Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 19: Keith's Troubles

While being dragged away by Reyna, Lucius' suddenly turned his head in a certain direction. His gaze was aimed to a tree, that stood a few meters away from them. Apart from being slightly bent and hence providing a bit more shade than the others, there was no difference between this tree and the others.

Yet, Lucius started at this direction without turning his head away. He even infused a bit of his soul power into his eyes, making a deep red appear in it's depths. Sensing that he was looking somewhere else, Reyna curiously asked.

"Is there something there?", she also looked in the same direction but could find nothing.

"No. I thought someone was watching us.", Lucius shook his head and replied.

'Was that my imagination?', Lucius thought to himself, before eventually sighing and shaking his head. He had to plan his visit to Reyna's lab and did not spare another thought to this weird feeling.

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In a certain residence.

"What is it?", Keith calmly asked his subordinate, who was standing before him.

"Boss, it's just that...", the subordinate hesitated. He truly did not know, how to deliver this information to his leader without making the other mad.

Seeing his subordinate hesitate so much, clearly made Keith angry and annoyed. He was currently in a very joyful mood after yesterday's events. He dreamt the entire night about his blissful life after Reyna seeks him out to thank him. He could imagine the look on the faces of those other pursuers, after learning about of his success.

Even now, he was in a fantastic state of mind, but was annoyed by seeing his subordinate's foolish look.

"Boss, you had asked me to keep a watch on Miss Reyna.", the subordinate paused after speaking this.

"And? What happened? Has she come to find me? Is she sick or something. Stop dawdling and spit it out!", Keith became nervous after he heard him. A tiny sense of fear sprouted in his mind. 'No. It can't be.'

"Miss Reyna, was looking for Lucius since this morning. She then found him in, one of the common areas and went to apologize to him. She then invited him to her lab and they headed together.", he spoke it out ion one shot without pausing.

BANG!

A large sound was heard and the table before Keith caved in. The shear force behind Keith slam, broke through the surface of the table and splintered it.

One had to know, the table wasn't the cheap kind either. It's wood was procured from a genetically enhanced tree, which was known for its durability and strength.

"What did you say?!", he was truly angry.

The subordinate was frozen in shock. He knew his boss would be mad, but failed to foresee the sheer intensity of the anger. He could not reply Keith's question and just stood there.

Keith suddenly dashed out and held his subordinate by his throat. He then slowly lifted him up and had him hang in the air. Feeling the constriction of his throat, the subordinate finally awoke from his stupor and stared panicking.

"TELL ME, WHAT HAPPENED!?!", Keith screamed at his subordinate. He could vaguely guess what could have happened and had lost his calm over it. He could not even begin to imagine the consequences of his actions. After all he had lied in the face of Reyna Snowden. He already knew she looked down upon such practices and abhorred people who steal and fake their research just to get close to her.

If she was truly infuriated by his actions. Keith could see all his connections and everything he had worked hard to build in the academy rapidly fall apart. Who in their right minds would want to offend the Snowden family, over a mere heir of the Cline family. Hell, even his own family might abandoned him.

"The-the young lady went over and bowed to Lucius in apology. She then requested for his assistance before eventually taking him back with her. She was even clutching his hands and led him towards her car."

'I am finished.' Keith felt his body rapidly losing power. He could already piece together the remaining information from this and speculated that Reyna already knew the true perpetrator.

His knees lost their strength and he fell down on his butt. His subordinate who was choked also fell down with him. Keith spent a few minutes on the ground with his eyes closed. He was taking in long breaths and giving out short exhales.

Eventually he opened his eyes. A cruel light shone out of his eyes as he spoke with gritted teeth.

"LU-CI-US! I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR THIS!"

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Meanwhile, Lucius and Reyna had made it to the Snowden Corporation Building. He had ridden here with Reyna in her car and during the entire journey she hadn't let go of his arm nor stopped asking more about his researches. She couldn't hold her excitement and had already hold him of everything that was in her lab.

"Ah! We are already here. Quick let's go!", saying so she pulled Lucius and continued forward.

On their way to the elevator she also explained the various features and items that were in the building.

"That over there is an intelligent, automatic guard bot. Oh, that is a floating water fountain. The state of the molecules have been altered to make it float."

Speaking and pointing at the various objects, further increased Reyna's excitement. While she had walked through the same lobby hundreds of times, explaining the various objects around, to another person was an entirely new experience for her. it was similar to how a little girl would try to show off her toys to another person.

Lucius who was being led around the entire time, seemed unfazed by her behaviour. He only answered minimally and was mostly quiet and reclusive.

Eventually they made to the elevator and she input the floor that they were going to take.

"Even this elevator works with the latest propulsion technology. It allows us to completely shield the effects of gravity on the outside, so that no G-force is experienced on the inside. Using this on the space elevators will cut down the waiting times by almost 40%!"

They quickly arrived to the floor Reyna had been in yesterday.

"The room to the left is my lab, while the one to the right is my room."

They then approached the lab and entered it.

"Welcome back, Lady Reyna.", a female voice sounded from within.

"It's good to be back Iris." she replied then turned to face Lucius.

"That is my personal AI system. She is called Iris. She helps me all my research and experiments and also to keep the lab clean.", saying so she turned back towards her lab and spoke, "Iris, this is my friend, Lucius. That research I was reading yesterday was written by him. He really is a genius right!

"It's good to meet you, Mr.Lucius", Iris replied.

"Likewise and just Lucius is fine.", Lucius replied in a curt tone.

"Now that all of us are introduced to each other, Let's begin." Reyna immediately spoke up. She just couldn't wait to get started.

"Before that Lady Reyna. It's almost time for lunch and you father would be waiting for you.", Iris spoke.

"Ah, please inform father that I will eat in the lab today. Oh get a set of lunch for Lucius too.", she turned towards Lucius and asked," Do you want anything specific. We have every cuisine available here."

"Just the standard is fine.", he replied.

"Instruction noted. I shall inform the staff and the President."

"Now, let's begin. You can start now."

Lucius nodded and stepped towards one of the indents in the ground. The floor of the lab was smooth and glossy, save for the area that Lucius stepped into. This area was slightly lower than the rest and was tiled with a special glass- like material.

Lucius then spoke up, "Iris, connect to my Mindscape and open FreeFlow mode."

'It's time to make some changes to my research.' Lucius thought to himself as he began.