The Innkeeper

The first thing Lex did was to erect an Imperial Shield above himself and Gisele. No matter how strong they were, being crushed by the enormous weight of a mountain of insects was going to kill them.

The next thing he did was analyze the situation. He had not expected the formation to change so suddenly. He was betting on getting inside the formation since he was sure that it would only block out the insects, not the humans. Or else, he would remain at the mercy of the immortal level insect. Though He had diverted one of its attacks, he could not do so again.

As it was, the immortal level insect no longer focused on him for a devastating attack from within the formation had targeted all the immortal level insects. What followed was a fight among immortals, held up in the air above the stronghold. Lex did not doubt that the empire would come out the winner in the competition, as the strength of the empire was not for show.

For all the bravado he had shown earlier, Lex now only had one objective: to reach the center of the stronghold. He would get away from the fighting, and see if there was a cure to the poison to be found. If not, he would get out of there as quickly as possible and go get some sleep.

The serious injury he had suffered was no doubt going to end with him sleeping for at least another month or two, which would seriously hamper his plans. But his plans couldn't keep up reality, he could now only hope that whatever treasure the mystery man wanted him to find had not yet been discovered.

Unfortunately for Lex, even in his current situation, his plans couldn't keep up with reality. Just as he started heading deeper into the stronghold to get away from the battle, Belle informed the Jotun immortal stationed there to hold nothing back and attack with all his strength and resources.

Just above her head was an opportunity so precious, beings from all over the realm were rushing towards here. Every second she wasted was a seconds worth of advantage she gave up!

Orders passed down in a flash, and the Jotun forces finally charged! Though it was a uniform charge, with all forces working in tandem, their speed was not slow at all. Instantly the two forces clashed, and all hell was let loose.

Lex and Gisele were completely surrounded by insects, and as if the pressure they were facing was not enough, the charge by the Jotun forces pushed the insects back, effectively squeezing the two who were caught in the middle.

Lex, who had used Harden to ensure the right side of his body didn't slump, was not really in the state to respond quickly to the oncoming force. Since his arrays, albeit not useless, were not delivering the potency he had come to expect, he had to get creative.

His right hand still in his pocket, Lex lifted his left hand and held out his palm, as if asking the insects to stop. But naturally, Lex was not being so courteous. Instead, he was making use of his extremely alien space affinity.

He had not yet learned to harness its power in any tangible way, unlike his employee Z, but during his brief and rare instances of practice, the one thing he had learnt was what kind of use would bring about undesirable results. Right now, that's exactly what he wanted.

The air in front of his palm started to wrinkle, just a bit, and all the insects who came in the vicinity of the wrinkles slowed down, as if the flow of time itself had altered around them. But that was not the case, instead the already fragile space in Polebitvy had become warped. In some places it had become denser and others it had stretched beyond what was reasonable.

The insects who entered this region experienced the unpleasantness which was having the very space their bodies occupied become fragile. The instability of space did not hurt their physical bodies nearly as much as it tortured their souls, which required absolute stability to exist.

Although Lex had, in one single move, stopped the retreat of the entire army, he instantly paled as he felt his energy reserve deplete drastically. No matter his affinity, playing with space, especially on such a large scale, was not easily sustained.

Lex withdrew his left arm as he mentally prepared himself for a real fight close up. Though he still planned on continuing to use arrays, their current unreliability meant that at any time he might need to defend himself. Even though it was bound to hurt, if it came down to it, he'd fight tooth and nail.

But, just as he mentally prepared himself to face some pain, he felt a connection that had eluded him for a long time, and he could not help but relax.

With his space interference stopped, the few hundred insects which had been affected fell to the ground, but the countless vermind behind them did not pause and rushed towards him like a tidal wave.

Gisele, who had been fighting off the attack from the opposite side, sensed the arrival and prepared herself to rescue Lex, but then suddenly he seemed to vanish in her senses!

Alarmed, she turned to look back, but was not prepared for what she saw.

Although he could not be detected, Lex had not vanished. Instead, he was now astride a massive, white wolf, which similarly could not be detected by her senses.

"Get on," she heard him speak through his spirit sense, and she did not hesitate to comply. Fenrir, who had just ended an extremely long and difficult trial, was ready to meet its friends it had not seen in so long.

Yet what awaited it was not the familiar cozy, and comfy Midnight Inn, but a brutal battlefield.

Strong, fast, and fresh from a fight for the fate of the forest, Fenrir had arrived just in time to save Lex from an uncomfortable amount of pain.

"I'm a little hurt," confided Lex to his trusted companion. "I'll let you deal with this rabble."