The Innkeeper

In essence, there were a lot of things Lex hadn't done perfectly, or even well. But he knew that his intentions were always good, and that he was always trying to improve. If, despite that, he messed up somehow, he'd just learn from that mistake. As long as he was alive, he could do something to make up for it.

With a mentality like that, it was difficult for Lex to get pulled into feelings of guilt and shame, especially during a situation like the one he was in. Perhaps there was more to the technique and his mask was blocking out key factors which would result in him falling victim to it.

But while the effectiveness of the technique dropped, it didn't change the fact that Lex was slowly getting crushed to death.

Lex tried a number of different things, from his various techniques, to teleporting away by first creating a barrier between himself and the tomb, but none of them seemed to work. Either the tomb could tolerate the damage from his techniques, or his techniques would fail to execute.

The voices in his head were also getting louder, so that even if he was not affected by them, he was certainly distracted by them.

Lex entered his Overdrive state to consider possible solutions to his situation and suddenly something clicked. He recalled a moment during his training when Cassandra mentioned that his mask seemed inherently predisposed to enticing negative emotions.

Although the comment seemed harmless, it triggered an idea. He used his spirit sense to guide the corrupted divinity around him towards his mask and tried to imbue the mask with it.

At first, the mask seemed to resist, but eventually, it began absorbing the energy. When that moment came, it was as if a floodgate had been broken, and the corrupted divine energy flowed into a mask like a torrent.

The tomb around him began to loosen, and Lex could already feel the constraints around him disappearing. It seemed like his mask, which already looked evil and intimidating, was bound to get its subsequent power ups from corrupted divinity.

At the moment, Lex did not care. Even if the mask absorbed corrupted divinity, it did not have a direct effect on Lex. There was a chance that using it would come with some drawbacks, solely due to the corrupted nature of the energy which was now empowering it, but he would deal with that when the time came.

He could feel his mask becoming stronger, but now was not the time to feed it. The moment the surrounding tomb loosened enough for him to escape, Lex teleported out once more.

Ra and Fenrir had been fighting outside while he was escaping, and the situation did not look well for the pup. Although it had hurt Ra tremendously, the deity just continued to heal its body with more corrupt, divine energy. What was worse was that without Lex to occupy Ra's attention, it focused solely on the pup and managed to injure it quite severely.

Although Fenrir was impressive, it did not have the same resilience as Lex. Maintaining his Overdrive state, Lex analyzed Ra, searching for weaknesses but discovered something else. The deity was accumulating a massive amount of energy within its body, and was no doubt preparing for something.

Lex grit his teeth and considered using one of the missiles, but the situation was not so hopeless yet. Lex needed to distract Ra for a moment while he searched for the ceremonial item Ra was using.

With his direction decided, Lex immediately came up with a plan, but could not help but sigh.

"This is going to hurt," he mumbled as he summoned an extremely bright crystal from his spatial bangle and put it in his mouth. That was one of the purer energy crystals used in the Crystal realm, and contained much more energy than even Lex contained. He did not swallow the crystal, but just kept it in his mouth. This way, when he needed to absorb energy from it, it would be much easier, and his hands would be free.

Lex transitioned to his Flow state and Blinked over to Ra. When he appeared, Lex was already in the middle of throwing a punch, so he wasted no time in aiming at Ra's body.

The moment his fist touched Ra, Lex activated Space Warp, once again distorting the deities body. But he already knew hurting Ra's body was futile, so the purpose of that attack was not to injure him, but to disrupt the deities' control over his own energy.

Without missing a beat, Lex summoned dozens of Imperial Shields around them both, enhanced by his spatial affinity, therefore blocking Ra from teleporting out.

Then, he began absorbing the freed up corrupted divine energy into his mask, while at the same time he used Space Unraveling within their enclosed space. Considering the state of Ra's body, Lex would take more of a beating, but as long as Ra's energy control continued to be disrupted his objective would be met.

"WHY ARE YOU SO ANNOYING?" Ra roared, right before his beak evaporated under the influence of the dissolving space.

"CHAOS ENERGY? ARE YOU CRAZY?" Ra's voice echoed in their trapped space, despite the fact that he no longer had a mouth.

Lex could originally only use this technique for a couple of seconds, but considering that he was recharging his energy actively, the duration was extended by a few seconds more. Those few, hard won seconds were not spent in peace, as not only was Lex himself having his body burnt through, but he had to dodge Ra's attacks while maintaining every other action he was doing. But the Flow state ensured that Lex's concentration was never broken, regardless of the condition of his body.

"Your ceremonial item… is not hiding inside your body!" Lex suddenly exclaimed. Ra's body was a diversion, the item was somewhere else to begin with!

Lex instantly dismissed the shields, stopped Space Unraveling and Blinked away. Broken, battered, and missing an eye, Lex suddenly started sweeping the area for Ra's core as he suddenly started getting a very bad feeling. This entire fight had been a diversion!

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