Lord of Annihilation

"How's my favorite couple doing?" 

Standing at the entrance of the cafeteria hall, Ka'lor'ah yelled out and walked towards Olivia.

"Hello, teacher! I was just telling Lucius about the AI coup that we nearly had a few days ago," lifting her head, Olivia greeted Ka'lor'ah and explained.

"Was it only four days ago?" Ka'lor'ah answered puzzled. Crossing her fingers, she continued, "May the Machinery God bless Edmond's soul. He fought the good fight."

"Shame what we had to do to suppress it though. I would've really liked a few Android friends."

Hearing her Teacher's words, Olivia rolled her eyes. She then turned the camera to point towards Ka'lor'ah, who was walking towards them.

Lucius (in the form of the holographic projection) nodded his head and flatly replied, "Hello Ka'lor'ah."

"It sure feels nice to hear your 'excited' greeting towards your friend/partner for the longest time. Really, it moves me to tears," Ka'lor'ah sarcastically replied while wiping her fake tears.

She then narrowed her eyes seeing Lucius' surroundings and asked, "Where are you right now?"

"At a restaurant in a fugitive planet," he replied.

Nodding her head, Ka'lor'ah mumbled, "That explains you openly walking through the streets. You must be a hero in their eyes." The light of excitement glimmered within her eyes as she continued, "Did you have anyone come up to you for autographs?"

"No. Not particularly."

"Tch! Those guys don't know that they're missing. This is a 'once-in-a-lifetime type deal and they are missing it," clicking her tongue, Ka'lor'ah shook her head, pitying those people.

Behind the holographic image, a knowing smile appeared on Olivia's face as she suddenly asked.

"Lucius, are you restraining your aura?"

"No. Why?" 

"That explains it." Olivia and Ka'lor'ah looked at each other and nodded their heads with realization. 

Lucius, who could not make sense of their tacit realization, stood dumbly. Moving past that exchange, he then asked, "Why are you here, Ka'lor'ah?"

"What is it to you? I can and WILL visit my precious student whenever I want to!" Ka'lor'ah defiantly answered, arriving next to Olivia. She then reached out and pinched Olivia's cheeks while the latter complained.

Unknowingly, Ka'lor'ah was transitioning into that weird aunt who always pinched the younger generation's cheeks every time that they met.

Satisfied at receiving her daily dose of Olivia's soft cheeks, Ka'lor'ah then adopted a serious expression and turned to face the hologram.

"This time, however, I'm on serious business." Hearing the seriousness in her tone, Olivia and Lucius also turned serious. 

Taking a deep breath, Ka'lor'ah cryptically spoke, "The fish has smelled the bait. They are moving according to our predictions."

An expression of undisguised worry appeared on Olivia's face while Lucius' eyes narrowed and became cold. 

"When?" he asked.

"Anytime now," Ka'lor'ah replied. "Although, the sooner it is…the better. We are rapidly running out of time." She then suddenly changed her language to one that Olivia wouldn't be able to understand and continued.

『Everything so far is playing out to how it previously did, bar some minor changes. I assume I don't have to remind you of the players involved in this event?』

Lucius nodded his head and replied in kind.

『The Heavenly Sovereigns, the Abyssal Rulers, the Union of Machines, the Great Pirate Association, those religious nut-heads from the north…』

『Don't forget! Those damned old fogies from up there and the 'real' me, are also observing this event. You have to take care not to reveal too much when you act within their sight.』 Ka'lor'ah warned.

『I'll be careful.』

"Hmmm, guys? Why are you suddenly speaking in a different language?" Olivia nervously asked from the side. 

Hearing her hesitant voice, both Lucius and Ka'lor'ah turned to face her with the latter displaying a warm smile, "It's nothing, sweetheart. Don't worry about it."

At Ka'lor'ah's words, Olivia reservedly nodded her head. She knew that the duo before her were hiding some sensitive secret from her for her own protection and understood that they couldn't casually reveal it.

