Lord of Annihilation

"We are here." Lucius' indifferent voice sounded out.

In front of him were tall, metallic, reinforced compound walls bordering the base on Deatov. A large gate sufficient for a cavalry to pass through was tightly shut. Watch towers lined the perimeter walls, upon which Lucius could sense the presence of humans.

After he had woken up, Lucius had directly started heading towards this base by following the golden trail in his vision. The golden trails were the lines connecting him and his 'targets', Alex and Olivia whom he had marked before their separation.

During the entire journey of getting to this base, Lucius had not taken a single break. He had maintained running at his top speed for a period of two hours. If this had been before the fall of the golden rocks then it would naturally been impossible. However, everything had changed with their arrival.

The energy which was being released by them and was being suffused into the atmosphere was something called as a 'Spirit' or more commonly called 'Spiritual Energy'.

Different from soul energy, which was the power of a living organism. Spiritual energy was the power of nature, or more precisely the fundamental energy of the Universe. It was omnipresent and is the purest form of energy.

Due to the existence of the barrier, spiritual energy was inexistent within our universe. Mankind relied on the physical fundamentals for its expansion and advancement. Evolution and growth was naturally slow as a result. However with the arrival of the ' Trials of Ascension', this barrier was rapidly weakening and was soon to be broken allowing this inexistent spiritual energy to flood into our universe.

While no major changes were being noticed currently. With the passage of a few weeks, mankind will eventually notice the existence of spiritual energy. Exhausted resources will begin to recover, aging will be slowed down, bacteria will mutate, an all-round improvement in the health and physique of all livings things will occur.

In short every single object, be it living or non-living will be benefited in a way that suits them most. Spiritual energy could be considered as the ultimate form of energy, equal to that of the soul in terms of their Rules.

Naturally Lucius, being Lucius, sought to maximize the benefits that came with the introduction of spiritual energy. Borrowing this energy, he used it to reduce his muscle fatigue and boost his natural recovery. Maintaining his loss of energy with that of his recovery, Lucius was basically a perpetual motion machine.

Of course he could not run forever, since physical exhaustion was still a factor. Without proper intake of nutrition and proper rest, even he would start to feel exhausted.

Ceasing his running, Lucius demounted Reyna from his back. Then they slowly started to walk towards the Alliance base.

"Stop right there! Identify yourselves." a voice thundered through the speakers. A large, grim looking man stood atop the watchtower as he gazed down on these two unknowns.

Lucius could see various wary gazes fixated upon himself and Reyna. He could faintly feel a couple of rifles being aimed at his direction. Silently he started to circulate his soul power, preparing to confront the group in the way he knew best-killing.

Thankfully Reyna was a step ahead and addressed the group first.

"My name is Reyna Snowden. This is my friend Lucius. We are students of the Academy who had escaped from the space station, before it was attacked. We request your permission to enter the base." She walked forward and spoke in a loud voice.

Perhaps due to recent events which she had experienced or maybe because of associating with Lucius, Reyna was no longer the shy and timid young girl from before. A sense of confidence and courage filled her, as she confronted these scary men and their weapons without any hesitation.

"Sn-sno- Snowden?" the panicked voice of the large man sounded.

"Indeed. I'm the youngest heir of the Snowden Corporation." she nonchalantly replied.

"....What are you men standing around for?!! Open the gates and let the Young Miss and her friend in!!" after a moment of silence, the man hurriedly admonished his subordinates.

The large gate, promptly opened and the large man, who seemed to be the leader of this squad hurriedly ran towards the duo. Seeing that all was well, Lucius quietly dispersed the gathered soul power.

The duo were carefully led inside and a few necessary checks were performed to confirm their identities. Upon confirmation, the leader grew even more respectful and quietly thanked the stars. They were then led to the Commander of the base, who asked the both of them a few questions as on what happened to the space station.

Apparently, ever since the arrival of those golden rocks, all forms of communications were no longer possible. As such the inhabitant of this base had no idea about what had happened to the space station.

'Seems like no survivor from the space station made it to the base.' he inferred this much from their behavior.

Lucius and Reyna then explained to the Base Commander, the series of events that had taken place since the arrival of the golden rocks. From the destruction of the space station to how they had landed in Deatov. They did not try to consciously hide any information, except on how they had jumped from the escape pod. There was no point in hiding it either.

After what felt like a eternity, the duo were finally cleared questions and had their identities checked. They were given permission to enter the base.

Walking through the wide streets, lined with cuboidal, metallic buildings and tents on either sides, they did not speak. Soldiers were training in groups, some maintaining public order, others maintaining their weapons. A few groups of students wearing the Academy issued uniforms were also present, each busy in their own tasks.

