Lord of Annihilation

"I'll be going then." Standing in front of a closed airlock, Lucius turned his head around and said to the group of women behind him.

"Be safe and remember to stay in contact!" Olivia reminded, pointing to the watch-like device atop her left wrist.

"Don't get caught," Ka'lor'ah, who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed in front of her chest, cheerfully cautioned him. "Oh, and don't go on any murder rages either. Just stick to the objectives that we send you."

In response to her words, Lucius shot her a glare while Olivia helplessly sighed to herself. 

Anya and Reyna, who had now recovered and were also present for this farewell, stood awkwardly with a confused expression on both of their faces. 

Having only woken up a few minutes ago, the two of them had no idea of what was happening or why Lucius was suddenly leaving. Ka'lor'ah's or Olivia's bids of farewell did not serve to answer the questions within their minds either.

Nonetheless, they still came along with the group and said their own farewells.

"Good luck," said Anya while Reyna added, "I wish you a safe trip, wherever it is that you're going."

Lucius simply nodded in response before turning around and pressing a control terminal beside the airlock. The machine made a sound before the bulkhead behind Lucius closed, separating him and the ladies in the rest of the ship.

Waiting for the door before him to open, Lucius surrounded himself with his soul power as the room rapidly depressurized. Just as the familiar feeling of weightlessness surrounded his body, the door fully opened and Lucius exited. 

Floating out into the dark space, he closed his eyes, seemingly searching for something within. The moment he found what he was looking for, his eyes snapped open and darkness exploded around Lucius, consuming him.

With a flash of void energy, he swiftly entered the void and disappeared.

----------

"All energy fluctuations have normalized. No life signals either. Target has completely disappeared," Iris faithfully reported, having received the results of the spaceship's scan through their connection.

Hearing her report, Reyna rubbed her chin and thought out loud, "How does he do that? Does he enter like a subspace or a secondary dimension? Is he similar to a warp engine?"

"More or less," Ka'lor'ah affirmed her thoughts. "His ability allows him to travel large distance of space by entering a tertiary dimension."

"I see," Ka'lor'ah's explanation made Reyna nod her head. "What about the stress experienced by the body during the travel though? Also, what about the energy expenditure?"

At her curious inquiry, Ka'lor'ah let out a smile and patiently explained, "Once an entity ascends to the realm of Stage 4, their physical body is reconstructed into something called a 'Body of Rules'. This reconstruction eliminates the majority of common physical weaknesses and defects, allowing the entity to bear enormous pressure and stress using only their physical body."

"In fact, at the level of Stage 5, one can tear open an entry into a secondary or tertiary dimension with only their bare hands!" she exclaimed while motioning with her hands.

After pausing for a second, she then continued, "As for energy consumption, it's not as large as you think it is. Entities at this realm and above use a higher form of energy that is drastically different from anything that you're familiar with." Ka'lor'ah finished.

Her words seemed to have given Reyna something to think about as the latter simply nodded her head and sunk into her thoughts. 

Ka'lor'ah didn't bother explaining too much in detail either as matters of such level was too advanced and abstruse for someone at Reyna's level of strength to properly comprehend. 

Meanwhile, Olivia and Anya, who hadn't paid any attention to this topic due to their lack of interest in such matters, were drawn into a discussion of their own.

"Apologies, Captain, but may I know where exactly Lord Lucius is heading to?" Anya asked in a formal tone.

"Captain?" Confused at her manner of address, Olivia blinked her eyes and pointed to herself. "Me?"

Performing a slight bow, Anya nodded her head and replied, "Indeed. That is the title that we decided upon."

"Who's 'we'?" Olivia asked, bewildered. 

"The UEM, the forces from Pectron, and the various other subordinate groups under your command," Anya replied. Seeing the increasingly confused expression on Olivia's face, she continued, "Some time after you had left to undergo your training, when we were tidying up our internal affairs, we realized that you did not have an official position in our administration. Of course, everyone knew you to be our leader, but we still lacked an official term for it in our documents."

"Our first thought was to follow the old system's assignment of roles and call you 'President', however, Commander Wilkes and the other forces from Pectron were against this title and insisted that you be referred to as 'Boss'," Anya's voice dipped towards the end, expressing her dislike towards the simple term.

Finding the whole situation amusing, Olivia asked with a chuckle, "What happened then?"

"We had an 'intense' discussion about it before finally coming to a compromise. Your official title was decided to be Captain while Lord Lucius' title would be Lord. The powers of both the titles are the same with only the two of you currently holding it respectively," Anya concluded.

