The Innkeeper

878 I'm an atheist

A volcanic rage filled the zealots' eyes as he guzzled up divine energy to fuel the endless barrage of attacks raining down on Lex. All his abilities, which used to severely diminish his foes' fighting force if not completely cripple it, seemed completely ineffective against Lex.

The aura could not restrain him, the attacks could not hurt him, the curses could not reach him and his threats did not phase him. He seemed uniquely equipped to combat divine energy, something that was almost impossible to accomplish ordinarily. But even then, he was bound to fail.

The zealot revealed an ugly, distorted smile as he saw how the devils attacks were slowly tearing his shirt apart. At first it was just his collar, but now his cuffs and even the back seemed to be suffering under their combined effort. If Lex still had his blazer, it would not have been so easy to achieve, but since he took it off himself, he had to live with the consequences.

Truthfully, his suit had not been too useful up until now. Most of the time, he faced foes much stronger than him, to whom his suit was little more than paper to be torn through, or his enemies were far too weak and were disabled from his aura alone.

This was the first time he was up against enemies near his own cultivation level, mostly because of how the space in this region could not have supported stronger beings.

The pit that Lex was standing in had now become a black crater, its surface charred under the relentless onslaught against a single man. It almost seemed like the world itself would collapse before he would. Almost.

Mad laughter echoed through the air as the red-eyed zealot rejoiced, his dried and shriveled face revealing an ugly sight, even in the face of joy. After a particularly powerful attack used jointly by 10 of the 17 devils, his shift finally tore off!

What was revealed beneath was a perfectly sculpted body, without a single blemish or bruise to mar the sublime sight. His rippling muscles looked more divine than the divine being he had gripped in his hand, and for some reason, the effect of his Domination increased noticeably!

Of course, he was wearing a white vest underneath, but at least a single layer of defense had been removed.

Although many of their attacks fell upon Lex's skin as well, he remained completely unharmed, and the group assumed it to be the effect of his defensive garb. Destroying the slim, partially see-through vest was much easier compared to the shirt, and in only a couple of minutes Lex was left bare chested amongst the group.

As if completely unable to restrain himself, the zealot finally closed the distance between himself and Lex, unleashed the one attack he had been nurturing for a while. How could the zealot forget the punch to the face it had received the moment Lex arrived? Finally, it was time for vengeance!

His bony fist, empowered by tremendous amounts of divine energy, connected with Lex's face. The blast from the connecting attack blew a cloud of black dust, which was quickly blown away by the heavy gusts of wind that followed. The snapping and cracking sounds of bones breaking were quite audible even over the noise of the attack, especially since there was a cry of pain and surprise that followed!

The zealot looked in horror at his fist which had been squished to jelly under the force of his own attack, while Lex remained completely undisturbed.

The devils were also startled, but then their fear and disbelief motivated them to unleash their own special hell on him. But all their efforts were to no avail. At least his shirt had been wrinkled and showed some signs of wear after a few of their attacks. Lex, on the other hand, stood pristine!

The look of anticipation in Ra's eyes changed to horror and disbelief. He could sense that the man holding him was only in the Golden core realm, so then why was he so indestructible?

While their onslaught continued, and became even more potent under the effects of their desperation, the zealot was driven to the absolute brink. With no solution seeming to work, he made a desperate play to empower Ra!

He placed his hand at the Deity's feet and transferred all the divine energy within his own body to Ra. The already feeble zealot withered as the energy left him, and soon his body crumbled and fell to the ground, as if a clay doll had broken. But while the seemingly impervious zealot died just like that, Ra immediately gained a boost in strength.

Just as a flicker of his confidence returned, Lex chuckled.

The tip of his middle finger finally touched the core within Ra's chest.

"You know, on Earth, I actually saw your statues in person once when I visited Egypt," said Lex softly. "I was not too impressed back then. I'm not so impressed now, either."

With his finger firmly pressed against the core, Lex finally took action. Using his eye, he could see that the weakness for this projection of Ra was the core in his chest. As long as he destroyed it, the clone would also cease to exist.

The only caveat with that was that the core was not so easy to destroy. Fortunately, due to Lex's abundant experience, he came up with a better solution. Instead of destroying the core, he would absorb the energy inside of it to improve himself.

If he could do that with a living dragon, Lex saw no reason why he couldn't do the same with a living deity. Once, long ago, he had improved his body using the essence of a deceased Deity. Now, he wanted to see how the energy of a living deity would improve him.

He began channeling his cultivation technique, and the extremely powerful and potent divine energy that enabled the deity to exist was forcefully absorbed into his body through his finger.

In disbelief, Ra roared, "DO YOU KNOW YOUR BLASPHEMY!?! SUCH SACRILEGE WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN BY ANY DEITY!"

"That's okay," Lex replied casually. "I'm an atheist, anyway. I never cared much about what the Deities thought."