Lex talked, his voice echoing over the castle, but none saw who he was talking to. Everyone searched the skies up above, but saw not a single soul. Even Kaemon could not find anyone - that is, until he took out a large pill from his spatial bangle and ate it.

His injured body did not heal. In fact, an even greater pressure fell on the body, but his vision changed slightly, and he saw a vague shadow of Kreel and his flying chariot.

"An Elder," Kaemon gasped in horror, his already exhausted mind falling into panic. There was no way he saw a solution to their current predicament, except to reach out to the Condottiere. But considering his state, conducting a ritual to communicate with him was impossible.

Yet just as he was about to panic about the presence of someone from an Elder race there, he saw Lex targeting him, and then he saw the Elder race members’ expression fade into nothingness, and Lex’s body vanishing.

What was going on? How could Lex fight against a member of one of the top 100 races in the universe? Especially after blocking such a powerful attack. It was impossible!

What Kaemon didn’t know was that Lex wasn’t facing one enemy, he was facing two.

Just as he had done with Jeziah, Lex entered Kreel’s mind, and let the Abaddon Inn loose. Fighting a mental battle against a clear expert in mental battles was obviously a bad move, but as it just happened, the Abaddon Inn was Lex’s most powerful and versatile technique, so it would have to do.

Clearly, Kreel found a way to resist the technique, but Lex had contingencies for that. What he didn’t have a contingency for was the white bead that suddenly appeared in his mind, and appeared on the Go board.

"I am so going to kill him," Lex said through gritted teeth, before rushing towards Kreel, unleashing Abaddon Inn in its full glory.

When the bead was placed on the board, Lex could feel his karma shifting, his destiny boiling, and could feel them beginning to influence his immediate future. Yet something unexpected happened.

His lotus form, just as it absorbed the abundant energy of the suicide attacks, easily and simply absorbed the external karmic influences into itself, producing nary a ripple of any change.

Of course, in truth, there was a change. The duration of time Lex could spend in his lotus form dropped by an entire minute!

"Come, guest, allow me to show you all that we offer," Lex said from behind the Tyrants Mask.

"The more you resist, the worse your experience will be after you accept me as your lord," Kreel responded, launching a salvo of invisible tendrils of mental energy at Lex, trying to weaken his mind.

They did not work. Of course, they did not work. But they also didn’t provide any energy to Lex to absorb. Instead, they only drained his energy.

In a single exchange, Kreel had understood that Lex could absorb energy from his attacks. He also understood that Lex was in an abnormal state, and that this state could not be maintained for long, so he resolved himself to consume Lex’s energy as quickly as possible.

In but a single exchange, Kreel had seen through Lex and his techniques. The most absurd thing was that Lex was in his lotus state, able to contend with Heaven Immortals, and yet a wounded Earth Immortal was able to contend with him as an equal.

As he clashed with Kreel for the first time, his mental strength able to push Lex back, all his earlier self confidence evaporated into thin air. It seemed that even now, Lex was not truly aware of the depths of the true elites of the universe.

"Let me show you to your room," said Lex, summoning the face from right beneath Kreel to transport him away.

Yet the insidious thing dissolved into thin air, as if a fading mirage, perfectly avoiding the entrance to the room. Instead, he appeared behind Lex and attempted to slap him, infecting him with a slavery mark.

"If you don’t want to see your room, then let me show you to the greenhouse," Lex said, his voice resounding across the cursed land.

Saplings suddenly erupted from the ground and began to grow, yet instead of growing into trees or plants, they turned into the tentacles similar to the ones that grew on the Cthulhu race’s face.

The world itself suddenly became hostile towards Kreel, and even the laws seem to become antagonistic towards him. In fact, a faint feeling of universal rejection began to well in his chest.

"Paltry tricks," Kreel exclaimed and clapped his hands together, releasing a shockwave that tore through all the tentacles that were shooting towards him, shredding them to dust.

Lex was about to use the next Inn service, but another white bead appeared in his mind, and once again foreign laws reached out towards him, giving him pause.

The lotus form resisted the influence once again, but this time he lost two minutes’ worth of energy, and his body began to feel the strain of maintaining this form. It was entirely possible that the lotus form would be dismissed before his energy was used up. After all, that’s what happened last time as well.

"You should have just accepted the brainwashing," Lex said, turning to look at Kreel with a serious look. "Now I’m going to have to kill you instead."

Kreel snorted.

"Big words for someone so insignificant. If my soul weren’t ruptured, you wouldn’t have survived a single attack from me," he said, his voice dripping with contempt.

Lex didn’t respond. The situation was becoming dangerous so he could no longer risk taking Kreel alive to read through his memories. For better or for worse, it was best to just kill him.

In a way, that would be easier.

"Let me show you the Butter Knife of my Inn," said Lex, his voice taking on a darker tone.

Lex summoned Naraka, the sword gleaming with uncontainable excitement. Simultaneously, dark clouds appeared above them, exerting a great pressure on the two of them.

The pressure didn’t do much to Lex, mainly because it was actually Domination, but magnified manifold. Or at least, it appeared to be many times stronger due to the illusions that the Abaddon Inn was made from.

"The Butter Knife is really good for cutting off the edges of the sandwich. Let me show you."

When Lex attacked, the entire Inn darkened, for even illusory light was destroyed by it.