The Innkeeper

“This is your first and only warning,” said the masked man, his hand gently pressed on the shoulder of a large wolf. “It is against Inn rules to attack other guests. If you wish to fight someone, you can openly challenge them to a match, or go join the arena and participate in one of the many ongoing fights. But attacking other guests, no matter what your personal issues, is strictly prohibited!”

The man did not glare, nor did he try to intimidate with his presence, though the aura of the mask alone was enough to do that. He merely informed the misbehaving guest of the Inns policy, seemingly completely oblivious to the entire pack of wolves glaring at him with murder in their eyes.

A pack of Earth Immortal wolves was not something just anyone could cross, nor was it the kind of force that could easily be tamed. Each and every wolf waited – they waited for their pack leader, the one whose shoulder the human was pressing, to give the signal.

They would fall upon him so quickly and with such great ferocity that the human would never know what hit him. They kept waiting, but the aforementioned signal never came.

That was because none other than the pack leader himself could feel the immense ferocity of the mere human! Although the pack leader was a heavenly Immortal, and the human exuded an aura of a mere Earth Immortal, the danger packed within his body exceeded what the wolf could understand.

It was like packed within that dashing suit was a creature more fearsome than a dragon, more powerful than a cataclysm, and more bloodthirsty than the most wild animal. The most absurd thing was that the pack leader could tell for certain that the human’s strength was not limited to just his aura.

Although he had merely placed his hand on the wolf’s shoulder, the wolf’s entire body was frozen under his grip. He could not circulate any energy within his body at all, and even his blood only flowed at the bare minimum level required to maintain health.

As if that was not all, the wolf’s soul was suppressed too, as was the very space his body occupied, and the boundaries of his thoughts. Literally, the wolf was unable to think about anything other than how fearsome the human was, mostly because of the pressure bearing down on his spirit.

“Yes sir,” the wolf finally managed to utter, and the masked tyrant finally withdrew his hand and disappeared, completely ignoring the entire pack.

The pack leader suddenly trembled and looked around warily, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare. The pack was confused, but the leader did not explain. Instead, he just led the entire pack into their private booth to watch the death match so that they no longer interacted with others.

Lex, meanwhile, teleported to the next troublesome guest with no time to spare. One after another, he dissuaded guests from breaking rules, always ensuring that he went specifically to troublemakers he could personally handle.

He was simultaneously handling the millions of other guards who had been hired, sending them exactly to troublemakers that were within their scope to handle.

Despite the addition of numerous other guards, there just weren’t enough to patrol the entire Inn, and so had to be teleported exactly where they were needed.

Fortunately, the mental strain of coordinating so many guards with all the troublemakers was getting easier with each passing second, as the Inn kept welcoming more and more guards.

From humans to Devils, Angels, Marzu, Dragons, Celestials, and a bunch of other races Lex had never seen before, the guards kept appearing and all of them seemed to know exactly what to do.

There was one particular guard whose very sight caused Lex to pause. He didn’t have a distinct body shape or appearance. Rather, looking at it was like looking at every single fear and nightmare Lex had ever had.

The guard was like the personification of every fear Lex had ever had, and caused Lex to instinctively feel repulsed. He almost had an urge to attack the guard and kill it himself, but he restrained himself.

The moment he realized that he was under some kind of unusual external influence, it vanished, causing his mood to return to normal.

Lex immediately realized what had happened, for he was too familiar with it. That particular guard was cursed, much in the way the fairies were cursed. The difference was that the curse affecting that guard, causing everyone and everything to hate it, was much stronger than the curse affecting fairies.

Lex’s eyes flashed, and he almost considered sending that guard away. But with his strength at the very peak of the Celestial realm, he could probably take care of himself.

Suddenly, a particular guard appeared with an army of Heavenly Immortal skeletal soldiers under his command, and the strain on the Inns security team immediately reduced.

It was interesting because he was only the second Lich Lex had ever seen, and he was entirely unlike Anita.

Anita, the pregnant Lich who worked for the Inn, still looked entirely human, and was so beautiful she was practically angelic. This lich, on the other hand, looked exactly as one would expect. He had a skeletal body with the skeleton of a Griffin, with a deep green fire burning within the bones. The aura around him was also extremely baleful, entirely unlike Anita.

He wondered why there was such a huge difference between the two, but didn’t have time to focus on that.

Just as he was to teleport himself away one more time, a new guard appeared – this one was a Henali! He immediately applied to the Innkeeper to make an announcement, and after hearing about the details of what he wanted to say, Lex gave him permission.

The next moment, a massive projection of a Henali appeared over the Inn.

“All those from the Origin realm, behave!” the projection of the Henali ordered, his voice carrying a soul shaking furry. “If you break the rules of the Midnight Inn, you will be banished from the Inn. Then I will personally lead a freaking army to wipe out your entire planet. Don’t embarrass the Origin realm on the universal stage.”

That… seemed to solve the problem, at least for now. But Lex’s expression turned unusual as he observed what the Henali guard started doing the moment the projection ended.