Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 76: Arriving at Modus Rim. Part 2

January 30th, 2321.

"Please collect your luggage and follow the instructor ahead." a male teacher in his mid-twenties, instructed Lucius.

Nodding his head, Lucius turned his head to look back. Long lines of students were gathered in an orderly fashion. Behind them stood the spaceship in which Lucius and the gang had arrived. a lot of events had happened aboard the spaceship, with most of the students being glad that it was finally over.

"Lucius! Hurry up!", Reyna characteristic bright voice sounded out.

Looking forward he noticed Reyna waving her hand, Olivia standing next to her with a smile and Alex looking depressed and grumpy. Nodding to them, he thanked the teacher and collected his bag before going towards them.

'Looks like the mental state of that girl is back to normal.' Ka'lor'ah sent a message to Lucius.

'Indeed. She seems to have shed a bit of her naivety too. This is good.' Lucius replied.

After the events in the spaceship, Reyna had seemed to have grown up, no longer being childish and immature. One could say, she was finally acting her age.

For some reason though, she seemed to act spoiled and childish in front of Lucius. He could not understand the reason, why.

'This is honestly getting a little annoying.' Lucius inwardly sighed once again, to which Ka'lor'ah giggled.

Reaching the group, Lucius first asked Reyna.

"How far has your soul cultivation progressed?" getting straight to the point.

"Hmmm. I'm also at Half-Step Stage 1." Reyna thought for a second before stating proudly, slightly bowing her head in expectation.

Hearing her answer, Lucius simply nodded in a somewhat satisfied manner.

'At least she's serious about her training.'

"Let's go then. We have to follow that instructor." Lucius said as he pointed at the middle-aged man wearing a standard Academy outfit in the distance. He then immediately began walking in that direction.

Behind him, Reyna clicked her tongue and grumbled something in a low voice while Olivia simply chuckled. Alex also seemed to be letting out a mocking laugh. All of this only served to confuse Lucius even further.

Not paying attention to them, he closed in near the large group of students standing next to the instructor.

"Students wearing the Red, Blue and Green overalls provided, please follow the white lights pointing towards the left, to reach the space elevator. These students will directly be sent to the base in Deatov."

"Students wearing the Black and White overall provided please stand beside me. Once the required amount of students have arrived, I will lead you into the space station."

The teacher using his deep and loud masculine voice, repeated the instruction in periodic time frames.

"Ah. We already have to seperate?" Reyna cried out once she heard the instruction. She immediately turned around and faced Olivia and Alex with her watery and pitiful looking eyes.

"Silly girl, we are not here on vacation. Plus..." Olivia neared Reyna and gave her a big hug. Leaning close to her ears, Olivia whispered something in them. Reyna face turned red and she repeatedly kept nodding.

"Okay." she replied in a low voice.

Meanwhile Alex and Lucius in the sides simply stood quietly. Alex's gaze filled with burning passion to fight, shined upon Lucius' face. Lucius however kept staring at him in a indifferent manner.

Hesitating for a second, Alex spoke in an arrogant voice, "Protect Reyna. Don't let anything happen to her."

Lucius simply nodded.

"And you too.....don't die to soon." Alex spat this line out from his gritted teeth.

"All right, Group Hug." Olivia clapped her hand and called everyone in.

Lucius tried to escape from it, only to have either of his hands held by Reyna and Olivia respectively.

"Come one Lucius. You are not going to make a scene here, are you?" Olivia spoke with a smile in her face.

Resigning himself, he eventually let himself be pulled into a group hug. Just as they were about to seperate, a new voice sounded amidst them.

"I hate to be the one pouring a bucket of cold water at this moment, but.... all of you are being far too relaxed." Ka'lor'ah spoke in a serious voice.

"I divined once again. The event threatening mankind's survival will begin around the 8th or 9th of February, that is in approximately 10 days."

"I'm advising you, but DO NOT try to be heroes and try and save people. Focus first on protecting yourself. Even if it means, sacrificing a few people." Ka'lor'ah continued, her voice turning colder and colder at each statement.

"Remember, this planet can be allowed to fall, but none of you can die! The survival of the entire human race depends upon the information you guys gather here for their survival. Your safety should be your number 1 priority." Ka'lor'ah finished her speech.

The happy atmosphere between them immediately turned tense and serious. None of them spoke for a while, each standing in quiet contemplation.

The concept of sacrificing others, was something that none of others, except Lucius, could unhesitantly do. After all, the people dying would be their fellow kind.

Taking a deep breath, Alex was the first to break the silence, "I can't simply standby watching my fellow brothers and sisters in the army die."

Olivia also answered in kind, "Me too. I can't simple give an instruction telling people to die for my survival. As a commander, the lives of the people under my command are my responsibility. Sacrificing them, is not something I can do."

Reyna also nodded in affirmation.

Looking at the three of them, Ka'lor'ah simply sighed. Lucius broke away from them and turned around. Flinging his bag onto his back, he spoke in his emotionless, mechanical voice.

"Foolish. Don't expect me to come and save you. Weaklings who try to act heroic, without understanding the extent of their strengths are worth nothing in my eyes. It's better off if such bugs are dead."

Leaving behind these words, he simply walked away from the group.

Alex who was greatly angered by his words seethed, "What has he even got against us?! What did we even do to make him hate us to such an extent?! Can't he simply motivate us or something!"

