Lord of Annihilation

"Sure bet I did. How do I look?" Ka'lor'ah asked while performing a twirl.

"As usual," replied Lucius, dryly.

Looking at his unimpressed, stoic expression, Ka'lor'ah pouted for a moment when suddenly, her eyes flashed with a playful glint. Abruptly leaning closely towards Lucius, she stopped when their noses were a hair's breadth away from each other.

Exhaling a slight, warm breath, Ka'lor'ah teasingly asked, "Is my student perhaps, shy?" A teasing grin appeared on her lips.

Staring into her completely golden eyes, which were centimeters away from his own, he held his usual peace without the slightest ripple. Lucius' black eyes were reminiscent of the infinitely stretching night sky.

Cold, distant, and most of all…empty.

Seeing this, Ka'lor'ah quietly let out a sigh. Wiping the playful expression on her face, she pulled back her head and gravely spoke.

"Well, I suppose that should do it for a reunion. We have to immediately get out of this place."

Raising his head, Lucius blankly stared at the rocky ceiling of this air pocket, his eyes piercing through the layers and staring at the scene outside.

"We can leave right now."

Saying so, he grabbed Ka'lor'ah by the scruff of her neck which immediately prompted an enraged, 'hey!' from her. Ignoring her protests, he turned around and saw Olivia blankly staring into space.

"Olivia?" he called out in a confused tone.

Awakening from her stupor, Olivia's eyes refocused and saw Lucius standing before her. Seemingly remembering something, she quickly averted her eyes as her face blushed red with shame.

Seeing this odd reaction of hers, Lucius furrowed his brows and took a step forward. Using his free hand, he touched his palm on her forehead.

"What's the matter? Are you hurt?" He asked while sending a sliver of his soul power to examine her body.

"Uh? No! I'm fine! I'm completely fine! Let's leave this place!!" 

Feeling the touch of his palm, Olivia immediately shot her head up and hurriedly rambled while being flustered. The complexion of her face had also recovered and Lucius did not find any internal injuries within her either.

As such, he simply shrugged off the earlier incident and proceeded to grab Olivia by her waist. Pressing her body against him, Lucius whispered an instruction before his eyes flashed with blackness.

"Hold tight."

In the next instant, the party disappeared.

----------

"I feel obliged to complain about the difference in our treatments. Why does she get to be held like that while I'm being held like some rapid creature that you don't wanna get too close to? I'm your teacher, you know!? You're supposed to at least act like you respect me or something even if you don't!" 

The moment the party exited the void, Ka'lor'ah resentfully complained about the unfair treatment between the two women.

Hearing her complaint, Lucius coolly replied, "Your body is strong enough to resist the stress of the void. Hers, unfortunately, cannot. That is why I have to hold her close and shield her."

He then stared down at Olivia's face which was hiding within his chest and asked, "Are you okay?"

Keeping her face nestled within Lucius' wide chest; Olivia nodded her head twice before suddenly shaking it. She suddenly made a gagging noise which was quickly followed by a forced gulp.

"Yeeaahh~, I don't think she's doing well, chief," Ka'lor'ah answered in her steed. "Her blood circulation, soul power circulation, and even the chemical circulations of her body are in complete disarray. No threats to her life, but she's definitely in a world of discomfort."

To this explanation, Olivia painfully nodded her head and then proceeded to bury her face deeper into Lucius. The latter did not ask or say anything further as there was nothing he could do in this situation.

The void was a place that was devoid of all physical matter. In other words, it was a place where physical matter cannot exist. 

Currently, in order to mount a quick, unnoticeable escape, Lucius was using his Void Eater's authority and void energy to bring along the two women while using [Void Travel]. 

With Ka'lor'ah's physique, which was constructed out of soul power and did not actually possess any real biological functions, the stress from the void was nonexistent. To Olivia, however, it was the complete opposite as her body was under tremendous physical stress.

Were it not for Lucius manually shielding her and blocking much of the void's power, her body would've been instantly destroyed the instant she entered the void.

The party's current location was still somewhere underneath the rubble mountain as Lucius intentionally only traversed a small distance in order to condition Olivia to the void and also calculate the energy consumption from using the ability.

