Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 73: Murderer.

Following the black line in his vision, Lucius' face became more and more serious as he continued to go after it. The black line in his vision was growing dimmer and dimmer, already having gone from a black line to a whitish grey.

Since the murder a few hours had already passed. Due to the passage of time, the curse energy in the air had grown fainter and fainter.

If Lucius had delayed by another hour, the energy would have already dissipated.

Passing the Kitchen, which was to the left, Lucius eventually came to a junction in the corridor. Here the black lines interweaved with each other to form a complex black mass of energy. The corridor split three ways and the lines of energy did not seem to proceed any farther along.

He had hit a dead-end.

Closing his eyes and focusing his soul power in his senses, Lucius stood in the junction and carefully analyzed the chaotic mass of lines.

During the time Lucius was standing in the junction and analyzing the traces, the group of five students chasing behind him had already caught up.

The five of them were rapidly panting and were almost on their knees.

"God dammit... how can.....a person be so fast." one of the boys somehow managed to speak.

"....Student, please wait for us!" the girl wearing the black overalls begged. Inwardly she was grumbling, 'Is he running so fast just to spite us? And how is he unaffected after running so fast?!'

Lucius who was completely focused, naturally ignored their pleas. Although, even if he did hear it, he would have still ignored them.

Under his rapid analysis, Lucius' shut eyes suddenly flew open. With his enhanced hearing, he heard a jumbled and distraught screams coming from directly ahead of him.

Sensing that something important was happening, Lucius immediately took off. The group of students who had just had a moment of respite, noticed his departure.

Gritting her teeth, the girl in black spoke.

"Continue following him!"

The other girl in white, who had a pretty little face which was pale due to her exertions, spoke in hesitance, "Leader, why are we even following him?"

"I have a feeling that something major is going to happen. It would be the perfect report for the Academy newspaper." the girl in black replied.

Opening her watch, he quickly wrote down something before continuing to chase after Lucius. She did not bother to look back to check if her friends were following her.

With an excited glow in her eyes she thought to herself, 'Who are you, mysterious student? What will you show me this time?'

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As he neared the location, Lucius could hear the chaotic sounds grow louder and louder.

Making a turn, he came in front of an open door with the words 'Gym', written on top of it.Lucius directly entered inside.

Inside the gym, there was a group of 20 students standing around. Some were shouting loudly, apparently accusing each other, some stood in the sidelines watching the entire scene with amusement in their eyes, some had even broken out into a scuffle.

In the middle of the room, was a boy wearing a blue overall lying on the floor. His body was unmoving, with obvious rise and fall of his chest. He wasn't breathing.

Ignoring the commotion going around him, Lucius directly closed in near the boy.

"Stop! You can't approach him." a boy wearing red tried to stop Lucius, using his arms to block his way.

Without wasting any words, Lucius directly caught hold of one of his hands and in one smooth motion, broke it.

Crunch!

"AHHHHHH!!"

The crisp sound of the bone breaking and the pitiful screams of the boy in red, clearly rebounded of the walls of the room. The commotion taking place around him immediately quietened down, with each of their attention gathered at Lucius and the boy in red.

They watched this scene in shock. In the front of so many witnesses, Lucius had attacked a student.

The girl in black who had been chasing after Lucius, entered the room at this precise moment to witness this scene. Like the rest she was also dumbfounded, but quickly gathered her wits and took a picture of this scene with her watch.

After breaking the boy's arm, Lucius casually threw him aside and walked near the boy in the ground.

Placing his hands on top of the unmoving body, Lucius checked for signs of life.

"He's not breathing. No pulse either." Lucius softly spoke.

Due to the quiet atmosphere present in the room, every single student present could clearly hear him.

Using his hands to check around the body, Lucius noticed signs of abrasion in the body's throat. The skin around the throat was pale, with deep purple lines marked across the center of his throat.

