Lord of Annihilation

Hearing Lucius' answer put an end to the skepticism within Olivia's heart. She immediately accepted the fact and started revaluate the situation.

Looking at her disciple immediately accept the situation and sink into thought, a smile that was both proud and bitter appeared on Ka'lor'ah's face. 

'Looks like her trust and confidence in Lucius is exponentially higher than me, her teacher's, within her heart. This is just…,' she thought to herself.

Shaking her head to rid herself of such thoughts, Ka'lor'ah turned her gaze towards the two other ladies around the round table. 

Reyna's expression exposed the fact that she seemed to be lost within her mental fantasies, while Anya possessed a more rational expression of musing

'Ha. How innocent and naïve. Lil' Olivia just to be just like this back then,' Ka'lor'ah absentmindedly brooded. 'Is this how it feels for a parent seeing their child grow up?'

Just before she could ponder deeply into this philosophical question, a clear, mature voice cut through her thoughts.

"Teacher, if my thoughts are correct, your plan is to have us support this rightful heir in his succession, correct?" Olivia asked.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Ka'lor'ah nodded her head and answered, "That is correct."

"Where is this person then? I can't imagine him being anywhere free, listening as to how you mentioned that he had been made to disappea—"Olivia paused as her stoic expression suddenly warped into one of realization and shock as she exclaimed, "Wait! It couldn't be! You can't possibly…!!"

"Hahaha!" Ka'lor'ah guffawed loudly. "Seems like you got it."

"Got what? What's happening? Where is this person?" Reyna, who had also snapped out of her rich fantasies, verbalized her questions.

Ignoring her questions, Olivia immediately got up to her feet, turned to face Lucius, and yelled at the top of her lungs, "You absolutely must not! It's simply crazy!!"

Olivia's sudden outburst was so strong that it had resulted in some accidental leakage of her soul power. 

The overwhelming strength of her Stage 3 soul power immediately flooded the Common Room, shook the spaceship and asphyxiated the weaker duo; Reyna and Anya.

Just as the two women were about to fall into darkness as a result of breathlessness, Lucius opened his eyes and slightly waved his hands. Olivia's soul power was immediately annihilated and the situation was contained.

Iris instantly appeared behind the two ladies who were on the verge of fainting and caught them. Raising her head, her eyes met with those of Ka'lor'ah's who softly spoke, "They're not injured but take them away."

Nodding her head, Iris easily lifted the two ladies and exited the Common Room.

Meanwhile, Olivia's abundant breasts continued to rapidly heave as her pale face warped with an expression of reluctance and worry. Her mouth constantly moved as she muttered, "…you must not go there!...that place is too dangerous…"

"Olivia," Lucius called out but the latter did not respond. Frowning, Lucius inserted more force into his voice as he repeated, "Olivia."

The latter continued to remain unresponsive while the fluctuations of her soul power continued to intensify as she continued to lose control over her strength.

In fact, had Lucius not released his strength and kept her fluctuations contained, this spaceship would be effortlessly torn apart. 

Stage 3 beings possessed the power to affect and alter a world! Tearing apart a simple metal construct was child's play.

Seeing Olivia act like this, with tears dripping from her eyes, a strange feeling suddenly arose within Lucius' heart. Getting up from his seat, Lucius stepped forward, widened his arms, and enveloped Olivia in a strong hug.

Seeing this scene, Ka'lor'ah's eyes widened to the extreme while her hands covered her opened mouth. She was completely shocked!

Even Lucius, who had performed this shocking action, wasn't exactly sure why he had done so! The moment he had seen the expression of pain and tears on Olivia's face, his body had automatically reacted following the strange feeling within his heart.

Even now, Lucius had no idea what this strange, unfamiliar yet familiar, feeling within his heart was. But he didn't care all that much.

At this very moment, he wanted to stop her quiet tears. 

He wasn't sure why he had chosen to hug her instead of simply ordering her as he did in the past, but he did not want to retreat either.

As such, Lucius tightened his hug around Olivia's soft and voluptuous body and allowed the latter to sink further into his warm embrace. He did not speak but simply rested his chin atop of her head.

And it worked like a charm!

