Lord of Annihilation

"How do you plan on getting out of this place?" asked Lucius.

Hearing that question, Prometheus raised his head and scoffed at Lucius, "Getting out of this place? Hello? Are you even listening to what I was saying?"

Shaking his limbs, Prometheus rattled the chains binding him and produced a sharp, painful sound.

"We are imprisoned within the deepest layer of Tartarus! TARTARUS! Do you know what that means!?" he yelled. 

Seeing the still expression on Lucius' face, Prometheus lowered his head and quietly mumbled, "…why is the first person I meet after all these years, a muscle-brained idiot? Haah!" He sighed.

Lifting his head once again, Prometheus spoke, "Seeing as to how you're so ignorant about this place, let me give you a quick rundown."

"Tartarus, or Tar-tar-us, as  I like to call it, is a prison that is built in a tertiary dimension for the sake of imprisoning 'elements that are a threat to the Empire'," he wriggled his fingers, "In layman's terms, it's basically your retirement home  if you've done something to piss off someone at the top."

Gesturing to the cave-like walls to the sides, Prometheus continued, "See those walls by your sides? Those aren't normal walls built out of any ordinary material. No sire, those are 'Dimensional Walls'!"

"So unless you're a Stage 6 powerhouse with a decent sense of what you're doing, there is no way in hell that you're EVER breaking through those walls!" he exclaimed. 

"Therefore, I suggest dropping any plans of punching or mining through those walls. With your strength, you can't do it in one, or nineteen years, even if you went at it every day."

"Why did you call it the 'exit' then?" asked Lucius, gesturing to the ceiling.

"Cause, that's the only 'possible' way out of this room, cave, prison, or whatever you wanna call it. That's the door through which they put us in, and that's the door through which we have any hopes of getting out."

"But again, 'getting out' is purely metaphorical and there is no real way of leaving this place. So if I were you, I just resign myself to fate and start making myself at home," Prometheus shrugged his shoulders and advised. 

"Oh, and, I'm very particular about spaces. So this side of the room is effectively mine. You can have the other side. Just make sure that you don't come over to this side or throw your stuff to my side."

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm just going to continue what I was doing before you got here. Feel free to sing, think out loud, or do whatever it is that you want to do. I'm not going to judge you."

Saying so, Prometheus simply hung his head and closed his eyes. 

Lucius, on the other hand, digested everything that Prometheus had said (although 90% of said everything was useless) and quietly looked at the man.

It would suffice to say that having spent a few minutes with the man, every ounce of respect and preconceived notion that he had about this legendary figure had completely and utterly gone down the drain.

Lucius was also utterly disappointed at Prometheus' attitude towards his situation. 

Judging from his words, Prometheus had seen to have given up any hope of ever getting out of this place and had resigned himself to spending the rest of his life imprisoned within.

'I expected more from the man who single-handedly brought down the Grand Alcana Empire from its seat of dominance. Looks like my expectation was misplaced.' 

Lucius unflinchingly stared at the chained man, who intermittently let out a chuckle, sometimes giggled, and other times had a bored or lewd expression on his face.

The Prometheus before him did not possess one bit of the awe and majesty that the Prometheus in his previous life possessed. 

To compare the former to the latter would be like comparing a housefly to a star; one was annoying and temporary while the other was awe-inspiring and eternal.

'He's simply a spineless coward who does not possess the courage to fight against fate. His value towards the 'Great Plan' has significantly decreased.' Lucius decided as such.

As a person who still saw most things as 'how useful this person or thing is towards the Great Plan', Lucius had unhesitantly assigned Prometheus with the same value that he initially assigned Reyna; useless but absolutely necessary in order to progress the Great Plan.

After that, Lucius' thoughts took another turn.

'How did he escape in my previous life then? Did someone else help him?'

This was an interesting question.

Seeing Prometheus' causal, 'I don't care' attitude, it was quite evident that he possessed no intent to escape from this prison himself. Now then, how did he get out in Lucius' previous life?

Did someone else have the idea to rescue the rightful heir from Tartarus, much like Lucius himself? If so, then who did it and when?

Lucius' brows furrowed as he pondered on this question. 

'Augh, I hate thinking about such complicated questions. If only Olivia or Ka'lor'ah were here….'

Unfortunately, neither were the two ladies here with him nor could Lucius contact them. The soul tether which linked him and Ka'lor'ah seemed to face some massive interference from something within this place, rendering him unable to contact her. 

On that note, Lucius had also tried feeling his connection with the void. 

Similar to the previous situation, there seemed to be some sort of profound interference within this prison which greatly impacted his connection to the void.

Still, the fact that Lucius could feel his connection with the void meant that he could still use his abilities such as [Void Step], [Void Storage], or [Void Travel]. 

However, with his void energy reserves dangerously low and the strange iron clasps immediately siphoning his energy whenever he tried to produce something, Lucius was unable to pay the necessary energy to use those abilities.

In other words, unless Lucius broke free from these iron chains and devoured something to restore his void energy, he would be unable to call upon the void and use its abilities. 

His weapon and other items that were stored within [Void Storage] were also currently inaccessible.

While Lucius was deeply thinking on the questions within his mind, while also looking for a method out of this place, he heard a light cough followed by Prometheus' voice.

"Cough, cough, hey buddy," he began in an awkward voice. "I can't help but notice you intensely staring at me. Just so you know…I don't swing that way."

"Huh?" Lucius looked at him with a confused expression.

Seeing Lucius' look of confusion, only served to fuel Prometheus' misunderstanding further. Hurriedly shaking his head and frantically waving his hands, he hastily spoke.

"No-not that I think there's something wrong with swinging the other way! It's totally fine if you're gay! I'm not judging you or implying that it's wrong to be that way! I mean, if I had any friends, I'm sure that my best one would be gay!"

Still finding the look of incomprehension on Lucius' face and seeing the latter slowly furrow his brows, Prometheus hurriedly changed the topic.

"A-anyway! Let me ask you a question! How are things on the outside? Any big news that I should be aware of?"