Lord of Annihilation

Lucius stood stiffly while staring directly at Olivia.

'Why is she here?' This was the first question which formed in his head.

This was still within his mental tolerance levels. What made him truly astounded was the soul she possessed.

'A Violet Soul? Deep and calm. Unfathomable and encompassing. It's like the ocean.'

Throughout his life, Lucius had seen many types of souls. Yet, this was the first time he had seen a violet soul resembling a vast ocean.

Upon reaching Stage 1, the soul materializes to form a more tangible entity from it's gaseous state. It then starts to manifest the properties of a particular soul type. Soul types usually are of three cases. Common, Uncommon and Rare.

This process was commonly called as 'Branding' and the Soul Brand, refers to the type of soul a living organism possess.

Each type of soul belongs to it's own set of 'Rules. Their powers and properties derived from their soul was also in accordance to this set of 'Rules'.

[Killer] is such a Soul Brand. It was a common soul type, with a majority of other life forms also possessing the same Brand. It was easy to find but hard to advance to the next stages. It belongs to the 'Rules of Destruction'

In fact, Lucius was the only person since the beginning of the cosmos to actually cultivate the [Killer] soul to it's highest stage. An exceptional case.

To explain further, let's take Alex's soul. It is also red with properties similar to fire. His Soul Brand is called [Ruler of Flames], a Rare soul type.

But if we look at the set of 'Rules' to which it belongs, it also belongs to the 'Rule of Destruction.' similar to [Killer].

Hence, both their souls are red in color, although the degree of red is quite different. Not to mention, [Killer] has a bit of black mixed into it to, belonging to 'Rules of Chaos'.

Looking at the color and properties is a common way to classify soul types and to recognize them.

Looking through his vast knowledge, Lucius could not recognize a violet colored soul type. There were soul types with properties being similar to a calm ocean, but none of them were violet in color.

'A completely new Soul Brand? How is this possible?!' Lucius was dumbfounded.

'I need to investigate this in length, but first let's get rid of these annoying pests.' Lucius pushed away the the matters of Olivia's soul for later.

His previous thoughts of non-interference had been completely thrown out if his mind. Heck, he had even forgotten his anger towards Ka'lor'ah. A case such as this with no precedent ever seen before in the infinite cosmos, meant that Olivia was someone very special. At least, her causality would be equal to if not more important than Reyna, who was humanity's focal point.

The shock in his eyes, immediately receded and his stiffened body relaxed. Lucius shifted his gaze from Olivia and moved to stare at the people near her.

'Let's start with them I guess.' thinking so, he suddenly disappeared.

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Seeing the young man, standing in front of her, Olivia's first leapt in joy but then immediately cooled in worry.

'Lucius?!' seeing that familiar face, Olivia's first action was to warn him of the danger present in the warehouse. Just as she moved her mouth to speak, an unimaginable amount of pressure descended upon her body, immediately freezing it.

Her instinct wasn't trained like the guards present, therefore she was not able to feel the danger. Yet, her newly connected soul, warned her of something. She had a vague feeling that something bad was going to happen.

With her body unable to move, she noticed the red crescents in his eyes, disappear and his gaze set on her. Looking into his eyes, Olivia could see the shock in his gaze.

'Is he shocked to see me here?' Olivia wondered. Her worried heart felt a little elation upon this thought.

'I guessed right after all. He intentionally acted cold against me, to protect me from these dangers. If only I was stronger. Strong enough to protect myself and him.' Olivia inwardly clenched her fists.

'However this time it will be different, for I have found my strength.'

She continued to look into his eyes, when she noticed the shock receding. It was replaced by calmness and indifference. Suddenly she felt the pressure on her body, dissipate allowing her to regain control of her body.

"Lucius, look ou..." she was about to complete her warning when Lucius body suddenly vanished from it's earlier spot.

In the time she took to blink her eyes, a scream that resembled a dying pig sounded out from near her.

It was Olivia's turn to be shocked as she notices, Lucius' palm pierce through the the guard's armor, directly entering his body and crushing his heart. He then immediately turned around and performed the exact same action on the partner standing next to him.

Before, Olivia's mind to process this unbelievable set of actions, Lucius' body disappeared once again, before reappearing in front of another guard, followed by the sound of a scream and something being crushed.

