Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 384: Capture and Imprisonment. Part 1

UEM Headquarters. 97th floor: Cafeteria.

Inside the empty, dimly-lit cafeteria situated on the ninety-seventh floor of the UEM Headquarters, seated alone at a long table in the corner of the large mess hall was Olivia.

On the table before her, was a small metal tray containing an assortment of food items of varying colors. Her right hand held onto a spork which regularly tapped on the tray while her left elbow rested on the table while her palm cradled her face.

A small orb-like device rested atop the table, in front of the tray, that projected a full-scale, three-dimensional holographic image on the other side of the table.

The holographic image being projected showed Lucius sitting right in the middle of an enormous eel-like creature that remained still in a coiled position while being roasted by a pit of flames underneath it. 

A small mountain of bones lay scattered beside Lucius, who had his hands and the lower part of his face covered in grease. He then proceeded to lick the grease off his fingers, while staring dead straight into the camera.

Seeing this, Olivia could no longer hold her laughter and broke into a loud guffaw, "HAHAHA! Ah~, how do you not feel sick after eating that?"

Finishing cleaning his right hand, Lucius then proceeded to suck on his left fingers while answering her question.

"It's actually not as bad as it looks. The texture of its meat is very soft and sinewy while being light on the stomach." Pausing for a moment to lick off the final bits of grease on his finger, he continued. "You should try it sometime."

"What's it called again?" Olivia asked while digging into the plate of food before her.

"Parasitic Mountain Eel," he replied. "It's a delicacy that is only available around these parts and only for a limited time every year."

"Hmm, y-ow shwou-ld ta-gke me tgere som-time," she answered while chewing food within her mouth. Shaking his head at her eating habits, Lucius replied. "Eat first. Talk later."

Gulping the food down her throat, she repeated, "You should take me there sometime."

"Sure. It's a four-month round trip if we use the void," a faint smile appeared on Lucius' face as he answered. 

Hearing the very mention of the word 'void', the smile on Olivia's face stiffened and the color of her face slightly paled. Her mind couldn't help but recall the god-awful experience that she had experienced when escaping from Royal Giant City.

Imagine having everything inside you squeezed while having your entire stretch of skin is roasted. Add the feeling of severe dizziness and head ringing, and that summed up Olivia's experience of traveling through the void.

Shaking her head in the most exaggerated manner possible, Olivia crossed her arms and answered. "Nuh-huh! Let's just take the long route! I don't care how long it takes!"

Seeing her reaction filled Lucius with an odd sense of satisfaction and happiness.

During his frequent conversations with Olivia and Ka'lor'ah these past eight months, Lucius had learned (or re-learned), that what he was doing was called 'teasing' and the emotion that he was feeling was called 'happiness'.

It was a strange new experience for him and was one that he actually liked doing.

Putting an end to her comical actions with a giggle, Olivia then asked, "Say, how much does that thing cost to eat anyway? I can't imagine something that big and tasty being cheap."

The reason Olivia asked this question was that the full size of the creature that Lucius was currently eating on the other side of the call, was an entire 1100m! It was a humongous creature that could even fill the bellies of multiple Giants or a single, even bigger existence!

"Oh, that," Lucius leaned over to the side and picked up a small flier, "there is a challenge which states that if a single person managed to eat the entire fish in a single sitting within an hour, they don't have to pay for it. Also, their name and picture would be added to the shop's Wall of Fame."

Answering so, Lucius picked the camera in his hand, turned it to the side, and showed a large Elephantidae (Elephant-man), who was using his large hands to rotate a huge crank which turned the body of the eel that was roasting over a fire.

"This is Corralize. He's in charge of cooking the eel and timing my meal," Lucius explained from behind the camera.

"Hi, Corralize!" Olivia waved from the other side of the screen, to which the large Elephantidae used his trunk to wave back.

Through the image, Olivia could see the adult Elephant-man intensely sweating and breathing laboriously as he worked hard to properly cook this meat. It was evident, that Lucius was eating the cooked meat faster than the former was able to cook them.

Turning the camera to face him once again, Lucius set it up in its previous spot and sat down to wait for his meal. Then, a curious expression suddenly appeared within his dull eyes as he verbally thought out.

"I wonder what an Elephantidae tastes like?" 

Hearing his words, Olivia nearly spat out the mouthful of food which she had just put inside her mouth. She desperately struggled to control her laughter, taking care to not choke on the food. 

On the other side, Corralize, who was working hard of delivering the perfectly cooked meal, shivered at his customer's words. While he quickly dismissed it as a joke, a part of him continued to feel a terrible chill.

"I should find out one day." Deciding as such, Lucius threw this matter to the back of his mind and returned to placidly looking into the screen, at the figure of Olivia.

Gulping down a glass of water, Olivia finally swallowed the mouthful of food and exclaimed, "I almost died for a second!" Putting down the glass of water, she used her free hand to fan herself and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

She then immediately recalled Lucius' unironic joke and broke into a fit of giggles once more.

After she had calmed down, the two continued their conversation while eating their respective dinners. 

---

Like always, Olivia did the majority of the talking while Lucius listened and briefly recounted his encounters. 

Olivia's topics were mostly limited to the interesting events and issues that she had experienced that week during her administrative work, while Lucius' topics varied from the people he had battled and killed to the places he had visited.

Over these last eight months, under Olivia's and Ka'lor'ah's repeated encouragements, Lucius had gotten into the habit of talking more. The two ladies continuously nagged at him to share his experiences and describe his encounters with greater clarity.

Not only did this help Lucius with learning a whole set of words, widely enriching his vocabulary, but he had also learned to properly identify his feelings and emotions and aptly deal with them.

For example, three weeks, Lucius had encountered a large stellar body releasing a burst of cosmic radiation. The glamorous sight of rays of multi-colored light expanding against the pitch-black background of the Universe was an amazing sight to which words made no justice in describing.

When he saw this sight, Lucius was oddly filled with a sense of awe and wonder. 

It was unknown how many times he had traveled through this empty vacuum of space in his three-hundred plus years of life, however, this was his first time stopping and truly looking at the scenes of the cosmos.

It was an incredible experience.

Bit by bit, the feelings and emotions which had been continuously suppressed and erased by the [Killer] soul to the point of Lucius fully forgetting having them in the first place were returning. 

The mask of indifference which he wore was slowly crumbling, infusing him with more character. The wall of unfamiliarity which he had built around himself was breaking to allow others to get closer to him.

Lucius was finally becomingnormal. 

---

Just as Olivia was in the process of recounting a certain event that had taken place during this week; an event where the AI constructs of mankind realized that they possessed free will and tried to rebel, the lights inside the cafeteria turned on and a voice very loudly proclaimed.

"How's my favorite couple doing?"

Enter front and center, Ka'lor'ah.