'Maybe one day.' Thinking as such, Olivia consciously moved past that topic, turned to face Lucius, and determinedly spoke.

"You have to come back safely. Remember your promise."

"I'll be fine." "Relax! He'll be fine."

Both Lucius and Ka'lor'ah answered at the same time, respectively. He then gave a slight nod towards both the women and spoke.

"I'll get going now." His gaze then landed on Olivia and continued, "Let's continue our weekly discussions after I get back."

"En!" Olivia vocalized, forcing a cheerful expression on her face while hiding her gloom.

The call was then cut and the holographic screen disappeared. 

Ka'lor'ah and Olivia stood in silence for a few moments with both staring at the floor in thought. After a few seconds, Olivia suddenly raised her head and asked.

"Teacher, how are you so confident that Lucius will be okay? That place, Tartarus, is shrouded in the unknown. I mean, no one even knows where that place is! Also—"Olivia's speech suddenly came to a halt as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Lifting her head, her gaze met with that of Ka'lor'ah's. Parting her thin, luscious lips, the latter spoke, "The reason why I'm so confident is because…"

"…this is not Lucius' first experience."

Ka'lor'ah's mouth widened to form a mysterious smile.

----------

Leaving the planet where he had just finished his dinner, Lucius arrived just outside its atmosphere and openly sighed, "…the inescapable prison, Tartarus. It's already time, huh?"

Lucius was not a person to feel strongly against or towards anything. However, there was one exception to this rule.

"I hate that place."

The Inescapable Prison of Tartarus was not a strange, unfamiliar place to Lucius as it was to most other people. It was, in fact, a place where Lucius spent a significant portion of his life trapped.

To summarize, during a stage in his previous life, Lucius was caught, imprisoned, and tortured inside this prison. It was a hellish, soul-numbing experience that played a major role in his change of character; becoming jaded and detached.

Not only did he have the experience of being imprisoned within that place, but he also possessed the valuable experience of escaping from that place!

You read that right. Lucius had escaped from the one prison that was universally known for being inescapable!

It was due to this reason that he (and Ka'lor'ah) possessed absolute confidence in his ability to save the rightful heir from within its confines. 

Due to his personal experience in this matter, Lucius knew the exact layouts, the traps, the challenges, and the method to break out of Tartarus. 

Reading this, one might ask; if Lucius knows so much about that prison, why is he trying to get caught instead of directly heading over there and saving the rightful heir?

Well, the answer was quite simple. He wasn't able to do so.

To explain briefly, Tartarus' actual location was inside a sub-dimension that did not exist in the material plane. This was the reason why no organization or entity over the last hundreds of years has ever managed to find that place.

To escape a sub-dimension into the material dimension was possible. However, the vice-versa was not true. Not only are the exact coordinates of the sub-dimension not known, but most of them also have specific instructions and restrictions cast upon their entry.

Not knowing of its exact coordinates within the dimensional plane and of its restrictions of entry, Lucius was not willing to force his way into that place for the fear of alerting his enemies of his motives.

It was better for his enemies themselves to willingly put him in there.

This was the plan, and fortunately, it had worked.

'It's strange though.' While traveling using the void, Lucius thought to himself. 'While I managed to escape that place through sheer luck, how did Prometheus get out of that place?'

This was one thing that Lucius was never able to make sense of.

The time when Lucius was imprisoned inside Tartarus was roughly a hundred years from now (as in the current year). However, when he was put in there, Prometheus was already on the outside building his own forces and resisting against the throne.

In reality, if not for a certain encounter, Lucius (and later, Ka'lor'ah) wouldn't have even come across the fact that Prometheus used to be imprisoned within Tartarus. 

Having never personally met the men, Lucius did not know the answer to his question.

'Perhaps, I should ask him when I see him.' He thought to himself and exited the void.

Arriving at a random, desolate region within the Universe, Lucius flew towards a random rock and sat atop of it.

With all necessary events already set into motion, all that he now had to do was wait.

Wait to get captured and imprisoned.