Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 97: Ascension. Part 1

Sitting cross-legged in the middle of the plains, Lucius watched the various pillars of light encompassing the soldiers. In the distance, he could even see the inhabitants of the base, being enveloped by the pillars of light.

Breathing in a rhythmic manner, Lucius split his consciousness in half. One half was deep within his mindspace recovering his soul power and the other half was circulating the excess Life energy to regrow his arm.

Ka'lor'ah was floating next to him while providing him with the energy. Both of them watched the scene before them in silence.

The crystal shone with a golden brilliance and an ethereal voice leaked form within the light.

"Mankind's cause has already started to diverge from its previous path. It's current future is unknown."

"The causality will now start to gather and merge with the rest of the Universe. Considering our involvements with the 'focal point of mankind', we now hold a stake in the greater part." Ka'lor'ah spoke with a rarely seen seriousness.

Taking a pause, she then continued.

"Due to my existence the Lords will not be able to view your causality. Therefore our existence will successfully remain hidden. The first phase of the plan can be considered to be successful."

Staying quiet for a few minutes, Lucius then spoke.

"With this, one aspect of the plan is complete. All we have to do is wait for the 'causality' to mature. So we move to the next part?" he questioned.

"Yes. We have to build our strengths and gather our forces. Perhaps even gather a few races under our command. The more the better. One can never have too many trump cards."

"We should also try to acquiesce more 'cause' to increase our stake. With higher stake, the chances of the plan succeeding will increase." Ka'lor'ah stated their goals for the immediate future. Hearing this, Lucius did not reply but simply nodded his head.

"So we are heading towards that pla... ARGH!" just as Lucius was about to ask a question, a tremendous wave of pain struck his consciousness.

His body which had been sitting cross-legged collapsed, as he clutched his head with his hands. Streams of pain, continued to batter his consciousness.

"LUCIUS!" Ka'lor'ah panicked.

She tried to infuse greater amounts of life energy into his body. Just as the golden streams of energy were about to reach his body, a greyish-black energy started to leak from within Lucius' body. Just as the golden streams came into contact with this new energy, they were directly destroyed!

'What?!' Ka'lor'ah non-existent pupils abruptly shrunk.

Before her surprise could continue, Ka'lor'ah felt a tremendous amount of energy gather above her head. The next instant, a pillar of light three times the size of the others fell from the sky and encompassed Lucius within it.

This scene further increased Ka'lor'ah's shock.

'How is this possible?! Hasn't his soul already awakened? Why is the Ascension targeting him?' She was utterly flabbergasted by the course of illogical events happening before her.

The 'Lights of Ascension' served to awaken a life form's soul and raise to Stage 1. Logically speaking, for people who have already awakened their soul the light would simply ignore them. And this was the case for Lucius, until a few seconds ago.

When the pillars of light fell, it had ignored Lucius and had struck the other people present in the base. The both of them had been expecting this and weren't surprised.

Alas, the complete opposite was currently happening. A pillar with three times the energy density of the others was encompassing Lucius.

'There are only two possibilities. One, he hasn't awakened his soul completely. Or two.....'

His soul is. undergoing..... evolution?!' Ka'lor'ah countenance turned grim at the face of the second possibility.

'You must hold on, Lucius! Don't lose yourself!'

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Inside the giant pillar of light, Lucius let out an earth-shattering roar. The amount of pain he was currently feeling, surpassed the sum total of all the pain he had experienced in his previous life.

Lucius' body began to horribly twist. His muscles started to painfully writhe and his bones crack, breaking into numerous, tiny pieces. These bone pieces sunk into his flesh and organs damaging them and increasing the pain he felt.

"AHHHH!!!!" his vocal chords were unable to handle the stress placed upon them and finally snapped.

Blood started to seep out from within every pore in his body. His eyes had turned bloodshot, as he used his hands to claw at his body. Chunks of flesh and skin were torn being torn apart by his fingers.

"ROAR!" a guttural roar sounded out.

