The Innkeeper

An Elf, a Minotaur and two humans followed a snacking child into a room. It had not been long, but someone had already noticed the lying corpses between the sleeping soldiers, alarming everyone in the area.

Those soldiers who had known, or had even been friends with those who had turned into demons were the most alarmed. Though each of them was supposed to be a battle hardened warrior, the unknown was always frightening. Even huddled together in the corner of the room, whispering their fears, their legs could be seen trembling.

"It's the Cursed Planet. It killed Norman in his sleep and turned him into an abomination…" whispered one.

"No, it must be the Root of Defilement! It is being fostered on this planet. As the inverse of the World Tree, it wields unholy powers over those in its domain!"

"No, no, it's the Child of Gravitz! I saw him in my dream, eating and eating and eating, as if he was devouring my very soul!"

"No it's…"

Luthor stopped paying attention to the words of the frightened soldiers and squatted down to take a closer look at one of the corpses. It was still on its makeshift bed on the ground, and had appeared to die without a struggle. Its disguise, however, was fading now and strips of its skin were peeling off, revealing the blue muscle underneath.

"It's a Nephil-drone," Luthor said, studying the corpse before moving to another one. "These demons are not as easy to form as some other breeds, such as zombies. The infection needs to start from the stem of the brain, so it hardly ever occurs by accident. Someone specifically targeted them."

"For what purpose?" the Minotaur asked as it smashed one of the corpses underneath its hoof. "If the enemy can destroy our ships, they can destroy us as well. There is no need for infiltration."

"That's not true," said Alfonso, munching on another snack that looked somewhat like a granola bar. "To penetrate the defense of our suits, the amount of force they would have to use would tear open a massive space hole on the planet. The Midnight Battalion is a thorn in their side if the enemy wants to do something secretly here."

The Minotaur glared at the child and was about to curse him out, but the elf spoke first.

"Only attacks containing spirituality threaten to rip the space in this vicinity. If they use non-spiritual attacks and simply bombard the planet with meteors from space, they will succeed in killing us without affecting the space. Or they could use some other drastic means, but they have not. That leads to two different conclusions. Either the target of the enemy is the planet itself, in which case it should hide a massive secret. Or, the target of the enemy is one of us. Or perhaps, all of us."

"Calm your men," Luthor said as he stood up. "Strengthen defenses and prepare for an attack. If the demons were activated now, then that means the enemy's next move is imminent."

Without waiting for anyone else to respond, Luthor walked out of the room and started to head deeper into their makeshift fort. They had approximately 3800 soldiers within their fort, mostly all a part of one large group or another, though of course there were a few stragglers.

They had enough food and water to support such a population for weeks even if they ignored Alfonso's ability to spawn unlimited food. The issue now was maintaining morale, at least for those not a part of the Inn.

Nobody could say for certain why it was so, but the members of the Midnight Battalion only seemed to grow stronger the greater the pressure upon them. None of them had buckled regardless of how great the threat was, and none of them wavered either. If they were not holding back their cultivation levels due to the kind of planets they were being sent to, more than half of them would already be in the Golden core realm.

Within the inner sections of, Luthor entered a specific chamber where he found a whole group of the battalion members resting. Although they were not asleep, they were meditating in place, trying to recover their spent spiritual energy.

"Jace, I want you to add multiple layers of inner fortifications. If you can, I also want you to strengthen all the walls as much as possible."

"You know I'm already preparing this fort as if we're going to be besieged," Jace said, opening his eyes, exhaustion evident in his voice. As a Foundation realm cultivator, creating such a massive fort on his own was not an easy task, despite having the ability to control the earth.

Luthor simply nodded, before turning his attention to another corner. There sat another member of the Inn, meditating like the rest, but with one stark difference. No one, not even Luthor, could see this member of the battalion!

The only reason Luthor knew that he sat in that specific corner was because of a small etching in the ground that had his name written on it.

"1000, I have a mission for you. Follow me."

Regis, who Luthor referred to as 1000, opened his eyes and looked at the man who was somehow looking directly in his eyes without even knowing where they were. With his finger he poked a small dot in the ground, indicating his acknowledgment of the order.

Like the rest, he had unlocked a new ability. Saying that he could vanish or turn invisible was not sufficient to describe his ability. Regis' ability was to completely disappear. Not only did he turn invisible, as well as turn all his gear and equipment invisible, but he could not produce any sound or vibrations either. Even the memory of his existence vanished from everyone's minds, including his name. That is why Luthor called him 1000, referring to him as the 1000th member of the battalion.

Regis had no control over his ability either, so it would remain active perpetually. The only way he could communicate was through physical touch. Fortunately, that had allowed him to write on a piece of paper and explain his situation to Luthor, otherwise he would be completely forgotten by all.