The Innkeeper

"Stop laughing," Serene said, but the chiseled man only roared out harder. The room was shaking and paintings had started falling off the walls, but he could not care less.

"Stop laughing," she said again, feeling slightly embarrassed, but to no avail.

Finally, her expression turned serious, and she said in a bitingly cold voice, "stop laughing!"

As if he had been faking it all this time, the man went from almost falling over to a modest smirk.

Seeing that he had listened, her expression softened and continued, "What are we going to do about this?"

"How did she escape? Do you have any clues?"

"I strongly suspect the newly discovered entity known as 'Midnight Inn' may have played a role. Although Earth is in a deadzone, lacking higher forms of spiritual energy and making it the perfect place for high leveled political prisoners, if they can travel to the Midnight Inn and recuperate their energy, escaping becomes an option."

"Oh please, how many of those prisoners can travel directly in space or teleport? We don't need to do anything. Earth can continue to serve as a prison, just no longer for anyone approaching the Daolord realm. Send a report back to the family, there's no need to hide the matter. If they want to pick an issue, they can go find the Midnight Inn, I don't care."

With that, the matter was resolved, and the man returned to his practice. Serene sighed as she opened a tablet to write up her report. She completely ignored a small notification in the corner with the title 'your daughter has run away from school again'. She could only handle one disaster at a time.

*****

Slowly the hours passed and many things happened at the Inn. The meeting between the family heads and the representatives of the council did not go over well and, as Lex predicted, his guards had to get involved. Still, none of the family heads returned to Earth. They only sent back their assistants and followers and tried to control the situation through them. Unfortunately, it seemed that they truly had lost all authority.

The few who were still willing to follow the command of the family heads were locked in battle with the council's forces. Most countries worldwide were already under their control. Strangely enough, only South Korea and Japan were able to resist the influence of the council. As for why that was, the family heads were receiving only bits and pieces of information, so it could not yet be determined.

In the meantime, the armies were preparing for their next match. The recovery afforded to them in their bases was remarkable and almost all were fully healed. Only a few who had extremely serious injuries had to preemptively forfeit.

About 900 of Alexander's soldiers were still capable of fighting. While most of them were resting, a few of them were submitting a report for new supplies and gear to be brought from Mars. While this was happening, they received a dossier from the Jotun army. Considering Earth's stellar performance, Anthony decided to give them more support so long as they continued to deliver at the same level. In the dossier was information about the terrain for the remaining 9 nodes. Since the nodes' location had been identified back on the planet, they quickly drew up maps based on previous satellite images and marked down the terrain and notable landmarks.

They could not predict where the next game would be, but at least they would not be surprised no matter what they faced. This was extremely important because two of the nodes were underwater! Without proper gear, the soldiers would literally drown and die within the first hour!

In the dossier was also a report on Pramod! The empire could not confirm it just from watching him fight Alexander, but they had strong suspicions about his species. They suspected he was a Nightmare demon. This was a very rare, very dangerous breed of demons that was named not because of how they originated, but because they were a nightmare for anyone to face!

The document gave a lot of details on how to properly fight a nightmare demon, but to spare everyone the issue of figuring out how to apply this information, they also provided a spiritual technique that could actually damage them. It was not very strong, but at least it did more harm than Alexander's attacks did, and at a fraction of the energy cost.

Like this, the calm was kept right up until a few hours before the next match. So far, most of the guests at the Inn from Earth didn't actually know what was happening. But as if planned, several panicked guests entered the Inn at the same time. They tripped and tumbled as they ran towards those they knew. Unable to be discreet in their mental condition, they shouted 'war' when they finally saw their compatriots.

In but a few minutes, news spread. The guests that arrived didn't know the global situation, but when enough of them got together and told similar stories, it became apparent that the issue was widespread. Fortunately, it seemed that so far cities were being occupied and put under martial law, and there were no reports of widespread massacres. But the lack of information and abundance of over-imagination caused panic.

At this point, despite his own agitated state, Lex had to intervene. Honestly, he was feeling a little annoyed at the family heads for not addressing the people from Earth who were at the Inn, but it didn't matter. They were caught up in their own world.

"Please, be calm," a warm yet firm voice washed over the citizens of Earth. Somehow, Lex had figured out how to give targeted announcements, so only Earthlings were hearing his voice right now.

From Ragnar, who was cultivating, to those who were asleep, to Sophia, who had not left her son's side, they all heard the voice.

"It appears that your planet has come under conflict. Such a time of difficulty is dreaded by all, but as citizens of your planet, it is also your responsibility to shape the destiny of your planet. But at the same time, how can you fearlessly face the future if you are concerned for your loved ones? For the people of Earth, the Midnight Inn will offer great discounts to provide you and your loved one's safety and security, so long as the conflict remains. Please, if you think you or yours are in danger, do not hesitate to bring them to the Inn."

The announcement was short and direct, and delivered the message well enough. Immediately, most of them realized the security and safety the Inn could provide and started returning to Earth to fetch their families. The 100 students from Troy academy felt scared, but surprisingly handled the information better than most adults. It made sense, their regular lives weren't exactly normal either. Actually, it suddenly occurred to Lex that some of them might be kids of the people leading this worldwide revolution, which is exactly why they were sent here - for the security, or to be spies.

As much as Lex hated the feeling that he was simply doing this to fulfill the refugee quest, the truth was that he genuinely wasn't. Previously, he was so concerned about his own family that he forgot about the quest. But the fact that he remembered now was good enough.

One thing he might need to address later was housing for the refugees if the conflict lasted longer than the Midnight Games. For now, there was temporary housing due to the event panel, but once the event ended, that would go away. It seemed like he needed to save more MP, just in case.

It was at this time he also thought of his friends in New York. The fact that he couldn't reach his family was one matter, but those in New York were still within reach.

Lex was not indecisive at all this time around. Deep down, he felt like maybe he was just looking for an excuse to not be logical and just return to Earth. But if an excuse was what he needed, his friend's safety gave him just that. He had to at least check on them. After all, as odd as it may be, despite their short time knowing each other, Lex thought of Larry as a good friend.

He returned to his room and donned the damaged armor he'd bought before going to Nibiru last time, and wore a hoodie on top of it. He ensured the safety was on before hiding the Heavy harley in the back of his pants like in the movies. As uncomfortable as it was, he dealt with it. Making sure he had all the items he needed one last time, he was ready. The next game would start in a few hours, he should be back by then, but if he weren't he told Mary to start without him.

With that, he disappeared from his room and returned to Earth.