The Innkeeper

Chapter 1846: Kneel

Time was invincible, that was more or less already established. That did not mean those who wielded time were similarly invincible, for what mattered in their case was not time itself, but to what extent they could display its effects.

Giselle, who had been studying and searching far and wide for anything and everything that could help her reliably destroy Defilers, could use time. But when it came to judge how good her application of it really was, Lex was stunned.

To hide something from his eyes was not an easy task, so although Lex himself was not an expert in time, he could tell what was happening - having lived somewhere around 25 years himself.

The sword, the very one she used to cut down sand monsters, the very one she carried with her wherever she went, contained within it an immense amount of time. Many, many years of compressed time had been stored in that sword. More importantly, the withering effect of time was extremely prominent, as if far amplified than just the ordinary passage of time.

So even if the number of years contained within that sword were a mere million, in reality the natural decay and decline resulting from time was equal to hundreds if not thousands of millions of years.

Lex’s eyes gleamed as he saw that. Trapping so much time in a weapon... was no easy feat. Lex himself had never tried to mess with time, but he was sure that even he would struggle with such a task if he tried. Giselle’s prowess... was incredible.

Unfortunately, Defilers were not simple creatures either.

The Defiler in front of her did not seem to notice at first what was happening to its body when she stabbed him. But then it trembled, and the sprawling blackness that was its body shrank tremendously, as if fading with the passage of time.

The energy did not leak out of him, it simply converted into harmless radiation and escaped into the air. Profane energy, one of the most disgusting and difficult to deal with forms of energy, deteriorated over a million years into harmless, simple heat as it left the Defiler’s body.

The Profanites fighting Lex suddenly all just keeled over and died. The trump card Giselle had prepared did not kill the Defiler - he was an immortal after all - but it did instantaneously cause it to wither and lose much of its strength.

The Defiler who was cautiously but consistently teasing and taunting Giselle with his words and attacks was suddenly left in a shriveled state, even its dark body seemingly on the verge of collapse.

Giselle did not take the moment to gloat or taunt, she merely continued her attack with dedicated focus. The Defiler was still slowed by the initial pulse released from her body, so she rushed, attacking now with palms rather than fists or swords. The Defiler, now looking like a shrivelled old man, glared at her with such immense hate that it could practically be physically as aura.

Yet as Giselle’s palm, covered in the ancient aura of time, touched the Defiler, he seemed to disappear as if he were a shadow brought into the presence of light.

Giselle was stunned, unable to find him, but Lex’s eyes followed the Defiler even as he appeared in the sky, in the center of the storm. Lex almost decided to pull him down rather than let him enact whatever plan he was doing... but then he noticed the storm’s strength fading.

All the pent up energy that the storm had accumulated was being absorbed by the Defiler, almost as if he was bound or connected to it somehow. Lex decided to refrain from acting. Since the storm was being stopped naturally, he might as well let the Defiler do him a favor.

"You always were a little too clever for your own good, little Gigi," the Defiler roared from up in the air. As its energy rose, a certain smell began to spread in the air - the smell of a certain phenomenon. It was like the smell of freshly cut grass, or the smell of rain. Just by smelling it, you could tell what had happened, or was about to happen.

"Lex, this is bad," Giselle said, looking up in the air with an ominous expression. "He’s about to..."

"Yeah, I know," said Lex calmly. "I was hoping to let him end this storm on his own, but I guess we need to intervene in advance."

"Lex, no matter what, you have to let me land the finishing blow on him," Giselle said gravely. "This Defiler is not alone. Behind him is an entire organization of Defilers, and if you kill him, they will trace the death back to you. If I kill him..."

Before Giselle could complete her words, the Defiler started roaring with laughter, as if he had said the funniest thing is the world.

"What do you mean he will be marked? Isn’t he already marked, little Gigi? Don’t you remember? What is your role? What is your legacy? You are our standard bearer, the herald of misfortune, the chosen one of misery. All who are close to you are marked for harvesting, and all who have shown you kindness are destined for death. Only those who betray you shall find salvation," the Defiler screamed, anger and gloating in its voice.

Giselle did not seem bothered by the scream, her mental fortitude far beyond being influenced by simple provocation. She merely continued her speech.

"Anyway, the last strike must go to me, but we’ll need to work together to take him down before his Major tribulation begins. I have prepared for unexpected developments so..."

Lex simply placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to pause.

"Say less," he said calmly, a faint smile on his lips. His eyes, though, did not smile.

Lex disappeared from where he stood, no longer interested in continuing the facade of being weak, or studying the effects of Defilers on laws. Although Giselle was not bothered by the Defilers words, Lex did not appreciate them... or the history of pain that they hinted at.

Lex appeared right in front of the Defiler, looking directly into its white eyes.

"Kneel," he said, his voice tinged with Supremacy. Yet even before the Defiler could obey, Lex slapped it across the face, launching it to the ground like a missile, resulting in a devastating explosion right before Giselle’s feet.

The furious winds of the storm did not allow for a dust cloud, so immediately Giselle laid eyes on the Defiler, kneeling before her with pain and confusion in his eyes. A Defiler’s body was darkness, it was corruption, plain and simple, and it had no fixed physical forms. Yet, in that moment, the Defiler was forced to retain its humanoid shape... and alongside it, its’ jaw that Lex’s slap had dislocated.