Just moments after being embraced by Lucius, Olivia's trembling stopped and the interval between her sobs had lengthened. Even her mindless repetition had come to an end as she quietened.

Resting her head against Lucius' comforting chest and hearing the sound of his rapid heartbeat, the baseline of which ranged in-between 400-450 BPM, she soon calmed down.

"You must not go," she said with a voice that was as soft as a whisper. Of course, with their current proximity, Lucius easily heard her and asked in reply, "Why?"

"It's very dangerous, and—and…," Olivia started to stutter.

Frowning slightly, Lucius softly asked, "And what?"

"I-I have a bad feeling. A feeling that's warning me that something very bad is going to happen," she answered, her voice filled with nervousness and uncertainty. 

"Something bad is going to happen?" he asked, confused.

The instincts of a powerhouse were a very mysterious and abstruse concept. 

While there was no proper base or theory validating their reliability, many people within the Universe, especially those who were powerful and more in touch with the Universe unhesitantly trusted and relied upon.

While these feelings/instincts were mostly baseless and simply doubt that had festered within their hearts, more often than not, they have saved the lives of those who chose to believe in them.

Lucius, himself, trusted these instincts as he had been saved more than once by relying upon these abstruse feelings. He also had a vague idea on where these feelings/instincts stemmed from and was probably the most knowledgeable person in the Universe regarding this topic.

He suspected that these feelings/instincts had something to do with the Universe, its Rules, and something beyond. 

Having the knowledge that Olivia was conjectured to be an Arbiter, an ancient group who worked directly underneath the Overlord, and that she had only recently finished her ascension which made her more susceptible to the Universe's influences, it reminded him of something.

As such, when Olivia voiced her uncertain doubt, Lucius did not brush it off but investigated further.

"Describe your feelings a bit more elaborately if possible. To who is this bad thing about to happen? You? Me? Or someone else?"

"Wait? You're taking this seriously? Ka'lor'ah suddenly spoke up. "It's simply the manifested fears and worries of a young maiden whose lover is going to do something dangerous. It's nothing serious!"

Lucius, however, turned his indifferent gaze towards Ka'lor'ah and shot her a serious, narrowed look.

Realizing that Lucius was strangely serious about this matter, Ka'lor'ah quickly backed off and then her head away while grumbling to herself internally.

Olivia, meanwhile, under Lucius' warm influence, slowly opened up and explained.

"I-I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, but I feel that something terrible is going to happen to all of us! You, Teacher, Reyna.., everyone!"

"I see," Lucius nodded his head and asked, "What about you?"

"I-I don't know," Olivia honestly replied. 

To this Lucius did not ask further. He simply stood still, allowing Olivia to wrap her slender arms around him while burying herself further into his embrace.

Oddly enough, Lucius did not feel uncomfortable against this. It came as a shocking revelation to him as he couldn't imagine himself doing such a thing a few years prior.

'I've changed,' Lucius admitted internally. With this admittance, something seemed to change internally as Lucius felt a more comfortable with the current situation.

He could feel the softness and relaxing firmness of Olivia's body in better detail while also identifying the respective warmth of their bodies. Feeling these new sensations, Lucius did not feel much, other than the relaxing warmth that it brought him.

As a habitual action as a Void Eater, he unconsciously sniffed at Olivia's hair inhaling the calming and strangely soothing smell.

'I like this smell,' the Void Eater within him responded.

Just as he was about to sniff a couple more times, he heard Olivia speak.

"You're still going to go to that place, aren't you?"

Stopping his strange activities, Lucius replied, "Yes."

"And nothing that I can say or do can stop you from doing it, right?"

"Correct."

"I see," Olivia calmly replied. 

It seemed that whatever sudden outburst that had previously occurred had already passed as Olivia had seemed to have regained her usual calmness. 

Extracting herself from Lucius' embrace, she placed her hands atop his arms, raised her head, and looked him in his eyes. Staring into Lucius' spectacularly handsome face and his bottomless dark eyes, Olivia flashed a brilliant smile and spoke.

"Well, then. Let's make sure that your journey is as safe and risk-free as possible, shall we?"

Seemingly affected by Olivia's countenance, a stiff, awkward smile appeared on Lucius' rigid face, as he replied.

"I'll be counting on you."