Lord of Annihilation

Upon exiting the setting, Lucius came to a long, winding tunnel. The normal white lights had gone off for a while, and the red emergency lights had taken their place. Sirens were also blaring in the background, alerting everyone of the situation.

Ever since Lucius had decided to kill everyone to protect his secret, he hadn't bothered to destroy the cameras. Of course, he did not use his soul power in an obvious manner either.

While the people outside will be on guard against him, he believed none of them would actually run away. Chasing them down once they ran away, would be a real hassle.

Lucius calmly walked down the corridor, occasionally check the corners and other minor rooms that were on his way to check for stranglers. Checking the map on his hand he made a small detour and was heading towards a lone room that was situated directly above the area of the pit.

Instead of directly going to the viewing area, Lucius first wanted to make his way to the control room. The control room would have the records of everyone who was present here and their numbers. Since this would make his work easier, Lucius decided to hit this place before heading anywhere else.

Walking for a while, he stood in front of a huge metal door.

Lucius clicked his tongue and thought to himself." Seems like they enabled the blast doors. This is going to take a while to break through."

Brute force wasn't going to be an option, since it would take a long time to break the doors. Looking up to check it any cameras are present in the area=, Lucius casually shot them down before standing still.

Delving into his mindspace, Lucius checked upon his soul. His soul which used to be a vague, hazy cloud like shape, had now solidified to a great extent. In the place of the hazy cloud, a vague human like silhouette had formed. It was a deep shade of red and black and clearly solid.

Looking at this Lucius was shocked. 'This! This is already in the realm of Stage 1."

'Looks like killing and absorbing the souls of the other participants had the effect of strengthening my soul power.'

But what made him confused was, 'Isn't it impossible to cultivate one's soul before 'that event?'

The event that would change the fate of humanity in the cosmos, had not occurred yet. There was still around 5 months before, he or anybody for that matter could cultivate their soul power. Although Lucius was using his soul power all this while, it was in fact only a fraction of his true power.

Comparing the amount of soul power he had in the 'No Realm' to that of 'Stage 1', is like comparing a small bucket and a huge tank of water.

The quantity, quality and even the vessel would change at every 'Stage'. But, cultivating the stages was no easy task. Each person's soul was unique and therefore different conditions have to be met for them to advance. It was by no means easy!

Seeing that this was no time or place to be lost in his thought Lucius drew his consciousness out. He had been wondering how to break past these doors and now had the perfect solution.

Drawing his soul power out, he compressed it into his hands. A small pebble sized ball of murky black energy was slowly forming. Lucius kept drawing and compressing his power to expand the ball. Eventually from it's pebble like size, it expanded into a basket ball size.

Unlike his normal reddish-black soul power, this one was completely black. It wasn't the smooth kind either and was murky and pulsing, seemingly alive. He had used 1/4th of his entire energy on this. Though 1/4 did not seem like a lot, one must remember that his capacity had just greatly expanded. 1/4th of the current capacity was greater than the full strength of his previous 'No Realm' state.

This was the attribute of the 'Killer' soul in Stage 1 - [Decay]

Compressing it to the maximum extent possible, Lucius gently pressed the hand holding the ball of energy onto the blast doors.

The ball left Lucius hand and gently moved to stick onto the blast doors. It pulsed and expanded slowly and started to spread across the entire length of the door. A door started to give off a dark mist. Sharp sizzling sounds were also heard en masse.

SIzzle!

The sound went on for 15 seconds and suddenly, the sound of metal grating could be heard. The sounds increased in volume, before eventually the door in front of him fell apart.

The black energy had mostly been used up and the rest had dissipated. Without anything to cover the door, one could see that a whole 60% of the door was missing. It had simply evaporated!

This wasn't a normal door either. The metal used in it's construction could withstand compressed plasma. One must remember plasma is a superheated matter. One so hot, that it could rip apart electrons from an atom.

Since the door had fallen apart, no other obstacle was was present in his way. Lucius lifted his calm eyes and expressionless face and stared at the wide eyed, jaw dropped inhabitants of the room.

Everyone inside the room, had their brains coming to an halt. Previously they had been very confident that no one could break through the doors and relaxed. That crazy slaughter machine would not be able to reach them and they would get to live. Others outside might not know how scary Lucius was, but these people in the control room, who had seen the later part of his killings completely understood.

This guy was a monster who could kill without flinching.

Seeing the same monster break through that, seemingly invincible door, they were so shocked and no longer had the mental capacity to feel scared. Looking at all of them, Lucius simply raised the rifle on his hands and shot down the remaining inhabitants.

He then started walking towards the control console, but slowed down on the way there. There was something he wanted to test.

Lucius bent down and used two fingers to pierce the head of a nearby body, he then mobilized his soul power and waited. Nothing happened.

Lucius furrowed his brows. Before, when he was controlled by that hungry state, his body did the same set of actions and the soul of the body was absorbed.

But recreating the same scene now, Lucius noticed that nothing happened. The blood and brain matter simply flowed out of the hole in the head.

Seeing that nothing happened, Lucius simply got up, and shook his hands.

'It seems I am missing a certain condition for it to work. Could it be that I have to feel hungry?', he then shook his head to get rid of this ridiculous thoughts.

Focusing on the current situation was important. Carelessness leads to death.

Lucius then walked towards the command console and brought up the various camera. He then checked the locations of the various people present in the facility and the logs of the people in attendance.

Seeing one of the logs, a small smile formed on Lucius face.

'Who would've thought we would meet so soon.',

Noting down the names and locations in his head. Lucius left the control room and proceeded towards the viewing hall. It was about time to finish this.