With his eyes Lucius was carefully scanned the walls, the weapons, the level of vigilance and skill of the soldiers and other such factors which was important for the upcoming battle.

He had no intention of informing the Base Commander of the upcoming events, since no one would believe his words. After all, how would you react if someone walks up to you and says that there are aliens to fight.

'Let's wait for the hordes to attack the base first. Then they will be more susceptive of my help.' he cynically thought. As for the loss of lives at the beginning of the attack. When has Lucius ever actually cared about the life of another person.

The only reason he went so far to ensure Reyna's life was because of her importance to his plans.

As he walked around the base, Reyna quietly followed him. She did not question him on what he was doing or where they were heading. An awkward silence filled the space between them.

Just when they turned a corner, they spotted two silhouettes in the distance. One was a tall young man, with a well built profile and flamboyant red hair. The other was a beautiful young woman with long black hair and blue eyes.

Spotting them, Reyna's eyes immediately shone as she shouted towards them

"LIVIA! ALEX!" she ran towards them.

Olivia who was busy discussing something with Alex was caught off-guard. Just as she turned towards the source of the voice, she felt a soft body suddenly crash into her body and tightly hug her.

"You-! Reyna?" Olivia was dumbfounded.

"Yep!" Reyna gave her a cheery reply before returning to tightly hug Olivia.

Alex who was standing next to the duo was also similarly stunned. Stunned for a second, he then voiced out.

"How did you get here?"

Sticking to Olivia's body for a few seconds, she then separated and patiently described the events that had occurred. This time she did not bother to hide anything and recalled it in detail.

Hearing her words, the expressions of Olivia's and Alex's faces grew more and more grave, Their jaws also started to drop lower and lower, as Reyna progressed with her story. Of course, she was embarrassed to speak about her interactions with Lucius and glossed over them.

After she was finally done with her story, it took a couple of minutes for the both of them to digest the information. Rubbing her forehead which had began to hurt, Olivia spoke.

"Tell me if I'm wrong here. While the two of you were onboard the ship it was suddenly struck by space rocks."

"Asteroids which were giving off golden light." Reyna intervened.

"Not my point. Then during your escape, both of you were almost pulled into space and almost turned into frozen, floating space junk."

Reyna directly nodded her head.

"Then due to his injuries, Lucius lost his rationality and turned into a beast attacking you and Ka'lor'ah in the process."

Finding nothing wrong with this, Reyna nodded once again.

"After that, the both of you finally got into an escape pod, only to jump off of it 65,000 feet from the air."

"Yes." Reyna smugly replied.

Not able to hold back any longer Oliva finally blew up.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!! DO YOUR KNOW HOW CRAZY AND DANGEROUS BOTH OF YOUR ACTIONS WERE!!?" Olivia's face was completely livid. Her gentle, peaceful expression was no where to be found. Only pure, unadulterated rage was present.

Seeing Reyna's confused expression only served to further incite her rage. Directly reaching in and twisting Reyna's ears, Olivia began to brutally admonish the young woman. Olivia's rage was so great that even the usually proud and unbending Alex had shrunk back. He had previously wanted to ask Reyna how her skydiving experience was. Alas, seeing Olivia expression he wisely swallowed his question.

Admonishing Reyna till the other party had started to cry, Olivia's rage was still not sated. Looking at Reyna with eyes which seemed to spew fire, she asked. "Where is Lucius?"

Not daring to further antagonize this 'scary' sister of hers. Reyna pointed at a certain direction only to find nothing. Lucius had quietly disappeared.

Just as Olivia was about to blow up once again, the ground upon which they were standing suddenly shook.

The shaking was so intense that metallic buildings around them could no longer hold their bases and directly collapsed. A few people and some students were buried underneath the rubble. Panic started to breakout, with screams flying in the air. Many people could no longer maintain their footing and directly fell to the ground.

Perhaps due to soul power, the trio of Reyna, Oliva and Alex were safe. The shaking did not stop, but seemed to intensify further.

"What's happening?" Alex voiced out the question that was on everyone's mind.

That was when everything suddenly became silent. Not the wind, not the land, not the screams of the injured. Nothing was heard. Sound itself seemed to have disappeared at this moment.

Just as this moment of absolute silence seemed to reach the peak, the crisp sound of glass shattering was heard. The sound was not heard through their ears, but directly resonated within their minds, shaking their very souls!

-------------------

In another location, atop one of the watch tower.

A handsome youth with black hair and indifferent eyes suddenly spoke.

"So it finally begins."