"Death by suffocation. The killer used a rope or a string to restrict his breathing. The victim tried to fight back, but lost his consciousness in seconds before dying due to anoxia." Checking the entire body and gathering the clues, Lucius concluded.

With his experience, he had accurately recreated the scene in his head.

With a low voice Lucius added, "Such an inefficient and crude method."

None of the students present around him heard his statement, save for Ka'lor'ah who was sitting in his pocket. She rolled her eyes and said, "You don't say."

Lucius who had been kneeling in the ground, next to the body slowly stood up. With his head lowered, he slowly turned around to face the students, who had huddled up into a group.

Seeing Lucius like this, the students who were being watched strangely felt exposed. Although Lucius had his head lowered and hence was not directly gazing at them, they still felt a strange feeling. A feeling that told them- Nothing can be hidden in front of this gaze.

An ominous foreboding rapidly rose in their hearts.

Lucius who had his head lowered, suddenly lifted his head up. A strange smile filled his face, as he spoke, "Found you.". His eyes however were not smiling.

Without giving his audience any chance to react, Lucius immediately dashed into the crowd of students and directly used his hands to grip the throat of one of them.

Holding him by his throat, Lucius casually lifted him up into the air, until his feet left the ground.

"..STOP! Whhaat... ar yah.. doin...?" the student who was lifted in the air, struggled to speak up. Fear filled his eyes, as he felt Lucius' grip slowly constricting around his neck.

The others around him were once again shocked out of their wits, before recovering.

"You! What are you doing?" they screamed in unison as they stepped ahead.

Lucius simply released a tiny sliver of his [Killing Intent], which immediately froze their movements. Their faces rapidly paled and their bodies stiffened.

Even the boy who was held in the air by him, stiffened from that dangerous aura which was leaking out of Lucius' body. He stopped his earlier struggles and grew stiff like a puppet.

Suddenly hurried footsteps could be heard near the entrance of the door. A middle-aged man with a large muscular body rapidly rushed near this scene. His entire body was bronze in color, with large, firm muscles adorning his body. A kind of savage and bloody aura radiated off him, which warned people of his danger.

Looking at this scene inside the Gym, he was shocked for a second before letting out a savage roar.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! LET HIM DOWN!!" the man screamed and walked near Lucius.

From the way he walked, one could see that he was a trained soldier. The bloody aura on his body only served to confirm the fact that he had been in multiple battlefields and had seen many deaths.

Frowning a bit, Lucius proceeded to release an another portion of his [Killing Intent], this time focusing it towards the middle-aged teacher.

The teacher, who had been approaching also stiffened. His trained instincts screamed at him to not continue on further. It told him that if he took another step, only death would await him.

Being shocked once again, the teacher carefully looked at Lucius. Apart from his handsome face and slender body, nothing seemed to be unusual about him.

Calming himself for a second, the teacher then spoke.

"Young man, please let down that boy whom you are holding in your hands. Whatever be your quarrel, I will help you settle it."

Hearing this statement, Lucius indifferently spoke,

"This is the murderer."

Hearing his statement, the entire room was shocked before the agitated voice of a male student was heard.

"Bullshit! He's a friend of mine. I have been with him this entire time. There was no way he could have killed someone!"

The situation immediately became confused. From the way the boy had spoken, it did not seem like he was lying. However, Lucius' indifferent, yet confident tone did not seem like lies wither.

"Oh. What a shame." Lucius casually spoke.

"Looks like we have another victim now." he then continued.

The looks on everyone's faces in the room grew confused , before it turned pale. Even the middle-aged soldier was no exception. Taking a deep breath he spoke.

"You mean, there is another death."

Lucius simply nodded at his question, before turning back to face the young man who had shouted earlier, "Check your friend's room. There should be another body."

He then turned around to look at the boy in his hands. The boy's face had already turned very pale, and his body was uncontrollably twitching.

Lucius then spoke. "Isn't that right.....Bill."