The Innkeeper

Chapter 2421: Return of the Inn

Actually, the terrifying, calculating perception Daekol gained of Lex wasn’t entirely accurate. That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t calculating, or calm, or that all of this hadn’t been a part of his plan. It was just that he also hadn’t faked his curses, and he really had been excited to beat up Daekol.

The reason why, at the moment, he looked so terrifying was because he had to use a lot of his focus and energy while turning his second phase from a mere concept into reality. The immense shock caused by Lex onto Daekol caused him to evaluate Lex’s behavior into the same categorization as himself.

Thus, in every one of Lex’s actions and behaviors, he saw a deeply sinister intent.

Lex, meanwhile, was checking the state of his Absolute Domain. One very important reason that he had changed his original plan of pulling Daekol into his self created realm was simply because of how easy it was to destroy realms.

Lex could shatter space even before he became an Immortal, and that was for a naturally formed, extremely stable realm. If he fought inside his own self created realm, he’d need to divert a significant amount of his attention on keeping the realm stable.

If he superimposed it upon other realms, he could piggyback on their stability. The trade off, however, was the extent of his control over the region of his fake realm lessened, and as did the magnification of his own Supremacy to the point of reaching Sovereignty. That, however, could be fixed by developing his own territory in steps or phases.

The deployment of his fake realm, and its subsequent development during each fight was a complex process, and he needed a name for it - if only for himself. The Absolute Domain was what he established within his territory, so that’s not what this entire process could be called.

Since his enemy in this case was a Sovereign, and his own goal as well was to become a Sovereign within this space he created, Lex instantly decided on a name that would sufficiently... honor his current opponent.

Just in case the sarcasm wasn’t detected, Lex would make sure that Daekol understood that he chose this name to taunt Daekol!

It barely took Lex a mere moment to think all this through. Of course, Daekol watched the silent, brooding Lex and assumed that he was planning something terrifying. With the blood red moon hanging directly above Lex, Daekol couldn’t really be blamed for misunderstanding him.

"My Sovereign authority against your Supremacy... that is a challenge you may regret issuing," said Daekol as he equipped his armor and got ready for an intense fight. It had been a very long time since he was in such a disadvantaged position.

"I can sense your confidence wavering," said Lex with a soft smirk, noticing how Daekol had said he ’may’ regret it. "Then again, that’s the kind of thing that happens when I deploy my... Sovereign realm."

The moment Lex’s words ended his body disappeared, and Daekol and Lex clashed once more, but this time in a very different way. This time, Lex attacked Daekol’s body directly, while the Sovereign realm itself worked on severing and subduing the connection Daekol had with the universe.

Why did Lex need to restrict himself to just one method and target of attack? He could target several targets all at once - he just needed to be tactical about it. The thing that allowed him to increase his own Supremacy, and suppress Daekol within his Sovereign realm was incrementally populating the place with laws, skills and abilities that he excelled in.

Daekol wasted no more effort exchanging words - it was pointless unless his goal was to distract his opponent. Such a thing would not work with Lex. Instead, he focused on absolute domination. He no longer even thought about capturing Lex or acquiring the system.

The severity of the situation demanded that he give it his all.

He summoned his strength, honed his authority, equipped all his tools and began to utilize all his powers. A small white ball appeared in front of his hammer, seemingly entirely of white light. The purity of the light cut through even the tint of the red moon and directly struck at the Sovereign realm.

He smashed the hammer into Naraka, but the part that made contact was the ball of light suddenly causing a quake in the very laws of the Dream realm itself. Lex coughed out a hint of blood as the damage to the Sovereign realm caused a backlash at him, though his eyes remained fixed on the ball of light.

That was... the theoretical opposite of a black hole - a white hole. That thing not only caused issues with any laws it touched, but disrupted time-space itself!

Daekol looked up into Lex’s eyes, his entire being defiant and ready to face whatever Lex threw at him.

Lex exerted his control over his Sovereign realm, restored it, and resumed the fight. Daekol slammed his hammer one more time, but this time the hammer actually made contact with the white hole and then... traveled through it as if it was an illusion. Except now, the surface of the hammer was covered in a white light as if the white hole had changed shape, and had now itself become the hammer!

Lex wasn’t intimidated in the slightest, attacking once more with Naraka, the white light of his sword intent competing against the white hole for which shone brighter! The weapons clashed, but this time there was no disruption of laws. In fact, Daekol felt as if he hadn’t touched Lex’s sword at all.

Yet the faint, white drizzle that began to fall from the sky said otherwise. Lex’s sword intent did not attack, but instead became a part of the Sovereign realm, adding a new color to it and bringing it into the next step.

The suppression on Daekol became greater, but there was no time to dwell on that. Daekol attacked again, this time his attack rising at the same time as the lightning of Lex’s tribulation fell.

Lex smirked as he activated the next step of his plan, and entered the first proper form he ever unlocked - the Lotus form!

Lightning struck Lex but there was no bang - no thunder at all. It was as if the lightning itself got lost inside a limitless well. The World Seed Lotus, later having evolved into a Realm Seed Lotus, was the master manipulator and devourer of all energy, from the Primordial Origin Lotus series.

That naturally included the energy from a tribulation, as well as the energy from a mythical white hole or white hammer, or whatever else!

With his left hand Lex caught the hammer, and in the moment the Sovereign was shocked, with his right hand he stabbed Daekol. Long before he exited the Hollow, Lex felt confident enough to face his stalker. Yet he continued to stay, and he continued to grow stronger. The true extent of Lex’s power, even he himself did not know yet.

"I think this is sufficient setup for a special gift I prepared for you," said Lex as Daekol retreated, pulling his hammer free. Lex’s eyes began to shine as he channeled the tremendous amount of energy his Lotus form had gathered into one of his latest Lawcraft, inspired directly by the Gilded Hollow.

The laws of the Sovereign realm began to bubble as a massive structure appeared around Lex and Daekol, swallowing them inside.

"Welcome to the Abaddon Inn," Lex said as he used a Lawcraft that was supposed to never exist outside the absurdity that was Abaddon itself. But within the Sovereign realm, where his Supremacy was meant to be uniquestioned and he had absolute control, he could forcefully recreate the required madness for this technique.

This wasn’t even the Lawcraft he had designed using the eight retributions specifically to fight Daekol. Nay, this was something he just realized his Sovereign realm should enable him to do if he played his cards right. As for whether Daekol could actually live long enough to see all the cards Lex had prepared... they’d just have to find out.

Daekol dismissed his white hammer form - one of his most powerful techniques that usually allowed him to break through any and all of his enemies Lawcrafts. Lex’s current strange state allowed him to absorb energy more easily than anything Daekol had ever seen, so the white hammer was absolutely useless against him. He would have to try something else.

But first, he needed to protect himself from the horror of this Inn. He could feel it sapping at the sanity within his spirit, devouring it as if it was starved of reason.

Dark scales emerged from Daekol’s body, the lines between the scales filled with thin lines of flowing, blue magma as the hammer was filled with the aura of a flame Daekol himself had created.

The technique that Lex thought he had lost began to slowly work, trading its absorbed reason for madness, as it attempted to capture the horrors Lex had once experienced.

Oh, and while that happened, the soft drizzle of sword intent ate at Daekol’s energy and strength, attacking slowly but unceasingly. As for Lex...

Naraka flashed once, its strikes replacing the sound of thunder that Lex’s tribulation failed to cause.