The Innkeeper

The Profanites knew to expect a tough fight from Giselle. That was exactly why three of them had grouped up to face her this time. Even then, it was just three of them in this particular place. Who knew how many of them there were across the entire maze?

Giselle herself had no idea how they were following her or why they knew what she was looking for. After all, technically speaking, places like the temple and the maze were blocked off, and to gain admittance one would need to come through the tournament. But she was certain there were no Profanites participating in the tournament. She had even checked.

Yet they appeared in her way nonetheless, ready and able to stop her. They had even prepared with greater numbers to pressure her, and just enough strength to defeat her without attracting attention.

What they were not prepared for, however, was the absurdity that was Lex. He did not care that they were immortals and he was not. He did not care that their every whim could bend the laws of the world, and that he would be at their mercy. He did not care that as a mere Nascent realm cultivator, he was not supposed to be able to control laws.

Lex simply unleashed his inhuman physical strength, smashing the immortal body of the Profanite he attacked into a meat patty. Such a feat was supposed to be impossible. One of the reasons immortals were so superior to mortals was not only because their new cultivation level granted them the biggest boost yet, but also because they were increasingly beings of law. That meant without the influence of laws, it was nigh impossible to hurt them.

If Lex had at least coated the surface of his body in some kind of law, even one as simple as the law of physical strength, then at least the Profanites would have had some warning.

But Lex didn't, so they were caught unprepared. After all, when Lex's very own spiritual energy contained an affinity for laws, then he could just use the very laws that made up the Profanites bodies to hurt them.

Of course, no one save Lex understood this, which is why even as they got ready to fight him back, they could not identify why exactly his punches hurt so much.

"Junior you dare!" the third Profanite yelled, unleashing a dark and menacing wave of energy that did absolutely nothing to stop Lex's fist from breaking his nose.

"What the hell are you?" the first Profanite screamed as his body recovered from Lex's bodyslam. Profane energy should have eaten right through his flesh, devouring him whole. Yet it was not even giving him a rash.

"I miss the time where smashing your enemies would just kill them," Lex said as he looked at the stunned Giselle, waking her from her shock. "Now, instead, I have to actually work for it."

The three Profanites attacked Lex together, completely forgetting about Giselle, yet they made no progress. They were completely unable to hit Lex for he could dodge all of their attacks easily, and when he did decide to tank the attacks they caused not even a wrinkle on his clothes.

Though Lex was not particularly pleased either. Physically destroying their bodies did not work, so he tried to infiltrate their minds and destroy them while he punched them, but they were immune to that as well. Then he switched to his soul state and attacked their souls directly, yet even that was not enough to kill them. It was more than just being immortals. They were being protected by their Profane energy.

A thin, silver sword appeared out of nowhere and stabbed a Profanite through their heart, suddenly causing a change. Using his left eye, Lex caught a hint of what happened, and more importantly, what caused the Profanite to be genuinely critically hurt.

Unfortunately, that's when the tempo of the fight changed. One of the reasons why Lex had been proactive in attacking was because he wanted to restrict the fight to a melee. Yet with one of them suddenly being injured so critically, the other two promptly retreated.

The thing Lex discovered lately was that, as the cultivation levels grew higher and higher, the fights tended to become more complicated.

The two Profanites did not manipulate any laws, but rather manipulated their Profane energy to bring about a sudden change as they retreated.

The world around Lex and Giselle dimmed and turned black as light faded, and a gruesome feeling began to fill the void around them.

"Black and evil, how original," Lex said blandly, and summoned his butter knife. Since divine energy was supposed to be the opposite, it was likely that it would be effective.

After all, he could not use Profane energy against Profane energy the way Giselle was doing.

In the darkness, images of bloated corpses, rotting animals, parasites infecting living people and even more gruesome images began to appear. Lex could feel that a connection between himself and those images was subtly being formed, though he suspected that ordinarily the process was a lot quicker. The impatience was apparent on the Profanites faces.

He was feeling impatient too.

Giselle was getting ready to continue the attack. The reason she hadn't attacked yet was that though it seemed like a lot, everything was actually happening very quickly. In fact, barely a few seconds had passed since Lex first attacked.

Now, he unleashed his second round of attacks. The divine energy released from the butter knife was not white, though it usually was. Instead, it too was a mix of black and red. After all, this divine energy was primarily focused towards attack.

The curtain of black was immediately cut through, taking everyone by surprise, and cutting the two Profanites. Before they could even think of responding, Lex appeared behind them and grabbed their bodies.

He could not grab their tenets the way he did with other immortals, for these two had gained their power from someone else. Even as immortals they were like second hand goods, which is why Lex did not even need to release his soul.

Giselle, who was right behind Lex, did not waste the opportunity as her silver sword cut the two immortals down, killing them. She had also killed the first immortal, who had only been severely damaged earlier.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Lex said as he continued deeper into the building, ignoring the attempted murder as well as the things that the Profanites said. It was never a good idea to listen too much to one's enemies instead of their allies.

"No, that was definitely pretty bad," Giselle said as she sheathed her sword. "You're just really strong. I can't believe you're not an immortal yet."

Lex smiled. Although he was not one to succumb to flattery, it also felt good to receive praise once in a while. Not like Z who is always suspicious that Lex was holding back to begin with.

"You're not so bad yourself," Lex said. "The Profane energy these guys use is pretty nasty, but when you use it, it feels completely different."

Giselle stumbled, and then looked back at Lex, but he did not seem to have any accusation in his eyes. He genuinely did not seem to care that she was using the same revolting energy as them.

From his point of view, instead of being appalled, he was intrigued. Everything about Giselle seemed to signify elegance and purity. He still recalled that ballet that he saw her perform so many years ago. It was mesmerising, and as the years passed that same grace showed in all of her actions.

The way she used her sword, the way she dodged, the way she struck, all of them carried a certain, unexplainable charm. How could she achieve that when he was using an energy which, otherwise, seemed to be associated with everything revolting.

"You're not wary?" she asked, and for good reason. Profane energy naturally elicited a strong repulsive reaction in most people. Lex didn't seem to mind though.

"I saw a few other things beside Profane energy as well," Lex said, pointing towards his eyes. "The way you use energies is very interesting. I've never seen anyone else use so many different energies before. The way you flow from one energy to the next is remarkable. In comparison, the way I use them is very rigid and systematic, although that has never failed me either."

To demonstrate what he was saying, he began using his various affinities, using one in each of his fingers of both of his hands. It was quite a sight to see space, fire, divine, restorative, soul, spiritual, draconic, defensive energies in each of his fingers, with the ninth displaying sword intent and the tenth showing something she did not quite understand.

For a moment she was stunned, then she snorted and looked away.

"Fishing for a complement," she said under her breath, though they both knew it was loud enough for Lex to hear. With a chuckle Lex led the way, until finally they got their hands on the divine artefacts.

Then they teleported away.

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