Lord of Annihilation

"Destroy all of them."

At the very instant that Olivia's emotionless voice fell, all of the cloud doppelgangers attacked. Closing in on the indiscriminately attacking tentacles, they raised their arms in unison and slashed at the trashing appendages with force.

Not having a conscious entity to control them, the tentacles did not possess the ability to evade the attack. As such, there was little suspense in the result of the attack.

The explosive might of the cloud doppelgangers ruthlessly cut apart the hundreds of bundles of tentacles at the cost of losing their cloud bodies. These cloud bodies upon succeeding in their assault burst into a purple-colored explosion creating a mesmerizing, fireworks-like scene.

In an instant, the tentacles were destroyed, the cloud doppelgangers exploded and the fractures in space were sewn together. Olivia, who had disappeared prior to the attack, also appeared once again.

However, she did not seem to be in a good state as her face looked unnaturally pale with blood trickling down from her facial orifices. Her forehead was also scrunched together as she seemed to be suffering from a massive headache.

Massaging her forehead with her hands, Olivia looked around her Domain with satisfaction and spoke to herself.

"That seems to have done the trick, although…it hurts like a bi*ch and is a bit wasteful. My brain feels like a bucket load of molten hot lead was poured into it," she jokingly complained.

[False Replication] was one of the Domain skills that Olivia had created for her Domain, much like the [Total Observation] which she had used earlier. 

Unlike [Total Observation] which was a purely-detection type skill, [False Replication] was an all-rounded skill that could help Olivia in attacking, defending, or even in processing data.

As the name suggested, this Domain skill allowed Olivia to create false replicas of herself. These replicas each possessing strengths at the very peak of Stage 2, could be assigned tasks and controlled to do almost anything that she could do.

Find yourself lacking numbers against your enemies? No problem. You could summon an army of replicas to fight for you.

Facing a powerful attack that you need to weaken? No problem. The replicas can work as perfect human shields.

Have an enormous problem with an egregious amount of data that you can't work out yourself in a short time? No problem. The replicas were built to be processors whose main function was to crunch numbers and divide her workload.

In essence, [False Replication] allowed Olivia to create weaker clones of herself in numerous numbers. Of course, these couldn't be really called 'clones' since they lack the one thing that every intelligent being possesses; intelligence. 

They were simply machine-like entities that can be used to perform grunt work or act as cannon fodder when needed. 

While this might be seen as a useless or even a redundant skill for others, it was the perfect skill for Olivia.

Why was it so? To answer this question, we have to go a bit further back.

Olivia's combat prowess was top-tier. One could even say that with her talent and training she belongs within the elite tier of her Stage.

However, if her combat prowess was to be compared with Lucius, whom she wanted to fight side-by-side with and assist, it was nothing exceptional. 

Lucius was a literal one-man army and Olivia could never hope to equal him in this aspect.

This got her thinking. Obviously, Lucius did not need her help to help him fight his battles and it wasn't like she would be much help even if she wanted to intervene.

How then could she help him?

The answer dawned on her the day she was meeting with the various merchant and mercenary companies in the Goods and Services Office in that Elvenheim. 

Olivia was a born leader. Her management skills were excellent enough to even earn praise from Ka'lor'ah, who was unquestionably the greatest manager in the Universe. 

As such, she decided to further develop her abilities in this aspect. 

[Perfect Prediction] was not a pure-combat Domain like Lucius' [World of Death]

It was a support-type Domain that was meant to supplement Lucius in areas that he lacked. 

She was willing to shoulder all the miscellaneous and boring responsibilities which were not as flashy as fighting but were nevertheless important to their quest. 

Stories and myths often spoke about how the Hero defeated the Great Evil in a legendary battle but never expounded on how the Hero went about funding his journey, afforded his replenishment, or even about managing those numerous villages and kingdoms that he saved from famine to ensuring that such a thing never happened again.

The background work done by countless people was a thankless job but one that was just as important as the hero's quest.

Olivia knew that she could not help her Hero in slaying the Great Evil but she was confident in making sure that he suffered no setbacks or hindrances in his journey.

[Perfect Prediction] was a Domain that would allow her to do this.

Back to the story…

Wiping the blood off of her face, Olivia then scanned the black blob- Lucius' body- in front of her to get another reading.

'Hmm, destroying those tentacles seems to have done the trick. At least, there is no immediate threat of my Domain being shattered by his violent Stage 4 pressure.'

Checking her own reserves, Olivia made a pained expression.

'Yikes, that single attack cost me 45% of my total soul power. Using my processors to attack or defend really is a wasteful use of resources. At least, the random tentacles attacks have seemed to have stopped now, so it's not entirely a waste.'

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Olivia looked at the shapeshifting blob before her and narrowed her eyes, 'Now then, time to help Lucius wake up.'

Gathering her hands before her chest, Olivia poured her soul power and compressed it into a sphere-shaped ball. Her eyes, which had gone completely violet, stared at the black blob blankly while her mouth mumbled the abstruse chant of a spell.

"[Forced Clarity]!" 

With a yell of the spell's name in the final line of the chant, Olivia threw the violet-colored ball towards the black blob. This was a new spell that she had awakened with her ascension and belonged to her [Soul Suppressor] soul.

Cutting across the air within the Domain, the ball entered the dark veil coloring the void. Instantly, the speed of the spell seemed to have taken a hit as it rapidly slowed down.

Olivia's face, however, did not show any expression of shock or worry as she wordlessly stared at the slowly moving spell. Fortunately, she seemed to have already predicted that this sort of thing would happen and that is why she had wrapped the real spell within the ball of superfluous energy.

And according to her calculations, that ball of violet energy surrounding the real spell should last just long enough for it to reach the black blob.

And indeed, her predictions were right on the count.

The final layers surroundings the spell disappeared under the void's devouring, just as the real spell hit the black blob. The instant the spell hit the black blob, the continuously shape-shifting ball of black matter stiffened and suddenly paused.

Two seconds passed in silence and bated breath before the blob started moving once again. This time, however, there was a sense of order in its movement.

The black blob slowly expanded to form a humanoid shape with two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. The body was constructed entirely out of the darkness with not a single defining feature.

Calling it a 'human' body was rather incorrect as it looked more like a shadow.

This shadow body floated in the air with its head slumped down. The shaping of its body had also seemed to have come to a stop as there were no visible changes to its shape.

Time ticked by and nothing happened. 

Olivia, however, had a brilliant smile on her face; one that shone with confidence and joy.

Opening her mouth, she spoke with a cheerful tone, "Seems like I was the first to wake up, huh?"

The instant her words fell, the purely black entity who seemed to be the very personification of the 'Void' itself, raised its head and opened its eyes.

One which glowed entirely with crimson red and another in brilliant gold.