Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 405: Ash and Cinders.

Grabbing onto the rails of the levitating platform, Reyna bit her lips as she impatiently neared the location of Olivia's body. Swiveling her head to face the controller of this movement platform, she snapped, "Can you not go any faster!?"

"I-I'm going as fast as I can, Ma'am," The unfortunate soul nervously replied. He was doing his best. It was the machine that couldn't operate any faster.

"Grr," Letting out a frustrated growl, Reyna returned to viewing the mountain of debris underneath her. With every passing second, she grew more impatient and nervous.

'Please let her be safe', she begged. The consequences that Olivia's death could haveReyna didn't dare imagine it.

Minutes passed in gritted silence before Reyna finally saw the crowd of rescue workers crowding around a circular pit. Recognizing it to be her destination, Reyna vaulted over the railing and fell to the ground.

Landing unsteadily over a mound of crushed rock and glass, she stumbled a few steps before steadying herself. The instant she did so, Reyna rushed towards the crowd. 

Pushing aside a worker, she forced herself through the crowd, "What's happening? Is she alright!?" 

The rescue worker who was inflamed from being abruptly shoved aside forced down a string of curses after recognizing the owner of the voice. Hurriedly showing an awkward salute to his superior, he explained, "W-we don't know, Ma'am. Jones and Maui have lowered themselves into the pit to recover the Captain."

Half-heartedly nodding to his explanation, Reyna leaned forward and peered into the pit. It was deep and dark and its bottom was unable to be seen. She could only see the two beams of light steadily lowering themselves into the shaft.

Turning to look at the rescue worker nearest to her, she asked, "Has the shaft been scanned yet? Where's the model."

"Here, Ma'am." A voice replied from the other side, drawing Reyna's attention. Her gaze landed on a holographic image that detailed the shaft before her.

"The shaft itself is around a hundred and twenty meters deep. We detected a life signature at the very bottom, and according to our database, it belongs to Captain Mayer. Two of our best are on their way down to retrieve her."

A life signature was detected. Fortunately, it meant that the worst-case scenario haunting her thoughts was untrue. 

'As long as her life signature exists, even if only a sliver, we can still save her,' thought Reyna. As long as a person wasn't completely dead, her machines could save them.

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Having confirmed Olivia's state, Reyna greatly relaxed. Exhaling a sigh, she then faced the person who had explained to her and asked a question that had temporarily been buried inside her mind.

"How did you guys make this shaft? What was that grey pillar of light?" 

If it was caused by a machine, Reyna would've recognized it. Since she didn't, she wagered that it was caused by a unique ability of some sort. The methods of soul power were endless after all.

Hearing her question, the crowd of rescue workers looked at each other with helpless, awkward smiles.

"What?"

"Lady Reyna," the person who previously explained to her, swallowed dryly and answered, "that wasn't us?"

"Pardon?" Reyna asked, confused.

"That grey light pillar. It wasn't caused by any of us." He shook his head.

Shocked, she questioned, "Who caused it then?"

The man pointed down the shaft. 

Turning her head towards the shaft, Reyna stared dumbly for a few seconds. Her pupils then widened as her mouth unconsciously opened agape.

"W-what? Olivia did that?"

All of the rescue workers nodded their heads in unison.

"Our team was scanning a nearby area for dangerous objects and looking for survivors for rescue. Then suddenly, our equipment started going bonkers and we saw that pillar shoot up to the sky."

"After it disappeared, we headed towards this area to check what had happened. That's when we saw this," he pointed towards the shaft. "Whatever that greyish-white pillar was, it created this shaft by evaporating everything in its path. We then sent down our drones to scan it and detected the Captain's life signature."

"Oh, Jones and Maui are coming up," a worker pointed.

Reyna did not have the time to process the newly gained information when she saw two rescue workers float up to the surface. They held a stretcher between them, upon which a body that she could barely call human laid.

Reyna's face paled with fear as she saw the terrible injuries that her friend sustained. The body atop the stretcher resembled a lump of bloodied meat more than it did Olivia. 

