The Innkeeper

Chapter 2410: One opportunity - suggested song: Royalty by Ezgod

River stood in front of Pearl defensively as they looked up at the group in front of them, not that it would make any difference. River and Pearl were both Earth Immortals, and though their little trip into that strange place filled with treasures had allowed them to grow much stronger, they were nothing compared to the Celestial Immortal in front of them.

There were three Celestial Immortal humans, all three of them wearing disgruntled expressions as they looked towards the one, terrifying being in front of them. Mentioning that beings’ cultivation realm was unnecessary, for the being was from the Celestial realm!

Helplessness filled the young couple, though at least they were fortunate enough that the ones in front of them were from the Humanoid Alliance. Even if they suffered some injustices, they would at least preserve their lives... hopefully.

"Do not cause any more problems," said the Celestial Immortal in a commanding tone as it looked at the three humans. "We’re cut off from reinforcements so we need to regroup and strengthen our defensive positions."

The three humans, though, did not exactly look pleased by those orders.

"Abandoning the realm and regrouping is the wrong move. This realm is full of heritages for humanity! We have an advantage - as long as we keep discovering them and use them to our advantage, we can route all enemies. Look at these two humans - no discernable talents or latent bloodlines, yet their power index is far greater than the norm.

"If we can get them to lead us to whatever heritage they encountered, we can use that to rapidly increase the strength of our forces. Even if we’re cut off, this doesn’t need to be a defensive battle!"

One of the three Celestial humans looked towards River and Pearl with an intense glare, as if blaming them for not already disclosing the details of everything they had encountered.

The Celestial glanced at the young couple, and that mere glance was enough to nearly buckle their knees and drop them to the ground. Fortunately, the Celestial was merely looking at them, and had no real intention of interrogating them.

"Your actions are the very reason we have been cut off from the main forces. Do not exacerbate the situation by prioritising your personal agendas. So long as you act under the banner of the alliance, you will obey!"

River and Pearl both started to get tense because they had no idea how they got caught up in this mess to begin with.

"Obey? I’m not obeying crap from you," responded the human derisively. "It’s an alliance, not a dictatorship. You can’t control our actions. You want to keep us humans weak and docile so you can maintain your leverage over us. Well, we don’t have to take your orders, we’re not from the same camp as you anyway."

After saying that, the human turned his gaze towards the young couple, clearly looking for some targets to vent his anger towards.

"And you two? What the hell are you waiting for? I want the full details of your experiences and all heritages you’ve encountered so that we can best supplement the strength of the human race appropriately. Or are you two double agents, working for the enemy to weaken the human race from within?"

River and Pearl tensed. It was clear that there was some high level conflict going on between camps within the Humanoid Alliance, and they had somehow stumbled in between it. If they truly had encountered some great heritage, they wouldn’t mind handing them over to the alliance. The problem was, they didn’t want to compromise Cliff and Karev, who had played a fundamental role in them gaining their strength.

"We’re members of the Humanoid Alliance and have protected rights towards any cultivation aids acquired in enemy territory," River said, looking from the human to the Celestial, hoping that the latter would step in.

The Celestial did not intervene just yet, but the human did not seem pleased with that answer.

"These are not ordinary times. We are in a war for survival, and all personal matters need to be set aside for the greater good," the human responded, his anger quite evident in his tone. "The fact that you can’t see that tells me that you must have made some kind of shady deal to get where you are. Tell me, how many resources did you get for betraying the human race?"

Panic and horror began to fill River’s heart as he felt his body freeze under the Celestial Immortals terrifying gaze. There was absolutely no logic in the words of the other human, but he didn’t seem to care about that either. He either felt greedy for whatever opportunities the couple had, or a much more likely scenario was that he just wanted to use them to vent his anger of frustration.

The young couple could not move, but the Celestial was within the scope of their vision so they focused on him, hoping for some help. He, at least, seemed to care about the rules of the alliance. They saw a subtle change in his expression, almost as if he was about to intervene.

The human, almost as if expecting to be interrupted, smirked and began to channel an attack. Reality, however, did not follow the script any of them had imagined.

A loud, deep sound rang ominously across the skies, almost like an especially large war horn, alerting reality itself to a proclamation that could not be ignored. Light itself changed with the proclamation, tinting the world in a dark maroon hue.

The clear skies were, in a single moment, filled with thick, impenetrable clouds which were thick with a baleful aura that seemed to almost resonate with the crimson air.

The wind blew, and how. It ripped and snatched at their clothes and bodies as it raged, lashing at them with the utmost ferocity, threatening to shred them to pieces. Yet unlike the sky, it was not filled with ferocity or balefulness. Nor was the wind filled with the smell of rain that often accompanied such thick clouds. Instead, the wind smelled only like fear.

It was not anger that caused the wind to attack them so ferociously. No, it was caused by a fear that permeated across the entire horizon, as if it was a rightful inheritance bequeathed upon all of reality. The air itself wanted to escape.

Lightning, its body entirely red contained within a thick border of black, fell from the sky. Yet this lightning lacked the swiftness that it was usually known for. Instead, the thousands of streaks of lightning fell from the sky at an agonizing crawl, searing everything they touched.

Heavy. Everything felt so incredibly heavy that not a single one of them could even breath, and yet the space around them felt so thick and viscous that they could not fall to the ground even if they could not support themselves under that indescribable weight.

River and Pearl had not moved, now terrified for entirely new reasons, when the both of them suddenly noticed a new figure standing in the air - a figure that was all too familiar, and yet entirely alien.

For so long, they had felt like the clothes that Cliff wore were so strange. They knew now that what he wore was called a suit, and it was a certain type of clothing common among some humans.

For as long as they had known him, Cliff always appeared extremely proper - his shirt always tucked it, his tie always up to his collar, his suit buttons always closed. Now, though, he did not look like that.

His shirt was tucked out, and his loose tie flapped in the raging wind. His hair ruffled and his open suit hung loosely. Yet his unkempt appearance did not make him appear shoddy - far from it. No clothes, no attire, regardless of how they appeared, could take away from the majesty that radiated from every fiber of his being.

None who laid their eyes upon him could deny the regal bearing he possessed, nor the undeniable aura of royalty that exuded from his being.

His presence was entirely unique, and could not even be equated to the presence of Elders or Sages. After all, there were many Sages and even more Elders, but there could be none other like him.

Seeing Cliff like this, an absurd thought ran across Rivers’ mind - though the thought did not seem so absurd now. Could it be that... all the stories he had told them about himself... were real?

Lex looked at the young couple, and then the Celestial. A palpable indifference filled his eyes when he looked at the Celestial - not a slight, but a mercy. That much became abundantly clear when his gaze finally fell on the human who had been speaking so far.

No words were spoken yet, but they all felt it - it was the unmistakable sensation of facing a tribulation of absolutely colossal proportions.

The Celestial could not understand why a mere gaze from a human felt like a tribulation - wasn’t that the domain of the universe itself? Then again, if he was going to start picking out the anomalies of their given situation, that feeling would hardly be the first on his list.

"I am going to give you one opportunity," Lex said, his tone calm, his pace unhurried, as he imparted the absolute privilege of that one, single opportunity. "Explain to me why I can sense the aura of Z’s blood on you."

No threat was uttered from Lex’s mouth. Then again, such a thing was not needed. The clouds above them began to weep, but its tears were mistaken for rain.