The Innkeeper

The entire Inn, staff and guests included, came to a standstill as they watched the magnificent sight. Even calling it a scene out of a movie would be inaccurate, for even movies hardly ever depicted something as bizarre as what they were seeing.

But while many were mesmerized, some were silently preparing to escape. They had no idea what this was, and the memory of the recent attack was too fresh.

Regardless, no matter who it was, everyone in the Inn was frozen still as this was a scene they wanted to remember.

Abroar himself was stunned. He did not know what to do or how to respond. Were he in his prime, he would have squatted the Mountain-man on top of him into mountain-paste! But, not only was he at the Inn, where he didn't know if responding violently would affect his request for the Beyond the Grave service, he honestly barely had any strength.

The ship itself had attack functions as well, but 99% of its energy was diverted towards keeping Abroar alive, and the remaining 1% was focused towards keeping the ship running. There was literally nothing he could do, he was literally helpless.

But the situation did not stay like that for long.

"My apologies," the Mountain-man said awkwardly. It was as if the being was not used to using its mouth, which it was not. In fact, this was literally the first time it was using this body and it had no idea how to move at all. When it tried to move an arm, its leg moved, and when it tried to move its leg, its hips thrust forward.

Eventually, the Mountain-man fell off the ship but, before it could crush anyone, Qawain appeared below it and froze it in the air. The workers were much more vigilant now, so even if the Security room did not spot an issue, they themselves were always on the lookout for a problematic situation.

"Do you need any help?" he asked. He did not detect that the giant rock man was trying to hurt anyone, but that it was completely helpless.

"I… I…" the creature did not know how to respond. Everything was happening too quickly and suddenly. It had not had time to wrap its head around its last memories of being at war, let alone even begin to understand what kind of body it had. As if that wasn't enough, the so-called 'system' kept giving it notifications. It was too much!

"Relax, calm down buddy, it's alright," said Qawain in a soothing voice as he moved the mountain to a portion of the Inn with no people and set him down. In close to 50 years, Qawain and Anita were going to be parents, so they had been nurturing their paternal instincts. Watching the massive, helpless sentient rock kicked Qawain into father mode, and he began to soothe it, not only with his voice, but by using his spirit to alleviate the stress it was suffering from.

"Calm down," he repeated over and over, his voice tinged with a sedative technique, until finally the Mountain-man calmed down.

"You're at the Midnight Inn," Qawain informed, his tiny body floating in front of the massive face. "This is a safe place where no one will hurt you. It's an Inn that caters to guests from all over the universe, so you're welcome here."

The Mountain-man did not entirely understand Qawain's words, for it had no concept of what the universe was. In its previous life, it had lived in a massive country, with no cultivation and civilization equivalent to earth's middle-ages. Everything that was happening was… truly too insane for it to comprehend.

In the sky, Abroar finally calmed down when it understood the situation. Much life itself, the living mountain was a guest. For some odd reason, he found that thought strangely relaxing.

He diverted his attention back to his personal hologram. He didn't have much time, it was best to be as quick as possible.

"I have with me a member of my race. Can I pay for his stay on his behalf?" Abroar asked through a speaker.

"Yes, if the guest is willing, you can pay for his stay," the hologram answered simply.

Abroar had to be very selective with how much he paid, after all, the requirement for Beyond the Grave was to submit to the Inn all his wealth.

"The little one is asleep in a chamber inside the ship. If possible, could I get some help moving him out?"

"It should not be a problem," the hologram answered, and forwarded the request to Mary. Considering the potential danger of the ship, Mary could only ask Anita to go and help move the child, as Qawain was busy.

Abroar was quite relieved when she saw how careful she was being with the sleeping child, and let out a defeated sigh as it prepared to give up all its wealth. Little did it know, this was literally the first babu Anita was handling since she got pregnant. Much like her husband, her paternal instincts had kicked in, and the lich looked at the 40 feet large gray creature with nothing but endearment.

'Does this make me… a mother?' she asked herself, as she carried the creature down, uncaring about the difference in race. After all, she herself had once been human, and had on her own changed into a lich. So then why should she care if her first child was of another race as well?

Up above, in the sky, Abroar closed its weary eyes and whispered, "take it all."

As if understanding his meaning, a storm of spirit energy gathered above him and began rushing into what remained of his broken body.

Immediately he knew his body was disappearing because after an unimaginably long time, he could no longer feel pain. From across the Origin realm, his hidden stashes of wealth began disappearing, slowly turning into MP. But, oddly enough, even after Abroar's body completely disappeared, the spaceship remained, hovering in the sky.

Back in his sleeping pod, the comatose Lex received one more notification.