Lord of Annihilation

Looking at the sight of the collapsing mountain before him, Lucius spoke, "Finally, a decent attack."

"[Dance of the Death God] is finally starting to show its actual prowess."

A single slash with enough power to obliterate mountains and split the seas, and Lucius was calling it a 'decent' attack. However, he wasn't being arrogant or boastful but was instead telling the truth.

This attack could only be called decent and was nowhere near its complete, actual potential. Hell, it wasn't even at 10% of its full power!

[Dance of the Death God] an extreme, purely offensive set of attacks, designed solely for the scythe. It was developed and perfected over thousands of years and hundreds of generations of the Letum Clan and was considered their trademark.

If one were to compile all of the attacking techniques to ever exist in the Universe since its very beginning, the [Dance of the Death God] would be amongst the top three, if one were to look at its pure attacking power and offensive ability.

There was no other technique, currently in existence that would match its offensive prowess.

Naturally, being as strong as it was, the technique came with its unique set of restrictions. Only upon meeting all of those requirements, will its true prowess be showcased.

First and foremost, was for the weapon executing the technique to be a scythe. If the weapon used was not a scythe, the technique would fail to manifest.

Second, was for the weapon to be a Living Weapon. This condition was not a necessity but was required if one wanted to unleash its true potential. Extending on this restriction, the Living Weapon must be of the Fifth Stage for the technique to be fully unleashed.

Third, and the most important restriction, was that the user has to have a soul type belonging to the [Reaper] path or one of its similar branches like [Killer]. To be more technical about it, the user must have a soul belonging to the set of Rules; Destruction, Death, Chaos, End, etc. 

Fourth, the learner/practitioner of the technique must receive permission, in the form of a Soul Promise, from a member belonging to the main branch of the Letum Clan. The absence of said permission will result in the technique failing to manifest.

Of course, the fifth and final requirement was talent. No amount of hard work can overcome sheer God-given talent. This was especially true with this technique as if one does not have sufficient natural talent, they would not be able to comprehend, much less practice this technique.

As rigorous and selective as these restrictions were, Lucius managed to meet all of them during his previous life. 

Using a scythe wasn't a problem since he had a talent for any and all weapons. He had the [Killer] soul which belonged to the same set of Rules as [Reaper]. As for permission, he received it from the main inheritor of the Letum Clan, Aurora. For the final requirement, Lucius' natural talent was second to none in the entire Universe.

Naturally, he managed to learn the technique with little to no difficulty and gained the most powerful offensive technique to match his peerless movement technique. 

As for defense, there was naturally no need for it as long as he did not get hit. Additionally, Lucius' Racial Transformation in his previous life also covered this inadequacy.

He was an [Undying One]. That is to say, even if his head was to be cut off and his body was to be shattered, Lucius would not die. Destroying his soul was the only method to rid him forever, but unless one was an [Annihilator] or [Void Eater] this was an impossible task.

Now, carrying on to this life, Lucius naturally had all the experience and countless hours of practice sunk into using the [Dance of the Death God]. 

Using a scythe from the start and tapping into this technique was the most obvious course of action. The Soul Promise that he had made was also carried over to this life.

There was no issue with soul type either, as [Annihilator] was a more advanced and perfect form of [Killer] or [Reaper]. In fact, he felt the technique was smoother and flowed more naturally when using it with [Annihilation Energy]. 

And now, having finally obtained a Living Weapon, Lucius was finally able to use this godly skill to its truest potential. 

The only thing limiting him now was his Stage and soul power.

Returning to the story…

Having executed the First Movement, Lucius did not stop. His body started to gracefully move once again as he started to execute the Second Movement.

The scythe which was brought down was abruptly twisted to face the sky. Leaning his body forward and turning it, he then danced his legs to the appropriate sequence, raised the sword diagonally, and performed a twirl while slashing sideways.

This time, a cloud of silent, baleful energy exited the blade and headed towards the sky. It kept climbing higher and higher, eventually reaching the bounds of the atmosphere before dissipating.

Visually, there was not much difference to the sky. However, if one were to look at the space crossed by the baleful energy closely, one would find millions of microscopic tears in space!

If the surrounding space was a piece of paper, Lucius' skill had just shredded it! Of course, the shredding was minute and hardly noticeable due to his lacking soul power.

"[Dance of the Death God- Second Movement: Shred]"

Completing this, Lucius did not pause to appreciate the damage caused but continued. The sequence for the Third Movement was completed, and a net consisting of millions upon millions of crisscrossing, interconnected web of energy was flung out. 

