Lord of Annihilation - Chapter 402: Normality.

“Release World: Trove of Know–”

“NO!”

With an enraged roar, Lucius lunged towards the hunchbacked old man. The scythe within his hands summoned furious gales as it unleashed torrents of energy alongside its swing.

Holding nothing back, Lucius attacked with his [Fourth Movement: Obliterate]. A deluge of ghostly shades appeared within the battlefield and rushed toward the old hunchback.

Caught off-guard, the old man faltered back a few steps after meeting the ghostly wave head-on. His chant was interrupted and his Mental World failed to manifest.

“Tch! Annoying little pups! You will–” His gravelly threats were interrupted once again, as a large crescent of pure destructive energy crashed against him. [Obliterate] was an attack made up of two parts, with the deluge of ghosts making up only the opening.

The hunchbacked old Magus was drowned in a flood of whiteness and destruction, buying an instant’s worth of respite for the two escapees.

“How much longer!?” Lucius yelled to his partner. He kept his eyes fixed on the scene of whiteness while gripping his scythe tightly.

“I don’t know!!” Prometheus replied, frustrated. “Everything is broken and all the controls are locked out! I-I–” He started to heave, his breaths becoming shorter.

Prometheus was hyperventilating.

“Hey! HEY!!” Arriving next to him, Lucius grabbed Prometheus with his left hand and yelled. “Calm down and focus on getting the coordinates to the main plane. Don’t bother opening a channel.”

“What’s the point in doing that!?! Without a channel, we are stuck here!”

“Just do what I say!” Lucius menaced and turned his attention back towards the scene of whiteness. A majority of the brightness had retreated, revealing the scene of terrible destruction left behind.

Placing both his hands on his scythe, Lucius leaned forward. His eyes narrowed into slits as he wore a mask of seriousness. With a low voice, akin to a growl, he spoke.

“I can buy you one minute.”

“Curious words, child of Letum,” a voice grimly spoke. “What are you going to buy it with? Your life?”

The final wisps of blackened smoke and fire gave way to reveal the hunchbacked old man. The pristine uniform that he wore remained as spotless as ever, excepting a thin white scratch across his right shoulder.

The hunchback, one of the Wardens of Tartarus, raised his blindfolded eyes and ‘looked’ towards Lucius.

“If so, I’ll have to apologize. Your payment is too little.” Tapping his cane on the ground, he declared, “Let’s do this again.”

“[Time Reversal]”

The dancing flames surrounding the crater of destruction suddenly stilled. The fracturing cracks fissuring across the room paused their silent crawl. Lucius, who had leaped into the air to deliver another blow, also stopped.

And then everything started to move back.

Time had begun to reverse.

—

“You’re seriously too precious for this world. Please never change.” Prometheus commented while wearing a dirty smile on his face.

His partner, the disguised Lucius, was about to beat some sense into him once again when the alarm bells inside his head began to go off. He immediately turned around to face the entrance, just as the white lighting within the room turned red.

Alarm bells notifying the facility about the escaped prisoners began to ring out.

“Dammit!” shirked Prometheus, his hands blurring with speed as he worked at the console. His expression turned grimmer and grimmer as the sounds of the alarm bells turned increasingly blaring.

“This is bad!” The placeholders that I set in the–”

“Hold on.” Lucius suddenly interrupted him. “Did we not already have this conversation before?” Doubt festered within his mind as an intense feeling of deja-vu struck him.

Clap! Clap!

The sound of someone clapping resounded within the dead-silent area. Lucius’ head instantly jerked upwards towards the source of the clapping and found a hunchbacked old man floating in the air with a cane in his hands.

His blindfolded eyes sent a piercing gaze towards Lucius, filling the latter with a profound sense of dread.

“The more I watch you, the better you look. Your senses are frighteningly sharp, child of Letum,” the Warden peacefully said. He then stopped his clapping and continued, “All the more reason for me to keep you here.”

“Prometheus! Get the coordi–” Lucius suddenly found an invisible force binding his mouth.

“Not this time, child. You will stay here.” The Warden snapped his fingers.

Lucius immediately struggled, pushing his [Annihilation Energy] towards his mouth. The chaotic energy flooded the space around his mouth and tore everything that could be torn.

Sound was eliminated, space was decimated, and even the fabric of reality fluttered as the mass of energy scratched at it. Within moments, the invisible restraint was shattered, allowing Lucius to release a snarl.

