The Innkeeper
chapter-1320

"What the hell happened?" yelled an Ifrit, its red bulging skin suddenly turning a darker shade. Its two, long jagged horns suddenly caught on fire, providing the creature with a large, flaming crown, making it look even more daunting.

The countless imps around it suddenly started running away, for even their fire immunity would not protect them from the heat of an Ifrit.

"I think you know what happened," responded a Hellspawn, its body made entirely of red flames, with dark, molten rocks covering the surface of its body like armor. "Someone finally caught on to our plan. It was bound to happen sooner or later. We should, instead, focus on the fact that the mark failed. Either the target is dead, or they somehow hid from the Mark of Iblis."

"Do not say blasphemous things!" howled a banshee, her hair suddenly standing up as she looked at the Hellspawn in fury, which only caused the Hellspawn to facepalm.

"I'm working with idiots," the Hellspawn murmured to himself.

"Focus up. This only means we need to accelerate our plans before they mount a proper defense," spoke as Asura, his words causing everyone to fall into a hush

Even the craziest of Hellions knew not to mess with Asuras. Of all the Hellions, they may not be the strongest, but they were one of the most dangerous. It was as if, as a whole race, they required anger management classes. Unfortunately, due to their considerable strength, hardly anyone had the guts to tell them that.

The Hellions began to discuss their plans, sitting atop a howdah strapped onto the back of a massive Kraven. All around them was a massive army, moving like a swarm across the landscape like shadows at dusk. In front of them was the massive border built by the Crystal race dividing their lands.

"Should someone go check up on who destroyed our setup?" asked the Hellspawn, hoping for a bit of forethought from its colleagues.

"Sooner or later, they will all fall down," said the Ifrit. "What does it matter if we pick one out specifically?"

The Hellspawn only sighed.

*****

Lex looked troubled as he snuck out of a Kraven city. No matter whose memory he searched there was no information on a new Kraven capital, and there was no information about the Kraven prince as well.

He couldn't find a lead, and for once his instincts were failing to guide him where he wanted. That made sense, in a way. If the Kraven prince was hiding in a panic room of some sort, then it should definitely have protection from things like divination to keep its location secret.

He could just give up and come back another time, it wasn't like this was an urgent matter. But since he'd come here, he'd like to give it one more try. He teleported away once more, this time to the spatial coordinates he remembered of Babylon, the city where the tavern had existed for a while.

Naturally, he was way off and appeared in the middle of nowhere, but he expected that. Lex searched for a while before he finally found the coast, and then dove directly into the, heading deeper and deeper into the dark waters.

With his spirit sense fully extended, he expected to find a monster soon, and he did. The problem was that he found only newborn, weak monsters. He knew that stronger monsters learned to restrict their instincts to attack everything in sight, but they seemed to be nowhere in sight.

Unconcerned, Lex kept going deeper and deeper into the sea till he was completely shrouded in darkness. He did not think it would be easy to come across a powerful monster, but it shouldn't have been so difficult. After all, they only needed to exist in the dark and they would continue to grow stronger.

For a while Lex continued to explore without results, but while finding the Kraven prince was difficult, finding a random monster with sanity was no issue for his instincts which is why he continued to wade through the sea until he eventually arrived at the entrance of an underwater cave.

Except… Lex put his hand on the cave entrance, and sent a pulse of Domination outwards.

"Hey there pal, don't mean to wake you up from your nap but I need a word," Lex said.

A torrent of water shot out of the cave, threatening to push Lex away, yet he remained unmoved. The ground began to rumble, as if something deep within the ground was being pulled out of its place. A loud, metallic wail filled the sea as if metal itself was being ripped apart as the walls of the cave began to move. The ground…

"I have no time for your dramatic entrance," Lex interrupted, this time letting Domination loose without restraint. "Are you up?"

"Yes sir!" a voice came from underneath the ground. The sea cave, as it turned out, was just a random hole inside the head of a particularly large monster that was sleeping with most of its body buried underground.

Of course, the reason it was sleeping during a time of war was because it was thoroughly wounded, and was trying to recover. Lex could see through its strengths and weaknesses easily, which is why he was not concerned.

"Listen up, I need to talk to Vinei. My name is Lex from the Midnight Inn - he should know about it. Can you tell me how to get in contact with him?"

The monster trembled once more, though it was not just because of the fierce aura Lex was giving off. Vinei was a Deity worshiped by all monsters. More importantly, he was obeyed by all monsters as well. His authority was total, and the only thing that surpassed their total devotion for him was their fear of him.

Confronted by someone who dared name the Deity directly, the very instincts that the monster had been born with started going off. If it had been anyone else, those instincts would have been telling it to attack like crazy. But since it was Lex, and the aura he was giving off was so scary, his instincts were telling him to not resist at all, and just help Lex reach the dark Deity.

Once there, the Deity himself could take care of any and all concerns.

"I cannot presume to know the location of the Dark Deity," the monster said truthfully. "I can only bring you to the warfront where the monsters fight. He may or may not be there."

"That will do," Lex said.

A small, white root emerged from the ground near Lex and touched his foot, all slowly and deliberately so as to not startle him, before they teleported away. It seemed like… teleportation was much too common in the upper levels, but the truth was that not all teleportations were the same.

Few could match how smooth and seamless Lex's own teleportations were, including the monster. It took them nearly a dozen seconds before they appeared at their destination, during which Lex and the monster both had to endure immense pressure from the teleportation itself. Fortunately, they both had tough bodies.

They reappeared, just as the sea cave monster said, at the war front. As far as Lex could see, the ground and the sky were filled with either monsters of Kraven. They fought mercilessly, making less use of the laws and spending more time ripping each other's bodies to shreds.

They were fighting in complete darkness, as neither Sol birds nor Frio birds would come close to such a battle, but that enabled the monsters even more. As numerous as they were, as powerful as they were, as dangerous as they were, the Kraven were losing.

But the monster's victory was not without cost. The black slime which covered the Kravens bodies was just as insidious as Lex recalled, even at the immortal level.

In fact, as Lex saw the fight, he noticed that the Kraven did not actively make use of laws in the same way humans did, but each of their attacks were backed by certain laws. Their slime, too, was empowered by laws. It was as if everything worked passively for those disgusting creatures. The most horrendous part about the Kraven immortals, however, was that their bodies were also constantly being acted upon by laws. As far as lex could tell, their bodies were constantly in a state of healing, keeping them at the top of their gane. With such absurd abilities, it was no wonder that the Krave were so difficult to fight. But while that was true for others, it was not so for Lex. While his eyes could see their strengths, it could also see their weaknesses, which is why he was confident in being able to take them out.

Lex diverted his focus from them and onto the monsters. While the monsters were powerful as well, what Lex was truly interested in was their Deity. He seemed to be out of sight, Lex could feel the fluctuations of divine energy in the distance.