Lord of Annihilation

The sky was split to reveal the vast emptiness of space in the sky above the Royal Giant City and the ground was fractured to create a fault within its walls. 

The Northern City Wall had almost entirely collapsed and the mountain of debris buried nearly everyone who was previously present in the scene. Many lives were lost to the attack with only a minority surviving due to their higher strengths and immediate reaction to King Klytius' warning.

The damage from the attack had even spread to the interiors of the city, although not of the same degree as the city wall. Fortunately, due to the tall wall ranking, much of the attack, the Royal City as a whole was mostly spared.

Still, the fracture in both the sky and the ground were pressing issues, as torrents of calamitous winds entered the world through the sky while deadly, bubbling magma rose from within the ground. These forces of nature were terrifying enough to grievously injure a Stage 3 being, who occupied much of the Royal City's population.

Faced with such a sudden calamitous situation, the Royal City quickly fell into chaos. Many of its residents abruptly died due to the chaos, falling prey to the natural disaster.

At this moment, the surface of the rubble consisting of the Northern City Wall's debris suddenly began to quake. After quaking intensely for a few seconds, the rubble burst apart revealing a contingent of Royal Guards with Klytius at its helm.

Wearing an expression of solemnity and suppressed anger, Klytius coldly ordered, "Help the survivors trapped under the rubble."

"Yes, your majesty!" Came the reply and the Royal Guards immediately got to work.

Flying up into the air, Klytius then gazed at the crack splitting the heaven and the earth. Bringing his hands before his chest, Klytius pored an egregious amount of his soul power into the space between his palms and muttered a spell.

"Mend!" With a yell, he threw two spheres of brown-colored energy. One headed towards the sky while the other headed towards the ground. 

Covering the vast distance in only an instant, the spheres of energy immediately exploded upon arriving at the vicinity of the two calamities. A seemingly, infinite amount of energy spread, and solid lines materialized within the air.

These lines, dark brown in color, stretched across the entire vastness of the two fractures and covered their entire surface in a net-like pattern. Upon the complete formation of the net, the lines pulsed with immense energy and forcibly held back the two disasters from wreaking further havoc.

The torrential winds from outer space crashed against the dark brown net only to be firmly held back, while the boiling magma from under the earth was forced back into the hell from which it came.

Using a single spell, Klytius had single-handedly stopped two world-level disasters and had even forced them back!

In the Middle Regions, Stage 5 beings reigned supreme!

Surveying the results of his effort with a staid gaze, Klytius then turned his gaze towards the rubble underneath him. His eyes flashed with light and boundless, intangible force extended from his body. 

Klytius' soul sense rapidly filtered through the hundreds of meters of broken rock and dirt, and intently searched for two targets. The process continued for a few seconds when his eyes suddenly narrowed with seriousness.

"They're not here…" Klytius silently mumbled.

'How is this possible? They were right here before the attack arrived. I remember last seeing them being caught up in the attack. Where did they go?' 

'Teleportation? Or are they already dead?

Just as Klytius was deep within his thoughts, a Giant dressed in the armor of the Royal Guard arrived before him and gravely reported.

"Your Majesty, we sifted through the entirety of the rubble and found 364 survivors. 82 of the survivors are Stage 4 entities while the rest are Stage 3 beings who managed to remain close to the former and came under their protection."

"How many fatalities?" Klytius asked, searching through the mountain of debris once more.

"987, my lord," the Royal Guard soberly replied. "Most of them were foreigners while a third of them were our brothers." He continued while clenching his fists. 

Looking up at the side profile of his king, the Royal Guard hesitantly asked, "Your Majesty…the one behind this attack—"

"It's Black Blade." Klytius firmly declared.

"But why would Brother Black Blade sudd—"

"There is no right or wrong in this situation, Coeus. As a member of the [Evil] faction caught behind enemy lines, it is only natural for him to fight back."

Shaking his head, Klytius continued, "Had I been in a similar situation, I would've reacted in the same manner. I don't blame him. The life of oneself and their companions are most important after all."

Raising his gaze to look at the damaged city, Klytius then spoke. "However, that doesn't mean that I will forgive him." His eyes turned icy as he continued, "He shall answer for his crimes of killing my citizens and undergo trial for his sins."

"It is the sacred duty of us, Giants, the gatekeepers of the [Good] faction, to capture and execute the demons of the [Evil] faction."

"And in this duty, we shall spare no effort!" Klytius thundered.

"Yes, your majesty!!" Coeus, the Royal Guard, rousingly replied.

"Now then, lead the Royal Guards to join the stationed army within the city to suppress the chaos. I shall go and capture the demon myself."

Saying so, Klytius flew forward towards the point of Lucius' ascension.

----------

Somewhere within the mountain of rubble.

"I think they are gon--*cough* *cough*," Olivia broke into a fit of cough in the middle of her report.

Using her hands to pat away the dust atop her nose, she turned towards Ka'lor'ah and repeated.

"I think they are gone. They didn't manage to find us."

"Of course, they didn't find us! I used the freaking [Isolation Barrier] to hide us! If they still managed to find us despite this, I might as well commit suicide using a block of tofu," Ka'lor'ah grumbled.

Feeling rather speechless at her teacher's outburst, Olivia replied, "Someone's in a bad mood. Are you okay?"

"Haah! I'm fine. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take it out on you," Ka'lor'ah apologized. "I'm just…pissed at the sudden downfall of our situation. Everything was going perfectly fine until suddenly, it wasn't."

"It can't be that bad, right? There must be a silver lining somewhere," Olivia tried to be hopeful.

"The only silver lining here is that our faces are going to be added to the Evil Subjugation Board, causing us to become one of the Most Wanted criminals in this side of the Universe," Ka'lor'ah snarled.

"I mean, a direct attack on the Royal City of the Giants, the gatekeepers and vicious guard dogs of the [Good] faction? Really?" she scoffed, "Hah! Just when I thought Lucius' talent at drawing trouble couldn't get any better, he goes and one-ups his previous attempt."

"Previous attempt?" Olivia caught the odd turn of phrase and spoke up. 

Realizing her slip of the tongue but of no mind to change it, Ka'lor'ah simply glossed over it and changed the topic.

"Let's think about our next sequence of actions. Since the screen broke apart when Lucius was in the fortieth golden step or so, we have no idea about his current situation. Now, assuming that he made it to the—"

Ka'lor'ah's speech suddenly came to an abrupt pause as her body stiffened. 

"Teacher? Teacher!? Ka'lor'ah!!?" Olivia yelled, trying to wake her up. 

Seeing no reaction from the latter, she quickly used her soul power to assume control over the [Isolation Barrier]. Keeping the barrier maintained was very important as it was the crucial factor keeping them hidden and alive.

After finishing her takeover of the spell, Olivia then used a multitude of ways to awaken Ka'lor'ah. However, nothing seemed to work as the latter continued to remain frozen with her eyes wide open.

Just as Olivia was about to try and use an attack spell to try and induce a reaction from her, golden energy exploded from within Ka'lor'ah which caused her to rapidly transform.

Seeing the scene of transformation happening to her teacher, Olivia's jaw slackened and her eyes widened.

"Wow…"