The Innkeeper

"I… we, we don't know!" the old lady exclaimed, not letting down her guard. Though the house was dark, the old couple had a couple of lit candles placed around the room. The warm, yet flickering light on her increasingly trembling hand really touched Lex's soft spot. He was not exactly a philanthropist, but even he would not ignore such a desperate situation in front of him.

He summoned a golden key in front of the couple, and used his spirit sense to grab onto it. Slowly and gently he moved the key through the air to the old couple.

"Please, I'm just looking for my family. There's a lot of trouble brewing outside and I want to protect them."

Though Lex's tone was gentle, the floating nearing them did not exactly put them at ease. Yet Lex only placed the key on a table near them.

"The key is a special treasure. You can use it when you're in trouble and it'll keep you safe. All you need to do is snap it, and it's easy to snap."

The old lady was frightened, not to mention confused, but by now she could definitely see that Lex meant no harm. Still, she did not dare lower the knife. She did, however, tell him a little bit more.

"We got this house from an agent. We never met the old owners, nor do we know anything about them."

"I… I understand. In that case, my apologies for barging into your home. I uhh… broke the lock on your front door, but I'll make it up to you. Just be sure to use the golden key when you're in trouble, the situation is not looking too great."

The old lady barely nodded, but did not say anything, and kept her eyes peeled on Lex as he retreated out of… out of her house.

Once outside, Lex sighed. This was a conundrum. How was he supposed to find them? If there weren't a blackout, he could just try calling them. But since there was, there wasn't much he could do except search around randomly.

He was desperate, but he wasn't stupid. Eventually, he thought of a possible solution.

He teleported back to the Inn and scanned its premises. Unfortunately, none of the members of the council of the new order he recognized were present.

"Mary, keep an eye out. As soon as any members of the council appear, call me and let me know."

"Sure. By the way, soon after you left, Velma published an emergency newsletter spreading the news about the invasion on earth. While she has yet to collect a lot of information on it yet, there was a response from some of the other guests to the little she did provide in her newsletter. To be specific, there's a philanthropic couple who wanted to inquire if they could donate to a refugee relief fund, since the Inn was taking in refugees. It could help pay for any refugees who cannot pay for themselves."

Lex paused his train of thoughts. That… that wasn't such a bad idea actually.

"Go ahead and tell them they can. In fact, I'll be the first to make a donation."

Lex donated 10 million MP and set up the refugee fund. He also told Mary to inform Velma she could spread the word about the fund, but he did not want people going around soliciting for donations. Although it may sound petty of him to prevent that, he could not help anyone if the image of his Inn was hampered by people going around asking for money.

If it came to it, he would make more donations, but he could not turn his Inn into a place people wanted to avoid due to solicitors!

With that done, he decided to go back to earth. Until some progress was made on finding the council members, he would have to search the area using his spirit sense. As unlikely as it was, maybe he would get lucky.

*****

Larry was grimacing as he glared up at the ship. He did not understand what was happening, but he somehow blamed the old man for it. After asking Marlo, he found out that the old guy's name was Jeffery.

Try as he might, he could not get Jeffery's last scream out of his mind about all of them ending up as slaves. What he could not understand was, how Jeffery could have managed such a thing? If he had access to such a massive spaceship that could invade earth whenever he wanted, why did he stay on earth as a prisoner? It was boggling his mind. Not to mention… what he said about Larry's family.

Jeffery was right. No matter what happened, Larry would never stop wondering if he still held his family prisoner. It would haunt him forever.

"I have news," said Marlo, who deactivated one of the talismans he had. Much like when he went to Vegus Minima to fight zombies, he had tiny talismans hidden on his body in the shape of a tattoo. Their uses were extremely diverse, and included a communication talisman.

"All electronics are down no matter where I reach out to. The only means to long distance communication available is through spiritual means. As far as anyone can tell, the countless ships coming down to earth seem to be heading towards Estonia. As for the reason… well, your guess is as good as mine."

*****

In the underground lab where Adrul conducted his secret experiments on A.I. the man himself lay prone in a chair. Through means he did not understand, the A.I. controlling his cultivation had taken control of his body. It could not make him perform certain actions, or any actions for that matter. All it could do was prevent him from using his own body.

The panic and confusion that had initially gripped him had worn down by now, but there was not much else he could do. His assistants in the lab would ensure he remained fed and kept alive, but without electricity, they were all trapped in the basement in the dark. They would have to wait for the blackout to end before they could figure out a solution to his problem. Something had to change soon, and it did.

There was an explosion somewhere above ground, and then the building around them shook.