Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 388: Gate and Key.

"You understand why I'm here, right?" Duke Maxwell asked lightly with a neutral tone. His bottomless eyes deeply stared at Lucius, radiating a formless pressure.

In response, Lucius simply drew his scythe and assumed a combat stance. Tangible murderous intent overflowed from within his body while an invisible pressure descended upon the scene; this pressure was [Annihilation Intent].

Seeing his response, Duke Maxwell let out a sigh and shook his head, "What a pity." He then snapped his fingers.

A shapeless wave of energy spread from his fingers and in the next instant, Lucius saw the sight before his eyes horribly twist. His vision darkened and his body fell forward powerlessly.

Reaching forward and grabbing Lucius' body, Duke Maxwell brought out a small black-colored cube from within his robe. He then touched the center of Lucius' head with the cube. 

The instant the cube's surface came in contact with his forehead, it started to rapidly spin and suddenly sucked Lucius' body into itself. The cube then quietly fell into Duke Maxwell's palm and Lucius' body was nowhere in sight.

Giving the cube a confirmatory glance, Duke Maxwell then stored it inside his robe. He then brought his palms together and suddenly clapped. The sound of his crisp clap reverberated inside the vacuum of space and caused his surroundings to warp. 

Mysterious characters, immediately identifiable to be Runes, appeared out of thin air and were covered in a whitish flame. These characters were densely packed together and meticulously arranged the entire area to form an array.

Were an experienced Sigiler be present in the scene, he would immediately identify this runic array to be a 'Restrainment Array'. As the name suggested, the purpose of the array was to simply restrain an individual or a group.

Having seen Lucius battle the company of Elven Royal Guards, Duke Maxwell had more or less noted his special features and specifically edited the array to target Lucius. He had then laid the entire formation during the course of his discourse with Lucius. 

"I suppose I'm done here," After erasing the runic array and burning the floating corpses with a wave of his hand, Duke Maxwell turned around to leave. 

"His Highness should be very satisfied with how I've handled this situation when he hears about this."

At a snap of his fingers, the space before Duke Maxwell twisted and a circular gate-like phenomenon appeared. After taking a step into the gate, he snapped his fingers once more and the gate disappeared.

(AN: This was not a special spell but a manipulation of Rules to bend Space and Time performed by Stage 5 and above powerhouses to travel the Universe. Imagine 'Instant Transmission'. This is something similar.)

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Why can I not open the Sixth Gate?

An ashen-faced youth stood before an ancient, decrepit iron gate that stretched endlessly long in both directions, and lifelessly asked towards the air.

Silence filled the colorless world, raining with ash and burnt embers, for a seemingly endless stretch of time before a low voice echoed from the great castle that towered in the distance, beyond the Seven Gates.

You do not possess the key.

Raising his head to peer beyond the Sixth Gate through the gaps between its rusted iron bars, the ashen-faced youth gazed at the great castle and asked once again.

How do I get the key?

Another inordinate stretch of time passed before a small beacon of light appeared at the very top of the tallest spire atop of the great Castle. 

The beacon dimly pulsed three times with waning white light and then disappeared. Just as silence seemed to descend upon this space once more, the low voice answered his query.

Patience, Rurian. Events have been set into motion since before the very notion of time existed. You'll just have to be patient.

And when the time finally comes, the key will find you.

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"Augh!" Snapping his eyes open, Lucius let out a low groan.

A sudden bout of terrible headache assaulted his mind while his vision chaotically spun, inducing a great amount of dizziness. He found his throat to be strangely heavy, as he felt the existence of a dry lump choking his airway.

Breaking into a coughing fit, Lucius heaved and wheezed for a good minute before spitting out a mouthful of the dry, ashy lump. Upon exiting his mouth, the lump flew forward for an instant before dropping down to the ground from a great height.

Slowly easing up on his coughing, Lucius then breathed with his mouth, allowing air to enter the freshly cleared airways and enter his oxygen deficit lungs.

Just as he was in the process of calming the headache assaulting his head, he heard a voice speak.

"Whoa! What the hell was that thing you just spat out!? Eugh!" 

The sound of dry vomiting echoed for a few seconds, before being followed up by the same voice.

"You should really get that checked out, guy. I'm no doctor, but even I can tell that something is wrong with you, just from seeing that abomination that you spat out."

Confused by that abrupt, fast-talking voice, Lucius tried to turn his head in its direction. However, he instantly found himself unable to move his head. 

Turning his gaze downwards, he discovered that his neck and most of his body were tightly bound by thick iron chains and metal clasps.

Narrowing his eyes, Lucius suppressed the growing headache in an attempt to make sense of his surroundings when he heard the previous voice speak once more.

"Wait. You are a guy, right? No offense, but your facial features look very soft and feminine." The voice then suddenly paused, before continuing in haste. 

"No-not that I'm saying that guys can't have soft, feminine features! It's the Current Era! Anyone can be anything! A man can be a woman, a woman can be a tra"

"Where are you speaking from?" Interrupting the voice, Lucius asked in a dry tone.

"Me? Oh, just look ahead," came the reply.

Lifting his head with difficulty, Lucius focused his dizzying eyes on the scene before him. After waiting for a few seconds to allow his chaotic vision to settle, Lucius finally saw the owner of the voice.

Chained mid-air to the dry, scarred cave wall was a tall humanoid man. Well, a man wouldn't be an accurate description as what was chained to the wall resembled more of a corpse.

A boney figure, ankle-length, dry and unkempt hair which covered his face, shaggy and cracked skin that was unnaturally pale from the lack of exposure to light, and finally, hundreds of finger-sized maggots which crawled all around his body.

"Hi~" The man wriggled his boney, broken fingers after seeing Lucius' gaze on him. 

Seeing the unfocused and confused look in Lucius' eyes, the man flashed an understanding smile on his bleached face, hidden beneath a layer of rough, frizzy hair, and spoke, "You're feeling nauseous, powerless, and suffering from a massive headache, right?"

"Don't worry, that's normal. Just calm down and take a few deep breaths. I promise that it will all pass."

"Why can't I feel my soul power?" Ignoring all of his words, Lucius immediately asked.