The Innkeeper

Chapter 1971: Nothing held back

James could not recall what it felt like to be a strong and ruthless character. He forgot the fear he used to induce with every turn of his gaze, and the worship even his footprints used to draw. He forgot all of that. In that exact moment, he could not recall anything other than how to tremble in fear as hundreds of humans and beasts smiled at him with the most heinous smiles he had ever seen. So many years of living in Arch-Heaven had rinsed all that arrogance out of his bones.

Beside him, though, Lex was repeating some words, as if to hypnotise himself.

"James is my friend and I am saving him. James is my friend and I am saving him. James is my friend and I am saving him!" he repeated again and again.

His hope was to strengthen a bit of his paladin powers while he was working. Although he was certain that an oath like the one he made was not so easy to fool, it couldn’t exactly hurt to try.

Facing them were countless beings, all of whom had power percentages ranging from 5 all the way to 16%, though most were on the lower side. In truth, the fact that Sekhment had so many followers, and so many of them had such high power percentages gave Lex a very obvious hint as to how seriously she was treating this issue. The amount of investment, in terms of time and resources, must have been amazing.

It would be a shame if someone were to come and ruin it at the last moment.

While trying to hypnotize himself, Lex observed all those surrounding him. Many were humans, which was a shame. One would think that with all the countless races in the universe, Lex’s enemies would be of a different race. But more often than not, such was not the case.

More often than not, humans found incredible ways to make things difficult for him. Fortunately, Lex had no compunction about fighting those from his own race, or he would be in trouble.

Fighting the beasts was even easier - their very corpses could be counted as treasures. They could be processed and sold to earn a tremendous amount of money.

Thus, while the newcomers who were being summoned into their surroundings within the mines, Lex prepared himself for the fight. Arch-Heaven had gotten the better of him a couple of times, but now that he knew all the rules and restrictions, Lex doubted he would face any more problems.

"James, be sure to keep up," Lex said as he began to walk forth. "Don’t waste a single drop of destiny. Devour it all. I will deal with these people for you."

Since he was the first to make a move, all eyes were attracted to him, though the watching crowd did not take his threat seriously. What could one man do against all of them? They were about to find out.

With each one of his steps, green, ethereal crystals began to appear all around him, slowly beginning to form a see through armor around Lex. Some of the crystals were absorbed into the surroundings, just as how Lotus used to absorb them off Lex’s back. Yet this time, it was not Lotus absorbing the crystals, it was Arch-Heaven itself.

Yet the amount was so faint that Lex didn’t really pay attention to it. He was focused on something else.

All too often, when Lex got in a fight, he’d received a beating. This was happening so frequently that Lex almost forgot that he was actually quite strong. Normally, he wouldn’t mind the minor details like that - after all, hardship built character. Today, that was not the case.

The disgust Lex felt at being suppressed so severely by Arch-Heaven caused him to not be in the mood for games.

"I do not know if there is life after death," Lex spoke faintly, the green armor completing itself around him. "But if there is, remember not to accept a challenge that seems too good to be true. It will hardly ever play out as you expect."

Some heard his words, most did not. Yet before any could ponder over the wisdom imparted onto them, Lex attacked.

There was no holding back this time, no saving strength for strategy, no testing waters. Although his paladin powers manifested as a result of his oath to save those close to him, they were equally effective even if he used them to avenge the crimes done against them as well.

The other paladins Lex had met often associated themselves and presented themselves as warriors of justice. Well, justice and vengeance often closely mimicked one another.

Lex’s first target was wholly unprepared for what was about to happen. When the first, green armored fist smashed into him, he could not help but feel suppressed - as if his opponent had the perfect elemental affinity against him. Then, he could not help but feel like he was dreaming, because Lex grabbed the man’s limp body and used it like a sword.

Inspired by the tale of David Paladin, who used a pillar as a spear, Lex used one random enemy as a sword.

His body was not strong, nor was it entirely sharp, nor was it completely straight, but when Lex’s sword intent covered his body, mixed in with Lex’s green paladin energy, it was as if he became a cleaver that could sweep through armies of enemies.

The man watched dumbstruck, unable to resist in the slightest, as his figure cut through one enemy after another. Some beasts could not endure Lex’s attacks at all - not just dying, but having their entire bodies disintegrated by his raging sword intent.

Behind Lex, James was running like a maniac, not only because he was so weak that a single random attack could kill him, but because Lex was killing too quickly. The entire mine became saturated in dissipating destinies, and he was forced to devour them like mad, stuffing everything down his throat without bothering to chew.