The Innkeeper



The ship carrying all the soldiers did not land on the planet. In fact, it did not even enter the atmosphere, for the planet was infested with hordes of mindless yet violent aliens. They were one of the many species that had been bred especially for wars against planets.

The Fuegan were, in fact, not the first to use such tactics, though currently they were the ones employing it the most in the origin realm.

The concept was simple. Once any civilization reached a certain level, and grew enough, they would gain the means of genetic manipulation, whether through technology or spiritual techniques or something else. With such advancements, there naturally came military applications.

Although uncommon, when larger civilizations wage war against one another, it is often too intensive on 'human' resources to invade each and every planet or strategic location. They would create fast-reproducing aliens to overpower or weaken the planet's inhabitants. Through long lasting wars of attrition, the planet was usually either overwhelmed, or was at the very least greatly weakened, all without the ones responsible putting in any real effort.

Of course, the perpetrators themselves naturally retained the means to combat this engineered alien species in case they ever needed to take the planet themselves.

There were many ways of managing this was circumnavigating the Henali prohibition on genocide, such as the case with the devils and zombies. Of course, in the case of the Fuegan, there was no need to care for any prohibitions or rules at all.

They populated the planet with extremely vicious creatures which were designed to not only tear apart any living thing, but the planet as well. That was also one of the reasons the planet was so fragile.

Once the ship got into position, all the soldiers were instructed to get into their launch pods. Besides those from the Midnight Inn, there were countless other teams as well, all of them much bigger than the Midnight Battalion. After all, regardless of how powerful or effective the Midnight Battalion might seem, it was just stupid to send 1000 soldiers to clear out an entire planet. Each team being sent to this planet, though, was considered elite.

Luthor couldn't have cared less about that, though. With an impassive face, as if he was bored, he climbed into his pod, after which support technicians came in and ensured he was properly strapped in.

Hundreds of thousands of pods were launched all over the planet's surface. The aliens on the planet noticed the rain, and tried shooting the pods out of the sky, but they came equipped with safety measures.

Like hail of metal instead of ice, the pods crashed into the ground and spread devastation wherever they landed, despite the fact that the ship had come as close as possible for launch.

When the pods opened, the soldiers who were completely safe climbed out. They had only a short while to reorient themselves and get used to the conditions on this planet before the aliens would attack them. But while everyone was gearing up and getting in position to defend, the Midnight Battalion attacked.

It could not be helped. Luthor, as well as the rest, were born in the clean and pristine environment of the Inn, yet now they were exposed to the polluted and stale air of this rogue planet. Although their masks had filtration functions, it was a pale imitation of what they were used to. They were irritated and uncomfortable. Fortunately, there were targets nearby to help them vent their frustrations.

All around the pods, where most of the soldiers were waiting to make their first stand, sounds of distant growls and the thumbing and stomping of approaching beasts could be heard. Well, all around them except one direction, where Z was warming up his speakers with a soft and tempered melody titled 'Enter Sandwoman'.

*****

Astride Fenrir, Lex was traversing the land with incredible speed. A part of him wanted to believe that if he had been running on his own two legs, he could have still maintained such speed. He couldn't be blamed for thinking like this, as he boasted greater physical strength and resilience than Fenrir. Even given the situation where he could replace the pups' sheer excitement and joy at being allowed to run so fast and freely for so long, with nothing but discipline, the one thing even he had to admit that he couldn't replicate was the tranquility of their journey.

The pup boasted great stealth capabilities, Lex always knew that. But after a certain time, lex realized that Fenrir wasn't actively being stealthy - it was ingrained into his very nature. If Lex had been running at the same speed, massive craters would be left in the ground with each step he took. The roaring wind would herald his arrival wherever he passed, much like the sound of a jet was usually heard even as it had already passed the area by.

Yet as Fenrir passed, not only was not a single blade of grass disturbed, there was barely even any sound. Lex watched in wonder as the duo actually passed by a few animals walking in the wild, completely unaware as they passed them by.

If Lex didn't know for sure that Fenrir couldn't do that, he might have started to believe that they were invisible.

Yet even as they traveled at incredible speeds and never took a break, even hours later they were still far from just their first destination. They were heading towards the capital of the Noel family's territory, from where they would take a teleportation formation and continue on their path. Lex was sure they were heading in the right direction, for they kept consulting the map, but as the map did not denote the distances, there was no way of knowing when they would reach.

This journey he was expecting to be tense and fraught with danger… ended up just being a long stretch of uneventful traveling - at least so far.

Ten more hours later, when they still had not reached their destination and it was nowhere in sight, Lex gave up. This was too boring. Back at the emporium when he heard about that spaceship which could easily travel even between galaxies, Lex had been impressed but did not think he needed such a thing. Now he knew he was wrong. He should look into getting himself a similar ship for long distance travel as well. The only issue was that transporting such a massive thing to and from the Inn was a problem. He would look into finding a ship that can easily fit into his spatial bangle.

Until then, he had to fill his time with something else, so he used his Remote presence ability to project an image of himself at the Inn.

It had been a long time since he hosted some guests himself as the Innkeeper. It might be interesting if he did that for a while after all this time.

Technically he could use this time productively and actually work, but after so much boredom he did not feel like working.

A scan of the Inn revealed that all was more or less normal. The absence of some of the most notable faces at the Inn had not gone unnoticed, yet he had strictly ordered not to reveal any information to the public. All anyone who asked was told that they had gone somewhere for special training.

Besides that, the focus of the guests seemed to be on the event of the week that was going on. Various performers and artists had been invited from multiple planets to have live shows. While earth was no longer in a position where anyone could focus on such things, some of the refugees participated. Besides that, a lot of participants from the other planets that were linked to the Inn came as well.

In fact, from X-142 there was actually a musical band consisting of all fairies. The tiny stars were unusually popular, though Lex had to admit their music was quite catchy.

As Lex was observing the event, and all the guests, his sight eventually focused on two teenagers. A short yet plump boy was accompanied by a taller yet skinnier girl. The faint resemblance in their appearance hinted that they were related. They were dressed oddly, with clothes that looked like they had been worn in sections. For example, the shirt - or whatever was covering their torso - actually consisted of 7 small bits of fabric which had to be worn one at a time. The same kind of clothing was also on their arms and legs.

Yet strange as it was, they were not showing much skin, and by the way that the two held themselves up, Lex got the feeling that they were dressed formally rather than casually, at least according to their own standards.

"There's too much of a crowd here," the girl complained as she looked at the crowded Main street. "Whoever sold us the keys lied to us. How is this a relaxing spot for a vacation?"