The Innkeeper

From the dark, ebbing waters of the coast, two massive claws emerged and set themselves deep within the docks. The ground crumbled under their weight, and the earth itself began to split when the creature they belonged to put pressure on them to pull itself out of the water.

A massive head, 30 feet (9.1 meters) large emerged from the water, two equally massive tusks emerging from the base of its jaw and ran closely down the length of its face.

The weight of its gaze froze countless monsters nearby, but their existence was too paltry to even notice to the behemoth. Unable to sense the aura it had traced all the way here, the creature continued to lift itself out of the water, its body emerging from depths like a nightmare escaping a dream.

Zagan, the ocean king, was not impatient. It would take its time and search thoroughly.

On the other side of the town, Pvarti and the crown prince had been testing the formation for its abnormalities. They did not want to take any drastic action until they fully understood the situation.

So when the formation returned to normal, they were taken by surprise. But when the town full of monsters revealed itself to them, their expressions fell. Before they could even completely comprehend the situation and even consider eliminating the monsters, Zagan had revealed itself.

Pvarti instantly reached into his pocket, looking for the emergency summoning talisman for his father, but found his pockets empty. Now, weeks after it happened, Pvarti was struck hard by the truth once more. He was no longer a part of the Noel family.

The prince wasted not a single moment and unleashed his strength in full, the radiance of his immortal aura illuminating the war-torn town with its splendor. With speed mere mortals could not comprehend, he appeared in front of Zagan, only acting in deterrence and daring not to attack first.

Of the many monsters born from the darkness, very few ever reached the immortal realm. Moreover, for them to reach the immortal realm, they would need to live in the darkness for hundreds of thousands of years.

But even amongst the immortal monsters, there was a higher class that not only gained complete sentience, but had strength and recognition so great they had names and titles that were passed down through generations.

Zagan, the ocean king, was one such monster, and the prince recognized him immediately.

"This is human territory, Zagan," the crown prince said in a warning tone. "Withdraw lest the situation escalate."

It was not that the prince feared Zagan. Honestly speaking, the prince feared no one other than his own father. Instead, it was the certainty that if they fought, the entire town would be destroyed that kept him from taking action.

His appearance was right out terrifying, but Zagan did not have a feisty personality. He did not get aggravated or agitated. This was because, with his strength, getting what he wanted was always a certainty. It was merely a matter of getting what he wanted a bit sooner or later.

So Zagan did not bother replying. Very lazily, he focused on the prince and shot lasers from his eyes. In the beaten and battered lands that had just experienced the greatest struggle it had witnessed in years, two immortals began to fight. The mere mortals down below could do naught but cower in fear and hope to avoid even the gusts released from their battle, for it would be lethal.

As anarchy rained from the skies and the laws of the world itself bent in the air, the triplets served fruit trifles to the tavern guests. With illusion formations protecting the tavern from the view of what happened on their doorsteps, and a space formation protecting the building, everyone inside was completely unaware of what was happening.

Lex, after fixing the formation, surveyed everything. Technically, the formation also had defensive features to attack monsters, but he dared not try to activate them for he had no way of differentiating friends from foes.

But now that new monsters wouldn't spawn, the Nascents and even the Golden core cultivators would easily handle the monsters. Especially since the unusual interference to everyone's emotions, making everyone afraid, had also been deactivated by him.

Satisfied with his progress, Lex decided to finally relax a little. He entered the Hot tub room and soaked himself in the warm bubbling water for an hour to allow himself to unwind. Once he was done with that, Lex donned a cozy night suit and slipped into his bed. He fell asleep almost instantly, for he'd had very little actual rest the last few days.

Outside the tavern, the state of the town was even worse. Buildings had collapsed and rubble fell from the sky like rain, crushing monsters left and right.

While Pvarti could not help with the fight, there were other things he could do. Though he was no longer from the Noel family, his entire life had been spent in it so he knew their secrets in and out.

He broke into the formation chamber underground and forcefully served the connection of the formation with its control crystal and reconnected it to a new one. He searched the town for signs of life, and was elated to discover that a good number of citizens had survived by hiding in underground bunkers.

What he didn't know was that this was not a coincidence. The murderer had created safe zones in areas with emergency survival bunkers and herded all survivors that way.

He immediately began using the formation, which was the only thing unaffected by the fight happening due to it being buried so deep underground, to further secure the survivors.

Well, almost the only thing as the Midnight tavern stood tall and proud on what was once known as Bakers street. It was the only building still standing in the vicinity, with all others having collapsed due to the aftershocks of the battle. Still, Pvarti knew none of that.

Pvarti also enabled the emergency aid broadcast, alerting the Noel family to the situation here. He did not think he'd be meeting his father again so soon, but it couldn't be helped.

While all this was happening, the tenets of the Midnight tavern were playing a game invented by the tavern owner called bingo. It was immediately a crowd favorite, and Lex even allotted a few glasses of very expensive drinks as the ultimate prize to keep the audience hooked.

Around 8 hours later, Lex woke feeling completely refreshed. The first thing he did was check on the status of the system, but it still only said 'updating'.

The long duration of disconnect had made him nervous. He did not know what was happening at the Inn and he wasn't used to it. Hopefully, things were alright.

*****

Fenrir growled aggressively, ready to rend the world asunder under its might. But it was futile. In the face of overwhelming strength, even the little deterrence afforded to it by its bloodline meant nothing.

The Galactic Sovereign turtle lifted Fenrir up by its leg using a vine, and threw him into a pool of water. The dog really needed to get used to showering.

Fenrir yelped and struggled, but the turtle didn't care. It liked its garden to smell nice, not like a sweaty dog.

Little Blue, which had entered the Foundation realm, laughed at Fenrir's state. Its little brother, Fenrir, was far too powerful for the whale to handle or even run from anymore, so whenever it got bullied by the turtle Little Blue would enjoy it endlessly.

Unfortunately, it's fun times were about to end. Under the orders of Mary, Little Blue was about to start its first job. Lex had once instructed them to plan out a play area for kids and, after extensive research, it was discovered that Little Blue had a natural instinct when it came to effectively communicating with kids, regardless of its species.

Although Mary could not contact Lex at the moment, she could not let anyone know. So, unofficially, work was still in progress on all his projects. But, soon, things would spiral even out of Mary's hands. That was because the final for the Lady Cosmos competition was coming up, and more than one complication had arisen.

Things were under control so far, mainly because of Lex's thorough preparation, but she could not guess how long it would last.

Up on Midnight Mountain, the dragon no longer slept and was instead watching the Inn intently. A fight had broken out just a day ago when a rather powerful cohort appeared, claiming that one of the finalists in the competition was their slave and that the Inn needed to hand her over.

The dragon had to personally make a move to prevent the situation from going downhill quickly, for no one else at the Inn, even Qawain, could handle them.

More importantly, there was a notorious playboy whose reputation had been spread across the galaxy who had been attracted to the Inn, and a fight between him and Harry Styles had nearly broken out - and he wasn't the only one who nearly fought with him.

The situation was incredibly tense, and everyone was awaiting the finals to see if any drama would occur.

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