Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 6: Fitness Testing! Part 1

Staring into the mirror, Lucius found a young, handsome boy looking at him. He had dark black hair and deep black eyes ,similar to the deep endless abyss. He was 1.75m tall with a slender build. He was thin and had no muscles to speak of.

He wore an impassive and indifferent expression on his face and his eyes were cold and detached. Touching his face, Lucius noticed that his skin was very fair and smooth. If not for the healthy red in his cheeks, people would probably mistake him for a corpse.

'It really is my body', Lucius was shocked.

From the time, he crossed over, Lucius never really had time to accept the fact that he really had gone back in time. Now that he was finally alone, reality hit him like a tidal wave.

Lucius immediately stripped, started examining his full body. He was looking and checking at his bone and muscle structures and exercising his control over his body.

'My body is really frail and weak', he thought as he shook his head.

'I need to start building my strength immediately.', he continued.

Lucius then sat down on the floor and reached out to his pocket. He then retrieved the crystal, which was still giving off a faint glow. Sitting with his legs crossed, Lucius held the crystal in his hand and closed his eyes.

He then started focusing inwardly. He was seemingly trying to find something within him.

After a few minutes, when Lucius was at the peak of his concentration, the crystal in his hand started floating up into the air and started spinning. The light it was giving off rapidly weakened.

Meanwhile, Lucius suddenly felt a strong sense of attraction within his mind. His consciousness started heading in that direction in his mindspace. After what seemed like a long time, he saw something at the depths of his mindspace. It was a reddish-black hazy cloud which was 1 metre in diameter. It's colour was very vibrant and the cloud exuded a sense of extreme danger. The same sense of danger one would sense in a life or death scenario, like having a car heading at extreme speeds towards them or when falling from a tall building.

As soon as he saw this cloud, Lucius immediately focused his mind even further and started attracting the cloud towards him. As it started heading towards him in a slow space, Lucius started retracing his way back to his original position, his conscious mindspace.

This cloud like object was actually the strongest part of a living thing's existence. The strongest part of a living being is not it's arms, legs nor it's brain.

It was the soul.

A soul is the centerpiece of one's existence. It gives validity to a being and is a part with unfathomable potential. A soul is immortal and can never be destroyed. When a living being dies, it's actually their minds and bodies that die, but never the soul.

Most people never uncover the existence of the soul throughout their entire lives. It's something that everyone knows that exists but have never seen it, similar to the air that surrounds us. Only in extremely rare cases do people find their souls, or at least a part of it. This happens in times of enlightenment, or in cases of life and death.

As Lucius was drawing the soul slowly up onto his conscious mind, outside in the real world a hazy fog started manifesting around Lucius' body. The crystal which was rapidly losing it's lustre, suddenly started bouncing up and down in front of Lucius' body seemingly overjoyed. It then started sucking the fog into its body, rapidly restoring it's glow and further enhancing it.

Right now, Lucius' body was twitching and shivering uncontrollably, His head and body were littered with innumerable sweat drops. Inside his mindspace, Lucius was still focusing on bring that cloud into his conscious mind. It was a slow and gruelling task, yet he soldiered on unhesitantly.

Time passed on unceasingly as Lucius' focused. His entire body was now wildly spasming. After almost three hours, there was sound of a muffled explosion. Lucius' shook wildly one last time and all his taut muscles became loose. He still had his eyes closed as his body slowly relaxed. His breaths were long with short bursts mixed in between them, seemingly following a pattern. On his expressionless face hung a faint smile.

After another hour, Lucius slowly opened his eyes. He jumped unto his feet and examined his body one more time. On the outside there was no visible difference to his body, yet it was inherently different.

'My body is finally infused with my soul now. I can now tap into my soul power.' Lucius thought, seemingly content with himself.

'I need to check my precise strength to understand the limits of my body and soul power', Lucius thought as he started dressing himself.

He noticed the time and noticed it was almost 11 PM. Still he thought of going to the gym to test his physical strength.

'Oh, this thing absorbed some of my excess soul power.' Lucius thought as he looked at the crystal which was now lying down on the floor in a satisfied manner,

Lucius quickly picked up the crystal and placed it in his pocket. Using the map function on the newly acquired ID card, he proceeded towards the gym. Lucius jogged his way to the gym whilst utilizing a special breathing method, to quickly reach his peak state in his current body.

After 15 mins, he arrived in front of a huge building. It was 4 storey building, and had glass panels throughout its entire outer walls. One could clearly see the inside the building, yet not the people in it. It was a fantastic mix of technology and architecture.

Closing in on the building, Lucius used Olivia's card to enter it. Throughout the academy, a student would have to use their ID to use the various facilities. One would be restricted by their ID. This is done to restrain the students and also the protect the academy. Lucius wasn't sure where his ID was, hence he decided to make do with Olivia's for now.

Entering the facility, Lucius was greeted with the site of a large open space lined with a glass flooring and various fitness and testing equipments. Ever since humanity had entered the Interstellar travel era, physical fitness became a necessity. One could not travel through space nor visit the various colonized planets, if one wasn't physically fit. Hence the practice of fitness training became integrated into the lives of every human.

The gym was mostly empty, save for the few students who were scattered randomly. No one took notice of Lucius' arrival and neither did Lucius bother with them. He then made his way towards one of the testing rooms which was empty and entered.

Upon entering Lucius heard a mechanical voice speak to him.

"Please select, which area to be tested?", said the voice.

"Full-body.", Lucius replied in his emotionless voice.

"Testing begins in 5 seconds. Please prepare.", said the voice.

"Let's begin then.", Lucius spoke as he close his eyes. He then started employing his unique breathing method, but this time he was doing it with his entire body. His muscles tightened up and his veins had become visible. A faint haze could be seen moving through his bloodstream. This was soul power!

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