!'

----------

Materializing in the space above the collapsed gorge, Lucius instantly identified the target of his hurried arrival.

Beside the foot of a tall, densely-white Mountain, upon a raised platform which resembled a stage or an altar, laid two unmoving bodies.

One was the bloodied, almost unrecognizable figure of Olivia. Her body was nonexistent of soul power and her slow, shallow breaths were quickly diminishing as life force drained from her body.

Lying closely beside her was the beheaded body of a Sword-Winged Angel. Judging from the remnant aura released by the corpse, it was evident that her strength was in the Low-Level of Stage 3.

The sword, which was firmly grasped by Olivia's unconscious hands, laid in the middle separating the head and the body. Simply looking at the scene, it was obvious what had happened.

And it was this exact observation that shocked the two ex-Stage 7 beings.

"Impossible!!" Lucius and Ka'lor'ah yelled in unison.