Lord of Annihilation

A spatial distortion appeared above an asteroid rock loosely floating across space. Forming a 2m wide, circular portal, a black figure shot out of the spatial distortion after which the portal closed.

Landing atop one of the numerous floating rocks, Lucius raised his left hand and tapped the surface of the silver-colored, metallic bracelet-like device that he was wearing.

Trrring!~ 

A holographic screen popped out and the sound of a phone ringing rang out inside his mind. After waiting for a few seconds for the call to connect, a familiar face appeared alongside a female voice.

"Ello?" 

"Mission completed. Lionel Eckhart was successfully killed," Lucius replied. 

"That was quick," Ka'lor'ah answered. "You know it's only been two weeks since you left, right? If we were to consider the time it took you to get there—"

"Who's my next target?" Interrupting Ka'lor'ah's usual dilly-dallying, Lucius stoically asked.

The image on the screen before him rolled her eyes and half-heartedly mumbled, "And this is the thanks I get for trying to show a little concern. Fine, whatever, it is your body after all."

"My next target," Lucius forcibly repeated.

"I was getting there!" Ka'lor'ah snapped. Letting out a sigh, she then explained. "Your next mission, should you choose to accept it, involves the destruction of an organization codenamed 'Chimera'. Our intel informs us of the location of one of their supply bases at these given coordinates. You will start there and work up your up to the head of the beast. You have a month to complete this mission." 

The moment she finished saying so, a string of coordinates appeared on another screen before Lucius. 

As his eyes scanned over these coordinates, on the previous screen, Ka'lor'ah's facial expression seemed to become excited as she continued.

"As always, should you get caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions." Having spoken upto here, the 'serious' facade of her face crumbled as he devolved into laughter.

"Hahaha! Get it? It's that line fro—"Ka'lor'ah excited speech came to an abrupt halt as Lucius heartlessly cut the call.

Calculating the location approximated by those coordinates within his mind; he then opened another portal in front of him and entered the void.

----------

A few days later, Lucius similarly appeared above an ash-colored planet. Closing the portal to the void behind him, he looked at the device on his wrist to confirm his current location to be the same as the given coordinates.

'…44AB, the coordinates are correct. This is the place.'

Looking down upon the ash-colored planet which was approximately the size of Pluto, he sent pulses of his Stage 4 soul power to roughly scan the planet for life signs.

---

With his successful ascension into Stage 4, the [Annihilator] soul within his mindspace had also undergone its changes. The humanoid-shaped soul that looked like Lucius, albeit a little different and illusory, had now become more solid and compact. 

The facial features of the soul had become more definite and, replicative of Lucius while its overall size shrunk to be one-third of his own. The vaguely illusory, translucent property of the soul had also disappeared, becoming solid and near-indistinguishable from real.

Still, compared to the changes to his soul, the changes to his Mind Space were greater and more substantial. Having entered Stage 4, Lucius' Mind Space had undergone its all-important evolution and had become a 'Mental World'!

A Mental World, just like its name suggested, represented the conscious domain of a living being in the form of a world. 

Unlike the previous version where an entity's 'Mind Space' was limited to a small space that was occupied by clouds of soul power and later, their Domain, a Mental World extended thousands of kilometers in size and was planetary in scale.

One thing that had to be mentioned without fail was that Lucius' was an oddball when it came to such changes. Due to his unique identity as a 'returner' with Peak-Level Stage 7 strength in his previous life, Lucius' powers and upgrades did not scale the same way as that of the others.

For example, the scale of his 'Mind Space' had already greatly resembled the scale of a Mental World. (AN: Remember Chap 202, where the Master of the Labyrinth invades his mind space and gets surprised.)

This difference was not without benefits as it provided Lucius with near-invincible mental strength and vast soul power storage that greatly encompassed his peers in their quantity.

Having a larger conscious domain also enabled his regressed soul and memories to be safely contained. Were it not for this important difference, the memory fragments from when Lucius was in Stage 6 and above would've not been able to be properly contained, even though they were partially sealed to block their power.

Moving on…the reason a Mental World was called as such was that entities could now expand their Domains and construct a proper, miniature world!

The boundaries of their Domain, which was previously limited at 30km, could now expand up to 1000km.

ONE THOUSAND!!

Not ten, not one hundred, but one thousand! The reason behind the uncrossable impasse between Stage 3 and Stage 4 beings could be easily understood with just this one fact!

Stage 3 beings possessed the power to alter and irreversibly change small portions of a world.

Stage 4 being, however, possessed the strength to completely crush and flatten an entire world! 

The fully released Domain of a Stage 4 entity is not something that could be overcome by a single or multiple Stage 3 beings. Perhaps, they might have a chance at resistance if a few hundred of them teamed up and fought the Stage 4 entity in unison. 

However, this would still not affect the overall result as a Stage 4 entity could crush dozens of Stage 3 beings by simply waving his hand.

Another facet of a Mental World was the ability to create and possess multiple Domains! 

No world could exist without a complex ecosystem and an intricate collection of varying environments, each of which contributed to the whole in their own unique ways, seamlessly trying with the others parts and establishing perfect harmony between order and chaos. 

Similarly, the method of growing in power inside the realm of Stage 4 and Stage 5 was to construct a proper, intricate world that possessed multiple Domains, each of which cooperated with the other and combined with the whole.

Entities of Stage 4 and Stage 5 realm must no longer push for a singular extreme but must seek balance and unification of their powers. Only by doing so, will they be able to increase their level of strength while avoiding the fate of spontaneously exploding/imploding due to having an unbalanced Mental World.

The comprehension of Rules and how they worked with each other, tied in with each other, and amplified each other becomes more important than ever in this realm.

Once one reaches Peak-Level Stage 5, possesses multiple Domains, all of which seamlessly work with each other which perfects their world and amplifies their overall power, only then will they be able to forge ahead and continue down their path of power.

Into the realm of Concepts.

(AN: This is something that will only be of importance when Lucius reached Stage 6. As of now, it is unrelated to his current level of power.)

---

Having learned about the Mental World, Lucius' current world was quite barren and empty.

As of now, he only possessed two Domains, both of which weren't quite in sync with each other and required other Domains to make up for their deficits. 

[Corpse Mountain Range], which was the first Domain that he constructed upon reaching Stage 3, was no longer constrained by the limits of the 30km boundary and extended across the world, stretching for hundreds of kilometers in length. 

With the tallest mountain containing the Corpse Throne at its peak, serving as the center point, the mountain range extended in six different directions, evenly and naturally. Slopes, ravines, valleys, etc, were created in this process as they covered the barren lands of the Mental World.

This continued till the borders of the land at which point they met the sea. It wasn't the black sea, but a sea of red.