Lord of Annihilation

"Why can't I feel my soul power?"

"That is rude," the man replied with a dissatisfied tone. His voice then immediately turned cheery as he answered.

"You see these metal chains and clasps that are binding us? Well, they continuously absorb your energy and prevent it from gathering within your body."

Hearing that reply, Lucius immediately closed his eyes and focused on generating soul power. The growing headache within his mind was put aside, for now, to focus on his current task.

Spending a few seconds to generate a strand of soul power within his Mental World, Lucius immediately felt a powerful force of suction originating from the outside, which immediately sucked the newly formed strand into it.

Not wanting to give up, Lucius spent the next few minutes repeating the process while trying to save his newly generated soul power from the immense force of suction. Unfortunately, no matter what he did, Lucius found himself helpless against the force of suction.

Opening his eyes, he stared at the man before him. Although he couldn't see the man's face, due to the latter's hair hiding it, Lucius could faintly feel the latter smugly smiling at him.

"Believe me?" the man asked, not hiding the smugness in his tone.

Ignoring him once more, Lucius then tried to gather power within his limbs and tried to break the chains using pure physical power. 

However, just like before, he found it impossible to gather strength within his limbs as it too was immediately drained by the external force of suction.

"You know," Lucius heard the man speak once again, "if you keep ignoring someone who's trying to talk to you like this, then they'll just stop talking to you."

"What is this place? And who are you?" 

"Ai. Ai. Ai!~" the man clicked his tongue, "Do you not know the meaning of 'being polite' or are you just being rude to me?"

"Like seriously, since the beginning you're like, 'where are you' or 'what is this place' with that grim, robotic voice of yours," he lectured. 

"Did it ever cross your mind that I too am a person, not too dissimilar from yourself, with thoughts and feelings? Huh?"

At his words, Lucius simply remained quiet and continued to stare at the man. 

Silence descended onto their conversation and was quickly broken after a few dozen seconds.

"Alright! Fine, you win!" the man exclaimed. "The only thing worse about this place other than the smell, the lack of sunlight, these chains, and lots of other things is the silence! God, it's so quiet that the only thing that I can hear is my thoughts!"

"Can you imagine it? Being trapped within this terrible place of absolute quietness with nothing but your own thoughts to accompany you?" he asked. "If I was a lesser man, I would've gone crazy!"

"BUT! Hahaha…," he suddenly broke into a fit of giggles, "I'm no lesser man! I'm not a greater man, either!"

"I AM A F*CKMOTHERING GENIUS!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and descended into a pit of maddened laughter. "HAHAHAHA!!"

The corpse-like man's crazy laughter echoed within the empty, dimly-lit cavern for a few continuous minutes before suddenly quieting down.

The madness within his tone completely vanished without a trace as he asked again, "I'm sorry, what was I saying? What did you ask me?"

"What is this place? And who are you?" Lucius repeated. 

"Oh right, I forgot that you're new here," the man mumbled under his breath. 

He then abruptly jerked his head up, exposing his deep-set eyes and the dimly glowing ruby-colored gem on his forehead. Widening his chapped lips to form a bright smile, he announced.

"Welcome, newcomer, to your final resting place! It's dark, smelly, generally unpleasant, and definitely the worst place within this god-forsaken Universe!"

He then suddenly paused and mumbled with a confused tone, "I think it's also called 'Tortoise' or 'Tetris' or something like that…"

"Tartarus?" Lucius asked, having finally gotten rid of that terrible headache and having recalled his memories.

"Yeah, that." The man immediately nodded his head. "Weird name, don't you think? I wonder what the story behind that is."

Shaking his head, he once again regained his cheerful demeanor and continued, "Moving on…"

"If you take a look towards your left, you'll be able to see the famous 'Prison Wall of Tartarus'! It looks exactly like a normal, roughly cut wall but don't take my word for it."

"Turning your head to the right, you'll be able to see, MORE of the famous wall!! Except, the difference on the right is that it's wet and filled with disgusting little insects. You can't see them now, but trust me, they are there."

The man then lowered his gaze to point at his own body and advised, "Don't let them get their grubby little legs on you. They are slimy, vile, and most definitely a serious health hazard."

"Also they feed on you, so there's that," he nonchalantly added.

"Continuing on our tour! If you gentlemen would be so kind as to direct your gazes to your feet, you'll be able to see a 300-meter drop! So be careful and watch the gap. I don't want any of you good people falling to your deaths."

"And finally," his voice suddenly turned low. "For our final sight. The crown jewel. The pièce de résistance…"

"Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun." He even vocalized the sound of the drums beating.

"It's the EXIT FOR THIS DAMNED PLACE!!" He yelled while looking at the ceiling.

Following his actions, Lucius turned his head and looked at the ceiling above him.

The first thought that came into his mind as he looked at the scene before him was…

"She's a beauty, ain't she?" the man voiced.

An endless expanse of darkness populated by millions, no, billions of colorful dots of light, forming indescribable shapes and figures. The dots continuously moved with profound harmony and created new shapes and patterns; each more complex and beautiful than the previous one.

Lucius' found himself enthralled and mesmerized by the flashing lights and flowing patterns. They had a sense of inexpressible beauty to them which couldn't be fully expressed in words.

Seeing, Lucius' awestruck expression, the man chuckled, "Ah, I remember having an expression just like yours when I got here first five years ago."

He then casually gazed around and continued, "This might be a terrible place to live in, but that sight alone makes up for all the suffering."

"What did you mean by 'exit'?" Lucius asked, turning his gaze back to the chained man.

Tilting his head, the man answered with confusion, "There's only one meaning for the word 'exit', isn't there? It's a way out of this place."

Hearing his answer, a frown appeared on Lucius' face. He quickly recalled his memories pertaining to this place and noticed that the exit in his previous life was completely different from the one before him.

In his memories, Lucius remembered the exit to be a large, circular stone door that was embossed with multiple, complex runic formations. 

'Why is it different? Is it because I've arrived too early?' he thought to himself. 

Worry sprouted within his heart as he continued his thoughts, 'If the method of exit is different, how am I going to get out of this place?'

Just then, the chained man in front of Lucius spoke once again.

"Oh right, you asked me who I was." The smile on his face suddenly disappeared and a solemn look replaced it. With a tone that conveyed his utmost seriousness, he spoke.

"I'm your father."