The Innkeeper

Chapter 1670: Don’t call me buddy, pal

“Buy me a bit of time,” said Lex as he tried to maximise his speed as he drew an array using the characters from the Book of Changes. In truth, he could have fought while drawing the array, but if he specifically focused on drawing the array, his speed would be much greater.

Without the need to worry about his energy reserves, since he was present with his main body, Lex let the energy flow through his body and into his character.

These characters seemed to resonate more deeply with the environment than any other Lex had ever used before, and he was certain that once his mastery of them improved, he could use them to devastating effect. For now, though, he merely used them to correct some forced alterations to his environment. Maybe later on, he’d be able to guide the environment in certain directions himself too.

Fortunately, due to his vast experience accumulated over the past year, it barely took Lex a single minute to form the appropriate array.

Lex stepped back, allowing the array to take action. It dissipated into the air, affecting the surrounding area. Any second, Lex expected the portals to shut down… but they didn’t. For the first time, Lex failed to correct the…

Suddenly, realization dawned on him. Within the ruins, the space operated under a number of set conditions, so normal and abnormal had a baseline with which to compare against. Abaddon, however, was an abnormal place in every sense, and the laws here were in a constant state of flux. He literally could not correct the environment here. If he wanted to close the portals, he needed to either think of something else, or change the way he used those characters. Both were easier said than done.

The chimeras were practically pouring through the portal now. Though each chimera had the head of a lion, the goat’s body and serpent’s tail made them appear as hideous beasts. Comparatively, the griffin, with the body and tail of a lion, but wings and head of an eagle, looked much more majestic, despite the gruesome aura they gave off. Seeing countless griffins flying in the sky still wasn’t a sight that he wanted to see.

Since closing the portal permanently wasn’t an easy solution, Lex opted for a temporary fix. He held out his hand and used Talk to the Hand 2.0, blocking off both portals with his barriers.

A number of griffins crashed into the invisible wall, and as much as Lex would have liked to see them get crushed by the force of the crash, they merely recovered a moment later. But recovery or no recovery, breaking past a barrier that Lex had made was no easy task.

A temporary solution had been used, but nearly a hundred of either abominations had already made their way into the open, pressuring the mercenaries as they retreated.

As if that was not enough, more and more wraiths continued to rise from beneath the ice, all of their possessed eyes looking towards Lex.

“How long can you keep that seal in place?” Kaemon asked Lex.

“Indefinitely, but the longer I keep it up, the greater the chances that they’ll find a way to break through my barriers. We still need to retreat to the castle and hold them off from there. In the meantime, I’ll think of a way to permanently seal the entrances, but we need to get safe first.”

“Oh come now Lex,” It said through the voices of all the creatures it had possessed. “I created such a grand party for you. Why are you leaving so soon?”

“I think I preferred when you stuck to ominous silence,” Lex said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t think for a second I’m afraid of you, buddy. I’m just busy with other things and can’t be bothered with you right now.”

“Don’t call me buddy, pal,” it said, producing a distorted grin with its many faces and continued to attack.

Lex paused for a brief moment. That was a reference – he knew it. It was using a reference from Earth to bother him. How much had it learned about him in such a short time?

Lex did not honestly think that It was from Earth, just as he didn’t give much credence to the Dark Knights claims about being from Earth. The more likely scenario was that It had either eaten souls from Earth, or stolen information from souls about it. As for the Dark Knight, Lex believed that some poor soul from Earth had been involved in its creation, but he didn’t believe for a second that it was reborn.

The two armies produced by the castle charged forward to help them buy just enough time to retreat, all the while Fenrir, Kaemon and the others fought off the chimeras. Just as Kaemon had stated, these fiends were incredibly powerful, and in every sense.

While the griffins were annoying due to their speed and manoeuvrability, facing a chimera was a different kind of obstacle altogether.

Fortunately, amidst all this chaos, Lex’s clone safely returned to the castle, and retreated to its innermost layers. Unfortunately, Lex could not study his clone while the siege continued, for this was the fiercest siege they had faced to date.

Whether it was the Inn workers or the mercenaries, they all showed up to face this particular adversary.

The Reaving Dread mercenaries, especially, were extremely motivated to defeat the chimeras for the very first time. They had lost support before, but none of them were as great as the Midnight Inn had been, and they weren’t willing to lose these allies to Abaddon.

Outside the castle, an endless army of wraiths had risen, led by chimera who step by step approached the walls.

The two armies that the castle produced had already been withdrawn. While they were good for dealing with enemies in large numbers, they weren’t particularly suited towards dealing with especially formidable enemies. For that, Luthor wanted to use his personal strength if need be.