The Innkeeper

"Don't break it," Lex instructed as he looked up at the giant wolf. Even if he were in his usual size he would find Fenrir massive right now, let alone in his baby state.

Lex leaned against one of Fenrir's legs and summoned one of his many immortal level missiles, letting it sit amongst the rubble. Letting out a sigh, he gently sat on top of it, nearly wincing as he sat.

Why was it that pain was so much easier to ignore in a fight, but as soon as it was over, it was almost unignorable?

The pup, similarly wounded, shrunk his size down and lay his head in Lex's lap, though he never loosened his teeth at all. He needed only to increase his force by a fraction, and his teeth would tear through the feather. His instincts were practically begging him to do so. But since Lex had asked to wait, he would wait.

Their blood slowly dripped from their bodies and fell onto the missile. A few drops had to accumulate before they began to slide down that as well.

Lex observed the feather with his left eye, trying to understand how Ra had used it. For a very long time, Lex had been looking for ways to make clones of himself. How cool would that be?

But every technique he discovered came with massive drawbacks. It was never worth it. He wondered if Ra's technique was any better.

"You know, I don't really appreciate being lied to," Lex said out loud, though his gaze never left the feather.

"When did I lie to you?" asked Cassandra, her projection appearing in front of him.

"'Oh I am the strongest human alive, but I can't beat this half dead eagle stealing energy to survive'" Lex mimicked her poorly. Perhaps the age of his body was making him slightly immature.

"Even if that were true, and come on, it's really not, Ra was leaking energy at a rapid pace. All you needed to do was block the energy he was stealing, and he'd die in a couple of days."

Lex paused to see if she was going to provide any justification. When she didn't, he continued his list.

"There's also no way you didn't know he had fallen, but I'll ignore that one since you at least taught me about corrupt divinity. The thing that really peeves me, the one that really gets to me though, is the attempt at emotional manipulation. And when that didn't work, or at least didn't elicit much of a response from me, you shifted the danger from the Origin realm to me directly.

"Like I get that by stating the entire Origin realm is at risk, you wanted to motivate me to fight Ra. Honestly I was going to fight Ra anyway, but when I didn't make a sweeping declaration to die fighting for the sake of the realm, you trained me, and then said it's too late, you have the aura of the temple on you now. You're in danger too. Almost like it did not occur to you that I would also become a target if I underwent your training beforehand."

Lex was even skeptical of the system providing him benefits, so how could he not doubt others? The only difference was, he did not so blatantly fight against Mateo and Cassandra as he had with the system because he still needed something from them - the training. Also, just in case he was wrong about them being able to fight Ra on their own, then at least until that point they needed him as well, so he would be safe.

But now finally they had arrived at the crossroad, and Lex could no longer afford to pretend to be stupid. In case they had ulterior motives, should he not protect himself first then he would be at their mercy.

He really liked the idea that this temple was the perfect place for him to secretly train his employees, but he could not send them to the temple if there was any doubt about it at all.

"Given your young age, I just thought you were just naive," Cassandra said casually. "Most people who lack experience more or less believe whatever they hear. People with experience often drop their guard after experiencing some benefits, and begin to doubt their own original suspicions instead. I'm glad to see you're not so foolish. Let's talk a bit, but first, let me take care of this."

She waved her hand, and an imperceptibly thin shield appeared around the missile, isolating it from the rest of them. Even Lex could not detect the shield, but he could tell that he had lost contact with the missile.

She also summoned the projection of a chair and a table, before taking a seat. Cups and plates appeared on the table, filled with various foods. Cassandra only grabbed what looked like a tea cup and took a sip before continuing.

"Help yourself to something if you need it. I feel like this is going to be a long talk. Let's begin with your fight with the little bird. Your performance was not bad. Clearly you have been hiding the extent of your skill, as you performed a lot better than projected. You also got a little lucky, because you inadvertently protected yourself from the deities schemes. Instead of giving you all the answers, let's do a question and answer session to see how much you picked up. Do you know what the deities' goal was?"

Lex got up from his missile and stepped up to the table. But instead of pulling out a chair, he summoned another missile and took a seat. Cassandra was not the only one who could make a silent statement!

Cassandra clicked her tongue and isolated the new missile again. These things weren't toys to be left around like that! This student of hers really had a temper!

"He was definitely planning something, otherwise he would not have used an energy body to distract me for so long. But we figured it out in time, and prevented his plan."

"Wrong, that's not what happened," Cassandra corrected.