Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 99: Ascension. Part 3 (End of Volume 1)

Darkness.

Boundless stretches of infinite darkness shrouded the greater parts of the Universe.

Darkness darker than the abyss. More encompassing the light. Longer than the flow of time. Beyond the reaches of space.

It was a darkness which held nothing. No rocks. No planets. No stars.

A darkness which devoured everything. Consuming energy, particles, space and ultimately time.

It was most certainly dead, yet transcended life. A will which knew everything and existed everywhere.

It was present everywhere, yet nowhere. Held everything yet nothing.

It existed since before the beginning of the Universe and will continue to exist even after its end. It is something that lasts forever and is truly eternal.

And within this infinite darkness was an infinitesimal dot.

Considering the sheer size of this darkness, this dot was insignificant. So small that one would never notice it, even if they looked directly at it.

Yet, in this darkness which contained nothing and devoured everything, it nonetheless still existed.

"Ah-ah!" within this darkness where sound wasn't supposed to exist, the delicate coos of a baby was heard.

Floating across this infinite darkness was an infant child.

From the way it looked, one could infer that it was humanoid in nature. It had tender white skin, a rosy glow in it's cheeks. Small limbs and a full body. It's face contained an innocent smile and it's delicate hands began to dance and wave. A normal human child. It's eyes however, were completely different.

The left eye of the infant shone with a brilliant gold. A glow which pierced through the infinite darkness. The right eye shone with a deep crimson. Crimson that was as dark as blood.

The infant continued to float in this boundless stretch of darkness, with it being the only other object present. The darkness seemed to be unable to devour this infant and the infant was unaware of it's surroundings.

It laughed, cried, cooed, and made every sound that came from within its small throat. There was no reply, yet the infant did not seem to mind it.

This darkness consisted of its first memories upon being birthed. To the infant, this darkness was its parent, its family and its home.

The infant relied on the darkness and the darkness contained the baby. A mysterious connection formed between these two parties. A bond that was deeper than any relation and unlike no other.

In the darkness where time did not exist and space stretched forever, the infant continued to float. Without the passage of time it was unable to grow. And without the existence of a medium, the darkness was unable to teach.

The two wills continued to float in endless limbo.

It was then that a change occurred. A large cracked formed within this darkness and chaotic streams of energy started to flow into this darkness.

A endless amount of mysterious energy originated from this darkness. A greyish-black will, enveloped this infant before taking it towards this crack.

The moment this greyish-black energy came into contact with the chaotic streams of energy, the latter was immediately destroyed.

Noticing that it would now be leaving this darkness, the infant began to cry. It's cries resounded within this darkness, twisting and cracking the space.

It did not want to leave. It wanted to stay with the darkness forever. The bond between the two parties clearly transmitted their intent.

Alas the darkness did not bend. It continued to ignore the inconsolable cries of the infant and sent it into the crack. After its safe passage the crack slowly started to mend, and a state of perfect nihility returned.

Just before a final bit of the crack closed, the darkness sent a message into the infant's brain.

'Rurian. Henceforth, you shall be called Rurian.'

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In Deatov.

A large group of people gathered around the massive pillar of light. The white pillar continued to be turn black, seemingly being tainted with darkness.

The trio of Alex, Oliva and Reyna also made it near this pillar of light. They looked at this pillar in confusion and scanned the area around it.

Alex's sharp eyes found the small dark-gold crystal floating next to the light pillar.

"Ka'lor'ah!" he voiced out before heading towards the crystal. Reyna and Olivia also noticed the crystal and followed behind Alex.

Making it near her, Alex voiced his question.

"What are you doing here? Where is Lucius?"

Seeing the trio around her Ka'lor'ah finally snapped out of her stupor. With a hoarse voice she replied.

"In there."

The trio were astonished as they stared at the pillar of light, which was now completely black. Rather than radiate light, this black pillar seemed to devour all the light.

Just as Olivia was about to voice out another question, an intense wave of energy pulsed from within this pillar of light.

A sense of danger and horror immediately rose within everyone's hearts. Their instincts screamed and their souls trembled.

This feeling was especially intense for Ka'lor'ah. She felt the fierce feeling of death grip her heart.

'This feeling!..... the ender of all life!.....My mortal enemy?!' she thought in horror.

'A Void Eater!!' the name of the terrifying species appeared within her mind.

The species which was the enemy of all life! A devourer of all matter!

At this moment a change occurred within the pillar of light.

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Within the black pillar of light, at the very center formed an organ.

It was in the shape on an inverted triangle '' and started to pulse like the heart.

Baddump! Baddump! Baddump! Baddump! Baddump!

The 'heart' started to pulse faster and faster, until the rate of its beating crossed the two hundred marl. A greyish-black energy started to flow from within the heart and slowly started to turn into a dark, viscous, blood like liquid. Unlike blood however, it was entirely black.

The blood started to flow and follow certain pathways in the air. With the blood as the suppliant, cells started to be birthed from the greyish-black energy and started to form tissues. Tissues started to form the organs, before finally a body was formed.

The body was 1.9m in height. The bones were completely black in color and formed the perfect skeletal structure. Muscles which was compressed to the extreme, yet flexible covered the bones. Atop all of this was the pale white skin, similar to a newborn.

The eyes of the body were closed as they rested upon a devilishly handsome face. Sharp eyes, perfect nose, a chiseled chin. The body which slender yet filled with overwhelming strength represented the perfect evolution a humanoid could achieve.

