The Innkeeper

Time seemed to slow down as Lex focused on the seated teenager. Maintaining eye contact, Alexander opened his mouth and ushered a single word, but Lex never heard it. There was an explosion of bright light, completely blinding not only him but the contact lenses as well. Moreover, a prickling sensation covered Lex\'s entire body, as if an army of ants was walking all over his skin. He tried opening his eyes to determine what had happened, but discovered that his movements were extremely slow and disoriented.

When he finally managed to open his eyes, Lex discovered, to his astonishment, that he felt dizzy. Moreover, he seemed to be looking at the ceiling. An involuntary grunt escaped his mouth as he eventually tried to move. As incredible as it may sound, Lex\'s body was incredibly sore and stiff, which made it uncomfortable for him to move.

When he finally recovered from whatever attack he had just suffered, Lex discovered that he was, once again, completely naked. Although his body was not too hurt, the fact that his body had turned completely red, as if sunburnt, was already a testament to the strength of Alexander\'s attack. Whatever this attack was, it had still not managed to break his skin, but internally, he felt like his bones had been thoroughly rattled.

"That was a good one," Lex said out loud as he picked himself up.

The pale-looking Alexander, who had overexerted himself for that attack, had his mouth hung open as he tried to imagine what exactly it would take to hurt Lex.

"Thanks," he managed to mumble as Lex helped him stand.

"I have something for you," Lex said, as he summoned the crystal crown he got so long ago from the Crystal realm. This was an extremely useful tool that Lex had once termed as his thinking cap. It allowed Lex to artificially enter a \'Flow\' like state, and it was much stronger than Lex\'s own ability - or at least it was back then. Now, after multiple breakthroughs, Lex no longer needed it.

"This thing is called Issle\'Garb, although I just usually refer to it as my thinking cap. It can only be used by people who follow the True path. Try it out."

Lex tossed the crown to Alexander as if it was a toy instead of a precious tool, which greatly startled Alexander, especially since he was still disoriented. But then he remembered he had spirit sense, so he directly grabbed the crown out of the air and put it on his head.

After channeling his spirit energy through the crown, Alexander experienced the wonderful feeling of the heightened \'Flow\' state, and immediately understood its value.

"Are you sure you don\'t need this?" he asked, taking the crown off. Currently, he did not have the energy to spare to continue using it.

"Yes, it\'s not that useful for me anymore, so you might as well get some use out of it. The next few months I\'ll be slightly busy, so if you need me, try to leave a message in advance."

Then, without waiting for Alexander to reply, Lex teleported away. It was a bad habit he developed while acting as the Innkeeper.

Even though Lex had left, Alexander still had some more free time, so he decided to stay at the Inn and recover from his exhaustion for a bit. He exited the training room and was heading towards the lazy river when he saw a familiar face - one he hadn\'t seen in a while.

RussianPrincess77 was standing there, seemingly waiting for him. Why was she always so creepy like that? But then again, she was always extremely helpful.

Back when he was still on earth, she seemed to maintain some sort of advantage over him in cultivation. He thought that after everything he went through, he would finally overtake her, but no, his instincts were clearly warning him that she still had formidable strength.

"Long time no see," he said, as he walked to her.

"Yeah, it has been a while. I wish we could catch up, but you have no time. You really need to return to work."

"Huh?" Alexander didn\'t immediately understand what she was saying, so she clarified.

"Trust me, you want to go back to work as quickly as possible. When you get free again next time, look for me. I have a favor to ask of you."

Alexander was supposed to have a lot of free time, otherwise he would not have come to the Inn. But he already had some experience with RussianPrincess77\'s prophetic advice, so he decided to listen to her, and returned.

The moment he reappeared in his room back on Polebitvy, the sound of someone banging on his door welcomed him. Alarmed, he quickly opened the door to find his immediate superior, Immortal Valkyrie, standing there.

For some reason, probably due to his exhaustion from overexerting his energy, he had the deranged thought that Valkyrie looked somewhat similar to Lex. He immediately erased that thought, as he didn\'t want to curse his friend out like that.

"What\'s wrong with you?" she asked bluntly, clearly staring at his disheveled state.

"I was training. I had some free time while my latest report was being processed."

"Well, free time is over. I have no proof, but I feel like I know what Jeffery and his organization are after on this planet. In a few months, an incredibly important VIP will pass through here.I believe he is their target. Your new task… is to find proof of that."

*****

While Lex returned to the Crystal realm, to once again journey through the bog, and Alexander was being ordered around by \'Immortal Valkyrie\', things on earth were extremely chaotic.

The invasion of New York had been going on for many days, but it suddenly took a turn for the worse. It was as if the A.I. had stopped focusing everywhere on earth, and instead were only attacking there.

Rafael was in the command center, organizing four different battles being held in different parts of the state, and yet it seemed like more invaders were coming from everywhere. Even if he wanted to defend, there were no more soldiers for him to muster.

"Anakin, what\'s the status on your side? You think you\'ll be done soon?"

"Nearly there," was the only response he got.

On Anakin\'s side, he was standing over the defeated body of one of the A.I. While many of them had organic bodies, he finally encountered one which had a body made from machines - or at least machines as identified on earth.

When the war started, young Anakin Indiana McClane was actually slightly scared. But once he got over that initial bout of fear, he discovered how liberating war really was. He had strength, and he had Rafael\'s guidance keeping him from messing up. All that was left was to have lots of fun.

"You know," Anakin said, as he brought his face near the robotic body lying on the ground, "I\'ve heard the world\'s first computer virus was in Lahore, Pakistan. I know a Pakistani guy who lives in Queens, I wonder if I can get him to make a virus for you."

The A.I. did not respond, but only kept looking up at Anakin. In truth, the battle was already over, but Anakin had been looking for prisoners he could take. He finally found one that would fill his needs.

"I also have a Russian friend who is holed up near Brooklyn. I wonder if 30 terabytes of kinky grandma videos will slow down your processing or not."

The robot had no idea what Anakin was saying, but it got the feeling that it should be afraid. But Anakin was not paying attention to the robot\'s reaction, anyway. He had thrown his head back and was laughing maniacally, and the shadows in the surrounding area were trembling, as if laughing along with him.

Inside Anakin\'s soul, an old evil grandpa was watching everything, feeling the satisfaction of watching the younger generation grow up.

On another battlefield Rafael was controlling, Larry was fighting like a madman. Influenced heavily by Marlo, Larry had a deceivingly sly battle style, relying on his inescapable control over metal.

Unlike Anakin\'s battles, where he occasionally took prisoners to study more about their enemies, Larry left no survivors. Most of the time, he left no corpses either.

The third battlefield was the most unusual. All the soldiers did not rush forward, and only held defensive positions while Souta alone fought all the enemies. After the death of his previous master, Souta had received a number of quests which involved gathering special materials which could be found in the invading aliens\' bodies.

Once he completed the quests, and gathered the supplies, his system absorbed them and underwent an evolution, turning from a Samurai system to a Ronin system. The system had become much stronger, and thus, so had Souta.

The final battlefield… was Marlo\'s. Unlike the others, he had no soldiers backing him up. He was a lone soldier, facing the bulk of the invasion on his own.