The Innkeeper

Chapter 1826: Queen of Avalon

"How many times is this already? Are we going to have a meeting every time the Innkeeper sneezes?" asked a disgruntled dwarf as he slammed his axe on the table in front of him.

"I hope not," said Ballom lamely. "Unless his every sneeze can bend the karma of an entire realm, and give off traces of ages past. The latest reports from the Inn suggest that a trace of the Nether’s karma was detected during the fluctuations."

Someone in the room full of Dao Lords scoffed.

"So what? No living being that has ever entered the Nether has ever returned, and nothing from within has ever exited. If it weren’t for the ancient stories from the Primordial Age, the Nether wouldn’t even be worthy of notice. If he wants to go solve that mystery, he’s more than welcome to. I don’t see why we should care."

Silence filled the room, and not even Ballom answered, though it seemed like he knew why they were having this meeting. For once, he wasn’t the one who called it.

"Even if all who have entered have yet to return, not all who entered have died. There are those whose Life Markers are still active," said a Celestial.

The dwarf, though, couldn’t care less.

"Get over it buddy. Even if her Life Marker is still active, her Dao is broken. No one is coming out of the Nether, and I can’t be bothered to pretend otherwise. In the future, only call me if there is some real work that needs to be done - not because you want to play ’clubhouse’."

The dwarf left ceremoniously, leaving the room filled with an awkward silence. A few more left as well, though the majority remained.

"Do not mind them. They’re just jealous of all the attention that the Innkeeper is getting," said Ballom, looking towards the Celestial. "Those whose greatest achievement is merely becoming a Dao Lord will forever envy those who actually expand the Dao."

"Ballom, it is your agents inside the Inn. Send me their memories. If this is real... if the Innkeeper really came in contact with the Nether and survived, then I must meet with him," said the Celestial solemnly.

"That’s not a problem, but do not get your hopes up. They merely detected a faint aura in the fluctuations of karma. It is not enough to go on," Ballom said, even as he transferred the memories over.

"Nothing leaves the Nether, you know that. Not even its karma. If the Innkeeper has a way to make that happen, then surely we have a chance to rescue her."

Ballom did not speak, even if he himself was sceptical. After all, although he was not ignorant enough to say it himself, it was a fact that the Queen of Avalon’s Dao was broken. It was highly unlikely that she could be saved. But then again, if anyone could pull off a miracle, it would be her. After all, she had done so before.

"Setting that aside, there’s something much more pressing that we need to address. My agents believe that... the Innkeeper seems to be attempting to trace some karma back to the Primordial Age. If he succeeds, then we must be ready to act immediately. I’ve already talked to the Henali, and they too are willing to lend a hand. The Humanoid Alliance and the Henali, together, will make a statement guaranteeing his protection. The secrets of that Age must not be lost again."

This time, no one argued.

Elsewhere in the universe, similar meetings were taking place, though they were not discussing the Innkeepers protection. Instead, they were all plotting how to get their hands on the Innkeeper if he managed to learn those secrets.

This was not the first time such a thing happened, as any time someone made an attempt to peer through the veil of history, countless forces would show their interest in various ways. But even though these meetings happened, no one expected anything to come of it.

Within Ventura Prime, the Headmaster of Ventura briefly paused as he heard the news, and shook his head. He did not believe the reports.

Within the HOA, Sekhmet heard the news and raged. She hated Lex, and she hated the Innkeeper even more. If she could, she would have loved to tear them limb from limb. But she couldn’t, so she turned her attention back to other ways of sneaking into the Origin realm. She had to get there before the realm matured!

The Seraphim, the Banks, the various organizations followed the Path of Chaos, all of them heard, and all of them waited, hoping for the Innkeeper to succeed.

Unfortunately for them all, the Innkeeper wasn’t trying to learn the past. No, he was fusing with the Karmic Bead.

Once the origin of his system had been traced, the bead went through all the other karma he accumulated, day by day. Then, he met Bastet, and once again the bead began to look into the origin of such a significant karma.

But by now, the bead had become incredibly powerful, and so it began tracing the origin faster than Lex could follow along. He would barely recognize an aura here or there.

After Bastet, came Falak, her trusty helper. Then, the days slipped by until Lex met Ballom - the first real Dao Lord that Lex had met.

Fortunately, the bead did not try to look into his karma. There was no way a living Dao Lord wouldn’t sense something like that, and it was best not to provoke him.

After that, everything went fine. It was all pretty much as Lex expected, except at one point, Lex was certain the bead missed something. It missed that mystery man who had appeared inside his Inn. It hadn’t even picked up the interaction Lex had with him, as if it didn’t exist.

Probably another good thing.

The karmic bead continued to fuse into Lex’s karma, accumulating such an immense weight that even Earth Immortals started to be able to detect it.

From a certain point of view, it was incredible that the bead could support so much karma. From another point of view, it was entirely inconceivable... that all that karma originated from Lex. It was no wonder his karma had started to fall out of balance. But that was fixed now - hopefully.