The Innkeeper

Chapter 2435: It’s about time

It was not the knowledge of his mothers pain that stunned Daekol, despite what some may assume. From the moment of his birth, he knew he was different and things like emotional connection and solace were entirely irrelevant. As a Sovereign, he understood the cruelty of nature far better than others, and he adapted to it.

No, what stunned him was the unfiltered sensation of pain. As a Sovereign, he could even command the universe, let alone his own body, so he had long diluted the sensation of pain to avoid distraction.

It wasn’t like he was bothered by it - he had the strength of mind to ignore it. But there was also no need to excessively feel pain either. Now, though, he seemed to be feeling pain without any reduction or dampening.

The shock was from the fact that Lex seemed to have overwritten his command over his own body somehow.

"Daekol," Dragon-Lex called out to the Sovereign, his voice filled with something alien. It almost felt like... empathy. "I see you never had much of a relationship with your mother. In that case, allow me to give you something most get from their mothers. I call it... character development."

He increased the speed at which Daekol’s karma triggered pain, as there was no reason to go one by one. Lex didn’t quite have the same strength as the Gilded Hollow which meant that Daekol might find a way out of this Lawcraft if given the opportunity.

In that case, it was best not to allow him such an opportunity to begin with.

When the pain came, it no longer came one by one, and incrementally. It came all at once, with countless pieces of karma working together. Even though Daekol could resist the pain, he knew that if this continued it would distract-

Dragon-Lex grabbed Daekol by the throat and lifted him in the air, just in time to use Daekol’s body to block the lightning bolt!

By now, his tribulation had grown enormous. Oddly enough, the lightning bolts did not turn into Farham, like they usually did. Maybe it had something to do with the egg shell. Regardless, each lightning bolt struck him with increasingly devastating force, to the point where it was no longer constricted by the limitations of normal lightning. The Dream realm itself began to burn from wherever the lightning crossed. This was no longer something Lex could just blindly tank - each bolt genuinely hurt him a lot.

Then again, considering that the tribulations were also the process by which he evolved to the next level, would he even get any benefits if the lightning couldn’t harm him? Though technically, the lightning only grew stronger and stronger because Daekol was considered to be interfering with it.

Fortunately for him, that also served his purpose of using his tribulation to fight Daekol as well.

The brutal, singeing sensation of his skin being burnt to a crisp by the tribulation woke Daekol from the stupor of the pain he was feeling. Although his tolerance for pain was immense, his unfamiliarity with it caused his mind to slow down when he was dealing with it. This was a flaw he was unaware that he had, but that could be dealt with later.

The fact that Lex had initiated the next stage of the fight meant he was getting impatient. He just needed to continue holding out and Lex would get increasingly desperate. Desperation leads to mistakes or drastic measures, both of which would give him an opening.

But for that, he needed to first survive, and so he needed to step it up as well. He grit his teeth and looked at his system. It was lagging even now. Although it still responded to his command, Lex’s previous order to pause operations felt like it was being initiated every second, causing it to stutter.

He looked at a certain command called Debt Seizure, but before he could even activate it, the Crucible of Karma seemed to react to his actions. It suddenly skipped over a lot of his other karma, and directly began reacting to all karma associated with Debt Seizure.

This was an additional ability Lex added to his Lawcraft. Since pain alone probably wouldn’t stop his enemies he would be facing at this point, he configured the Lawcraft to react to any attacks, skills, abilities or Lawcrafts his opponents used.

Naturally, the pain associated with such abilities should be far greater. Moreover, since Lex was reading his opponents karma, he’d also learn about the opponent’s abilities. Before even being attacked, he’d know what to expect.

Speaking of alterations to the Lawcraft, Lex thought that the idea of having the retributions appear sequentially was a waste. They’d be much more effective if they were stacked.

"Eight Retributions: Prison of Gluttony," Dragon-Lex whispered before Daekol could even initiate his Debt Seizure system ability.

Like the previous retribution, Lex had altered this one too. When he suffered from this retribution, and his body devoured itself, the Gilded Hollow healed and restored his body time and time again. Lex had no intentions of doing that for Daekol, or anyone else who suffered from this for that matter. He would let their body cannibalise itself, let the soul and mind do the same. Why would he waste energy healing them?

Daekol let out an angry roar as he activated Debt Seizure. Lex had, by now, amassed a considerable debt which was not easy to pay off. Daekol would have preferred increasing the debt a whole lot more before taking it back, but the situation didn’t allow it.

The system lagged, but it still worked. Lex had many assets which could pay off the debt he had accumulated, but it was the creditors choice what to take, and Daekol chose Lex’s soul!

Lex felt something connecting to the massive weight he had been feeling inside his chest, and then pull. A massive chunk of his scales, skin and muscles from his chest disappeared, showing his beating heart, partially missing bones and other, damaged organs.

The damage was extreme, far beyond what even the tribulation had done, but it was nowhere near enough to threaten Lex’s life.

Daekol’s eyes narrowed in complete, genuine shock for the first time as he struggled to understand what his body had to do with his soul and, more importantly, how valuable his body was for such a small part of it to offset such a massive debt.

Unfortunately for Daekol, while the Debt Seizure had inflicted damage onto Lex, it also freed him from debt, returning his strength to full.

Dragon-Lex’s fingers dug into Daekol’s neck as he brought him closer to himself.

"It’s about time to end this, don’t you think?"