The Innkeeper

A few seconds was all it took, if even that, for Lex to teleport, give Rick his orders and then teleport to the roof. But the sight that greeted him was not at all the peaceful and vibrant town of Babylon that was in the midst of a wedding celebration. Fortunately, it was not carnage either.

The town, and the entire world in fact, seemed to have lost a lot of substance. Everything had become a mirage, or projection through which they could walk. The only thing of substance that remained was the tavern, and a number of entities locked in furious battle.

A dozen Kraven were gathered outside, and were all at the immortal realm. It was their joint attacks which had completely destroyed the formations around the tavern.

Lex had no idea how exactly the tavern itself had survived the attack when even the formations failed, and could only interpret it to the Dribble Oak wood which all the wood in the tavern had been upgraded to.

But it was uncertain how long that wood would have continued to survive the onslaught if so many immortals kept attacking. But it just so happened, that within the seemingly mundane building were gathered the strongest beings in the realm, one and all!

Before the Kraven could let out their third attack, the two deities used their divine powers to isolate them from the rest of the realm, lest their fight kill all the nearby civilians. The rest of them did not hold back, and attacked with full furry.

Sabr was especially lethal, as his attacks betrayed common sense, his anger and frustrations at recent revelations warping his state of mind. Now that he had found a completely acceptable and reasonable outlet, why should he hold himself back?

It had to be noted that there were more than a few immortals in Babylon, so just a dozen Kraven should not have been able to so effortlessly infiltrate. But then again, even among the Kraven these few were far from ordinary. Moreover, they had already made preparations beforehand. All the immortals who did not happen to be inside the tavern were suffering from severely weakened powers at the moment. The Kraven had deployed a very special kind of poison in the air that only targeted immortals. Incidentally, Dribble Oak wood also cleaned and filtered the air, so no one in the tavern was affected.

By the time Lex arrived on the rooftop, all the fighters had spread out and it was as if their savagery knew no bounds. The level of this fight was way beyond Lex, and if he were in Babylon any single one of the attacks being thrown around would very seriously injure him, if not kill him outright!

Even though Lex could not be blamed for being vulnerable in front of a dozen immortals, he could not help but feel anger and frustration. Aware of the fact that such feelings won't be of any help, Lex simultaneously studied the Kraven.

There was something unusual about this small group, though he was not familiar enough with the Kraven to pick out what it was. The one thing he did pick up on was that the leader of the group was a very small Kraven that barely came up to Lex's chest. Yet dwarfism had not prevented the Kraven from being strong, as it projected the fiercest aura of the group. Clearly, he was the leader.

Yet while the others fought, the leader stood unperturbed as he looked towards the two deities. Lex clenched his fist tighter as he looked at the Kraven, for some reason reminded of his experience with Belmont. He had been slighted by him as well, though not nearly as much. Even then, Lex could not do much but play a few tricks on him. Yes, theoretically Lex could use an array that could reach the immortal level in strength.

In fact, he even had the blueprint for such an array, one of the final lessons inside the book hidden within the ring he studied arrays from. Yet he had never been able to complete it, even with all his current strengths.

What he wouldn't give to have another Butter Knife at maximum strength again, but since the knife can only be used inside the tavern, it would be useless in his current situation.

The Kraven and the birds continued to stare at each other, and Lex suspected that they were conversing in spirit sense.

"It's done," said Rick weakly, as he entered the roof. He looked pale and was out of breath, but his weakness had not stopped him from acting as quickly as possible.

Lex, whose original body was still inside the Inn, scanned it and quickly checked up on all his workers. It wasn't that he could ignore his guests who had been hurt at the tavern, but that he only had a limited number of keys at the tavern as he had not expected such a disaster.

All of them were in the Recovery room, being healed. But just that alone did not guarantee that they would survive. Even tolerating the aura of an immortal could damage the spirit of a mortal, as everyone had suspected of Lex when he first arrived in the Crystal realm.

Suddenly, he stopped and he felt his heart plunge. While their survival was still in question, there was at least one thing that could be confirmed. Betty, Big Ben's wife, who had been expecting, suffered a miscarriage!

An ominous cloud began covering the skies at the Inn. Anyone who was familiar with the Inn's history began wondering who had crossed the Innkeeper this time. Maybe there would be something interesting to gossip about soon.

But no, the enemy of the Innkeeper was not inside the Inn this time, and Lex had almost no way of harming him. Almost.

He used Targeted scan on the lone Kraven, just to see if he could learn anything about him.

Name: Belail Sacrin

Age: 17

Sex: Male

Cultivation Details: ???

Species: Kraven

Remarks: Special material detected on target. Acquire to trigger a special quest!

"Rick, use the card I gave you earlier," said Lex, his voice deep and filled with suppressed emotions.

Without asking any questions, Rick reached into his pocket and pulled out an ordinary-looking business card. Yet when he began channeling his spirit energy into the card, things quickly changed.

Sensing the same aura they had seen in the invitation Lex showed them, the deities who were negotiating with the Kraven suddenly turned to look back. On the roof stood two figures, Lex and Rick. Yet a moment later, another projection joined them.

The unique, isolated realm they had created around the battlefield trembled for a moment, as a being much more powerful appeared within. It was, of course, the Innkeeper.

Like he had done when Luthor and the rest were heading off to war, Lex had given Rick one of the Innkeeper's business cards when he went out to deliver invitations just in case he ran into trouble. He had not needed it then, but it came in handy now.

Although Lex knew that he had no real power, as the Innkeeper or even as his projection, the system held up to its promise of maintaining a powerful facade. The aura emitted by the projection was quite real, to the point where it began affecting the Crystal realm.

For a realm that could not support even a Heaven Immortal, the Innkeeper and his associated strength were too much. The clouds in the sky started quivering, as if the clouds themselves were boiling, and a red hue colored the sky, far past the horizon. 

In that moment, across the Crystal realm, all monsters suppressed their raving hunger and hid. In that moment, even the most gloriously shining Sol or Frio bird withdrew its feathers, and dove into a hole to hide. In that moment, the congress in the Crystal realm came to a halt as their protective formations sent out warnings of impending danger. In that one moment, when the Innkeeper's incarnation descended onto the Crystal realm, all life seemed to cower.

Belail, the Kraven who stood so confidently in front of the two divine birds, looked up and saw not a person, but a vision of his own death.

*****

In the Origin realm, a Bravenharbinger, stood in its study, meticulously polishing its weapon. Bravenharbingers were a race of tall, centaur-like creatures with six legs instead of four, four arms instead of two, and six eyes. The males were often 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall while their females were around 8 feet (2.4). They had rough gray skin, and usually had long black hair.

Like most in his race, this one was fond of close combat, and his weapon was a double-sided blade, meaning a blade extended from both sides of its handle. The blade was eight inches wide (20 cm) and five feet (1.5 meters) long on each side. Within the polished blade, a smiling reflection of its master was visible. But suddenly, that smile turned into shock.