Once, when things were getting tough for him to handle, Lex had spent a tremendous amount of MP to hire guards for the Midnight Inn, since the mercenaries were running short of hands. Thus, he had acquired many unique and odd guards, ranging from humans to Devils, Angels, Marzu, Dragons, Celestials, and a bunch of other races Lex had never seen before.

However, among them there was one guard that particularly stood out: he didn't have a distinct body shape or appearance, instead appearing like a living, breathing, evolving nightmare.

He was the personification of fear, and caused an instinctive feeling of revulsion upon sight. Yet, Lex realised, it was not his fault. Rather, it was he was the victim of an incredibly powerful curse the likes of which Lex had never witnessed before. The fact that, even at the peak of the Celestial Immortal realm, he suffered from such a powerful curse revealed just how powerful the curse really was.

What made it even more interesting was that Lex had figured out that all the hired guards had actually been system users. That meant that the cursed guard was also a system user, and yet he suffered such a tremendous curse. One would think that a system would be able to provide a solution.

What Lex didn't know was that the system, too, had been affected by the curse and was doing its best to kill its host. Fortunately for the host, the means available to the systems were limited.

When the guard left after the event was over, Lex did not expect to see him again any time soon- especially with such a potent curse on him. Yet, here he was, in the middle of a war, hiding in a Minor realm with an unfortunate location.

The presence of the guard... well, he wasn't a guard anymore, so Lex decided to call him the Nightmare. The presence of the Nightmare attracted all the attention on the battlefield, even more than Lex himself.

The distraction lasted only a split second, barely enough to register at all, yet Lex did not waste that time gawking. The moment that Nightmare was revealed, Lex teleported away while sending him a message via spirit sense.

"Help me distract the insects, and I'll help you suppress your curse," a voice spoke directly in Nightmare's mind, causing him to raise his guard. He did not expect to find any good samaritans here. He knew full well the strength of his curse, and how it would affect anyone. Likely, the person who sent that message would happily betray him once things were resolved. So Nightmare had no intentions of helping out. The problem was... whether he wanted to or not, he naturally attracted all the insects' attention.

That is, until, a certain masked, humanoid dragon infiltrated the insectoid army and approached the formation nurturing a black hole.

In an instance of rare unity, the insects, elves and all the others participating in this war jointly felt a sensation of impending doom. Their instincts warned them to run, to escape, to flee as far as possible, yet that was no longer possible unfortunately.

Wearing a dashing suit, his tie rippling in the void as it suffered from the pull of the fledgling black hole, Lex unleashed his presence upon his enemies, filling the empty darkness of space with a hint of gold.

In his dragon form, Lex did not have actual scales, despite the growing horns and wings, yet in his latest transformation a slightly, gold layer of energy covered his skin in the pattern of scales. While the layer of energy was faint in color, his eyes shone golden with a brightness that even the darkness created by the black hole could not deny.

It was not that Lex's dragon form itself had turned golden. No, the color came not from his form, but from his leaking Dao Intention which rippled out into the universe around him, spreading the influence of his attack before he even attacked. This was Lex's first exposure to the abnormal behavior of time in the presence of a hint of Dao, but he did not have the mind, nor the time to focus on that for now.

No one could stop him. They were either stunned by the weight of his presence, or stunned by the horror that gripped them. There was also the fact that everything happened too quickly.

Just as the first Celestials began to get the idea of resisting the unknown figure, he unleashed a torrent of beautiful, golden flames. Unlike the previous times Lex used Golden Inferno, this time the flames seemed to take on a life of their

own.

As they flowed, the flames came together and took the shape of a massive, golden dragon, the flames themselves exuding a fiery aura of Dragon's might. The darkness of space was suddenly filled with the splendour of a beautiful, golden dawn as the rays of light traveled far and wide.

Yet unlike the refreshing light of early morning, everything the golden light touched began to burn with an uncontrollable ferocity that devoured all energy, and ignored all barriers.

The golden dragon flame unleashed a powerful roar, its voice echoing through the laws of the Origin realm, attacking all surrounding Immortals directly through the laws, causing many of the weaker ones to be stunned.

In fact, countless Earth Immortals died directly from the shock of that roar, as the laws that they controlled suddenly went out of control, the backlash alone burning through the aspect of their immortality that allowed them to control laws.

Yet that was only the beginning. The golden, flaming dragon slammed its body into the black hole formation with an uncontrollable ferocity, burning through the formation as the fire spread using the laws themselves as the medium.

The black hole trembled as it suddenly went out of control. Unlike natural black holes, the artificially created one needed some time to stabilise and begin to operate, or else the instability of the materials used to make it would themselves cause it to erupt into an uncontrollable explosion like something akin to a supernova.

At that moment, neither the insects nor the countless rescue operatives had any thoughts of trying to stop Lex. No, they all only had a single thought in their mind which was to escape... but how could they? The laws of space became uncontrollable due to the ongoing reverberations caused by the roar of the golden dragon, making it so that they could not teleport!

"Heh heh heh," chuckled Dragon-Lex as he spread his wings and flew through space with a speed that, in itself, seemed like teleportation, appearing suddenly in front of the planet where the Evergreen Lancers were.

The sudden arrival of the unidentified dragon caused them to raise their guard, but Lex did not intend on entering the planet, or the range of their protective formation at all. Instead, he simply held out his palm, unleashing a tremendously improved version of one of the first techniques he ever learned.

Lex used Talk to the Hand to erect a massive barrier all around the planet, isolating it from the destruction being caused outside as chaos ensued. Not a single Celestial had the mind to fight Lex as they all scrambled to protect themselves, but how could they?

This was not random chaos. No, this was highly targeted, purposeful destruction orchestrated by the great and magnificent Dragon-Lex, unleashing his Dao Intentions as if he had unleashed his Dragons Might.

Since this was all planned out, how could Lex ignore the possibility of friendly fire? He could not. While the Immortals of the rescue teams struggled in the pandemonium, the laws of the realm in a state of bedlam and entirely uncontrollable, they felt a certain, irresistible pull.

Before they could struggle, or in truth even consider struggling, they found themselves standing behind Lex, watching the devastation unfold from behind the protective barrier of Talk to the Hand. Even Nightmare, who had sought to escape during the chaos, suddenly found himself standing right behind Lex. In fact, even his system suddenly became quiet, no longer sending him notifications - something it usually only did in the presence of Dao Lords.

In truth, Lex should not have been so powerful. His control over laws, while drastically improved, could not have overpowered a hundred Celestial Immortals under ordinary circumstances.

Yet when an element of Dao was added into the mix, then nothing below the level of Dao could compete. Although what Lex unleashed was akin to the least powerful influence of Dao, it was still beyond Celestial Immortals. Thus, he entered an unusual state of being both weaker than, and overwhelmingly stronger than Celestial Immortals.

He stood there, bathing in the golden light of his spreading glory, as he watched the devastation spread. A hundred Celestial Immortal insects worked together to protect themselves, but the result would be unknown. The powerful, destructive influence of the collapsed black hole spread, yet it did not cross his barrier.

Reality itself became rewritten in the aftermath of his influence, but then again,

that was only natural. After all....

"I knew it," said Dragon-Lex. "I am the best."