Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 87: The Beginning of the Nightmare. Part 3

"So it finally begins." Lucius spoke as he stared up at the sky.

The black clouds which were hiding the grey skies had completely disappeared at this moment. In the distant sky, a strange golden film of light was seen. Much like the sun, it seemed to be exist in an untold distance yet seemed to have a direct effect on all living things.

Numerous words of an unknown language and origin, began to flicker in and out of existence as it entirely covered this golden film of light. The words started to increase in their speed, as they began to rapidly fluctuate with light.

Just as their speeds reached the peak, these words flashed one more time with the brightest radiance they could muster before disappearing. with a flash.

Looking closely at the sky, one would notice a thin crack forming on the golden film. The crack started to rapidly expand with multiple other cracks forming. Covering the entire surface of this light much like a spider web.

It was at this moment, that the sound of glass being shattered was heard, tearing through the silence which seemed to extend into the Universe.

Pieces of golden light both small and large started to fall from the sky. They seemed to be made of an unknown energy as they rapidly began to suffuse into their surroundings before completely disappearing.

The golden rocks which had previously fallen from the sky suddenly began to stir. These rocks which had been quietly lying on the ground started to wildly vibrate. With the golden energy rapidly circulating around them, the rocks began to float up into the sky one after the other.

They continued to rise into the sky only coming to a stop when they were exactly 100m into the sky. Floating at this altitude, they rocks began to slowly rotate, gradually increasing their speed until wind started to gather around them. These spheres of wind rapidly formed around the body of the rock, seemingly protecting them.

Looking at this scene before his eyes, Lucius suddenly felt amused. He remembered the first time he had seen a similar scene in his previous life. Just like the people in the base, he started up at the sky in reverence and shock. He had believed these strange phenomena to be an act of God.

Remembering a small poem composed by the philosophers of his previous life, Lucius gently recited.

"??????? ??? ????? ????,

???????? ???? ???? ? ????? ????? ?? ??????'? ?????.

???????? ??? ??? ?????????,

????????? ??, ??? ????? ????????.

?????? ??? ???????? ?????? ???????,

??????? ???????, ?? ???? ???????? ??? ?????."

Just as Lucius sang the last line, the spheres of wind surrounding the spinning rocks, suddenly shot out a large pillar of golden light into the sky. A loud ringing noise resounded within the minds of every person present in the base.

Hearing that painful sound inside his mind, Lucius merely frowned a bit.

"Annoying." he spoke indifferently before circulating his soul power to block the sound.

The others however were not this fortunate. The ringing sound rapidly increased in volume, until their minds could not tolerate it any longer. They began to bleed from the orifices, as their brains began to feel a tremendous amount of pain. Alex, Olivia and Reyna were no exceptions.

The engineers and scientists who had a lower tolerance to pain, could not stand any longer and collapsed, painfully writhing in the ground. With the younger students and most of the woman directly losing their consciousness, unable to withstand this pain.

Only the battle hardened soldiers continued to grit their teeth and remained steadfast in their duty.

The beam of light originating from each and every single, golden rock expanded. The golden beam continued to expand until it reached a diameter of 100m, before it stopped. They seemed to mimic lighthouses, guiding an unknown presence into this planet with their beacons of light.

DUM! DUM! DUM!

The ringing sound suddenly switched into the sounds of war drums, seemingly signifying the arrival of an unknown army.

And arrive they did.

Just as soldiers atop the compound walls, stared into the distance unable to make sense of the situation, a change occurred in plains.

Thousands motes of light, fell from beyond the sky seemingly coming from the Universe. Gentling landing on the ground, thousands of these motes stilled for a moment. Suddenly a change occurred. These points of light started to rapidly devour a strange energy and began to expand.

Most of them grew to a height between 1 to 4 meters in height. A few however grew even further beyond, to a maximum height of 8 meters. These motes had already turned into spheres of golden light, when they suddenly began to wriggle and form shapes.

A large body, multiple limbs, a head, the spheres of light strangely began to shape themselves into various structures of the body. Under the dumbfounded gaze of the soldiers, these 'beings' of light finally lost their resplendence, as their true forms were slowly revealed.

Thousands of bug-like beings, with their small heads and thin limbs stared at the group of humans atop the walls, with their compound eyes.

Their carapaces shone with a metallic glint, as the silver-black armor shined under the golden light. Connecting their bodies to their heads was a armored thorax. Their small heads, protected with chitin forming a helmet like cover, contained only their compound eyes which shone with ruthlessness and naked killing intent.

Some of these creatures had two legs while others had four. All of them however had a minimum of two forelimbs which contained a sharp sickle like object. It's only purpose to cut and kill it's opponents.

Some were large and others were small. All of their eyes however contained the same intent. The desire to slaughter these two legged beings hiding behind those tall walls. This desire which manifested into a visible red cloud, was directed towards the base.

At this moment, fear enveloped all the inhabitants of the base. The soldiers who could directly see these bugs, lost the power in their legs as their bodies collapsed. With pale faces and trembling bodies, they could not muster their power to scream.

The others inside the walls, could not see the bugs but felt cold needles pricking every inch of their skin. Their primal instincts, which had mostly regressed screamed at this moment, advising them to flee.

It was unknown who this person was, but a single scream tore through this silent atmosphere, followed by the sounds of panicked running. Like a fuse igniting a wick, a cluster of screams and curses followed by a panicked running followed. The sounds of people pushing each other, some stepping on the others blended to form a crazed cacophony.

To describe the scene inside the base in a single word. It was a- Pandemonium.

Reyna, Olivia and Alex were the only people, who had a semblance of rationality remaining in their heads. After their initial confusion, they finally remembered the warning given to them by Ka'lor'ah. The killing intent which was directed at them, did not have a significant effect on their minds and bodies. After all, their souls had already awakened an their mental fortitudes were solidified.

Alex who was the most experienced among them, noticed the direction of this intent and led the three towards the compound walls on the south side. They directly trespassed the restricted area and ignored the frozen guards.

Climbing atop the walls, they finally saw the sight of an army of neatly lined bugs.

Bugs which were capable of intelligent thoughts, as seen from the way they were rearranging their formations.

It was at this moment they understood the hopelessness of the situation. On one side were thousands of bugs which seemed to be killing machines. On the other were hundreds of frozen soldiers and thousands of panicked citizens.

While the humans had the advantage in the numbers, looking from the way they fled. It only postponed the inevitable.

"It's over." Reyna mumbled these words with a pale face.

Even Alex, who usually had an unwavering amount of confidence had a grim expression on his face. Even with his genius mind, he could not see a solution to this scenario.

Meanwhile the bug-like aliens on the fields outside the base had already finished their arrangement. The bugs which were 8m tall and heavily armored acted as the tanks and were positioned at the front of the army, with the smaller more nimble bugs positioned directly behind them.

Their entire arrangement were shaped like the jaws of an ant. Flanks on either sides and a killing zone in between protected by these tanks. The entire formation was flexible and could be detached and moved very easily.

Clearly these bug-like aliens were taking this battle very seriously. The hunger for blood and intent to kill flared from those compound eyes.

At the very back of this formation, a two legged armored being which was 6m in height walked forward. Unlike the other bugs which had forelimbs, this one had a pair of arms covered in it's carapace. Its steps were steady and filed with an inestimable amount of power.

A large black object was present on it's back. Its face was completely covered with the chitin helmet, exposing on it's compound eyes. Unlike it's brethren however, these eyes were filled with calmness and intelligence.

With a voice that could be described as a shrill scream, it addressed the other bugs, in a unknown language.

Their defenses are down. Kill them all.