Lord of Annihilation

"Wanna go and have our promised duel? I promise to go easy on you," Klytius taunted his tiny opponent with a smile on his face.

In response, Lucius remained as staid as usual and calmly replied.

"Not now. I'm going to remain here until she completes her ascension."

Hearing that reply, Klytius narrowed his eyes and spoke with a low tone, "That might take anywhere from weeks to even months. You are not going to make a king wait, are you?" A tense, oppressive pressure erupted from his body.

Unaffected by the pressure exerted by the other party and seemingly having expected this question, Lucius nonchalantly asked.

"Didn't you say that you wanted to fight me at my strongest? Wait until she's done with her ascension and you can do so."

"What do you mean? Are you injured? No, your body and energy are both at their peak," scanning Lucius quickly with his soul power, Klytius immediately replied.

Taking his eyes off the giant crystal cocoon in the center of the hall, Lucius turned to face the Giant King and continued with his question.

"Wouldn't fighting with me, after I've undergone my first transcendence, be more interesting than right now? At my current level of strength, I'll barely be able to exchange five blows with you before being defeated."

Hearing his reply, Klytius dumbly stared at the former for a few seconds, before realization struck his mind.

"You mean—"

"Yes," Lucius nodded his head. "I will undergo my ascension into the next Stage after she finishes hers. In other words, I will be reaching Stage 4 quite soon."

Lucius' reply was full of confidence and could be considered borderline arrogant. However, the way he said it seemed to be full of ease and almost as if he was telling a matter of fact.

Ascending into Stage 4 was an ordeal fraught with infinite uncertainty and danger. Even the best-prepared person might eventually fail during their ascension for the littlest of mistakes.

To Lucius, however, this was simply a walk in the park. Having undergone the ordeal before, he was entirely confident of redoing the entire thing with his eyes closed, hands-tied, and legs crippled. (AN: Oh boy, aren't you confident.)

Hearing his confident declaration, Klytius roared with whole-hearted laughter once more.

"HAHAHAHA! You-You actually—HAHAHAHA! You sure have a lot of confidence boy! Hahahaha, I like it! That's how a true warrior should be!"

"You're right. I do want to fight you at your strongest!" Klytius waved his hands in affirmation and continued his laugh while clutching his belly. 

"I'll wait then. Don't disappoint me, boy!" Leaving them with that powerful declaration, Klytius turned around to leave the hall.

Just as he had taken a few steps, he suddenly stopped, "Oh right!" Turning around to look at Ka'lor'ah, he spoke, "I believe you owe me an answer, tiny one."

"…yes." Ka'lor'ah begrudgingly nodded her head. Being reminded of the bet which she had lost did not bring about any pleasant feelings.

"Hmm, let's see." Klytius paused in thought for a few seconds, before shaking his head. "I forgot what I was about to ask back then. No matter, I'll simply come to find you when I remember it."

"Now then, I'll get going. I'll inform my men to block this place and set up a perimeter. The 'Twelve Labors' trial will also be put on hold for some time. Do you need anything else?"

Ka'lor'ah shook her head while Lucius stopped to ponder. After a few seconds, he spoke, "Corpses in the Fourth Stage. As many as possible."

"Hmm? Corpses? What an odd requirement? What do you want that for?" Klytius questioned. While it wasn't a huge request for the King of the Giants to satisfy, it sure was the strangest one he had ever heard.

Facing this question, Lucius answered, "It's for my ascension. I need them to perfect my power."

Learning that it was for his ascension, Klytius immediately complied and nodded his head.

"Oh, sure then. I'll have some men deliver a few hundred Stage 4 corpses for you."

"A few hundred…" Ka'lor'ah felt appalled at that huge quantity.

"That'll do." Lucius nodded in reply.

"If there's anything that we Giants don't lack, it corpses. Do you want a specific type or something?"

"Any corpse is fine," Lucius replied, before adding, "If possible, fresh/recently deceased would be better."

"That's fine. I'll have my men pick it out from the nearby training grounds. Those kids burn through dozens of them each day,"

Klytius answered, referring to the army training grounds where hundreds of young Giants were learned the art of combat while battling Stage 4 Wild Beasts. 

"I can wait." 

'Well then, I'll be eagerly waiting. Remember your promises!" 

Saying so, Klytius waved his hand and left the coliseum.

"What was this 'answer' he was talking about?" Lucius asked Ka'lor'ah, remembering Klytius mention it.

Shrugging her shoulders, Ka'lor'ah replied, "Oh, it's nothing. That big brute and I had a simple bet going on which I lost. Now I owe him a question."

"I see," Lucius nodded his head and did not ask further.

As such, the two of them sunk into silence and continued to calmly monitor the ascension of their joint student. 

Time continued to slowly tick by and the crystal cocoon gradually turned finer and more radiant. The whole scene was reminiscent of a caterpillar undergoing metamorphosis to turn into a butterfly.

Just that it was far more visual and breathtaking than any normal metamorphosis.

----------

Inside the crystal cocoon.

A naked Olivia sat crouching with her eyes closed and her arms hugging her knees. A viscous, sticky, violet-colored liquid occupied the remainder of the space within the crystal cocoon surrounding the young woman and slowly tempering her body.

Ascension into Stage 3 was unlike the previous two ascensions, where only one's soul would undergo a huge change. 

Upon reaching Stage 3, not only would one's soul prowess improve by a large margin, but their physical body would also improve to an equal extent to contain this power.

Powerhouses in the Third Stage possessed an incredible amount of stamina and near-miraculous life functions. 

Not only would their body possess enough physical strength to crush rocks with their bare hands, but they could also recover lost limbs or life-threatening injuries in mere minutes!

Currently, Olivia was in a state of half-consciousness, where a part of her mind was subconsciously controlling the swirling, rampant energies to harmonize with her body, while the other part was immersing itself within the ocean of Rules and deciphering their meaning.

For the first time, Olivia saw the world around her for what it actually was. A highly sophisticated construct, intricately and expertly designed and built using the foundations of existence; the Rules.

Billions and trillions of colorful lines filled the entirety of her vision within her mindspace, exposing its true, barren nature while answering all of her abstruse questions.

Whatever conscious part of her remained, willingly dived into this ocean of profound knowledge, searching and seeking for the Rules that would construct her path. 

The concept for her Domain, which she ever so painstakingly devised and perfected with the help of Ka'lor'ah, resounded even in the deepest of her unconscious recess and faithfully guided her to the path.

In this manner, time seemed to come to a standstill and the ocean of space within her mindspace seemingly stretched indefinitely. Olivia's mind blissfully multi-tasked; one perfecting her body and the other perfecting her Domain.

She carefully sought her path and refined her Rules, gradually building her Domain from scratch. 

Everything was going perfectly and there was almost no hindrance to her progress.

Except…

A ball of grey, gaseous energy seemingly having appeared out of nowhere, split into two. One part plunged into the ocean within her mindspace and imperceptibly changed it, while the other left her mindspace before mixing with the viscous, violet-colored energy refining her body.

With the 'Rules of Ascension' blocking Lucius and Ka'lor'ah on the outside from probing too deep, and Olivia herself lost amidst the infinite ocean of truth, no one recognized the actions of this mysterious grey energy.

This ball of mysterious grey energy disappeared once again, with none being the wiser about its motives or about the imperceptible changes it had caused.