The Innkeeper

Chapter 2466: Should have killed me when you had the chance II

"Damn, I didn’t see that one coming," whispered Lex as he tapped Cassandra with his elbow and pointed towards Eclipse’s revelation. Lex found that his status as a Primordial kept him from being as suppressed by the fog as everyone else.

It had nothing to do with power or cultivation level - since he was a Primordial, he got some extra benefits. Cassandra looked at Lex and could not muster the energy to be surprised at Lex’s oddities. She had become used to him being different back when she trained him.

She shook her head and then looked towards the Primordial Queen once more. This was a historic event that would be remembered for all of history. It was a tremendous honor to be a part of it. She did not want to miss anything because Lex distracted her.

Destiny’s mind raced, no longer wasting any energy on being shocked at Eclipse. Her situation was abnormal - she had never encountered nor heard of anything in the universe which could chain someone of her status. Now that she had finally come across it, she needed to figure out how it worked and stop it.

The chains restrained her, whereas the dagger restrained her grasp over destiny, making her suppression twofold. She needed to keep Eclipse talking so she could get more time to figure out a way to get free.

"If you’ve been inside the Dream realm all this time then... who is in the Primordial Garden?" asked Destiny. "Don’t tell me it’s a clone. Each and every one of us probed the Garden - a mere clone, even if it’s yours, is not enough to deter us."

Eclipse seemed unconcerned entirely by her attempts to drag things out, and answered.

"Oh come now, do you want me to tell you all my secrets?" Eclipse asked as she strolled around Destiny, observing all the characters to make sure they were intact. Then she tapped on the chains wrapped around Destiny, and each of them began to slowly glow with a soft, white light.

"Oh alright, if you insist," Eclipse suddenly said, before Destiny could say anything herself. "The one inside the Primordial Garden really is a special clone of mine. I had Life help me make it. It’s basically indistinguishable from myself. But the clone naturally doesn’t have the same strength as me, which is where my bodyguard comes in. But that... is a story for another time. We have much more important matters to attend to right now, don’t we?"

Destiny had, one by one, tried to activate her powers and contingencies, but discovered that the pressure on her being caused by the chains kept her from using any power at all. As such... she had to do something incredibly desperate. She had to ask Death for help.

That at least did not require anything special. As long as she kept thinking about that moron in her mind, he would sense it. Of course, there was a huge probability that he might not respond. After all, it had already occurred to Destiny herself that she could merely be bait for Death himself.

But at this point, she could not be too concerned with that. She would do anything to get free of the chains, or the dagger.

"Do you recognize the observers?" Eclipse asked, turning her gaze from Destiny to the figures in the fog. They were not really here. Instead, they were just here to witness her keep her end of the oath.

"Probably not. The ones here... you’ve never met them before. But there was a time, long ago, when you knew the ancestors of their races," Eclipse said, her voice drifting off, as if she looked back in time. The Dream realm, as if responding to her thoughts, conjured up an image in the air above her, showing a Primordial wasteland.

It looked like the most devastating warzone to have ever existed - one so terrifying that its memory itself had been wiped from history. On the border-

Before the image could show more, the laws of the universe rippled and wiped the image, hiding whatever it had wanted to show. Destiny, however, understood what Eclipse was getting at.

"It’s been two ages... you’re still hung up on that incident? You stupid spider, you should have just died back then and spared the universe your drama!" Destiny screamed, and once again tried to force her hands up, but they failed.

She needed to pretend like she was getting angry, like she wasn’t summoning Death. It was not hard.

Eclipse, on the other hand, merely nodded, almost as if she agreed with Destiny.

"In the aftermath of that war, and your rise to power, their ancestors made a noble sacrifice," Eclipse continued to speak casually, as if she had no idea at all that Destiny was trying to summon Death.

"They knew their future was being written by a hand not their own, that their destinies had been defined by a greater, corrupted power. So they came to me, one by one, and asked me to ensure that their suffering served a greater purpose. Instead of resisting, they gave in, condemning their own races to endless, incalculable suffering, so that some good may come of it. So that the wrongs of history could be corrected.

"In return, I swore an oath. On the day when their suffering would pay off - one the day when I held you responsible, I would summon the representatives of their races so that they could witness themselves the fruits of their sacrifice."

Eclipse bent down so that she was at eye level with Destiny.

"Eclipse, I don’t know what you’re planning, but you better think carefully about the consequences of continuing to offend me," Destiny said gravely. "You are strong, but that does not mean that I am weak. If you think dealing with me will be so simple, then you are sorely mistaken. You have no idea what I am truly capable of."

Instead of feeling threatened, Eclipse chuckled, as if she found the situation genuinely amusing.

"Are you regretting it now?" Eclipse asked softly. "But it’s too late for regrets, Destiny. You should have killed me when you had the chance. After all, you know what they say: Karma’s a bitch!"

Eclipse grabbed the handle of the dagger in Destiny’s forehead and pulled out a thin, white thread of karma. Beside herself, she summoned an Eclipsecrawler’s Sentinel and tied the thread of karma to it.

It was only then that all the other karma attached to the sentinel became visible. They were no longer threads, but countless massive red chains, each of which carried a blood-debt so thick Lex could smell the blood from where he stood.

Destiny’s expression fell as she realized what those chains were. They were the karma... of destroying a Mature realm, and the only thing separating her and the chains was one statue, and one, thin line of white karmic thread.