?870 Overworked teenager
Lex's instincts, which had been as silent as a docile and frightened puppy, finally acted up, though Lex was not surprised. He immediately felt danger surrounding him, and a sort of timer which was counting down with barely any time on it at all.
This should be the trap, or perhaps even the first of many traps that were waiting for him. Lex scoffed and turned to look at the invisible formations that surrounded this planet. He knew his every action was being monitored, his every word being heard. The enemy was still watching, silently learning everything about him. But was he not doing the same?
He channeled his spirit energy into his left eye and closed his right now. The world looked more vibrant than ever and revealed more than what was there. He saw the weakness in everything, and the strength it could display. He saw the potential everything carried and understood how it could be achieved.
He always knew his left eye was special, but it was only once he asked Pel that he realized what its true ability was, and what he was really looking at. He had gained a weak version of something that was usually only attained by a few extremely gifted immortals. He could see hints of the laws that were contained in everything.
As a result, he could see the natural path of progression for every object, peer into a few secrets, and learn how to destroy or strengthen anything he looked at with ease. For example, a treasure that was actually simple but hid a deep secret could not hide from Lex, for no matter what kind of method it used to hide its secrets, it could not hide the laws that made it up, as well as the secret.
With the ability of his left eye, when he looked at the world, all its secrets were revealed to him. He could see various points across its surface where certain laws gathered, trying to pierce through the veil of reality. Those monuments were not just to send the planet into the Void, but to a certain location within the Void. Clearly, the enemy had planned or prepared something at that spot.
He saw, in a distant corner, far away from the battalion, a well of tainted light. It was a type of divine energy, but feeble and forcefully collected. He saw a curse, hiding in the depths of the planet, sealing something deep within its core. It seemed this plant itself was suffering from the influence of a curse, though that seemed to be old.
He saw…
It did not matter. With his clear understanding of this world, he formed an array around himself. It was weak, weaker than it was supposed to be, a fault of this uniquely weak space, but it got the job done. The array had only one function: to speed up Lex's descent and guide it to a specific location.
Lex, the flaming comet descending from up above, was supposed to be a couple of minutes away. That would have been enough time for the battalion to gather near the cracked space wall and wait for it to recover so that they could approach Luthor.
Instead, the comet sped up abnormally and crashed into the demon army beside Luthor before anyone could react! Even Luthor was startled by the massive scale of the explosion that occurred due to Lex's landing. It was not because he was expecting later, but because everyone, himself included, had tamed down their actions so as to not disturb the wall of cracks.
The person responsible for the space cracks, instead, seemed to not care at all!
Climbing out of the massive hole caused by his landing, Lex immediately gave out instructions.
"Follow me! We have less than 100 seconds to get out of here before the madness begins!"
"We have allies who are stranded," Luthor said, even as he withdrew his purple flames and followed the masked devil.
They were surrounded by demons on all sides, but Lex made no effort to attack them. As soon as they entered the range of his Domination, they buckled under the weight and fell to the ground, as if kneeling before their lord!
This was because they were suffering from the weight of Domination much more than they should have. With his left eye, Lex could clearly perceive their weaknesses, and he subtly controlled Domination to press down on them, making them much more susceptible to its effects.
"One of you can stay behind and we can deal with rescuing the rest, but the majority of the battalion needs to leave. The situation is about to change drastically," Lex said, looking up at the sky. The pale divinity was already spreading across the sky, slowly encompassing the planet.
Luthor, in a hurry to update the handsome devil, shared the situation with his spirit sense. Everything he had learnt, from them being targeted, the objective of the devils, the function of the monuments, as well as the strange zealot, was shared in those few moments so that Lex would not be taken by surprise should there be any interference.
They approached the wall of space cracks, and as if making way for them, the cracks in a small area receded, allowing the two to pass through easily.
The battalion was already waiting for them, standing in formation, ready to deploy at a moment's notice. The Marzu, too, had gathered there. They had long been briefed that the battalion was expecting reinforcements. Although they did not understand how two individuals would save them, as they had been expecting a massive army, they did not question it. The influence of Botlam's Grace already amazed them, so they were willing to see how the situation developed.
Luthor, Gerard, and even the rest, had experienced much during this war, and felt that their horizons had grown. Even still, they were amazed by the series of phenomenal abilities shown by this single member of the Inn, though they were not surprised. It only made sense that someone sent by the Innkeeper was amazing. They would not be surprised regardless of what he did. Heck, even if he destroyed the planet itself, they would just take it in their stride.
Lex encompassed everyone with his spiritual sense and then attempted to strengthen space within that region to some extent. He succeeded, but only barely.
Without any explanation, he took out his Space Seal talisman, the function of which was to solidify space in a region to such an extent that teleportation in and out of it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Of course, such an effect would only occur in normal space. In this region, the talisman could not even achieve half of its effects.
The reason Lex had strengthened the space around the group, even if just a little, was that he wanted the talisman to focus specifically on that region alone. If the talisman were not enough, he was ready to use the Wine bowl as well.
There were no visible effects of strengthening space, but the members of the battalion who had a space affinity felt a subtle change in the region.
With trouble literally on the horizon, as the pale divinity was about to reach them, and the unknown state of what was happening in space, Lex did not dare delay. Immediately he threw out golden keys, making sure each of the Marzu got one. The battalion members already had their own.
"Crush your keys and return to the Inn. Luthor will stay with me to rescue your remaining allies, but we will join you shortly."
As if sensing the urgency in his voice, some of the battalion members immediately tried to crush the key. If the surrounding space was too unstable, then the key would not break. But… as if fate was finally giving them a reprieve, the keys were crushed! A number of them disappeared!
"What about me?" Cirk asked, in case his aid was still needed.
"You leave too. The more people I have to protect, the harder it will be."
"In that case, good luck, Leo," said Cirk, before crushing his key as well.
The rest of the battalion members did not hesitate either. Since the order had been given, they crushed their keys, all disappearing, except… Z, and the Marzu!
"We cannot abandon Feyore!" one of the Marzu said looking at Luthor, though the fear and hesitation in his eyes was evident.
"If she's alive, I'll save her. Otherwise then there's nothing I can do. If you don't want to go, I won't force you, but just be aware that I can't solidify space again and again. You might lose your chance to escape if you don't go now."
Just as the Marzu were hesitating, and speaking with one another through their spirit sense, Z stepped forward, looking at Lex oddly.
"Uhh, boss, is that you?" Z asked with the awkwardness of a teenager working a part time job in front of their boss. Gone was the confident, battle hardened Z. Instead, the overworked teenager seemed to have returned.