"Hospital! We need to get her to a hospital ASAP " One of the men carrying the stretcher yelled out. 

"The medical carrier is on its way!" Another replied.

Reyna stood stiffly as she watched the crowd of rescue workers crowd around the bloodied stretcher. She watched as a plethora of devices were thrown out as the men worked fast and hard to preserve Olivia's basic life functions until the carrier arrived. 

For it was rapidly waning. She could see it with her eyes.

Olivia's body looked like it had been thrown into a meat mincer. Not a single part of her was intact. If not for the miraculous soul power stubbornly preserving her life force, Olivia would've already passed on to the other side.

Unable to watch on any longer, Reyna hurriedly turned around and vomited. A mixture of tears and vomit fell from her face. She continued to throw up until the floating medical carrier arrived at the scene and carried the stretcher away.

Looking at the large transport zip away, Reyna sincerely prayed from the depths of her heart. 'You have to survive! You MUST LIVE!!'

If she didn't, they would all die. Not from external threats or foreign enemies.

But by that expressionless monster's hands.

Reyna knew how close Olivia and Lucius had recently grown. And she could scarcely guess what he would do, were he to learn about her death.

---

The sunless sky still surprised her whenever she looked up above. No sun hung within the sky, yet light seemed to magically filter in and illuminate these barren lands.  It wasn't her first time seeing this, yet the sight still filled her with mild awe and great frustration.

Counting the groups of ash-colored clouds within the sky, Olivia decided that it was almost dawn. Well, at least that's what she considered the time of day to be since there wasn't really a day-night cycle in this place.

The sky was always dimly lit in a pale orangish glow, providing little color to this otherwise monochromatic world. It never darkened. 

"It's time for me to start moving once again, I suppose," Olivia thought out loud. 

She then lifted the neatly packed knapsack from off the ground and slung it over her shoulder with practiced ease. Stamping out the final embers of the campfire near her she put it out. She then raised her head and looked at the distance.

An infinitely tall, pitch-black spire towered, reaching to the sky. It was her destination.

"Hopefully, I can reach it today."

It wasn't her first time speaking these words either, but today would be different. This time, she was actually close to that ridiculous construct.

Pulling the coarse scarf around her neck to cover her nose and mouth, she adjusted the knapsack on her shoulder before setting out. 

Walking at a moderate pace, Olivia traversed the barren wasteland. It wasn't wise to run as doing so would cause a lot of noise and vibrations, attracting the vile Scroungers towards her. 

Fighting them off was a messy affair and a complete waste of time since they provided neither meat to eat nor items to use. 

Keeping her head lowered, so as to protect her eyes from the cinders and ash that almost always falls from the sky, Olivia kept marching forward. Her surroundings were all the same; brown-colored stones and rocks with grey-colored sand. No plants and very little wildlife. 

The same scenery extended endlessly with only the terrain differing. So far, Olivia had climbed a mountain, crossed a valley, desperately ran from a horde of Scavengers through a plain, and walked on plateaus. 

All to reach that black-colored spire, towering in the far distance.

"Huup!" Letting out a short shout, Olivia jumped down a three-meter tall rock. Her feet hit the ash-colored sand and started to slide. 

"Wooo!~"

Bending her knees, she controlled her sliding. It was kinda like skiing, except she had no skis. Unfortunately, the trip was rather short and was over before she knew it.

"Aww~" Olivia bemoaned. "I wanted it to be longer." 

Shaking her head, she dusted her pants and rid the sand that had managed to stick to her. Having sand inside your boots and pants was a very uncomfortable experience. 

After she finished dusting, Olivia looked around. She had to squint her eyes since the raining ash made everything ten times harder to see. After carefully looking around at her surroundings, she spotted something in the far distance.

It was a black-colored 'something' and it was moving.

"There!" She yelled and kicked off the ground. Violet-colored soul power surrounded her legs, increasing her speed.

The black-colored moving figure expanded within her eyesight as she approached it closer and closer. After running for a dozen or so seconds, she was finally close enough to make sense of what it was.

It was a cowled humanoid figure dressed in pitch-black robes.