The Innkeeper

Chapter 2380: Picking Sides VII - Midnight Inn

"This... this can’t be happening," uttered Foli, a Dao Lord, with disbelief and abject horror filling his entire being in a way that had never happened ever since he became a Dao Lord! Ever since the first Major realm was destroyed, everyone had been wondering how such a thing was possible in such a short time.

If the process took millions of years, it would still be believable. If there had been a long, drawn out war, it would make sense. Heck, if there was any sign at all, it would still make sense. Yet that was not what was happening.

The Major realms were being destroyed one after another, with no prior indication of which one would be targeted or why - not to mention the destruction was happening so quickly, it didn’t make sense.

Or at least... it didn’t use to make sense. Now, though, Foli had the misfortune of learning the truth personally. The destruction of the Major realms didn’t happen overnight - it began not millions, not billions, but trillions of years ago, before some of these realms had even actually matured!

This was a scheme that predated the current Age, established during a time when most of the Dao Lords in existence today had not even been born! Moreover, the invading armies... were already inside the realm to begin with.

Foli tried to escape, but no matter what he did, his Dao would not respond, and the laws of the universe were not responding to him. He was completely isolated. Out of pure desperation he pulled out a golden key and tried to crush it - tried to override its restrictions using the sheer physical force of his body. Unfortunately, his body was not as strong as it used to be... not to mention that that was not how the Midnight Inn’s keys worked.

"It’s ironic, isn’t it Foli?" asked a Beast in the shape of a humanoid bison, holding a massive golden axe. "You were the leading expert in designing a mechanism to cut off the Midnight Inn’s teleportation. You played a great role in limiting the reach of the Inn, and closing its gates across the universe, simply because of your jealousy over the Inn’s teleportation capabilities. Now it’s the very thing you’re trying to use to escape."

Foli crawled away from Hunter, his fear showing in his eyes so blatantly. They were both native Dao Lords of this realm, so how had the situation come to this? Was he also... a spy from the very beginning?

"We’ve known each other for so long, Hunter. We’ve worked together for so long. How can you do this? How can you betray us like this? This... this can’t be happening. You can’t restrict others Daos like this! How can this be possible?"

A hint of madness crept into Foli’s words at the end, but Hunter, the bison, merely snorted.

"What do you know? This can’t even be called a betrayal. We are only taking back the things we gave you. Besides, what do you have? A Minor Dao? What is that even worth?"

Hunter swung his axe at Foli, but the Dao Lord, even weakened as restricted as he was, had more than a few trump cards left in his arsenal. The two of them fought, however briefly, before Foli once again found himself on the floor, the golden key bouncing out of his grasp and falling onto the floor in front of Hunter.

The bison exhaled a hot, steaming breath, before bending down to pick it up and take a look at it.

"Do you want to know the greatest irony in your situation?" he asked, though Foli wasn’t really in the mood to chat, and was doing his best to escape. It was a futile effort. Where in this universe could he escape that Hunter could not chase him to?

"If you hadn’t forced the Midnight Inn to shut its doors, our task would have been so much harder. You might have genuinely been able to escape this disaster. After all, we’ve already received word from the big boss - no one’s allowed to touch a guest of the Midnight Inn."

The relevance of that piece of news hit Foli like a truck, though he didn’t care about the how or why of it. He didn’t care about what such a thing could mean. All he knew was that if he had been hiding inside the Inn, he could have escaped, assuming that what Hunter said was the truth.

He simply turned around and tried to escape, only to find that he was cornered, and another Dao Lord was waiting for him behind him. Before Foli could resist, he was tied up, put to sleep and imprisoned within a small, black box which contained countless other Dao Lords just like him.

"See you later, mate," whispered Hunter, who knew the real reason why these Dao Lords were being captured, not killed. Although, if he was in their shoes, he might have preferred death over such humiliation.

"Wrap up everything here. We need to move the next batch of realm occupants into the Dream realm for transport. We have a total of six months to move everyone before the realm self-collapses, and I don’t want to stick around for that."

Hunter merely nodded, and began to work without wasting a single second. Meanwhile, he couldn’t help but think back to Foli, and his disbelief over Hunter’s betrayal. How could he genuinely feel nothing about his actions? Fortunately, his emotions were soothed knowing that he never really had a choice in the matter - it took away a feeling of responsibility for his actions.

The bison got to work, fully aware that none of his targets could escape. It was actually funny - the very method that Foli created for isolating the Midnight Inn is what they were using to prevent anyone from teleporting out of the Major realms. This was much better than their previous plans, which would have inevitably had some leaks considering how many realms were being targeted.

At the same time, he could not help but think of the Midnight Inn. Hunter had personally never heard of it until Foli began to design the method to restrict it, nor did he know much about the Innkeeper. But for their boss to warn them not to mess with them, could they be on the same side from the beginning?

Hunter didn’t know, and he didn’t need to know. After all, despite his previous bluster, he too was merely a wielder of a Minor Dao. He was just better equipped than Foli.