“You won’t keep me here!” He screamed before lunging once again.

Only this time, it was towards Prometheus.

Greatly surprised at this sudden turn of events, the hunchbacked Warden hurriedly acted. “[Time Rever–]” He chanted, only for it to be interrupted once again.

A warrior of complete darkness stabbed his sword into the Warden’s mouth. While the Forgotten Warrior’s attack did nothing to damage the Mid-Level Stage 5 opponent, it bought Lucius the required time to complete his actions.

Grabbing the dumbstruck Prometheus, Lucius hugged the latter tightly and snapped his finger. An infinitely small point of blackness appeared before them and sucked them into its vile domain. The two escapees then vanished.

The Warden waved his hand and evaporated the lone Forgotten Warrior into nothingness. Turning his attention back towards the ground, he was surprised at the absence of the two escapees.

Appearing on the ground with a tap of his cane, he carefully scanned the area. Boundless soul power rushed out of his body and scrutinized every inch of space within the room.

Just as he was doing this, the metal bulkhead leading to the Teleportation Room opened up and an army of fully-armed Magi flooded in. They came into the room and immediately pointed their wands and other weapons at the would-be convict.

Leading this army were two individuals dressed in an attire similar to the hunchbacked old man. After casually scanning around the room and finding no one other than the blindfolded hunchback, they narrowed their eyes with dissatisfaction and spoke.

“Blind Fool, what have you done to the two prisoners?”

“You haven’t killed them, I hope. His Majesty was very particular about keeping them alive.”

The blindfolded Warden ignored his colleagues’ questions. His wrinkled forehead was scrunched with confusion as he stood and stonily stared at a particular place.

“…Void Energy?” He quietly mumbled with a tone filled with doubt.

————-

A crack appeared in the blank skies of an unknown pocket of space. It expanded until it was 2m in length at which point it trembled and expelled two shadowy figures before closing.

The two figures, after being spit out, proceeded to fall from the sky. Neither of the two figures showed any signs of moving, much less, stopping their fall.

They continued to fall freely for a few minutes before crashing against a sandy beach; the force of which created deep pits. Settling at the bottom of the pits, the two figures continued to remain motionless.

Silence reigned save for those made by noises of the wind and the ocean.

A line of tall trees marked an imaginary border of some sorts, differentiating the sandy beach from the leafy forest floor. These trees swung back and forth with the wind while their leaves rustled to produce a nice symphony.

After the passage of an inordinate amount of time, the leafy floor of the forest suddenly rustled. A particular bush quietly parted, exposing a pair of crimson-colored eyes that menacingly stared at the two, newly-created pits.

The pair of eyes then shifted left-and-right as it scanned the dusky surroundings. Its ravenous eyes intently searched trying to find, or perhaps avoid something.

After ensuring the absence of whatever this ‘thing’ it was trying to seek, it stealthily left its leafy safety and headed towards the two pits with extreme caution.

Arriving at the edge of the pits, it gazed at the badly-damaged humanoid creatures. After some quiet consideration, it chose the pit with the unconscious, terribly-injured male and slid down. Stopping near the body, it cautiously poked at the being before hurriedly retreating into the sand.

Hiding beneath the sand, it waited to confirm the result of its actions.

The humanoid being showed no sign of movement.

Staying hidden for a few more minutes, it then slowly crawled up from under the sand and moved towards the unconscious male.

Tapping his head a few more times and seeing no movement from the latter, the creature finally put down its caution and grabbed the man with three of its hand-like limbs.

It then used its remaining seven limbs to climb up the pit while bringing the unconscious male with it. Climbing up the edge, it instantly shot towards the line of trees, not daring to spend a single second more within this exposed, sandy beach.

Crossing the distance in seconds, it dived into the bushes alongside the unconscious male. No more movements were seen as the tree line settled into another bout of eerie silence.

Not for long though, as the greedy creature peaked at the beach with its crimson eyes once again. After remaining motionless for a few minutes owing to the conflict within its head, it shot out of the tree line and rushed towards the other pit.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Seeing as how it had taken one of the sacrifices, it would be a shame to leave the other.

After grabbing the profusely bleeding, unconscious woman, the creature dragged it back into the tree line. Leaves rustled and bushed shook before silence claimed all.

Everything returned to ordinary.

As for the unordinary pits of sands…they had completely disappeared.