The Innkeeper

The short, silver beam of sword intent cut into a particularly large locust that had just recovered from the shock it faced on the appearance of the castle. The beam of sword intent cut a most precise incision in the locust, and then entered its body without so much as causing the slightest disturbance otherwise.

Then… nothing. It was like a pebble had been dropped into a dark abyss, all evidence of its existence lost. Lex showed no reaction, though Kaemon turned to look at Lex as if he expected as much.

“Like I said, you need to-” the Magma Lion began to speak, but was interrupted by a thunderous sound. When he turned to look, he saw the locust had fallen over, though he was very much still alive.

“Interesting. Let me try something else,” muttered Lex, and shot out another beam of sword intent at the very same locust. Just like the previous one, the sword intent seemed to vanish into his body without causing any obvious reaction.

Yet a few seconds later, thousands of other locusts all around it also collapsed on the ground, still alive – if they could even be called that – but entirely unable to move.

“I think I have a gist of the lethality of the locusts,” Lex said, looking over the sight of countless abominations lying limp on the ground. “You need not worry, and can enjoy your rest assured that we have the situation well in hand.”

“What… what did you do?” Kaemon asked in shock. Perhaps if his state were not so overextended, he would have been able to determine on his own what Lex had done. But in his current state, he was barely staying awake.

“Quite simple, actually. My sword intent is very sharp, and I’ve been training it to cut ethereal things so that one day I can use it to cut laws. Well, for now, it’s nowhere near that level, so I used it to cut the connection between the hunger within that creature, and its body. “Considering it lacks a soul, I figured that the hunger acts as a replacement for the soul. The hunger, or whatever it really is, isn’t as deeply integrated with the body as a real soul, so it was fairly easy to sever the connection between the two – especially since I’m fairly good at dealing with souls anyway.

“Once I was sure it worked, I had the urge to try something else. I’m not sure if you know this, but the Innkeeper is really famous for his mastery of Karma, so I’ve been experimenting with that. Basically, I targeted the other locusts who had a strong Karmic connection with the one I attacked, severing their hunger as well.

“Unfortunately, my own mastery of Karma is quite weak, which is why I only had a 0.01% success rate, thus only affecting a few thousand. Anyway, I’ve gotten an understanding of what the locusts are capable of. We should have no trouble holding them off, so you can rest easy.”

Lex waved at Z, letting him know that he could take over the defenses now. Lex himself led the bewildered Magma Lion into the castle to help it get some sleep. The flabbergasted expression on the lion’s face, and its inability to articulate anything convinced Lex that the poor mercenaries had really been through too much.

Z, on the other hand, simply nodded towards Lex, and then turned back towards the locusts, who had by now recovered enough to try and attack the walls.

He saw how easily Lex took down thousands of locusts, but did not take that to mean that the enemies were easy. Instead, he treated them even more seriously. If Lex, who he was convinced was a Demi-Dao Lord in disguise, could only kill a few thousand locusts from a casual strike at the Earth Immortal level, then the locusts must be a terribly powerful foe.

“Everyone, get in position, and respond to my commands,” said Z as he took to the air, flying right in front of the castle walls. From within his hoodies pocket Z withdrew a slim, black stick which confused many.

Some, who were familiar with the Marzu, mistook it for a wand, and wondered since when Z had taken up magic. Yet as he slowly raised his hand, and the very space in Abaddon vibrated under the direction of his baton, they realized it was not a wand.

Instead, it was his choice of weapon. Z had taken the art of establishing background music for his fights to the next level, so much so that he had yet to encounter enemies who could tolerate the presence of the background music itself, let alone hang around long enough to actually fight.

In directing the fight against the locusts, Z stepped into his role as a conductor, and the Midnight Battalion would be his orchestra.

Amidst the deeply grave situation, a flicker of excitement and anticipation flashed through Z’s heart. Maybe he’d finally be able to face enemies who could survive long enough for the bass drop of his custom background music for fights.

Z’s trembling hand reached a crescendo, and with it the surrounding space in Abaddon seemed to have reached some kind of zenith as well. The trembling space, in itself, was enough to rip the locust bodies to shreds, but the nearly immortal nature of their existence meant that they began recovering the very next moment – only to be once again ripped apart by the trembling space.

For a second – for one whole second – Z maintained his hands at their peak, holding the baton in a fixed position, keeping the pressure exactly where it was. Then, with a flourishing wave, Z dropped his hands in an arc, and began conducting.

Unfortunately, today would not be the day he found a worthy opponent, nor would it be the day he led the Midnight Battalion in battle.

Kaemon, right before he entered the castle, turned once more to look at the situation on the battlefield just in time to watch Z unleash the law of Pure Epicness, erasing from existence all that which could not tolerate the arrival of the protagonist.

Z had learned a new term from the latest anime he was watching, which was aura farming. Unfortunately, the abominations of Abaddon were not abominable enough for him to farm aura – at least the ones he was facing so far.

Kaemon fainted.