Lord of Annihilation

Atop the surface of a large, building-sized asteroid, a miniature crimson-colored sun shined with deathly energy. 

Ominous bolts of condensed power intermittently escaped the crimson spear and were absorbed by a long shadow that floated before it. A long shadow was cast against the surface of the asteroid rock forming a grim image of a scythe.

Floating directly behind the sun with his legs crossed and his arms outstretched was the figure of Lucius, who had his eyes closed and brows furrowed in great concentration.

Lines of transparent energy escaped his palm and surrounded the crimson-colored sun as they empowered and controlled it. Using his soul power, Lucius was allowing the crimson sun to grow in a controlled manner.

Every so often, his hands performed minute actions at instantaneous speeds to expertly allow a bolt of energy to escape the sphere. This bolt of refined, condensed energy was then absorbed by the quietly, levitating scythe strengthening the latter's aura in the process.

The process continued for an extended period of time after which Lucius clasped both of his palms and suddenly clapped. The crimson sun intensely quivered at his clap and suddenly disappeared from sight.

Opening his eyes, his irises flashed with their respective differing colors of gold and crimson for an instant before settling on pure black. 

Reaching out with his right hand, Lucius firmly grabbed the long shaft of the scythe and brought it towards him. Looking at it closely, he immediately noticed the appearance of fine, blood-colored patterns shaped like veins twining around its body.

Seeing this, Lucius let out a sigh of relief and thought to himself, 'Finally, it succeeded.'

Infusing his soul power into the weapon, the aura surrounding the weapon gradually intensified. Reaching its previous peak, the weapon quickly and effortlessly broke through its threshold and arrived at an entirely new peak.

Lucius' Unnamed Living Weapon was now radiating energy that was infinitely closer to Stage 5!

'Nothing's wrong. Everything's working as it should,' confirming the energy behind the radiation with his sense, Lucius out down the final strand of worry inside his heart. 'When I ascend into Stage 5, this weapon will rise alongside me.'

Swinging it a few times as a method of final confirmation, he then finally removed his hands from the weapon and allowed it to hover by his side. 

Locking his fingers and stretching his arms, Lucius got up from his cross-legged position and checked the time on his watch.

A complex string of numbers and symbols flashed into the air in the form of a holographic screen, informing Lucius of the time, date, and location. Since he had been using a freely floating rock as his place of residence for the past few weeks, he had traveled quite far from his initial arrival point.

'18 days have passed, huh?' He then raised his head to take a quick look at the sights. Unfortunately, the region around him was quite barren with nothing but endless stretches of empty dark space.

Releasing a sigh of boredom, Lucius openly voiced his thoughts, "I wonder when they'll come to capture me.'

Over these last couple of weeks, Lucius had extensively prepared for the future. 

He had digested his battle insights from the last few months of fighting, improved his current Domains while adding a new one to further increase the level of completeness of his World, and had even hastened the evolution of his scythe to Pseudo-Stage 5. (AN: It will fully rise to Stage 5 when Lucius also rises to Stage 5)

To sum it up, Lucius was, for the most part, set for his ascension into the next Stage. The only things that he lacked were sufficient souls (to devour), an insight into his 'Ascension Ordeal', and an opportunity. 

If he were to be presented with all of them, say today, Lucius would have no problem undergoing his Ascension. The chances of him succeeding were also quite high.

Taking less than a year to ascend from Stage 4 to Stage 5…once again, this rate of progress highlighted just how broken Void Eaters were. Adding Lucius into this equation only snowballed the 'broken' factor.

And now, Lucius had nothing to do.

Staring into the deep darkness of space for a few more minutes, Lucius then floated down into the asteroid's surface. Finding a random rock, Lucius sat himself down and reclined against it while closing his eyes.

Sleep was a habit that still remained foreign to Lucius. 

Whenever he wasn't in combat or wasn't actively doing something, Lucius simply found a random structure or object to lean against and closed his eyes, all while regulating his mental energy.

He had become so conditioned to spending his free time this way that even Olivia, who had spent the last few years with him, had picked up this bad habit herself. 

To her chagrin, not only was this method more effective but it also allowed her to work longer hours.

Inwardly recalling how much Olivia hated learning this habit from him and how frequently she reminded him about it, Lucius let out a faint chuckle. A small smile hung on his peerlessly handsome face.

At this point, it had become evident to the point that even Lucius himself had to admit. 

He…seemed to have developed some feelings for Olivia.

To tell the truth, Lucius still couldn't properly understand what these feelings were. Was it feelings of admiration? Of respect? Of concern that one would show towards the younger generation?

Or was it feelings of love between a man and a woman as explained by Ka'lor'ah?

He did not know. However, he didn't want to leave it at that.

Lucius wanted to know. He wanted to be sure of what these feelings were. 

If the answer was accordant to the situation Ka'lor'ah had described to him these past few months, then…

'Is my choice regarding my end, really the only one? Is it really necessary for me to di--!!'

Lucius' eyes suddenly snapped open as he simultaneously entered the void to disappear from his location. In the same instant that he had disappeared, a massive column of whitish-black flames descended on the asteroid which he was resting on and utterly annihilated it from existence!

Appearing a few hundred kilometers from his previous location, Lucius stared at the point of explosive brightness in the distance with an incomparably serious expression. 

'I didn't detect that,' Lucius sent out a pulse with his soul power to scan his surroundings. Once again, he sensed nothing.

Narrowing his eyes, he analyzed, 'Strange, I can't detect that explosion ei--!!'

The space directly behind Lucius suddenly warped and a dagger exited the spatial crack. The dagger's edge was coated with the same whitish flame which had destroyed the asteroid, and more importantly, Lucius wasn't able to feel the presence of this flame at all!

Thankfully, Lucius' instincts were as sharp as ever and managed to alert him an instant before the attack's arrival. 

While an instant might be too short of a time for anyone to react to such sudden attacks, it was all a battle freak like Lucius needed.

Employing [Absolute Evasion], Lucius instantly phased his body through the dagger's attack. 

Turning his upper body around at lightning speeds, his right arm instantly shot out and caught the hand holding the dagger. Lucius did not waste a single second, as he immediately pulled on the hand that he was holding while reaching out with his left. 

Just as a part of his assailant's body appeared through the spatial crack, thanks to Lucius' forceful efforts, his left hand latched onto the assailant's head and forcibly pulled it out.

Plochk!

In a single motion, Lucius decapitated the assailant's head by tearing it from his neck. 

Staring into his shocked assailant's eyes, Lucius peered at him with an indifferent look before channeling an enormous amount of [Annihilation Intent] into the decapitated head. 

The destructive energy flooded into the assailant's Mental World and destroyed his consciousness.

This was one of the new moves that Lucius had come up with during his eight months of criminal activities. He had found out that [Annihilation Intent] had the effect of efficiently seeking and destroying the opponent's consciousness.

Seeing the eyes of the head within his grasp turn lifeless, Lucius flung the head to the side and assumed a combat stance, equipping his scythe in the process.

Lucius realized that his 'capturers' had arrived to take him and possessed no intention of going down silently. 

Still, his brows were imperceptibly furrowed as two questions remained within Lucius' mind. 

'Why are the Elves coming to capture me? And what is this white-colored flame that I'm unable to sense?' Answers to these questions required some time and peace, which Lucius currently did not have the luxury of affording. 

His beastly instincts detected the appearance of three more spatial cracks around him, and Lucius did not want to keep his guests waiting.

Spinning the scythe with his right hand, Lucius suddenly threw towards one of the spatial cracks while lunging towards the other two.