The Innkeeper

In a dark room, a small group sat and watched a live stream through a projection. The stream was of a single planet, the majority of its surface bare and barren. What had once been a prospering planet, in the sense that the Fuegan used it to mass produce countless biological weapons, had been thoroughly devastated by the war.

It was not just the numerous fights and the ensuing destruction that brought it to this state. Instead, the space ripples played a large role in killing all normal life on it. Previously, it also had countless creatures designed to fight in unstable space, but even they were dead now. Or, to be more specific, they had been turned into demons.

A massive army consisting of every living creature on the planet was being brought, step by step, towards a single fort, which was the main target of the projection being shown. Various emotions had been stimulated as the members of that small group saw Luthor's capabilities. He was abnormally strong for a Foundation realm cultivator, and not just specifically for a human either. Even other, stronger races would have a tough time fighting Luthor as long as they were in the same realm.

But it did not matter at all. Regardless of how formidable the Midnight Battalion was, and how impervious their armor, they would eventually run out of spiritual energy. After all, the scale of the enemy they faced was too large. Even if all 1000 members were as strong as Luthor, eventually they would be worn out.

That was exactly the goal this group was working towards. Capturing the battalion would be an easy task for any of them, but if they arrived in an area with such weak space they would not be able to use their abilities properly. Unfortunately, acting in exactly such an environment was necessary because that was the only way they had discovered of preventing the battalion from teleporting back to the Inn.

Of course, chances were they still had a way to teleport back. As unfortunate as that would be, it did not matter. In that case, this would be a good learning experience. After all, when targeting an entity as strong and massive as the Midnight Inn, the more information they gathered, the better they could plan for future attempts.

One of the members watched with blood red eyes filled with fanaticism.

"Oh lord Ra, I dedicate this attempt to you. If the heretics of Midnight are successfully captured, I will spill their blood in your honor, and strengthen your reviving faith by sacrificing their souls."

Another shadowed figure watched with impatience. The slug-like creature, a Gilati, just wanted hostages. That way he could finally exchange for Jill, who was still hiding out inside the Inn.

A robot watched in silence, recording everything it saw in its hard drive so that the main intelligence hub could analyze all the information in greater detail later on. As an A.I. it did not really care about revenge. However, the Inn had shown the capability to threaten the A.I. race. They needed a way to retaliate against the Midnight Organization if there was ever a need.

A couple of figures were devils, and they sat without any disguises to mask them. Finally, among the group, there was an actual Fuegan! Like the Henali used various other races to fight their war, so too did the Fuegan. But behind the facade was a real race, and their strength could not be underestimated.

The Fuegan did not care about the Midnight Inn either way. It was merely here to develop contacts. After all, the era of the Henali was coming to a close, and soon they would have to manage the countless races of the Origin realm. It was good to get some practice while they could.

"The show is finally getting good," said one of the devils as he watched with eager eyes. Their plan was to exhaust the Midnight Battalion before capturing them. It would be best to avoid any deaths if it could be helped. But, if it couldn't be helped, then they would just deal with it. After all, this was just a single one of their plans.

*****

The first fight did not last long, and in a short thirty minutes all four invading armies were decimated. The problem was, as if on cue, as soon as the Void Dwellers all died, another space ripple occurred, gravely injuring many and killing some.

Then four more armies appeared on the horizon, all heading their way. It was not the size of the armies that intimidated the forces within the fort, but the nature of the invasion. Although they were strong enough to fight off one wave, and perhaps a few more, eventually they would get tired. When that happened, the only outcome was death.

"All deployed forces retreat!" a calm voice boomed over the various battlefields.

Since the four latest invading armies were still far off the soldiers had enough time to retreat behind the fort walls. In the center many had already gathered, looking towards Gerard who stood atop a podium.

"There are new orders. All soldiers will be divided into a few various teams. We have four battlefields considering each side, and so each side will have three teams. One team will fight while the other two rest, and one by one they will rotate so that everyone has a chance to heal and rest."

Gerard spoke with a firm, yet relaxed voice. He treated the situation as if their victory was a matter of fact, and all they had to do was go through the motions.

"If… if we divide the armies so much, there will be more or less 300 soldiers fighting on each side at any given time. Will such few soldiers be able to hold off the invading army on each side?" asked one of the soldiers, feeling extremely worried.

"300? Really? Oh, I must have made a mistake. In that case, there will be four teams for each side, giving everyone even more time to rest. As for holding off the enemy… don't worry too much about it. The Midnight Battalion will take care of most of the fighting. The rest of you are just there to fill the numbers."