The Innkeeper

Chapter 1858: Smelled so good

The two of them planned together for a long time, discussing various details of the plan. As it turned out, not only did Vinei not protest any of the three tasks of Lex’s agenda, he provided Lex a lot of detail and helped him plan things out.

Simultaneously, Lex offered the dark Deity his own help in completing his plans, which would work very well with Lex’s own plans. It really was an example of hitting two birds with one stone, even if it hadn’t started out that way.

Once the entire planning phase was done, they started to prepare to take action. Lex actually felt a hint of excitement and anticipation as they prepared, and even a hint of concern.

Should he accept Vinei as a worker after all this was done? He seemed crazy enough to fit in with the gang, but Ventura would also likely be pretty pissed at him. Maybe if he could... no that wouldn’t work.

Over the course of the next week, Lex traveled across the Crystal realm undetected, preparing the realm for what was about to happen. Vinei, meanwhile, prepared for the ceremony that would free him from the chains of his status as Deity.

This was something that needed to be done at the exact right moment, because once Vinei was freed, the firm control he had over the monsters would also disappear. Although psychologically and emotionally, his hold over them would remain, but the firm, unyielding command he had now would no longer exist.

Finally, once everything was ready, Vinei brought Lex back to the temple, bringing him into yet another new room underneath his shrine.

The dark Deity was sitting inside what looked like a birdbath, but instead of water, it was filled with golden blood, creating a partially creepy, partially cool scene. Knowing that the blood was a diluted version of his own blood from before he became a Deity did nothing to change the creepiness of the scene.

"Everything is ready," said Lex, waking the bird from its meditation. "In about a few minutes, the other Divine birds will once again start their battle with the Hellions. I’ve rigged the battlefield with a barrier so none of them will be able to escape the region for at least twenty minutes."

"Perfect," responded Vinei. "Then let us forge a new legend. But this won’t be a legend of the dark lord! Nay, this will be the legend of the Black Phoenix, reborn not from death, but from deification."

Lex put on his Tyrant’s Mask and summoned his Butter Knife, both of them brimming with divine energy. Vinei had once told him that the best way to kill a Deity was to have another Deity absorb the Divine Fire. While Lex had no Deities handy, he did have two tools which could absorb divine energy. Now, that wasn’t the same thing as a Deity, but Lex figured that if inanimate objects could spontaneously gain a soul and come to life, then there was no region they couldn’t become Divine objects either. It was just that the conditions needed to be right.

As if on cue, as soon as the two tools were summoned, Vinei also summoned his own divine fire which was hidden in this very temple. A black, ominous flame appeared, far from what Lex expected a Divine fire to look like, but maybe that was just due to Vinei’s personal influence.

The fire was tipped into the birdbath, alighting the blood and burning Vinei’s body, not that he seemed bothered by the flames. Instead, he took this opportunity to pull out the Defiler core which had been submerged within the blood.

The golden blood was more than just blood at this point, it was practically an alchemical liquid, refined and fermented over millions of years all for one purpose: to keep Vinei alive!

Vinei began to absorb the fire into his own body, yet halfway through he plunged the core into his chest as well, immediately causing a reaction between the Divine energy and Profane energy!

A wild, chaotic aura began to fluctuate as Vinei’s body began to break down under the influence of the Defiler core. The Profane energy began corrupting everything, taking in the divine energy to distort the very laws related to that Divine energy!

The process looked agonizingly painful, yet Vinei did not let loose a single squeak, instead focusing on restraining the Divine energy so that it didn’t counter the Profane energy too quickly.

But as a result, the Defiler core began to warp the Divine fire itself, affecting not only the flame outside, but the flame within Vinei’s body too. In fact, it went as far as severing the connection between the flame and Vinei!

To do such a thing was like severing Lex’s soul from his body and spirit - completely separating them. That was because once a being became a Deity, their existence could no longer be bound by something as simple as a soul. They existed in various forms and through various aspects of their own legend, inhabiting their body, their Divine fire, their Divine energy, and even the belief which gave them strength.

It was complicated to explain, but in essence, the thing that grounded all the various forms of their existence together was their Divine fire, from which Vinei was now separating himself.

The golden blood began to boil, giving off a gentle shine, and releasing a pleasant aroma, almost as if someone had lit incense in the room.

"Who knew Phoenix blood smelled so pleasant?" Lex asked himself, though he was aware of how demented that sound. But it couldn’t be helped - he was just stating facts! No wonder the dragons hate Phoenixes. They were just showoffs.

As more and more of the Divine fire was corrupted, Vinei began losing more and more power, slowly slumping into the pool of blood. Meanwhile, the laws of the entire realm began to fluctuate as a significant change was occurring to the laws of darkness.

The other divine birds noticed the change, as did the hellions, but a massive barrier appeared out of nowhere trapping them. Whether it was teleportation, or treasures, nothing allowed them to escape. They were trapped, at least until the barrier faded.