The Innkeeper

One of the many excellent features of Regal Embrace was how quickly Lex could learn defensive techniques. But not only could he learn them quickly, he could analyze someone else using them as well. With this new technique Lex hoped to retain that feature, as well as gain a similar feature for offensive techniques as well, not to mention every other kind of technique that existed. One should expect this much from a superior technique, right?

Unfortunately it was not meant to be, and not only because his new foundation was not yet built. Instead of making him have the ability to instantly pick up techniques, Lex's own learning ability and analytical skills were instead greatly boosted.

Yet, as of right now, these skills had no effect on the fight Lex was watching. Not only could he not learn anything, he was absolutely lost in terms of what was happening. Warheil extended his finger, and everything seemed to end. Light faded, sounds faded, thoughts faded. There was only the finger, which moved swiftly and slammed into Ragnar's chest.

The world returned to normal, and so did Lex's thoughts. Of course, he was never truly affected as the Host Attire would prevent it, but he was allowing himself to experience as much as possible.

Ragnar was either caught unprepared, or couldn't be bothered to defend. Either way, his body was thrown back, but in slow motion, as if time itself was moving slowly around him. The thing that Lex felt was most incredible was how there was no aura of the attack at all, or any devastating repercussions. There were no sonic booms or fallout damage, and everything was contained between the two participants.

Then the fight picked up its pace, and Lex lost sight of the two. He could always watch the entire fight slowly later, as he was recording it using the Inn, but for now he just allowed him to experience how vast the difference between himself and those two was.

On the battlefield, the fight was a lot more one sided than anyone had assumed. Ragnar was on the receiving end of Warheil's savagery, and it seemed like he could do nothing to fight back.

Normally, a fight between higher level cultivators took much longer than normal, and could go from months to even years. But that did not seem to be the case here, as Ragnar's armor had already been torn off of him in the most brutal way. Ragnar's body, despite its devastated state, was not bleeding, for every single drop that escaped his body would turn to ash and fly away.

Although, to Ragnar's credit, despite being so beaten, he was still doing his best to fight back, and despite being so overwhelmed so completely, his eyes were only filled with determination, not desperation.

In front of him, Warheil looked at him with derision in his eyes. The devil wanted nothing more than to end him, but he recalled the meeting he had with Jotun. To Lex, their meeting had been so brief he could not even study their expressions, but the two had had an entire conversation during that period.

"Well, well, what do we have here? To what do I owe this pleasure, Jotun? Don't tell me you're here to plead with me to let your general live," he had said when he saw the man.

"No, I'm here to make a deal. Devils love deals, don't they?" Jotun replied placidly. He seemed to be doing a tedious chore.

"Oho, a deal with an Emperor. I'm quite excited. What do you have to offer? And what could you possibly want?"

"I know full well the power of devils, and I know an ordinary human can never overcome the difference between races. Ragnar is a very promising young lad, and I have plans for him, so I don't want to lose him yet. You let him live, and in exchange, I'll promise not to hunt you down and kill you afterwards."

"Hah! You're threatening a devil? You think that'll work? You just said you knew the difference between humans and devils."

"I said ordinarily, humans cannot overcome the difference. What about me seems ordinary to you? I might have been afraid if this were anywhere else, but inside the Origin realm, even you devils have to behave in front of me. Now you take your time and think about my offer. It's not a threat, it's a deal, and a great one, in my opinion."

The small exchange had been extremely infuriating, but at the end of the day, Jotun had the right to be arrogant. With the backing of the Henali, in the Origin realm, he really could throw his weight around. Moreover, it wasn't as if Jotun had never killed a devil before. Not to mention… Jotun's realm.

Anger filled Warheil's heart the moment he decided to let Ragnar live, so he decided to leave a curse on his body.

That split second where Warheil seemed to be lost in thought, Ragnar saw an opening and attacked with deadly decisiveness!

He swung his face with full force, holding it with both hands. The weapon did not even come close to making contact, yet Warheil's expression changed. Around them, the universe seemed to change. The colosseum disappeared, and a desolate, barren land replaced it. Clouds filled the sky, but instead of rain, chains fell down, and instead of thunder they rumbled with the clinking of metal.

The chains latched onto Warheil, locking him in place, while hands emerged from the ground and seemed to tear at the devil's soul. But before any real damage could be done, Warheil's eyes changed. From the ordinary brown colored eyes, they changed to a fiery orange while the skin around his eyes faded just a bit, revealing reddish skin. 

The change was minimal, but that was all that was required for Warheil to break free forcefully from his bindings. There was no more hesitation in his actions. Warheil took a step forward, his first step during the fight and instantly reached Rangar. With overwhelming speed and strength, he stabbed his nails into Ragnar's neck.

The stab wound was not deep, but it did not need to be. Warheil cast his curse, invading Ragnar's body. For the first time, the general felt weakness invade him, and he lost control of his body, falling limp.

The fight had not lasted long, barely a few minutes, yet a conclusion was reached. Warheil stood unharmed, with his clothes ruffled a little at most. In front of him, Ragnar lay on the ground, awake but unable to move.

A deafening hush fell over the Inn as the spectators were left shocked! Ragnar was no weakling, that much the man had proved. Yet only in a few minutes he had been reduced to this state. Warheil truly was… a devil!

"In the future, do not feel arrogant just because you acquired a little power. In the universe, you are nothing but a little bug," Warheil said with a mad grin, as if he was enjoying Ragnar's condition. Although he had left the man alive, as per the deal with the emperor, but he had also cursed him. If they did not find a way to cure him, soon Ragnar would turn into a zombie. Then, as a demon, he would be at Waheil's beck and call.

As the creator of the 'zombie' demons, Warheil had an extremely deep understanding of them, and could turn anyone into a zombie by cursing them. In fact, that was how he created the very first zombie.

As far as demons went, zombies were not the best, but Warheil had received a lot of praise from his elders for such a creation. Now, he was looking forward to acquiring a Heavenly immortal level zombie under him. After all, no one other than him knew how to cure the curse!

 With a mad grin, the devil turned and left the colosseum. It was only when he turned that the crowd awakened from their stupor, and burst into cheers. Just because those from the Jotun Empire were devastated by the defeat did not mean that everyone felt the same. The devils obviously celebrated the victory, but there was no small number of beasts and even other humans who were cheering for the departing devil.

Countless cheering guests exited their rooms and swarmed onto the busy streets, nearly causing a stampede! They were yelling and screaming, and in the mood to celebrate. Meanwhile, Lex was working at full power to teleport anyone who was about to be run over by the stampede, or hurt by the celebrations anywhere.

Countless guests also disappeared, for it seemed like Warheil was hosting a party in his actual abode, to celebrate both his victory and recent breakthrough.

Comparatively, the soldiers from the empire were all filled with anger and bitter resignation. For countless years the humans had been waging war with demons, too afraid to directly confront the devils responsible. It seemed like… such a trend was destined to continue.