Lord of Annihilation

"Do you want to acquire the throne of the Grand Alcana Empire?" 

"Why are you asking me this?" Prometheus replied defensively, his eyes reflecting a shade of caution.

"Simply answer the question. Do you or do you not want the throne?" Lucius repeated, tightening his grasp over his neck.

The growing pressure over his neck region rendered it difficult for Prometheus to smoothly breathe. Looking into Lucius' eyes, he found the latter to be seriously awaiting an answer.

'Dam-mit, if I do-nt give h-im a-an answer, he m-might kill me!' 

Exhaling a heavy sigh, he replied, "Yes."

"Why?" came the question.

Growing serious himself, Prometheus exclaimed, "Because it's mine!" A fierce flame of desire and zeal brightly glowed in the depths of his eyes. 

Staring into his eyes for a few seconds, Lucius then released his grip over Prometheus and let him drop to the floor.

Falling on the strangely moist stone floor with a heavy thud, Prometheus fiercely coughed while massaging the area around his neck. To say that he felt suffocated by Lucius' sheer aura would be an understatement. 

'It's like I'm facing a primitive beast that is inches away from eating me. Scary…' Prometheus inwardly designated Lucius as a person that he must not offend and frantically avoid at all costs.

Unfortunately for him, the latter would be impossible.

"If you try to escape, I will remove your body from your head," Lucius eerily declared. "I know that Stage 5 entities can survive with only having their heads intact."

Walking forward a few steps while leaving Prometheus behind, Lucius softly finished, "Even one that is as weak as you."

"I heard that!" Prometheus rebutted and hurriedly got up to his feet, following behind Lucius.

The two men then continued to walk down the dark passageway, their footsteps echoing against the stone chamber. Occasionally, the sound of water dripping and splattering against the floor could be heard. The passageway also possessed a musty, decaying smell that was especially strong on one's olfactory organs.

Continuing their walk in silence, Prometheus could finally not tolerate the quietness any longer and opened his mouth.

"I know I'm late in asking this, but what's your name, man?" His tone had returned to being cheerful.

After staying quiet for a few seconds, Lucius slowly answered, "…Lucius."

"Ah! Lucius! I've never heard that name before. How interesting!" He then walked ahead of Lucius and turned around. Having his hands around his back, he continued, "So, where do you come from, Lucius? You're obviously not a Magi seeing as to how you lack a magic organ. But you're skill in Runes must really be something!"

Flashing an interesting smile on his face, he continued, "Those seals that I put on the exit back there, half-hearted and uninspired as they were, are not something that can be broken in mere seconds by any random stranger. You, my friend, must have quite the talent with Runes!"

Towards his remark, Lucius did not reply and simply remained quiet. Prometheus took his silence as a tacit affirmation to his comment.

In actuality, however, the truth couldn't be any farther from his remark.

Lucius' talent in Rune Crafting, also called 'Sigiling', was very…average. In fact, his talent with this subject was so dull that Ka'lor'ah jokingly (and half-seriously) used him as the 'Standard Average Unit' for measuring one's talent with Runes.

To be a talented Sigiler meant that one must have an unusually keen perception of the Rules and how they affected the Universe. In this field, Lucius' talent was simply peerless. 

There was none better in the living Universe who could analyze and understand the Rules and their functioning better than him! His title as the 'Strongest under the Lord Realm' was a testament to this fact.

However, for some inexplicable reason, he just couldn't work with Runes. To quote Ka'lor'ah, 'Lucius seemed to have some sort of external limiter placed upon him which impeded his progress and made it near-impossible for him to grow in this field.'

That being said…just imagine if Lucius' [World of Death], which was universally acclaimed to be the strongest, were to be supplemented and boosted by the power of the Runes. 

His power would breakthrough to an entirely new threshold, arriving into the realm of the unknown.

Unfortunately, this idea was not conceivable due to Lucius' lacking talent as a Sigiler. As such, one avenue to instantly raise his power was forever closed.

"Moving to a different topic, Lu. Can I call you Lu? I'm going to call you Lu! Anyway, Lu, what are you in here for? Give me all the gore-y details and hold nothing back!" Prometheus wriggled his fingers while wearing an expression of excitement and curiosity.

