The Innkeeper

A few moments after Larry and Marlo disappeared, Vera and Kristine Joel walked out of a perpendicular corridor. Showing no inclination to be sneaky, the mother approached the pouch on the floor and picked it up.

Within the pouch were a couple of golden keys, as well as a hundred or so small diamonds. It was not enough to allow them to be extremely extravagant, but at least they'd be able to live comfortably at the Inn for a few years.

"I'm going to miss this place," said Kristine fondly.

"Well not me!" Vera exclaimed before grabbing a golden key and disappearing. It would not be long before her mother found out why she was so anxious to leave. After all, one of the tenets of prophecy were to reveal only what was absolutely necessary. The more details they revealed, the more bad luck they would accrue, and the law of luck was a tenacious one.

A single moment later, Kristine disappeared as well.

Only a dozen seconds later, Larry and Marlo reached their intended destination. There was no hesitation as both of them were on a time limit, so Marlo smashed down the door to the room.

Depending on the situation they would either kill him or kidnap him, with the preference being for kidnapping as both of them wanted to interrogate him. But once they entered the room they did not find a scared or alarmed man.

Instead, they found a mature looking man seated comfortably on a sofa facing the door. He was wearing a velvet robe and swirled a glass of wine in his hand. His gray hair had been combed neatly yet stylishly, perfectly setting his mature yet handsome face.

In his eyes there was only amusement as he looked at the two, as if he had long been expecting them.

But how he looked could not have mattered less to the two. Their movements did not stop as they lunged forward to grab the man, only for their hands to pass through a hologram!

"No need to be so alarmed. Did you really think I would sit and patiently wait for you here?" The man completely dismissed Marlo, not even acknowledging his existence. Instead, his gaze was fixed onto Larry.

For a moment, both of them were confused, but recovered quickly.

"No matter where you're hiding, I'll find you!" Larry swore with gritted teeth.

"I'm afraid that will be a little harder than you imagine, old boy. You see, the moment I realized my fun on this planet was coming to a close, I made other arrangements. I'm already off the planet, and going far, far away!"

"That's impossible. This is a prison specifically meant to keep you on this planet!"

"Well, yes, it's supposed to be," the man continued, swirling his some more. "But I've always just treated it as more of a retreat. You see, I've been eligible to leave for a long time. It's not like this place was meant to be a permanent prison. I'd just been putting it off until the moment was absolutely right."

The man grinned as he watched Larry trying to understand, doing his best to deny reality. He was so close. This was meant to be it. How could this happen?

"How's that metal spirit embryo treating you, by the way? To be honest, I never thought you'd actually be able to merge with it. That's not supposed to happen. You completely ruined all its value by doing that."

"Huh?" Larry's attention snapped back to the old man, breaking free from his ever increasing sense of denial. While he did not know what a metal spirit embryo was, based on the context, he quickly realized the old man was talking about the treasure his father had fused into his body.

While he was born with a body incapable of cultivating, his family had uncovered an amazing treasure that his father had fused into his body using a ridiculously expensive operation. While the surgery wasn't exactly a secret, the use of the treasure was.

"You knew?" Larry couldn't help but mumble.

"Well of course I knew. Why else do you think I had your entire family banished except for you? Someone had to pay for wasting such a valuable treasure. Though, I let you stay because I wanted to see how you'd react to the embryo in your body. And oh boy, was it worth it. The amount of data I collected studying how you eventually began cultivating. Just that alone was worth being exiled to this pathetic planet."

The sadistic old man began laughing, relishing the horrified expression painting Larry's face.

"Larry we don't have time," Marlo interrupted. "Whether he's on earth or not, we have to retreat from here."

"Oh, oh, before you leave children, I left a little surprise for you. Larry, what if I told you that your family wasn't all dead? What if I told you, I brought your parents and siblings along with me when I left earth."

"You… you're lying. You're just saying that," Larry barely managed to say, his entire body beginning to tremble. Even if they were alive, how… how was he ever supposed to get to them? Everything… his whole life had been… had been a game to this man.

"Am I?" the man asked as he started roaring in laughter. "Will you ever figure out if I'm telling the truth? You'll spend the rest of your life wondering!" The man burst into laughter once again, savoring the pain his words were causing.

Marlo kicked the floor and the wall, trying to destroy whatever was causing the projection but it failed. In the end, he decided to leave despite failing and began dragging Larry away.

"Oh, before you leave," the hologram yelled out after the two, "I left one final present for earth. Think of it as a farewell gift from me. It's quite easy manipulating you barbarians. Have fun living the rest of your lives as slaves!"

The man continued to yell, but at Marlo's speed they were out of earshot in mere moments. Neither of them put much thought into his last words as they escaped. That is, until they reached outside.

The light of the sun had been blocked out by a massive spaceship that had suddenly appeared right outside earth's orbit. The ship arrived too fast, no one had detected its arrival. One moment it was absent, and the next it was there, as if it had teleported there.

For once, a sense of dread gripped even Marlo's heart.