"He's like that to everyone these days. The looks that he gives us and everyone else, is the same indifferent one." Olivia gave a bitter smile and explained. She then lowered her voice and said, "He wasn't always like this."

Sensing the depressed atmosphere, Reyna clapped her hands and spoke up in a cheery voice.

"Come on guys, I'm sure Lucius did not mean it that way. I mean, he did not stop us from trying to save others, did he? It's just his way of saying, 'Do what you can'. " Reyna gave an impression of Lucius' voice.

Understanding this, the moods of both of them also lifted. 'I see' looks of contemplation were seen in their faces.

Seeing that they were no longer depressed, Reyna gave out a smile. Noticing this, Olivia suddenly wore a knowing smile on her face and spoke to Reyna.

"Hehe, you seem to understand him quite a bit, don't you? I wonder."

Reyna immediately became flustered and waved her hands in denial. "It isn't like that!"

"Like what? I haven't said anything. Or could it be that there ?? something?" Olivia insinuated.

Knowing that speaking anymore would cause her to fall further in this trap, Reyna harrumphed in a cute anger and turned around to chase after Lucius.

Looking at this, Olivia felt a faint sense of envy. Shaking her head to get rid of this feeling, she turned around and followed the directions for the space elevator. Alex who had been caught amidst this awkward atmosphere, also hurried in that directions.

All of them tacitly understood that the next time they met, great changes would have occured.

Changes that will affect the fate of mankind.

--------------------------

February 8th, 2321.

After the group of four separated each heading towards their respective destinations, Lucius and Reyna grouped up together with the rest of the students wearing White and Black overalls.

They were then led further into the space station and given new watches-to track their activities and collect points. They were also informed of some basic rules and provided tasks which they had to complete, during their stay in the space station.

Lucius and Reyna had separated at this point.

The space station on which Lucius was aboard was called the Modus Rim. It was one of the latest frontier space stations, which was stationed above the planet of Deatov.

It was extremely large, covering almost one-eight of the planet's surface. It was shaped like a ring, surrounding the planet like a belt. For comparison, one can imagine it to be similar to the rings around Saturn. The only difference being that instead of rocks and small particles constituting the ring, it was one large, solid, manmade structure.

Looking from space, it shined with a metallic hue, with a large blue energy shield enveloping the planet of Deatov, with the ring at its center. Long, straight, rods of metal were also seen exiting this ring structure. These were the plasma cannons and ionic beams, used for attack, as well as defense of the planet.

This was an energy shield, covering the entire planet. It was used to ward off rocks, asteroids, space pirate attacks, basically anything that would be a threat to the planet.

Deatov was a Class 1 resource planet, meaning that it contained a important resource, which mankind was in dire need. Usually rare metals or energy sources.

The large space station was one single entity with the students from the academy being allocated to different sections, which required their assistance.

Lucius, with his level of skill, was directly assigned to the to the Main Command Center, netting him a position there. The new mathematical model he had introduced for a more efficient pathway of energy distribution, had made him famous overnight and netted him a large amount of points.

The Technical Engineers aboard the ship were all filled with praises towards this young man, making him the center of attention and target of jealousy of the countless other students aboard the space station.

Being the assistant to the person, directly-in-charge of the Energy Management of the Modus Rim, it was another day filled with difficult mathematical problems which required his efforts to resolve.

Sitting in one of the seats in the Main Command Center., Lucius lifted his head and stretched his hands to get rid of the fatigue built upon them. The rest of the stationed workers were initially dissatisfied with a greenhorn like Lucius, directly being led into the Command Center. Alas, after watching him work for a single day, even the pickiest among them were filled with praises.

Looking out into space towards the vast and infinite darkness, through the large transparent glass hull, the outside was filled with the twinkling lights of the stars and the all-encompassing darkness of space.

Billions of points of vaguely shimmering lights, coupled with strange distortions could be seen in space. This was the view, seen by Lucius during his stay here in the space station.

Just as he was about to get back into his work, Lucius' extraordinary senses picked up something anomalous in his sight. Lifting his head once again, he focused his sight into that anomaly using his soul power to boost his eyesight.

A strange meteor, glowing with a faint golden color was speeding towards the space station.

{Large object, detected to be heading towards Modus Rim. Proceeding to fire the cannons.}

A mechanical voice spoke out and two blasts of bright lights were sent towards this glowing meteor.

{Threat neutralized.}

Just as the lights wore off and this strange rock seemed to be destroyed, more glows of faint golden light could be clearly seen in the distance. Each light seemed to be speeding up and heading towards the space station and Deatov behind it.

{Multiple objects detected. Calculating.... Could not be calculated. Threat Cannot be neutralized. Issuing Warnings!}

{WARNING: ALL CREW MEMBERS ABOARD THE MODUS RIM. IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE THE VESSEL. IMMINENT DESTRUCTION IN T-MINUS: 13 MINUTES!!}

{WARNING: ALL CREW MEMBERS ABOARD THE MODUS RIM. IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE THE VESSEL. IMMINENT DESTRUCTION IN T-MINUS: 12 MINUTES 59 SECONDS!!}

The mechanical robotic voice repeated the announcement. Looking at this beautiful sight in front of them, every member in the Main Command Centre were shocked and stood stiffly. This was the most beautiful sight, that they had ever seen in their lives.

Hearing the mechanical warning, immediately roused them as they each rushed to give proper orders and contain the panic caused by the announcement.

Lucius who was the first to see this sight, was nowhere to be seen!