The Innkeeper

Chapter 2463: The Nexus Event IV

Within the Midnight realm, Lex sat with his eyes closed, allowing the storm of time to erupt from his body. The place he chose to carry out this particular activity was the place he called the Valley of Time where he had previously made alterations to the realm to facilitate him in allowing time to move faster.

Now, the endless torrent of time that the Timekeeper wanted him to unleash was rushing out of his body in a massive yet consistent stream. Exactly 50% of the time unleashed was disappearing into the Void, its target unknown to him, while the rest that he could use for himself was being directed towards the Midnight realm.

Honestly, an upper cap of the Heaven Immortal realm was kind of low for him. It limited not just the resources that the realm produced, but also the natural level of the natives of the realm. Now that he was a Celestial Immortal, Lex had no fear of any native becoming too strong for him to handle, so he could allow the realm to grow in peace.

Lex was sure that even with all the time he released, it still wouldn’t be enough for the realm to reach maturity, but at least it would grow much stronger than it was currently.

While he was meditating, allowing the time to flow through him, Lex got a couple of notifications from his system. Lex glanced at them, and though their contents deserved some attention, he could literally do nothing else right now, so he could only ignore them.

Emergency Notification: Due to an ongoing universe-wide event, all system related quests have been suspended, and all system processes are being put into minimal activity mode. The host is recommended to remain inactive during this period to avoid unforeseen complications.

New Notification: The Midnight realm is undergoing rapid evolution, leading to quicker development of Midnight Realm Management alterations and additions. Corresponding quest disabled due to critical external conditions. Corresponding Inn growth temporarily suspended due to temporary system operation suppression. The realm will grow naturally in an unguided fashion. The host is advised to avoid undertaking any further actions to avoid attracting undue or potentially detrimental attention.

Both notifications simply told him to do nothing that would attract attention. However, considering that he was shooting time out of his body like a rocket out of a bazooka, that was basically impossible. In his defense, he had tried to use the Masterless technique to his utmost before he began.

He also activated an Innkeeper Business card to create an Innkeeper projection above him, as if he was looking down on Lex just in case he really did end up attracting attention. The rest could only be left up to fate.

Yet Lex was overthinking. The amount of things happening during the Nexus event far exceeded his imagination, and the reason they were all happening right now was because they basically couldn’t be tracked at all.

The extra time flowing out of Lex’s body was directly advancing the Forgotten Forest realm, which meant his own realm wasn’t the only one rapidly evolving.

Lex had spread his awareness out as far as possible so that he could view the changes in case anything went wrong. He also wanted to see how the realm evolved to increase his own understanding of it for his Sovereign realm. Thus, he witnessed in real time as the realm grew, and the Chaos Sea retreated.

None of the plants or residents were automatically becoming stronger as the realm grew, for the time was only affecting noneliving things. That did mean, however, that mountains rose, new metals and minerals were formed, the continents underwent massive changes and the realm itself began to evolve.

The boundary of the realm became extremely efficient in absorbing energy from the Void, thus causing a rain of spiritual essence across the whole realm to keep up with the rapid growth of the realm.

In the easternmost corner of the realm, the sea of lava grew and grew until it gave birth to a world of fire elementals and a terrain unique to itself entirely. In the center of the realm, a massive continent larger than all the other three combined began to morph and change, turning entirely into a mountain range, the center of which was one, single peak that rose high above everything else in the realm, becoming the zenith of the realm, almost as if it yearned to touch the Primordial Fire Crow in the sky.

The upper limit of the realm grew, inching closer and closer to the threshold of Celestial realm, while the actual size of the realm also kept growing, its boundary extending farther and farther.

But despite how glorious the scene was, it was nothing compared to everything happening across the universe. Every single second, a Mature realm was being devoured - not destroyed, but devoured by an unseen, unknown force, wiping them from existence.

The laws of the universe trembled. The armies of Arch-Heaven marched. The Void Dwellers went mad amidst anarchy. Blood spilled in greater quantities than water fell from the skies, and bedlam replaced sanity and coherence.

Amidst what could only be called an armageddon that spread across the entire universe, there was only one realm that remained entirely unaffected. Within the Primordial Garden, a melancholic expression covered Eclipse’s face.

"It’s almost time," she whispered, sending a shiver down Nulli’s back as she resisted her natural urge to immediately turn pink. She said nothing, and instead increased her focus even more. Now, more than ever, she could not fail Eclipse.

"Shall I send the order?" asked Harriot earnestly. Right now, he cared for nothing else save the pain his master must be feeling. He would have borne it himself if he could. Alas, he was too weak to do so. Always, he had been too weak to truly carry her burdens.

"Not yet," Eclipse said softly. "I want to see him first, one last time."

Harriot nodded, and then used his power. Eclipse did not rise from her throne, nor did her throne move at all. Instead, the realm itself moved around the throne until Eclipse, Nulli and Harriot were within a sepulcher, in front of a great statue that marked a tomb.

None of them said anything. They all waited in silence. This was the first time since this tomb had been made that Eclipse had visited, and the significance of this visit was not lost on any of them.

A shiver of excitement ran down Nulli’s back as she used the entire breadth of her willpower to contain herself from turning pink. The thing that Nulli loved more than anything else - the very thing that aroused her like nothing else could - was power. To be more specific, it was a powerful person, unleashing absolute, unquestionable might.

There was no one in the universe who could do that better than Eclipse, which is why Nulli tried to hard to contain herself. She was about to approach that one moment she had experienced countless years for. She could have traveled through time to that exact moment - as a Nullith, it was within her capability. Instead, she savored each moment, slowly building that anticipation, spending each moment by Eclipse’s side.

Her investment of experiencing so much time by Eclipse... was finally about to pay off.