Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 289: Mid-Level Stage 3.

'We are finished', Elytra thought in despair, as she gazed at the scene around her.

A bland, colorless sky filled with sparse grey clouds blocked the usual scene of the dense white clouds. Blackened and cracked lands that endlessly spewed black miasma which continuously robbed her of vitality and strength. 

A boundless array of mountains, unfathomably tall and wide, endlessly filled her surroundings and trapped her and her kin within this colorless world of hell. Worst of all, these weren't regular mountains of rocks and stones, but humongous mountains made of innumerable corpses.

Still, the worst part of it all wasn't the monochromatic reality, the suffocating weight of Death Energy in the air, or even the fact that her Domain was crushed the very instant she tried to deploy it. 

The worst part of being trapped within this hell was the mind-numbing, soul-crushing silence of it all.

Even now, Elytra gazed around with her head. Dozens of her kin surrounded and protected her in a circular formation, as they desperately fought with all of their strengths against the innumerable waves of pitch-black tentacles and winds of strange energy that destroyed all it touched.

Their howls of anger, cries of pain, the sound of bones breaking, limbs tearing, and blood spilling, although Elytra could see all of it happening she was unable to hear it.

Instead, all she could hear were the thoughts inside her head and the damning silence that filled everything outside.

Her eyes then turned towards the being who was the cause of this hell.

At the centermost mountain of this land of hell, at the furthermost point of its peak, stood a being.

Its strength, judging from its aura, was nothing special; only at the peak of Low-Level Stage 3. Compared to her, who was at Peak-Level Stage 3, it was nothing but an ant that could be effortlessly crushed.

However, she had failed to do that. Rather, it was her and her kin who were the ants at the mercy of that being.

With her senses, she could clearly see the features of that being. Its face, which had many features that her kind lacked, had a bored expression. 

Its hands were clutching onto the shoulder blade of her birth sister, an existence whose strength was similar to her own and had died fighting that being. 

Raising the sword-shaped bone into the sky, it mechanically swung it down, slashing at the empty, windless air. After completing one repetition, it raised the sword once more and repeated the same movement again.

Again and again and againendlessly.

While an inexperienced person watching this scene might find his actions meaningless and dull, Elytra, who was a genius in the way of the sword, found it anything but so.

Each and every swing of his was different from the previous one. Each, more perfect and complete than the previous. Starting from a random, non-threatening swing, the move soon started to naturally gather sword energy around it, signifying its ascent into a whole new realm.

'The fifth move' Elytra thought to herself in disbelief. This was the fifth sword move that he had created from scratch since his arrival.

This mighty being, who was an Intruder from Blackness, had arrived on the home planet four days ago. Shortly after, he had begun battling with her kind, killing one after another.

After three days and three nights of constant, life-threatening battle, her side had been reduced to their current situation. 

A hundred and three, excluding her and the ones fighting around her, had died. And each one killed was a powerhouse of the planet, standing mightily in the realm of Stage 3. 

Watching as the number of people guarding her fall once more, Elytra had given in to her despair. 

'Four days. In a matter of four days, he wiped out the entire Western Region of the continent.' Elytra hollowly chuckled.

This wasn't the first intruder to intrude into their planet, but nevertheless, he was the strongest and most nightmarish intruder to date.

At least, facing the others, she and her kind had a chance, a hope at survival, if you will. However, facing this being, who simply swung his sword while standing at the peak of a mountain of corpses, they had no hope of surviving.

'A monsterno, an entity of death,' closing her eyes, Elytra felt her thoughts coming to an end as her head fell off her shoulders.

Having killed everyone around her, the soundless winds of annihilation had come to claim her soul.

----------

"And that's the fifth move done. Hmmmlet's name it [Tear]," Lucius nodded his head and lowered the sword in his hands.

"Wow, what great imagination you've got there," Ka'lor'ah's voice sarcastically rung out within his head. "[Draw], [Swing], [Stab], [Cut], and [Tear], such rousing names for a wonderful technique."

"Truly, a peerless technique without any match. Hearing those names, I can feel my blood turning cold and goosebumps appearing on my arms."

Exposing her tiny, slender arms, Ka'lor'ah showed it to him. Of course, her arms were completely fine and absent of any goosebumps. It was a rhetorical action made to emphasize her sarcasm.

"Oh geez, I wonder what the next move will be named," Ka'lor'ah continued with her mocking. Putting on an exaggerated shocked expression she spoke, "Could it be[Kill]?!"

"Shut up," Lucius finally spoke up and put an end to her antics. 

His voice, however, was more subdued than usual. It was evident that some of her mockings had hit Lucius a little too close to home. After all, naming things wasn't his strongest point. 

"You really need to read a book or something, man. Your sense of naming is just horrendous. I worry for your future." Ka'lor'ah sincerely advised him.

Ignoring her words, Lucius suddenly lowered his head and looked towards the ground. His eyes narrowed and the scene of Elytra's head being separated from her head appeared within his eyes.

