The Innkeeper

Suera, Cosmic Cloud, Henali Command Center

The strategic coordination office was massive, and populated with hundreds of thousands of workers. Although they were not sitting in cubicles, each worker had a force field around them, preventing any sound from passing through, It would also restrict vision from the outside so no one could see what data the worker was handling.

All of this was done for the sake of protecting secret information from being leaked. Moreover, this was just one of the layers of protection in place. For example, the workers would be assigned tasks and complete them, but every name was replaced by codes, so they never really got to know who they were working with, or what locations were being mentioned.

"Troop carrier 117, my log shows you have maintained radio silence for one hour. What is your status?" asked one such worker. This was just one of thousands of such calls the same worker had made already just that day.

After a few moments of silence, he got a response.

"This is Troop carrier 117. Current status is on standby. Local conditions are not suitable for space engagements so there are no threats. Everything is normal for now," the ship responded.

The worker asked a few more routine questions, before marking the ship's status in his logs. He did not know which ship he was talking to, and what its mission was. His only job was to ascertain its status.

What he, and some other workers in that room, did not realize was that many of the ships reporting their status had actually been destroyed. It was unknown who was making the status report.

*****

Lex walked out of his restroom with wobbly legs, though his eyes seemed to be filled with energy. He had finally completely absorbed the entire blade, so he need not suffer like that anymore.

His affinity with the law of regrowth had reached the maximum it could for now, so he planned on altering his schedule just a bit. He wanted to test out how much his ability to heal had grown, so he would spend the next couple of days within the Recovery room. He was looking forward to having skin again, and even if he was going to be hairless for a short while, it was not a big deal.

He would have to sacrifice his sword training for a few days, but since his mindset about that had changed, he did not mind. Since this was going to be a long journey, a delay of a few days would not set him back by much.

But first, even before sleeping in the Recovery room, Lex needed to recover some energy. He staggered to his dining table in his suite, and was quite satisfied to find it filled with countless dishes. Although the food provided by the Midnight Inn did not leave one wanting, it could not compete with the elite dishes made throughout the universe. 

Lex did not take that too personally either, as the Inn had always struggled with food somewhat, especially meat items. Kenta's arrival was not going to change that, as one person could not cook for millions, but at least Lex was working him to the bone in the name of refining his cooking skills, and personally benefiting from it.

The ingredients he used were the best of the best, and so the food was always extremely nourishing. The flavor sometimes needed work, but Kenta was only an aspiring chef, so it made sense if he was still refining his skills.

Without any hesitation, Lex began to gobble down all the food as he simultaneously paid attention to Vera's event. At the moment, all the guests were still entering the venue and finding their 'destined' locations within. Only when the doors were sealed would the event fully begin. For now, there were only a few random diviners on stage discussing modern divination theory.

What Lex noticed almost immediately was that most of those participating were relatively young. Many who were in attendance were older, but they simply watched in silence. Either they were giving the younger generation an opportunity to shine, or nothing of interest to them had occurred yet.

Eventually Lex got tired of watching since he had no interest, nor did he have any knowledge about divination.

After finishing his meal, Lex teleported over to his personal Recovery room and comfortably lay down, making himself cozy. The good thing about eating Kenta's food was that it was extremely filling, even with his physique, which would make him feel slightly drowsy.

"Mary, in case I don't wake up on my own, wake me up in three days."

"Sure, I can do that," she answered.

He checked the Inn one last time, ensuring there was no problem, before going to sleep.

*****

An entire day had gone by, and during this entire time, the battalion was not attacked even once. Instead of feeling relieved, Luthor frowned harder the longer they went without being attacked.

In the first few hours that they sent out their beacon, quite a few of the other troops decided to join them. After all, the Midnight Battalion had quite the reputation at this point, so fighting alongside them could never be wrong.

But then, eventually, even the other troops stopped coming. What's more, during this entire time, they could not contact the alliance, nor was there any indication of reinforcements arriving.

Sandra's team had been patrolling for hours, but eventually Luthor called them back as well since they could find neither friend nor foe.

Something was extremely wrong with this situation, and for the first time, Luthor began to actually worry.

Inside their freshly built fortifications, in one of the areas assigned to the troops who had decided to join them, two soldiers were sleeping beside one another. This was nothing usual, as getting rest when the opportunity arose was a soldier's instinct.

But the next moment, both the soldiers woke up simultaneously and looked at each other. Their eyes began to turn black and their skin began to peel.