'Hmm, at this rate of consumption, we should barely be able to make it across the Giant's border in one stretch. From there, we should be able to get to one of the nearer Neutral planets by replenishing my void energy using the snacks that I collected.'

Upon coming up with a feasible plan, Lucius inwardly nodded his head and after confirming that Olivia was doing fine (relatively), he used [Void Travel] once again and appeared somewhere in the sky above the Royal Giant City.

Correction: He arrived somewhere in the sky over what used to be the Royal Giant City.

"Holy Master of the Lords…," Ka'lor'ah let out an absentminded gasp as he stared at the scene below.

Hearing her teacher's gasp of surprise, even Olivia peeked a tiny glance while suppressing the churning feeling within her stomach. The instant she did so, she was gobsmacked.

A sea of blood stretched endlessly in all directions, trashing and crashing against the giant structures of the Royal City. These structures and buildings, which were 2/3rds sunken into the sea of blood were corroding at an extremely rapid pace and quickly breaking apart. 

In just a few seconds, Olivia saw a richly-built, mansion-like building surrounded by a magical barrier, rot apart and fall victim to the sea of blood. This was just a single case within thousands of similar cases.

However, the worst part wasn't the destruction of the building but rather the annihilation of lives. 

In just a single glance, the two ladies could see thousands of Stage 3 Giants come into contact with the sea, mysteriously freeze up, and fall into its waters while their flesh rotted and their bones crumbled. 

If one were to take into account the sheer size of this sea of blood and the number of residents within the Royal Giant City, the number of people who might die to this sea of blood numbered in the millions!

[Sea of Blood], a simplified and rather crudely constructed version of Lucius' [Thousand Seas of Blood], which was a portion of his [World of Death]. (similar to the Corpse Mountain Range which is also a portion)

The original version was specifically constructed by Lucius for the purpose of mass destruction and slaughter. At its peak, the [Thousand Seas of Blood] could putrefy entire planets and even star systems in a matter of minutes. 

Any living being (under Stage 4) that came in contact with its waters, or even inhaled its vapors would immediately lose control over its motor functions and become paralyzed, falling into its corrosive waters. Any living being (under Stage 6) would find themselves continuously losing strength and face a suppression anywhere between 50-80%. 

Additionally, apart from these solo abilities the [Thousand Seas of Blood] also had an additive and multiplicative relation with the other portions of Lucius' [World of Death]. It was built with the intent to serve as a supportive Domain and hence lacked the raw combat strength when compared to some of the other Domains within his World.

Of course, the current [Sea of Blood] was nowhere near strong as the original variant. It possessed less than a millionth of its original prowess and wasn't even complete. 

Still, its power was strong enough that in a simple matter of minutes, it managed to nearly wipeout the entire Royal Giant City, an important place of dwelling for a Grade 5 race.

One could argue that the reason for this level of success was due to the inhabitants being caught off guard, no one expecting such a terrifying Domain to exist and suddenly attack them.

The most important reason for its success, however, was the fact that the city's Stage 5 guardian was currently busy.

"DAMN YOU, DEMON!! I SWEAR UPON MY NAME AND UPON MY HONOR AS A GIANT KING! I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I CAPTURE YOUR SOUL AND MAKE IT REPENT FOR THE SIN OF SLAUGHTERING MY KIND!!" Klytius fuming rage was witnessed by all.

The Giant King could be seen standing in front of a large, slowly expanding crack within the sea of blood. The hundred meters of space around him was strangely void of the crimson sea and was currently an oasis for all critically injured, surviving Giants. 

In the other end of the crack, one could see faint scenes of vast grasslands, flaming volcanic craters, hideous swamps, etc, crumbling. 

It seems that Lucius' attack had managed to corrode the entrance to the 'Twelve Labors' with the latter being on the verge of being destroyed forever.

Klytius' anger was completely justified. 

It was a shame though. The target of his resentment had not even bothered to pay this illustrious being any attention and had escaped a few moments ago through the void.

And hence came the end to Lucius' journey in the Land of the Giants and to Olivia's training arc. All of the party's temporary goals had been met and the next phase of the plan was on the horizon.

The grand political turmoil within the Grand Alcana Empire was about to become even grander.