The Innkeeper

Chapter 2149: Through sickess and hell

Zagan was a Heaven Immortal, but obviously that was just a result of the Spirit tribulation tricking him. He couldn’t possibly be a heaven Immortal already. Only by surviving all the bizarre scenarios that his spirit tribulation showed him would he have a chance to actually become a Heaven Immortal.

It was in the midst of these thoughts that he sensed a familiar yet foreign aura. For a moment, Zagan was confused. How could he sense such an aura? How could he be here?

"Zagan, the Ocean King, awake from your slumber," spoke a commanding voice.

Zagan was no longer forced to obey Vinei’s orders, but a habit that had been deeply ingrained into his being for millions of years was not something that could just go away either. Despite his best efforts to stay focused, Zagan could not help but suddenly open his eyes and stand up when he heard that voice.

A black phoenix appeared within his sight, its body exuding an undeniably deep and powerful aura. In this illusion, they were both at the start of the Heaven Immortal realm, yet Zagan could not compare to the might of Vinei.

"The dark one," Zagan whispered in tones mixed with fear, reverence and disbelief. This damn spiritual tribulation was getting more and more bizarre. What would the dark one even be doing here inside the Inn? It was well known that the dark one always remained within the hidden temples at depths of the Crystal realm.

In fact, not only was the presence of the dark one here just confirming Zagan’s theory that he was inside a spirit tribulation, it thoroughly convinced him of the fact since he did not feel that deep, undeniable need to obey the dark ones every wish. The absence of that feeling clearly let Zagan know that the dark one wasn’t actually here.

Yet Zagan could not act otherwise. He had to act as if he was unaware, and play by the rules of the tribulation. He had already learned that much.

"Tell me about the Midnight Inn, and how you passed the test for employment," Vinei said, not bothering to talk politely with Zagan. In his eyes, he could already see disbelief.

Zagan, playing along with the Spirit tribulation, recalled all that he had been through inside the Midnight Inn.

"The essence of the Midnight Inns employment test can be condensed down into two core principles! First, always think of how the Inn can benefit the guests! Second, always have faith in the Innkeepers words. As long as these two core principles are adhered to, the test should not be a problem."

Vinei deeply pondered over those two sets of instructions. They seemed simple enough, and seemed to follow the kind of logic he sensed from Lex, who disregarded everything that was unaffiliated with his Inn.

After repeating those two principles to himself a few times mentally, Vinei took out his platinum key and used it, disappearing from within Zagans’ sight.

Once Vinei was gone, Zagan scoffed. Was he supposed to believe that the dark one wanted to join the Midnight Inn? This spiritual tribulation was getting even more unbelievable. If that ever really happened, wouldn’t that make Zagan the dark ones senior? As if such a thing was possible.

He simply closed his eyes and went back to meditating, but that was easier said than done. After all, he kept chuckling at the thought of the dark one wanting to join the Midnight Inn.

Meanwhile, Vinei opened his eyes and found himself standing in front of a kneeling guest.

"THE INNKEEPER COMMANDS YOU TO KILL THIS GUEST!" a booming voice rang out across the room, causing Vinei to freeze.

Wait, what was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to take care of the guest, or was he supposed to listen to the Innkeeper?

Vinei looked around for some hints as to what he was supposed to do, but only saw weapons with which to kill the guest in front of him.

Vinei didn’t know exactly how he’d done it, but he had a feeling that he had screwed himself over somehow.

Meanwhile, Lex stood in front of 1.2 trillion guests, confused about what he was seeing. It was happening. The wedding day had arrived. He had missed some of the festivities, but he’d arrived in time for all the main stuff. Or at least, he thought that he was in time for the main stuff. He wasn’t quite sure what was happening.

Why was Brenda inside a hospital room, with a drip attached to her arm, while Pierre was in a hot air balloon high up in the sky above the hospital room, sitting atop a young horse.

"Excuse me, I’m a little late," said Lex to one of the guests beside him. "Can you tell me what’s going on?"

The guest, a particularly chubby goblin, looked at Lex, before turning back to the hot air balloon.

"So, according to the narrator, the wedding oaths are a sacred tradition among humans, that test the resolve of those involved, and the strength of the bond of the two getting married. Apparently, the groom needs to pass through sickness and hell, while astride a white horse and wearing shining armor, all just to reach the bride.

"Then he has to hold her while a hoard of cherubs try to steal their souls, all the way until he reaches the base of Mount I-do, at which point he with give the bride a ring of astronomical price, such that the groom would be in debt for many millennia just to afford it. Only upon receiving the ring will the bride wake up, allowing them to proceed to the next phase of the wedding ceremony."

The goblin was clearly very touched, as could be seen from the hundreds of tissues he’d already used to wipe his tears.

"Oh right, the groom also has to do vows at some point. I’m not sure what that is, I got confused. This is an incredibly complex ceremony."

Lex gave the goblin an unusual look, and then turned back to the scene. Well, it was expensive but he certainly couldn’t claim that it wasn’t original, or entertaining.

Pierre, astride the white horse, leaped off the hot air balloon right before it exploded.

"Dammit Brenda, it’s ’through sickness and health’ not ’through sickness and hell’," Peirre’s voice roared across the sky, but it was too late. Luthor was already doing his part, conjuring up his Hellfire and morphing it into the shape of a massive devil to chase Pierre through the sky.

Lex forgot what objects he had when he saw a team of World War 2 era planes suddenly take to the sky, trying to defend Pierre from the Hellfire devil while another group of futuristic space ships appeared to shoot him out of the sky.

In the background, fireworks started to go off, each of them turning into glowing text floating in the sky, mentioning all of Peirre’s vows.

"They just don’t do entertainment like this anymore," said Lex as he sat down next to the goblin and summoned a bucket of popcorn. Since he’d already paid for all of this, he might as well enjoy it.

As bizarre, ridiculous and unexpected as the wedding ceremony was - which was divided into 11 acts, 3 intermissions and one narrator who was explaining the situation throughout - it was thoroughly enjoyable.

A very pregnant Audrey glared at Brandon Morrison, blaming him for not giving her a wedding, or even an anniversary nearly as entertaining as this.

Almost everyone was enjoying the show, with very few people who could not enjoy it for various reasons.

However, of all of them, there was only one Midnight Inn worker. Standing all alone, staring up in the sky, he began to hyperventilate. He had done his best to hold everything in, but he just couldn’t do it anymore.

Watching Pierre and Brenda affirm their love in such a public way had driven him to the point where he could not control himself anymore.

In a confused and distraught state, there was only one person he could think of to go to. While there were many at the Inn who had built a reputation for helping one another, there was only one ’Big Brother’ of the Midnight Inn.

It took him some time to find Z, and by then Peirre had landed in the hospital where Brenda was supposed to be, only to discover that he needed to defeat the debt collectors standing in front of the hospital doors.

Z was busy ordering some of the workers. Handling over one trillion guests had put the Midnight Inn under immense stress, and had pushed all workers to work to put in everything they had. Ordinarily, he would not bother Z at a time like this, but this worker just couldn’t take it anymore.

"Z, I’m sorry to bother you but there’s something urgent I need to talk to you about," he said to Z while walking up to him.

Z was about to tell the worker that this wasn’t the best time as someone was trying to carry out a mass sacrifice during the wedding and the security team was shortstaffed, but he suddenly felt like this was super important.

He turned to look at the worker and discovered that his eyes were completely red, and sunk into his skull as if he hadn’t slept in days, maybe even weeks.

"What is it?" he asked, despite everything. The mass sacrifice would probably fail anyway... hopefully.