The Innkeeper

The isolated realm in which the battle was being fought ultimately did not collapse, but even if it had it would not matter too much as the fighting had come to a halt. The Kraven retreated, and surrounded Belail as they looked up in fear. The various leaders too were stunned still and looked up at the tavern roof.

None of them ever doubted Lex's mysterious elder for even a moment, if not for any other reason than because Lex alone would not be able to source the wood for his own tavern. Wood from a tree that specifically required immortals to cut it down was far from simple, and the wood received from it was the least of its boons.

Cornelius specially believed Lex had a mysterious background, for he himself had many unique life experiences, and knew the benefits a solid backing afforded one. Although such a background did not take away from the many feats Lex accomplished while at the academy, they did certainly explain why he had the capacity to perform them.

But having a mysterious elder, or a strong background, was one thing. Having the entire realm strain under the pressure of a single entity's descent was quite another! Currently, they and the entire realm were at the mercy of this elder!

The 'elder' looked down at everyone, his anger threatening to boil out. He wanted nothing more than to smash the Kraven into pudding with an earthshaking punch. But his anger did not make him a fool, nor did the reaction of the realm blind him to the truth that he was not actually as strong as he appeared. He only had the aura of the Innkeeper. While the aura could be used for intimidation, and perhaps a few other minor things, it certainly could never be used to attack.

As the Innkeeper, Lex looked to his left and saw his own projection there as well. It was a strange sensation looking at a projection of yourself, through yet another projection of yourself, while your mind was connected to both projections. The Innkeeper then turned and looked at the two deities, before turning his gaze to Belail.

"I usually ignore the games of children," said the Innkeeper, the usual warmth in his voice turning to bone chilling indifference. "But what I cannot ignore is that your games hurt my people."

He spoke no more, as if his purpose was to clarify that this matter was too far beneath him, and that he would have stayed uninvolved if the matter had not escalated to this degree.

Lex had made preparations in case there was trouble, but summoning the incarnation of the Innkeeper was not in his plans. Instead, he had used the scale given by Zagan, and sent Rick out to gather a large number of monsters who would be obedient to whoever held the scale. As weaker monsters, they would naturally defer to the wishes of stronger ones. As a result, some distance from Babylon a small horde of incredibly strong monsters were waiting to be summoned.

According to his original plan, if anything were to happen, he would use his formations to stall them while he summoned his monsters to provide aid. Now though, such a plan would no longer suffice.

The new plan, however, still started with Zagan's scale. He held out his hand, and without prompting Rick handed the incarnation the scale. Without even looking at it, Lex focused all the Innkeeper's aura and surrounded it with the aura, and spoke.

"This scale belongs to Zagan, once a monster of the Crystal realm, now my employee. In exchange for working for me, I allowed him to safely cross the tribulations and enter the Heaven Immortal realm. In the future, there will be more benefits waiting for him."

Although the Innkeeper spoke softly, it seemed to transmit from the scale and to each and every monster in the realm. The Innkeeper's aura was causing a strain on the entire realm, which meant there was nowhere in the realm free from his range. By adding the aura of the scale and his voice to the mix, he was able to transmit both across the realm. Of course, only the strongest of the strong could actually detect the aura.

"Whosoever claims the head of the Kraven Belail can avail such an opportunity as well."

Just as the Innkeeper finished his message, the scale crumbled as if it could no longer bear the burden it was under. The Innkeeper, too, was ready to depart. The trick about maintaining a mysterious and powerful image was to give others as little information as possible to study. The more time he spent here, the more clues he would leave.

Yet just as he was about to depart, his senses picked up something, and he looked up. Above him, in the sky outside the isolated realm, there was a small patch that seemed unaffected by the red hue coloring the sky. The fact that such a tiny patch remained unaffected by the Innkeeper's aura was highly suspicious, but other than looking at it, Lex did nothing. There was no point in pursuing such a matter. The incarnation disappeared.

Inside Lex's heart, his anger still remained. Instead of Belail, he wanted all the perpetrators to suffer. But he knew that his means were limited, and using the Innkeepers identity came with the restrictions of acting as someone of such a station.

He said himself that he disdained to act against 'children' and so he was giving out a slight punishment, which suited his image as someone far above the current situation. If, instead, he targeted everyone, he would seem petty. In that case, it would not make sense that he did not just kill them all himself.

Unable to do much more, the incarnation of the Innkeeper vanished, and the realm finally returned to normal.

As if he had been freed from some massive restraint, Belail took out a skull from a spatial tool and crushed it, teleporting himself and his retinue far away from the place. The fight ended just as abruptly as it began.

Somewhere far away, well within the territory of the Kraven, they reappeared.

"Find out what was the reason for sending to that damned place!" Belail roared at his follower, as he felt like he had fallen victim to some grand conspiracy. "And have the fort employ its maximum security measures. I'm going to the panic room!"

"Sire, isn't that… isn't that a little too much? We're back in our own territory now. Surely you have nothing to fear," said one of the other Kraven.

"Underestimating the enemy is the quickest way to die. We have not yet touched upon the deeper secrets of the Crystal realm. Do not fool yourself into thinking the realm is already ours," Belail replied, his voice filled with anxiety and irritation. Without waiting for more questions, he began to run. If only he could have escaped from this realm entirely, but that was not possible anymore. Inside his heart, Belail cursed out Ventura as he kept running.

*****

The deepest, darknest corner of the Crystal realm was a place that had never seen light, from the moment of the realms inception. It was a place so deeply guarded, so cleverly hidden, that there was no one, immortal or deity, who could find it if they did not already know of its location.

In such a place, there was a temple. The size of the temple was not too large, and was approximately the same as the Earth's moon. Surrounding the temple for millions of miles was one, continuous horde of monsters, all kneeling and looking down. For hundreds of millions of years these monsters had existed, and in their entire existence, they had never the courage to look up. Even as the ages passed, and they reached the immortal realm, the monsters remained as docile as possible.

The entire existence was merely centered around worship. The target of their never ending worship was a black bird, oddly similar in its physique to the Sol and Frio birds, though the element this bird had an affinity for was darkness.

Vinei, the deity of darkness, opened its eyes and all the monsters worshiping it outside trembled. It had felt an aura so overwhelmingly powerful, he was convinced it could free him from the chains of this realm. For a deity, transcending realms was nigh impossible, but with such a powerful ally, it just might be possible.

"Assemble," it whispered, and the largest army to ever appear in the Crystal realm stood up from their kneeling position for the first time in their lives.

*****

Above Babylon, in the sky, two figures seemed to be looking down at everything. One of them was the Bravenheart from the Origin realm, while the other was a figure shrouded in mist.

"Head master, did that… did that person actually detect us?" the Bravenheart asked, shock riling in his heart.

"No need to pay him any attention," the Headmaster said, perfectly calm. "Since he only sent an incarnation here, and did not act out personally, he has shown enough respect to the rules of Ventura. We will not pursue this matter, and he will not interfere in our matters either. After all, between beings of our level, we must show a certain level of understanding for one another."

The projection of the Headmaster disappeared. He had too many realms to overlook, and could not spend much time dealing with minor problems. Only when matters reached the level of Dao were they barely able to attract his attention.