The Innkeeper

Zuri genuinely had no idea how many clones she had. She had released them across the Origin realm, and over the years they had spread far and wide. Each one grew on its own, and unless it became sufficiently powerful enough, or unless something particularly interesting happened, she would never even try to pay attention to them, even if they died by the masses. It just wasn't worth it.

A few people approached her over the years to use her clones as a hidden information network, but that's nowt how it worked. Honestly, even if she could do that, such a way of life did not coincide with her path in life.

But while she was not interested in collecting information for others to use, she was not averse to collecting information in general, especially regarding things she found interesting. Losing control over one of her clones, not because it was dying, but because it was being taken over by another entity was certainly one of them.

Of course, she also immediately felt that if she were to channel a hint of her power into it, her clone would be preserved. The process she was undergoing was not a hostile takeover, but just a passive effect of a greater phenomenon, so she did exactly that. She wanted to see what exactly was happening.

As soon as she took over one of the 30,000 clones she had on Yildirim Utopia, she was welcomed to the unexpected sight of the world itself dissolving, its residents included. Yet she felt an unknown power preserve her even as the clone dissolved as well… only to reappear somewhere else.

There was no sun or moon in the sky, and the stars were absent as well, yet it was bright as day. The star rating of the planet was not too high, but it was being filled with a unique energy she had never felt before.

More importantly, every other living being on this planet that didn't have a certain level of minimum independence was being assimilated by the planet itself. Zuri could not understand where she was, for the laws of the world had changed, and she could not probe her location - at least through her clone, as weak as it was.

But as she explored the planet, she found traces of an aura she recognized. It belonged to a human she had met once.

"Interesting," she murmured, but did nothing else. She wanted to see how this played out.

Outside, the process was going much faster than Lex had expected, and only in half an hour the entire planet had faded from existence, leaving floating in space.

The World Eater who had been protecting the planet seemed genuinely upset at this development, even though Lex was fairly certain that as an egg with no actual consciousness, it wasn't supposed to be having such feelings.

Yet Lex did not focus on that too much. After all, his gaze was fixed on Moon's new body, which was being reformed in front of him.

Slowly, it faded back into existence, absorbing a massive amount of spiritual energy into itself, as if it were a bottomless hole. In fact, even when the body fully reappeared, it just floated in space without any reaction at all while a whirlwind of spiritual energy formed around her body, being sucked up by it.

Lex used his soul sense, and as soon as he was sure that she was whole again, he grabbed her, extended his senses to the World Eater as well, and teleported everyone to the Midnight Inn.

The World Eater, who had become a lot more docile after meeting the Sovereign, did not resist. It was too busy lamenting the loss of its pet.

That was why, in the middle of the day, when a massive planet appeared above the Midnight Inn, the entirety of the Inn seemed to be drowned in shadow.

Everyone looked up, expecting to see clouds. Instead, they saw land up above them.

Everyone was stunned, and very few actually had a vague idea of what they were looking at.

Lex already anticipated the need to give the World Eater its own place. The gravity its body gave off could be negated, by no one liked seeing a massive planet hanging right above them, seeming like it could fall at any moment.

But there was a solution for that available right now. Since the system had already indicated that it wanted to hire the World Eater, a platinum key would make it disappear for a while. When it returned, Lex intended for the World Eater to become the Inn's messenger. Or maybe a member of the Midnight Battalion.

How cool would it be if, every time the Innkeeper sent someone a message, a World Eater showed up as the messenger? Or if the Battalion rode out to war, but instead of riding on a ship, they traveled on a World Eater?

These were thoughts for later, though. Lex immediately brought Moon's body to nurse Jubilation as Dr. Charles to see why she wasn't waking up - even though he himself could also venture a guess.

Her body was absorbing a large amount of spiritual energy even now, and ever so slowly, her cultivation within the Golden core began to rise. Since the planet was her Golden core now, he suspected she would need to reach Golden core perfection, or even enter the Nascent realm before she could wake up.

Within the Midnight realm, there were countless ways of expediting that.

Soon, Moon was transported to a Recovery Pod which safely provided her body with pure and easily absorbable spiritual energy to feed her growth. Lex had no idea when exactly she would wake up, but at least now he knew she would be safe.

A huge burden was lifted from his shoulders, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't know if now is a good time," said Mary, who appeared over his shoulder. "But you have a meeting."

"No problem," said Lex as he let all distractions slip away. "Do we have any new leads on Damien's location?"

"Not yet," Mary said. "But word has already begun to spread that you will be appearing in the Trial of Eternity soon."

"Good. Begin the next phase of the plan."

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