?868 There is no lingering danger at all
Many hours had already passed since the particular group of devils entered the Inn and split. During this time, they did nothing suspicious. They merely roamed the grounds of the Inn, separately, as if exploring the wilderness during an adventure.
Oddly, though, that abruptly ended when one of them spotted Velma. The devil stayed in the distance and only watched, but the rest from his group seemed to stop their wandering, and converged towards him. Since he was following Velma, from a distance of course, when they would finally meet, the entire group would be near Velma.
As for what would happen afterwards, only the devils themselves knew.
*****
Lex did not plan an elaborate reunion, nor was he intending on a long, drawn out play for revenge. As angry as he was, he knew his first priority was to get the battalion back to the Inn. It was exactly for this reason that he was willing to take a risk with the stronger missiles.
Of course, the situation here was precarious. With space ripping apart easily, the influence of an attack on an immortal level will not be small.
There was even a chance that the whole region became completely unstable. Lex had various plans to tackle the situation if something like that occurred, but they all came with a level of risk.
The most important reason he was willing to play so dangerously, and take such immense risks, was because he did not know what the enemy had planned. If they had traps waiting for him, his only hope of winning this game would be to flip the entire table.
So it was not out of recklessness or anger that he threw out that bomb, knowing full well that it could result in a massive space tear that even he could not control. No, instead, it was out of a desire to create a situation that 'no one' could control.
The countless ships behind him saw the hundreds of 'gifts' he left behind for them and scattered. They had learnt from his previous tactics and were familiar with the timed explosives he used. All they needed to do was fly around the many 'gifts' and around their blast radius before continuing to pursue Lex.
It would delay them, but considering how fast the ships were, the time difference was negligible. They only had to… they only had to…
The pilots' minds stopped working as they looked at the symphony of explosions taking place in space. To them, it was naught but a lightshow they were supposed to see through their rear view cameras. But the issue was, why could they hear the explosions even though they were in space?
Moreover, the explosion did not go off with a typical boom, but with a deep, mournful wail, as if that of a crying child.
As the bright cloud of light expanded in space, growing like a balloon filled with air, all those who were looking at it slowly stopped their actions. It was as if they were slowly losing their will to do anything. But if anyone was watching they would see that their spirits were being drained, essentially killing off their intelligence without actually killing them.
Whatever law had been trapped in the bomb, it was incredibly unusual with a much larger radius than Pel expected. Moreover, it was lasting a lot longer than it was supposed to.
The last thing the countless pilots watching perceived before their entire spirit was absorbed was the ghastly noise of the explosion turning from a wail into a gasp of surprise.
Oddly enough, Lex, who was looking away from the explosion and rushing at his fastest speed, did not sense the abnormal cloud of light that was forming behind him at all. It was as if only those looking directly at it could perceive it.
What he did notice was an abnormal absence of spatial waves despite the time for the explosions elapsing. Whatever the case, he would not stop to investigate now as his instincts were unusually silent.
He did not detect any danger behind him, which was strange. After all, even if the explosion did not take place, there were countless enemy ships behind him. But his instincts gave him no warnings.
But sometimes, depending on the circumstances, no warning was actually warning enough! What kind of danger could surpass the detection level of his instincts entirely? He did not want to wait to find out.
It did not take long before he felt the gravity of the planet start to affect him, and felt his return to the atmosphere. The return of sounds was the most pleasant part of his journey, as he had to actively avoid paying attention to the sound of his own blood coursing through his veins which was all he heard in space - accompanied by his heartbeat of course.
The technique he used to move around in space lost its potency, but that did not matter as Lex had aimed his body well. He was falling directly towards what he could now see was a massive army, surrounding the battalion and attacking at every moment.
The fact that they were not in their mech form told of how bad their situation must be. If Lex had delayed any longer…
It no longer mattered. Ignoring the flames forming around his body, Lex began to gather his spirit energy into his arms. Having a massive army around the battalion was clearly not good for teleporting back, so first he would kill them all.
The strange lack of 'danger' behind him urged him to rush as much as possible. So, without waiting for a superhero landing, Lex gathered his spatial affinity in his hands like he had done before, and once again summoned a blade made of space.
With a form that was much improved from the one he used in space, Lex once again swung his sword. The army was too far away, so the sword could not reach it. Lex had not manifested sword intent either, so he couldn't use that for long range attacks either. Instead, he used the tiny space blade in his hand to cut through space itself.