Annoyed at his incessant chatter, Lucius let out a heavy sigh. He then shot a deep look at Prometheus, before opening his mouth with a reply.

"I was involved in multiple cases of abduction, extortion, forceful coercion, extermination, assassination…" Lucius read out a long list of crimes that he had committed. 

With each word uttered by Lucius the excitement on Prometheus' face only grew bigger as his eyes shined brighter. His current demeanor was akin to a young child hearing stories about his heroes.

As for the unease and caution which he previously possessed in his heart? Prometheus had long since abandoned those things.

From the start, Prometheus wasn't the typical cautious person. He was instead an adventurous thrill-seeker who loved to live on the edge of danger.

The sheer number of dangerous experiments and explosive encounters which he had been a part or cause of was simply incalculable.

In short, Prometheus was a crazy, trigger-happy nihilist.

"…and several other crimes, particularly against Magi families and some large organization," Lucius finished and inhaled a fresh breath of air.

"WOW! That's so cool! You must really have it in for those guys, huh!? I LOVE IT!!" Prometheus squealed with delight. 

"I must say, Lucius, no! Sir Lucius, starting this moment forth, you are my one and only hero!" Prometheus kneeled on the spot and proclaimed with the passion and hot-bloodedness of a teenage boy.

Seeing this scene and hearing his proclamation, Lucius was just…speechless. Never had he been more at loss for words than at this moment.

Blinking his eyes multiple times, Lucius inwardly thought, 'Just what goes on inside this guy's head?'

(AN: No one knows. Not even me.)

After remaining kneeling for an entire five seconds, Prometheus rose to attention, performed a salute while facing Lucius, turned around, and briskly continued his walk.

Lucius blankly stood at the same spot for a few seconds before shaking his head and continuing behind him. 

"So tell me, Sir Lucius, why do you want to get out of this place? Barring the obvious answer of regaining your freedom, of course," Prometheus asked. "Do you have something going on, on the outside? Family? Friends? Or perhaps a special, female admirer?"

"No," Lucius instantly answered. 

Turning his head around, Prometheus flashed a knowing smile and replied, "So it IS a girl. Very nice."

He then gestured with his hands, motioning over Lucius' body, and spoke with a deep voice, "Underneath that cold, hard exterior lies a soft, tender heart. A heart that longs for true lo---I can't do this! HAHAHA!" Breaking character, Prometheus uproariously laughed.

He laughed to the point of his eyes tearing up. Wiping the trailing tears, Prometheus forced himself to stop laughing and speak, "I-I do-don't mean any o-offense. I-I ju-st can't control m-my mouth!"

"Haaa!~" Exhaling deeply, Prometheus finally stopped laughing and coherently spoke, "I'm very sorry, dude. I just can't seem to filter the words coming out of my mouth."

"Anyway, it's great that you've got someone to go back home to. I don't really know how that feels since I don't have a special somebody, but I'm sure it's a special feeling," he casually spoke.

"Indeed," unexpectedly, Lucius agreed with him while having his eyes closed. 

Seeing the reminiscent look on Lucius' face, Prometheus kept quiet not wanting to intervene in his thoughts. 

After waiting for Lucius to open his eyes and continue staring at him with an annoyed gaze, Prometheus put on a teasing smile and nudged at Lucius' arm.

"Quick question, who is prettier between the two of you? I can't imagine your face being inferior to a female counterpart."

"And on that note, have you ever tried crossdressing? I think you'd be very attractive wearing female clothes. Probably give a lot of people some very confused erectio—" his words were abruptly cut off as he instantly dashed away upon seeing Lucius' arm move towards his throat.

The rest of their trip through the dark, endlessly long passageway was Prometheus repeatedly limit-testing Lucius on his tolerance while frantically trying to not get killed.

Suffice to say, by the time that the duo reached the end of the passageway, Prometheus' body was filled with bruises from being beaten up while Lucius' face showed the exhaustion he felt within his heart.

It was a loss-loss situation but Prometheus had a smile on his face which seemed to suggest that he had won everything. 

He was, by far, the most annoying and exhausting person that Lucius had ever met, even surpassing Ka'lor'ah, the previous record holder, by an unimaginable margin.

Arriving at the end of the passageway, the two men stopped in front of an enormous screen of light and simultaneously spoke.

"" We have to be careful from here.""