"That won’t work," Kaemon responded immediately. "If we teleport away, they will chase after us and exit the suppressive dome. What we’ll be facing then is the full might of almost a hundred Heaven Immortals. In this situation, all we can do is find a way to suppress them all simultaneously. Or maybe a way to defeat them all in one swoop."

A sombre expression covered Lex’s face as he tried to think of a solution.

"Do not worry. Even now, I have not run out of contingencies," Kaemon assured Lex from afar. "What you need to do is to make the castle as defensible as possible, so that if it is forced to, it can survive the fallout from the self destruction of so many immortals. I’ll try to contain the situation, but if worse comes to worst, I have a means of quick retreat. I’ll return to the castle... after that we’ll just have to put the endurance of those walls to the test."

Lex frowned slightly.

"Are you sure? I can come and help you fight? I took one of them out, and if I repeat the process, it’ll take time but I’m sure I can eventually take them all out."

Lex was being generous with how confident he felt in defeating them all. While the Abaddon Inn was a powerful technique, getting it to work was not easy. If his enemies had the opportunity to see him use it repeatedly, surely they’d think of a way to avoid it.

"If they see their defeat coming, they will self-destruct. Fear is not an emotion that the Gon feel - literally. If they are slaves, they will have strict orders about it. Victory or defeat has to be decided in one swift move. Leave it to me."

Lex used this moment to reflect. Only minutes ago he had been feeling good about his strength. Now, he was in grave peril.

"Lex, why are you smiling like that?" Leonidas asked curiously.

"Smiling? I’m not smiling. We’re in a very serious situation, so I’m taking this very seriously," Lex responded matter-of-factly.

Leonidas gave him an odd look, but didn’t say anything.

"By the way, if you see Z, tell him to watch me and take notes. I’ll show him what a real transformation looks like."

Oh, he was so going to use his Lotus form. But this was not the moment to feel giddy, so Lex wiped the nonexistent smile off his face and got to work.

Luthor was already doing everything to ensure that the castle had all of its own defenses up. Lex began augmenting them, and creating new barriers. If he still had Regal Embrace, blocking something like this shouldn’t have been a problem. It seemed he was going to find out if he had kept up with the trajectory he was on, or had fallen behind.

Kaemon, in the meantime, had resumed his fight, and appeared to still be losing, though he was no longer being pushed back. Lex, however, could tell that he was preparing something. He just didn’t know what that something was.

For hours, the fight continued. That wasn’t surprising. Fights at this level hardly ever concluded quickly. But in Abaddon, staying in one place for long was a bad idea.

A number of locusts had found the castle and started to attack them as well, while the Heaven Immortal ones joined in on the fight against the Gon, who were beginning to feel the pressure.

Yet considering the threat of self destruction, the unlikely reinforcements were actually a bad thing.

During this entire period, Lex did not rest. He was not putting up layers and layers of defense. No, he simply erected one barrier around the castle, and was reinforcing it in every way he knew how. The barrier was already far superior to techniques like Talk to the Hand 2.0, and it wouldn’t even block Kaemon or the other mercenaries if they ran through it. Everything else, though, would have a hard time crossing it.

Finally, a change happened. The dome of spike above the immortals, the one that had been suppressing them, started to move. All this time, Kaemon had been accumulating energy for the dome, and though he wasn’t ready to use this attack yet, the situation was getting precarious. If he could see it, so could the Gon, so there was no telling what they might do. He had to act before that.

The dome suddenly broke apart, each of the spikes turning and targeting one of the Gon before shooting down towards them like missiles. It happened all too quickly.

The spikes were launched before anyone could reach, and embedded themselves inside the Gon, despite their own sturdy bodies and spikey hair!

The spikes weren’t lethal attacks, no. They were seals. The metallic spikes turned to liquid and were absorbed into their targets bodies, sealing them instantly, locking their bodies in place and preventing their energies from flowing. In fact, the seal seemed to even freeze their minds.

For a moment, it seemed like it had worked. For a moment.

Then the hair on Lex’s body stood up, and he saw Kaemon activate some ability that turned him and the rest of the mercenaries into a beam of blue light. Yet before that light could reach the castle, a much, much brighter light lit up the valley.

All sound was gone. All sensation vanished. Lex could only see white light and even his spirit senses could only detect white.

Then, amidst an overload to the senses, Lex vaguely saw a hazy blue blur pass him, or maybe he didn’t. That’s because the next moment, he felt an impact on his barrier - an impact he immediately knew that his barrier wouldn’t be able to block for long.

There was something transcendental about the force that assaulted them - something beyond Lex’s comprehension, therefore it was something he had not prepared to defend against.

Lex fixed his tie - almost as if it mattered, considering that no one was able to see anything other than white - and took a step forward. On his back, beneath his clothes, a lotus tattoo began to bloom, causing Lex’s aura to change.

Amidst an endless tide of white, the inhabitants of the castle tavern saw a familiar figure, his back turned towards them. If the sudden arrival of the white light had scared any of them before, then that fear had vanished now.

Lex had never failed them before, and he wouldn’t start now.