Within his body, a stream of greyish-black energy was rapidly circulating. Every inch of his body which the mysterious energy passed would immediately start to warp and degenerate. Looking closer at a cellular level, the cells in his body started to twist and break down.

Inside the nucleus of the cell, two chains of polynucleotide coiled around each other to form the DNA of the body. The DNA stores all the information about the body and is the mainstay of the body's construction and growth. A blueprint to be precise.

Currently, surrounding the DNA of Lucius' body were multiple chains. The surface of the chains were wrapped with mysterious words of an unknown language, which seemed to flicker in and out of existence. These chains seemed to restrain the helix shaped structures, when a wave of greyish-black energy originating from nowhere, forcibly shattered these words. Along with the shattering of these words, the chains restraining the DNA also fell apart.

With this change, the DNA, the cell, every single particle which seemed to make up his existence started to rapidly disintegrate.

Inside his mindpace was a completely different scene.

His [Killer] soul was being attacked by streams of transparent energy. The reddish-black silhouette which comprised of his soul, started to horribly twist and warp. The clouds of soul power were utterly helpless in the face of this transparent stream of energy. They were completely crushed into dissipation unable to resist in the least.

Breaking through their obstruction, the transparent stream of energy finally touched the reddish-black silhouette.

Upon contact, it immediately began to destroy the reddish-black silhouette. In it's place the transparent stream of energy started to condense into the shape of a human silhouette. The areas occupied by the reddish-black energy was rapidly encroached and replaced by this transparent energy.

At the very center of his [Killer] soul, a small but vague crystal entirely crimson in color was present. Rather than say it was present inside his mindspace, it seemed to exist in another dimension.

This was Lucius' Existence Crystal.

The proof of his existence within the Universe. Such crystals were present within the souls of every single organism, each one being entirely unique. Upon the birth of a new life, the Existence Crystal would form, never to change until their death.

However, at this moment within Lucius' soul, his existence crystal was starting to change. The transparent stream of energy invaded the crystal and forcibly started to absorb its color. The crystal resisted with all its might, sending wave after wave of energy, only to be completely crushed by the ferocious charge of this transparent energy.

Lucius' could feel his soul and very existence changing at this moment. In the face of this change, he was utterly helpless. His consciousness started to waver as the transparent energy continued to wipe out his soul. Not able to hold on any longer, his consciousness finally fell into oblivion.

Just as the crystal at the very center, seemed to be invaded by this stream of transparent energy, a thunderous roar seemingly originating from the void was heard. The actions of the transparent energy paused, as it felt a threatening presence heading towards it.

Suddenly within this other dimension a greyish-black energy started to gather. It appeared out of nowhere and gathered next to the crimson crystal. At this moment that the transparent stream of energy, finally seemed to pause. A faint hint of fear seemed to radiate off of it, as it sensed the greyish-black energy.

Immediately, it began to withdraw no longer wanting to continue its invasion. Unfortunately it was too late.

The greyish black energy immediately shot out and encompassed the transparent energy. It then started to rapidly engulf and devour the transparent energy, following it all the way outside, into the mindspace. After devour the entire stream of energy, the greyish-black energy stared to change. The grey color receded leaving behind absolute darkness

Seemingly unsatisfied with it's change, the new stream of energy looked back and stared at the crimson crystal. Suddenly turning excited it rapidly moved towards the crimson crystal before encompassing it.

The existence crystal started to change as the crimson color mixed with the absolute black. After an incalculable amount of time, which felt infinitely long yet instantaneous, a new crystal was formed in this space.

It's shape remained the same, but its color went through a complete change.

The crimson which was previously predominant had now completely receded. The crystal was now entirely black, resembling a black hole. Threads of crimson and transparent energy, coiled around this black hole, restraining it.

The color of his soul power had also changed. Instead of it being reddish-black, it was now a black stream intertwined with threads of crimson and transparent white.

At this moment, Lucius' soul had completely changed. The [Killer] soul seemed to have successfully evolved into something that was far-far more terrifying.

Outside the mindspace, Lucius' body no longer existed. His cells had dissipated and his body had broken down.

Only a mist of blood hung within the still air.