Shireen looked at Lex, his casual smile, his nonchalant demeanor, and searched for signs of arrogance. She searched, in his eyes, in his voice, in his body language, of signs of him looking down on her or her intelligence. Yet she found nothing. All she found was sincerity, which was somehow even more bewildering.

How could he, with genuine sincerity, ask her to discover secrets that determined the rise and fall of powerful races, and treat it as if it was merely a matter of making a small effort? She did not understand.

"What do I get out of this deal, then? Are you offering me something?" she asked, moving on from the impossibility of the task itself.

"Yes, of course," said Lex. "I can offer you many things. I can help you recover from your current situation. I can give you resources that you won't be able to find without me. There are many, many things which I can provide you with. But, if you will humor me, I have a second proposition as well."

To Lex's surprise, Shireen sighed. That was, perhaps, the most informal thing he'd ever seen her do.

"Speak, Lex. Make your proposals. I've seen devils buying souls who build less suspense than you."

For some reason, that line was so unexpected it actually caused Lex to laugh out loud.

"You got me. But I'm not interested in buying your soul. Instead, I want you to join the Midnight Inn," Lex said with a grin.

Now it was Shireen's turn to be taken by surprise.

"You want me to join the Midnight Inn?" she repeated, for clarity.

"No, not you. I want all of you to join the Inn," Lex corrected very seriously.

"Why would you want such a thing?" Shireen asked, confused. "Aren't you in enough trouble already? With one simple move, you would provoke the Seraphim and the Angels, and for what? Twelve broken angels who cannot even stand when you utter 'kneel"

Lex looked at Shireen, this time not with pity in his eyes, but with compassion. "So what?" he asked. "After millions, no, probably billions of years of gradually sapping your strength, your identity, your everything, the Resort has brought you to your lowest low. And yet, you still stand with your back straight. You still dare to look me in the eyes like I stole your parking spot."

"What? Parking?" Shireen uttered in confusion, but Lex didn't stop talking.

"Shireen, you and your sisters are in a bad state. Maybe we don't even realize the full extent of the loss you've suffered. But you're still alive. One step at a time, you can recover your strength. But even if you do, I do not invite you to the Inn with the hopes that one day you might regain the strength you have lost. It's the strength you have now, the resolve you have now that makes me want to invite you into our fold.

"Your experience, your knowledge, your skills, even diminished, can contribute to the Inn. Your knowledge of Heaven and Hell, your experience leading armies, the mark you've left on history, all of those make you a valuable asset that I would be insane to overlook. In return for joining the Inn, you would get the Inn's security, the Inn's backing, and a place to call home without having to worry about having to escape or run away.

"Yes, the Inn may not be a Major realm, and you won't be able to take your Dao tribulation here, but are you even ready for that right now? Once you're ready, the Innkeeper will naturally find you a suitable place to take your tribulation." Shireen did not respond. No, she just looked at Lex, unsure of what to feel, or how to respond. In the end, she chose to be truthful.

"Lex, after what's been done to us... I don't think we can ever recover," she said, her voice softening just a bit. "I can understand that... even if I find it hard to accept. But I took an oath of a Valkyrie, and even if it means nothing now, I am not ready to accept someone's pity or charity. Freedom from the Resort does not necessarily have to be freedom to live a new life. It can also be freedom to choose an end I find suitable."

Lex looked in Shireen's vulnerable eyes and found, for the first time, that she had no guard up.

"You think I'm making this proposal to you because I'm... pitying you?" he asked incredulously.

"You said it yourself. I have plenty of experience. Even if I've forgotten many things, I have not forgotten everything. This is just a basic strategy - give a trauma victim a target, a goal to work towards. Help them rebuild their lives... refind meaning. Giving us an impossible task to motivate us, inviting us into the sanctuary of the Inn... you have a charitable heart Lex. But we are warriors, even if we have not fought in a long time. Not one of us fears death, and we have already lived an empty life. We will not settle for another quiet life, even one of comfort and peace."

Lex blinked a couple of times, in genuine and thorough shock, before suddenly transitioning into a massive grin.

"You're right. I am incredibly charitable. It can't be helped - I just have such a good heart," the secret capitalist lamented - the universe as of yet unaware of his upcoming scam to rip off countless Dao Lords under the protection of his system. "But I'm afraid, in this case, you've mistaken my intentions."

Lex was already standing, but for some reason he suddenly looked taller, his aura growing larger as he spoke.

"A very short time ago, I had the privilege of meeting... the strongest living Dao Lord in the universe. You may think I am exaggerating, but I assure you, I doubt I'd be able to survive making such a claim if it were not true. I am not telling you this for any other reason than to share with you a lesson she personally taught me."

Though Lex did not say her name, he did not need to. Shireen had much more awareness of the universe than Lex did, and her mind was not so muddled that she could not even maintain basic interactions with people - if she were that far gone, many would have noticed her state long ago. Yet she continued to interact with people, she continued to make plans, and continued to build her network while she was at the Resort, all because she still retained her mind and her instincts.

If Lex said he met the strongest Dao Lord in the universe, a single name instantly came to mind. No one else dared claim that title but the Primordial Queen, the Matron of the Endless Weave, the Living Calamity...

There was no single being, or even an entire force or organization that had as many confirmed Dao Lord kills as her... the most feared Dao Lord in the universe.

Legend has it that through her web, she tied the fate of the universe itself to her, though none understood what such a thing even meant. Shireen nearly froze in fear at the mere mention of her, for the universe itself responded with pressure to any who even thought of her- the real reason for that legend to begin with.

Little did she know, in Lex's mind, the Grand Butcher of Dao Lords was a friendly spider granny who played games with Lex and invited the Innkeeper to tea the chillest Dao Lord he had encountered to date.

Lex did not seem to notice Shireen's state. In fact, he did not even seem to feel the pressure that arrived with merely mentioning her. Why would he? Eclipse herself had told him to use her name, and had even protected him from universal pressure so she could discuss time reversal with him. "There is no such thing as impossible," Lex said with the surety of having this confirmed by the friendly Eclipse who had a small poodle as an assistant and a cool golden dragon as a pet. Perhaps it was a testament to just how immune Lex was to absurd things that he never found any oddity in any of that. Then again, it was that very immunity that gave him the courage to approach Eclipse and ask her a question, which is what started everything.

Lex looked in Shireen's eyes, before he spoke again.

"There is no such thing as impossible - merely things that have never been achieved yet. Why are you so sure that you can never recover? Is it because you genuinely have lost hope, or because you don't even dare to try? If you do, Shireen. If there is even the smallest spark of belief in your heart that you can not only recover, but surpass your previous height, then the Midnight Inn is truly the place for you.

"For our guests, this is a refuge where they can rest. But among the staff, the Midnight Inn is a place for anomalies to gather. We do not care to learn the norms of the universe, because we never adhere to them anyway. This is not an opportunity that comes knocking twice, Shireen. Getting Nephilim? Impossible secrets? External pressure? We don't care about such things here. After all, this is the Midnight Inn."