The Innkeeper

Lex did not go anywhere, or do anything. In fact, he sat down exactly where he was, summoning a chair and a small light to ensure that everyone could see this spot far and wide. Lex did not believe in doing things himself if others could do it for him.

He had a lot of enemies in this place. In fact, he had so many enemies here that he wasn't even certain who he would end up facing. There were the dragons, the Sanuis Pluvia, a number of bounty hunters, a group of guys who were pissed at Lex for his role in Lovers Island, and so on and so forth. Someone had given him a list, but after ensuring he knew who the most dangerous ones were, he couldn't be bothered with the rest.

Considering the extremely volatile nature of this place, Lex did not expect most to take action against him easily. Only the very bold, or the very stupid would make such a move.

"It's rude to stare," Lex suddenly said out loud, and looked in a certain direction. As if his gaze itself was enough to control the world, a low, yet warm light appeared where he was looking, revealing a tall, dark shadow.

"You are quite astute," the shadow said as it began to come closer.

"I have spent a considerable time in the shadow plane. Once you understand what to look for, it's very easy to pick out a shadow, even in the dark."

"You are also quite arrogant," the shadow observed, before rippling. A dark figure stepped out of the shadow and revealed itself before Lex, though his identity was still hidden.

Lex did not care about the insult, however, He just looked at the figure with disappointment.

"You're not him," Lex said. Even though the opposite person's identity was hidden, Lex could tell it was not Damien. All he needed to do was check if their bloodlines were the same.

"After all the effort he's taken to goad me into coming out, I thought he'd at least take the opportunity to meet me."

The dark figure only shook his head.

"You give yourself too much importance. You are a mere speck of dust in the larger scale of things. A little attention from some important people has made you think you're the center of the universe. No one needs to take any special action to eliminate you. You are- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" the dark figure roared when Lex suddenly yawned and looked away.

The new direction he looked in also lit up, revealing the figure of a lizard.

"Don't mind me," the lizard said as it slowly retreated from the light. "I'm just passing along."

Lex nodded to the lizard, as if he understood his situation, and turned back to the dark figure.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying? Please restart from the part where I'm arrogant. I'm afraid I stopped listening after that."

The dark figure did not speak again for it was apparent that Lex was not taking him seriously. Yet he would pay the price for underestimating him. Instead of continuing to verbally assault Lex, the dark figure gathered his strength and, in the fastest flick he could manage, launched a tiny fiery missile at Lex.

It moved too fast. Lex was entirely unable to react to it, or perhaps he hadn't even detected it at all before it struck him, and caused a massive explosion. Yet how could an explosion be just an ordinary explosion within the Trial of Eternity. As if it was a drum of petrol in which a match had been thrown, the entire region was suddenly lit ablaze.

The shockwave from the explosion rippled through the mass of the region, while the light acted as a beacon for all to see all around them.

So far, anyone coming to this place was extremely careful not to fight against one another so as to exactly avoid the situation that was created. The pillar of fire rose high into the sky, cutting through the darkness and… and nothing.

The dark figure, who was completely prepared to lose this clone, did not even feel the subtle warmth from the raging fire, let alone the massive chain reaction it was supposed to set off.

There was no place easier to eliminate the many participants of the tournament than the Trial of Eternity, yet for some odd reason the explosion was a lot more tame than the shadow had expected.

He was just about to leave, beginning an investigation into why the explosion was much smaller than he expected, when through the flames he saw a silhouette and paused.

Without so much as a change in his expression, Lex was revealed sitting exactly as he had been, looking bored.

As if the figure was not dazed enough, he saw Lex raise his hand and clench them into a fist, which caused the flames around him to shrink further and further. Not only were they not setting off more explosions, they were becoming smaller!

How could the figure have known that Lex used Heaven's furnace to prevent the flame from growing too big.

"You actually thought of using flames to harm me?" Lex asked in an amused fashion. Considering he could tame even dragonfire using only his eye, ordinary flames were not even worthy of burning in his presence.

"Listen, junior, why don't you go back and let your seniors handle this one. I'm pretty sure this is above your paygrade."

The dark figure was enraged even further, but he did not act once more. To begin with, his problem to begin with had just been to probe Lex's strength.

The figure soon turned back into shadow and disappeared, allowing instead new figures to walk towards the diminishing flames behind Lex. They observed him sitting casually as he was from the get go, completely unharmed by the previous explosion. In fact, he seemed a little offended at the lack of effort put into trying to kill him.

He looked at the two with great expectation.

My eyelids are literally drooping while I write this. Next chapter in the morning.

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