The Innkeeper

It made life easier for Lex too. With fewer obstructions, Fenrir quickly navigated his way from the very thick of battle towards the center of the stronghold. With the armies well trained coordination, it was only a matter of time before they won the war outright.

With the pressure off him, Lex easily soon exited the battle, though no one seemed to notice the giant wolf as it openly marched through the vacant streets.

"You\'re leaving the battle?" Gisele questioned, a hint of disapproval in her voice.

"Certain matters require urgent attention," Lex replied, paying her no mind. He had officially brought her to the stronghold, and even helped her escape the fight. If she wished to go back, he would not stop her nor interfere in her matters. His focus was entirely on the cure.

Gisele hesitated, but decided to stick with him. Lex was right. Her priority in the current situation was to check on the kids who had been with her, not the fight.

Lex was beginning to feel that the worst was behind him, when suddenly Gisele coughed. It was not a bad cough, and it did not happen again, but at their level, even a cough was a significant matter.

He was suddenly reminded that she was poisoned, as possibly everyone else in the area as well. Lex and Gisele looked at each, both aware of what the cough meant.

"Let me see if I can slow down the poison," Lex said as he lifted his hand, but waited for her to agree. Considering that Lex\'s performance was quite remarkable so far, and that he himself had yet to show any signs of suffering from the poison, she nodded.

Lex placed his fingers right below her wrist, as if checking her pulse. But he was not investigating her situation. Instead, he asked the Lotus, "can you check the body of the woman I\'m touching? Can you find a cure for the poison in her system?"

"Let me check," the Lotus said, and allowed its energy to travel through Lex\'s fingers into Gisele\'s wrist. Gisele, who was being investigated, suddenly stiffened. The spiritual energy which had entered her wrist was beyond overbearing. If she tried to resist in any way, there was a very good chance her meridians themselves might tear.

After a few moments of investigation, the Lotus replied, "yes I can remove the poison, but this poison is incredibly powerful. I\'m afraid the moment I finish removing it, I\'ll fall into a deep sleep."

Lex frowned, and then removed his hand. This was the first time he had encountered something that gave the Lotus some kind of trouble. Whatever the poison\'s origins were, they absolutely weren\'t ordinary. For now, it wasn\'t worth putting the Lotus to sleep to save one person.

Although he said nothing, the frown on his face informed Gisele of whatever she needed to know. She wasn\'t particularly disappointed, for she didn\'t expect much. If the poison were so easy to remove, she would have already done it. Little did she know, Lex really had removed the poison from his own body. Although technically, that was a result of his body\'s own reaction, and was achieved by removing the infected area, such as a piece of his lung or his blood.

"Let\'s hurry," was all Lex could offer as he spurred Fenrir to pick up the pace.

It had to be mentioned that the poison remained unidentified even by the Fancy contact lenses, and the same could be said for the strange insects. Lex could accept the absence of information of the poison due to how unusual it was, but considering the lenses came from the Emporium, he expected them to have a detailed database of all common and uncommon creatures in the Origin realm at least.

This point was highly suspicious, but Lex could do nothing about it, so he put the matter at the back of his mind.

"I\'ll get off here, the apartment I left the kids in is in a different direction," said Gisele as she hopped off Fenrir.

"Good luck," offered Lex, before he continued on his way. He was not roaming the stronghold randomly, and was heading towards the main command center in which they even had their teleportation formations. If he wanted to ask about the poison, he would either need to find a doctor, or someone higher up along the chain of command.

The building, surprisingly, was not unprotected as Lex had expected. There was a heavily armed guard stationed at every corner.

At a glance Lex could easily determine that these were not the usual guards, but instead were probably some of the reinforcements that had teleported over. He didn\'t know what they were waiting for, but he knew that if he revealed himself they\'d probably ask him to reveal his identity.

Fortunately, Lex had an official identity with the Jotun forces. He asked Fenrir to shrink down as they hid beside a nearby building, and Lex dismissed Notorious Anonymity. He even changed out of his suit so that no one would associate him with the crazy devil guy who had diverted an immortals\' attack. Gisele was the only one who knew his identity, but he did not really expect her to tattle. Even if she did, he was not too concerned for the nagging feeling his instincts gave him to hide his identity had vanished.

So much movement caused his pain to once again spike, but there was nothing he could do about that. At least the Lotus was healing him, which helped reduce the pain somewhat.

As soon as he neared the main building, the stationed guards noticed him and aimed their weapons at him.

"Identify yourself!" one of the soldiers yelled in an extremely aggressive and hostile voice.

"Auxiliary Combat Aid (ACA) Lex," he yelled back, as he walked back slightly hunched. "I\'m severely injured, I need medical aid!"

The guards finally lowered their weapons and approached Lex, but even then, no one seemed to notice the little white pup following behind Lex. Fenrir\'s abilities had really grown during his time away.