The body continued to float in the air for a while, before movement could be seen under the eyelids. Slowly, the eye lids opened to reveal a pair of beautiful, heterochromatic eyes.

The left eye was gold and the right eye was crimson. One radiated a sense of arrogance and majesty, while the other radiated a sense of bloodthirst and slaughter.

Lucius' will finally woke up.

'I'm alive?' he thought to himself before looking down at his body.

His entire body was currently naked as his clothes were destroyed under the furious onslaught on the greyish-black energy. He felt taller than before and his body felt a lot stronger.

'My body changed?' just as he was about to inspect the various changes in his body, Lucius mind was attacked by a ferocious wave of hunger. The intense feeling to consume was birthed.

His body which had just been formed, suddenly started to shrivel and shrink. The muscle shrunk, and the skin started to crease. His bones rapidly weakened as all the energy within his body disappeared. His eyes once again turned black.

His body currently looked extremely weak and malnourished. His bones were visible as they seemingly tried to escape from within his skin.

'Eat....' an intense feeling of dizziness attacked his mind, before Lucius passed out once again. Just in time for pillar to shatter.

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'Ahrgh.. My head hurts!' an intense headache tore through his mind.

Struggling for a few minutes, Lucius forcibly suppressed his headache. Gathering his strength Lucius slowly opened his eyes.

A ray of bright white light pierced through his eyes. Blinking a few times to adjust himself to the brightness, he could finally look around.

Lying atop a bed wearing a hospital gown, he noticed a few needles and tubes inserted into his body. Bottles of saline solutions and glucose were connected to his body, and slowly stared to flow into his bloodstream.

'....So hungry.' just as the thought rose within his mind, Lucius could feeling his blood rapidly flowing.

With an incredible speed visible to the naked eye, the bottles of glucose and saline solution started to be drawn and absorbed by his body. A force of suction radiating from his blood started to consume the solutions and immediately broke them down and processed them into the required nutrients.

'Need more nutrients!' the feeling of hunger did not fade away, but got increasingly stronger.

Pulling the needles off his body, Lucius struggled out of the bed. He tried to stand on his feet, but his legs did not contain the energy required to hold his body up. He staggered forward, before supporting himself by holding to the bed.

The sound of a door opening was heard, followed by the sharp noise of a young woman.

"Lucius!" Olivia screamed before rushing towards him and supporting his body.

"You shouldn't be out of your bed. Your body is currently too weak." she spoke with concern as she supported his body.

"..where..." Lucius mumbled out in a soft voice.

With the recent improvements in her physique, Olivia managed to catch his words.

"Where? What do you mean?" she asked.

"...where are..... bodies... bugs stor..?" his voice trembled and broke at various intervals resulting in an incomprehensible statement.

"Lucius, I don't understand your words. Please lie down in the bed before speaking. You body is extremely weak right now." Olivia gently advised him.

A flash of madness passed within Lucius' eyes, as he suddenly turned to grab Olivia by her throat. Squeezing his hands around her throat, he voiced out once again.

"Where... dead bugs... .stored?" he managed to convey his intention. The usual indifference in his eyes were absent, replaced with madness due to hunger.

Olivia could feel the fearsome power behind his grip. Her breathing grew increasingly rugged as she struggled to inhale.

"Lu...ci...us! ...let.. go!" she managed to speak.

His eyes quivered for a moment before a hint of rationality gathered. He immediately removed his grip and voiced once more. Olivia could finally breathe and she broke into a coughing fit.

"immediately... take me... to.. storage. Before.....lose...control" he said with a painful voice,

Understanding that something was wrong. She immediately held Lucius and supported his weight with her body. Gripping him tight, she rushed towards the storage.

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Inside the storage where the bodies of the dead bugs were present, Reyna and Alex were presented.

They were currently here to chose a couple of alien remains before sending it to one of the experienced biologists within the base for study. The aliens represented a new intelligent life form which was entirely different from that of humans.

It had already been three days since the attack by the aliens bugs. Under the lead of Alex and Reyna they had managed to placate the crowd of people with their new found powers.

Establishing communications with the Alliance was the top priority, but for some reason they were unable to. There seemed to be a new form of energy blocking the signals which were being sent out.

Just as they were discussing, the door to the storage suddenly opened.

Reyna who managed to catch a glimpse of the figure, spoke.

"Olivia why are you here? ....Lucius!" she belatedly recognized Lucius.

However, Lucius did not seem to hear her question. Immediately after entering the storage room, he jumped towards the large pile of corpses.

His black eyes one again changed colors. One gold and the other black, he fell in the middle of the pit of corpses.

Reyna and Alex were astounded by his actions and were about to intercept, when they were stopped by Olivia.

"Don't! He asked me to bring him here! Something is wrong with him!" Olivia warned them.

It was at this moment that Lucius suddenly started to laugh.

"HAHAHAH!" a laughter which was of pure joy and ecstasy.

His face was no longer indifferent and his eyes which always seemed to know no sorrow or joy, contained an expression this instant.

It was Pure Joy!

With a crystal clear voice he spoke.

"Devour."

Immediately upon these words, the shadow beneath his feet rapidly expanded and enveloped the dead bodies in darkness. They were then slowly pulled into the darkness, disappearing into the void!

------------------END OF VOLUME 1- The First Taste--------------