The attack was aimed towards the vast plains, beside the mountain. Reaching the ground, the attack soundlessly sunk into the ground and once again there was no visual difference.

Alas, this was only the case from the top. If one were to slightly dig the ground facing the attack, one would find that everything beneath the top layer of soil was missing.

Eviscerate had the effect of ignoring the outside and clearing the insides. Had this been a living creature, the attack would have disemboweled the creature, while leaving everything on the surface without any harm.

"[Dance of the Death God- Third Movement: Eviscerate]"

These were the first three movements of the [Dance of the Death God] and the ones which Lucius had used thus far. However, it was certainly not the end, as currently, Lucius continued his dance.

Starting the Fourth Movement, the graceful feeling surrounding his movement disappeared. His steps turned heavy and his entire body slumped forward. The scythe within his hands dropped until the blade portion of the weapon was touching the ground.  A part of the weapon sunk into the ground, seemingly carrying an immense weight.

From there, Lucius, with his head lowered and his long hair covering his face walked forward.  With each step that he took, the weight upon his body increased and his feet sunk into the ground. Yet, Lucius seemed to pay no mind to this weight and continued to walk forward.

When he had walked three steps, the space surrounding Lucius suddenly wavered and started to become blurry. The spiritual energy within the space surrounding him, started to twist and gather, altering the Rules in that area.

When he took the fifth step, illusory white energy started to appear out of thin air, forming many silhouettes. The silhouettes were varied and no two silhouettes were the same.

Some were small and lithe, others were large and monstrous. Some resembled humanoid shapes while others were heteromorphic in nature. Their bodies were cloudy and no defining features could be seen.

Yet, the strangest thing to happen wasn't the sudden appearance of dozens of these silhouettes, but the fact that each of the silhouettes seemed to be dancing!

Large or small, human or monster, no matter one's station in life, Death unties all.

Taking the seventh step, Lucius started to move his hands. His muscles became extremely taut and his bones started to creak. Every single vein within his body throbbed as they became enlarged and threatened to pop out of his body.

Lucius was trying to lift his scythe.

As he was doing this, the dancing of the cloudy silhouettes increased in intensity, and their features started becoming more defines. Their mouth was the first facial feature to appear, the instant after which, they turned to form smiles.

Dozens of odd-looking, cloudy silhouettes each depicting a random life form within the Universe, gathered around Lucius as they danced and laughed with joy.

It was a Danse Macabre.

Taking the tenth step, Lucius had finally raised the scythe to his shoulder level at which point, he strained to speak its name.

"[Da-ance of the De-ath G-god- Fourth M-move-ment: Ob--]"

He was unable to continue speaking its name, as Lucius could no longer bear the weight upon him. Letting go of the scythe, Lucius dropped to his knees, and began to heavily pant. Sweat and blood started to pour out of every single one of his pores. 

Right now, Lucius looked similar to a skeleton. His muscles had deflated and atrophied, currently becoming non-existent. His pale white skin had dried and shriveled, as every single ounce of energy was pulled from within his body.

For the first time in a long time, Lucius was completely out of soul power and void power. His Void Eater instincts did not even try to take over his body, as even, it was too tired to currently do so.

'Still too early, huh…' Lucius thought to himself.

Too early was an understatement. The Fourth Movement was supposed to be executed after reaching the Stage 4 realm.

Lucius trying to use it now was like using a single battery to power an entire city.

Waiting for his soul power to naturally replenish, Lucius shot a look towards the party gathered some distance away, and thought to himself.

'Why are they all looking like that?'

----------

At the location of the party.

Ka'lor'ah, Olivia, and Riker, collectively had their eyes enlarged to the extreme and their mouths agape. The feeling of pure incredulity and shock that they felt within their hearts at this moment could be described as…well, indescribable.

"Oh…"

"…my…"

"…Lord."

Reflected within their eyes was a scene that they would never forget throughout the remainder of their lives.

A crack…

A crack, or rather, a tear of inestimable proportions ran across the earth and sky, directly behind Lucius, and came to an abrupt stop just above him. 

Within the crack in the sky, one could see the boundless darkness and infinite space belonging to the Universe.

Within the crack on the ground, one could see the seething magma and the sputtering lava.

Splitting the heavens and faulting the earth, the Fourth Movement of the [Dance of the Death God] had quite literally torn apart the ground and the sky, permanently creating an unfixable scar on the planet.

"We should run. Immediately," said Riker, heavily.