Olivia shifted her sight to look at the body which laid in the ground. She could clearly peer into the man's chest cavity and see the insides. Due to the quickness of his actions, the blood which was previously being pumped into the heart flowed into the now empty area.

Olivia's mind could not bear this brutal sight anymore, and she immediately began hurling her guts out. To this day, that was the most disgusting sight, she had ever seen. A mass of flesh and blood pumping and churning, flowing outside the body.

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Alex, who was paralyzed due to overdrafting his soul power looked at the hell-ish scene before him with a pale scene. Seeing the man called Lucius, often mentioned by Ka'lor'ah, literally teleporting from one person to another, Alex felt as if he was dreaming.

"This is a dream right? Maybe we already died to those guards and everything that happened afterwards was just my imagination." his voice quivered with noticeable fear.

Hearing his question, Ka'lor'ah let out a bitter chuckle before answering him, "Nope, everything's real."

"A person cannot exert such tangible pressure, to the point of 40 people not being able to think nor move their body. And look at his movement, he's practically teleporting."

Sensing the despair in his voice, Ka'lor'ah gently explained, "That's the difference between Half Step Stage 1 and a true Stage 1. In fact, he's progressed half a lower level in Stage 1."

Alex removed the crystal from his pocket and spoke with a voice that sounded unbelievable, "Didn't you tell me it was impossible to advance to Stage 1 before February?"

Ka'lor'ah did not deny him and said, "That's right."

"Then how?"

"I don't know." she coolly replied.

Indeed, as she said, she did not know how Lucius had done it.

'Without 'that event' taking place, it impossible to advance into Stage 1. How did he do it?'

There were not many things that Ka'lor'ah did not now of. From the unimaginable amounts of knowledge which stemmed from the beginning of the universe, inherited from her kin and her almost immortal lifespan, Ka'lor'ah had learnt many things.

Looking at Lucius' case right now, although she couldn't exactly pinpoint the case, she did have a few guesses. Chief of them being.

'He somehow broke the 'Rule of Souls'.' Nobody would understand how nonsensical this notion was better than herself. In the understanding of Rules, none other than 'Them' were better than her.

Lucius had somehow broken a Rule, which had a similar standing as the Rule of Time in the pyramid. Instead of feeling depressed, Ka'lor'ah was overjoyed.

She laughed out loud in her mind and thought, 'As expected of the man I chose. My champion is more incredible than I knew.'

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Less than 5 minutes passed, since Lucius bagan to slaughter all the guards present. The scene inside the warehouse resembled that of a storm having passed through. The upper bodies of almost all the guards present had been torn open, save for the ones killed by Alex and Ka'lor'ah.

Unlike the both of them who had struggled to kill their opponents and had run out of soul power, Lucius had barely tapped into his. He repeatedly recycled the soul power present in his arms, into a perpetual cycle, thereby conserving the maximum amount of soul power, using it in the most effective manner.

Currently Lucius was standing before Luther and the unconscious Keith.

Luther upon seeing Lucius' entry had been shocked out of his wits. Seeing a 'supposed' dead man, walking was quite the scary sight. He also remembered their last meeting and the mental trauma Lucius had left in his mind.

Still he had forced himself to remain calm and believed that the 40 guards to effortlessly kill him, along with Alex and Olivia.

Yet, witnessing Lucius storm his way through the 40 guards had completely broken Luther's mind. Looking at Lucius standing before him, he let out a maddened laughter and some unintelligible sounds.

Looking at the young man who used to bully him in the past, Lucius shook his head in disappointment. He channeled his soul power to create a sharp blade of wind in his hands. In an effortless move, he swiftly cut off Luther's head.

Lucius then proceeded to do the same on Keith's unconscious body. He did not bother waking him up, to allow him to explain himself.

'All troublesome things, must simply be removed.' Lucius thought to himself.

'Speaking of troublesome things.' he turned his head over and stared at Alex.

Seeing that pale faced, red haired boy crawling in the floor whilst holding onto his spear tightly, Lucius suddenly felt amused.

'This is the man who led humanity?' he wondered

"Pathetic." voicing out the latter half of his sentence.

Hearing his voice both Olivia and Alex flinched.