Feeling her soul leaving her body, Lucius quickly controlled his Domain and caught the soul before it could vanish and return to Limbo. 

Dragging it towards the peak, Lucius opened his mouth and swallowed it whole. The soul was quickly digested by his body and converted into pure soul power, before being stuffed into his mindspace.

Lucius' entire body trembled for a moment, as the aura surrounding his body intensified and increased by a few degrees. An exclamation of joy rung from within his soul, and his Domain also grew stronger by a few levels.

Noticing the changes happening to Lucius, Ka'lor'ah excitedly exited his pocket and flew before his face.

"Congratulations! You've grown to Mid-Level Stage 3," she honestly congratulated him.

The intense battle over the last four days had allowed Lucius to fix the flaws and improve his Domain to a large degree. The uneven balance between the Rules of Void and Rules of Annihilation was fixed, and the majority of the lacking Rules were also supplemented.

Although it was quite a ways from perfection, Lucius had finally reached Mid-Level after months of being stuck in Low-Level. 

At this point, he was more or less unmatched within the realm of Stage 3, except against those who had one of their legs into the next Stage.

As for fighting a Stage 4, Lucius did not even dare dream about it. 

The divide between a Stage 3 and a Stage 4 was an unbridgeable gulf similar to the difference between an Unawakened and an Awakened. There was simply no comparing the two.

Even if it was Lucius, he would most certainly be crushed when facing a Stage 4 being.

"It took a hundred or so opponents to reach this level. At this rate, I would need to kill almost a thousand Stage 3 beings to reach the next level," Lucius muttered.

"It's only natural. The Rules of your Domain are too complex after all. Finding that balance to reach perfection will require a lot of testing," Ka'lor'ah encouragingly said.

"Still, you're already way too fast. Usually, it takes people years to reach your level. And it's not like you're facing a wall or anything either. You clearly have a path chartered for Stage 4, you just need to follow it," Ka'lor'ah finished.

"Indeed," Lucius agreed with her.

His growth was already freakishly fast and unhindered. He had a path into Stage 4 and was already unmatched within his current Stage. All that he needed now was time to perfect his Domain and meet the requirements for ascension.

Looking around his Domain, Lucius confirmed its current state.

To quantify, it was almost 40% complete. When it reaches 70%, he would be able to rise to the next level and at 100% he would meet the requirements for ascension.

Lucius then checked the balance and composition of the Rules constructing it once more. 

This time, he made sure to place some extra checks on the Rules pertaining to the Void to ensure that the previous case of the sudden loss of control did not occur again.

'If it hadn't been for my soul identifying the problem, I would've lost control once again,' Lucius thought to himself.

He was unaware of Olivia's contributions in resolving the issue, believing that it was his soul that had spontaneously reacted to the attack.

Had it not been for Olivia's quick thinking and involvement, Lucius would have most definitely lost control and went on another rampage.

After confirming that everything was perfectly alright, Lucius retracted his Domain. The mountains of corpses, colorless skies, and endless waves of devouring miasmaeverything that made up of his Domain quickly disappeared and returned the surroundings to their natural state.

Of course, a certain degree of irreversible changes had occurred and the land had become mostly inhabitable, but hey, at least the land looked more colorful and less deadly.

The corpses of the hundred-plus Stage 3 being that he had killed were already stored into his [Void Storage] for Lucius to snack on. The space within his storage had exponentially grown, thanks to his rise strength, and growth as a devourer.

"So, what do we do now?" Ka'lor'ah asked.

Casually walking through the battle-scarred grounds, Lucius continued to swing the bone sword in his hand and answered, "Well, I still have to polish the sword technique and integrate the five movements into a singular system. Right now, they lack cohesiveness and flexibility."

"It's freaky how you managed to create a brand-new Superior-Grade Sword Technique from scratch in just four days," Ka'lor'ah remarked in awe.

Creating a technique, especially a personalized one, was by no means simple. It would take an individual or a group anywhere from a few years to dozens of years to polish and perfect a technique. The more complex a technique, the more time it would naturally take to create it.

Lucius, however, was different. His battle experience was unmatched within the Universe and he possessed the epitome of combat talent. In short, he simply had to tap into his ocean of experience to create a simple Sword Technique.

While it was vastly inferior to his Scythe Technique, which was a Unique-Grade technique polished over thousands of years by the Letum Clan, this Sword Technique was easily in the top 10% of all Sword Techniques within the Universe.

Paying no mind to Ka'lor'ah's remarks, Lucius continued.

"Seeing as to how no one else had come to battle me, all the Stage 3 beings within this section of the continent must be dead. It will take a few days of flying for me to reach another section of the continent to find more opponents."

"Are you going to fight them again? Haven't you already killed enough to perfect your Domain? I can't imagine killing more would help you in any way."

"Every little bit of experience counts. Although it won't improve my Domain any further, I can practice my other skills. Also, this would be the perfect time to seek out that material."

Lucius' forehead scrunched up a little as he finished his explanation, "It's very tricky and annoying to find it."