"Wow, bureaucracy sure runs deep, huh?" Olivia remarked feeling speechless. 

In her mind, the term 'Manager' or something similar would have worked just fine, but seeing the expression of passive-aggressiveness on Anya's face, Olivia decided not to verbalize her thoughts.

Well, the name of the title mattered little. What mattered was the power that came with the post; the absolute power to make any arbitrary decision.

'This power is dangerously similar to a 'despotic' government, huh?' Olivia absentmindedly thought. 

Shaking her head to rid herself of such useless thoughts, Olivia answered Anya's initial question, "To answer your question, I have to explain to briefly explain to you what the plan is."

"It is to join the political turmoil in the Empire by supporting this unknown, rightful heir, right?" Anya dubiously asked. 

"Correct," Olivia nodded her head. "However, in order to do so, we must first get in touch with the person in question. That is precisely what Lucius is doing."

"He's going to meet that person?"

Shaking her head, Olivia explained, "Nope. He's going to commit some crimes, kill a few people and raise his infamy."

Confused, Anya asked, "How will that help us in meeting this person? Wouldn't that just increase the attention on the Lord leading to the forces of the [Good] faction banding together and--!" Anya's eyes suddenly widened in realization.

Seeing her reaction, Olivia flashed a wry smile and said, "Looks like you got it."

Taking a deep breath, Anya hesitantly asked, "Could that rightful heir be in prison?"

"Yep!" Olivia affirmed. "And not just any prison either. He is in the one prison that is as impossible to get in as it is to get out." 

Taking a deep breath, a worried expression appeared on Olivia's face as she remarked, "The only way to get into this prison is if the people in charge of the prison put you in there."

"And that is why Lucius has to increase his infamy. He has to become a threat that is large enough to warrant the attention of the people in charge of the prison. They need to feel threatened by him, to the point that they personally act to capture him and put him in that place."

Hearing the explanation, a similarly grim expression appeared on Anya's face as she asked, "Isn't there any other way? Something more concrete? This method seems to be very reliant on—"

"Chance? Luck?" Olivia completed her sentence. "I understand your thoughts."

"You worry that the forces whom we are aiming for, might not choose to imprison Lucius but instead just outright try to kill him. As the saying goes, the only good enemy is a dead enemy." Pausing for a second, she then continued, "I worry the same."

"However," she clenched her fists hard enough to hear the sounds of bones creaking, "we have no other way."

"That prison, Tartarus, is widely reputed in the Middle Regions to be THE strongest and most hellish prison in existence. It is known for its infallible, inescapable nature alongside its nature to torture the prisoner's very souls! If rumors are to be trusted, even Stage 6 entities are supposedly helpless within its walls." 

"To this date, nearly a hundred Stage 5 experts with even a dozen Peak-Level Stage 5 powerhouses have been confined within that prison." 

Taking a deep breath, Olivia grimly declared.

"Every single one of them has perished without fail and not a single one managed to escape. Mind you, these aren't simply people but leaders and top-shots of large organizations and ancient clans!"

"No one knows where Tartarus exists or how to reach it, apart from a handful of unknown people within the Grand Alcana Empire. Just this fact alone makes it impossible for us to come up with other schemes."

"There, literally, is no other choice but to be imprisoned ourselves if we want to make contact with the rightful heir. No other choice," Olivia mumbled the final sentence multiple times while biting her lips.

Seeing the expression of worry and pain on her face, Anya quietly sympathized. She too could understand the pain of standing aside helpless while watching your loved one head towards an uncertain fate filled with the danger of death.

Unknowingly, images filled with Alex flooded her mind causing a stream of tears to trail down her eyes. Just as the sadness within her heart was about to intensify, she heard Olivia's clear voice.

"But I'm not worried. Lucius promised me that he would be safe. That he would come back to me. Therefore…" Olivia flashed a beautiful smile filled with senseless confidence and resolution.

"I'll do everything in my power to ensure that his journey is without any problems!"

Olivia's declaration caused Anya's eyes to go out of focus as she recalled a certain memory. It was the memory of a vow that Alex had made to her, the day before they got married.

'Sure, our future is dangerous and the fate of tomorrow is unknown. But for as long as 'today' exists and you are still here for me, I will always come back. I'll be like that fly in your room that no matter what you do to chase it away, it always keeps buzzing around you.'

'For as long as you're alive, I will always be that annoying fly.'

A young man with flaming red hair and deep, crimson eyes smilingly declared. 

Remembering that vow, tears of relief started to trail down Anya's eyes and a smile of confidence appeared on her face.