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Under normal circumstances, Lex would have been extremely nervous with almost 2700 people focused on him. Even up until yesterday, or to be more accurate, earlier this morning, Lex did not feel ready to address such a crowd without stuttering or at least mumbling or mispronouncing a few words. Yet right now, the way he looked at the crowd was completely calm and natural. It was as if he believed they should be the ones nervous in his presence, not the other way around.

He scanned the crowd briefly once, his eyes passing over the four divided groups. His gaze paused a second longer when he looked at the Devils, but continued on as if they were just ordinary guests.

"It brings me great pleasure that you all could make it," he said, his voice loud yet still casual. "For those of you who did not get the opportunity to take a tour, or skipped it, let me introduce you to the Inn. For the travelers of the universe, or those who just want a home away from home, for the adventurers who want a respite, or the scholars who want to broaden their horizons, for anyone in need, anywhere in the universe, the Midnight Inn is the destination for you. We offer you rest, security, opportunity, adventure, excitement, enlightenment and more. I am the Innkeeper, and this is my humble establishment."

Lex paused for a moment. He had just received a new quest from the system, and he was going to ignore reading it till he was done, yet a simple glance at the notification let him know how serious this quest was. He quickly made a plan in his head, and decided how to deal with it. This was going to be the fastest quest he ever completed.

"Recently, three new planets gained access to the Inn. To celebrate this, and to nurture an environment that promotes mutual growth and camaraderie I decided to host the Midnight Games, which will allow the three worlds to share their culture with one another, and compete in some games for prizes."

He paused again, this time a little longer, as he looked through his guests. He spotted Marlo entering the coliseum, clearly agitated. Some of his muscle had returned, but Lex did not bother paying attention to that right now. He looked at all the guests' faces, looked in their eyes, to see if he still had their attention. The oddly dressed humans, crossdressed devils and confused Beasts all had their eyes focused on him. No one had said a single word so far, but he would give them an opportunity to speak soon enough. Not to mention, some guests might not really wait to be given an opportunity..

"The Midnight Games will be divided into two portions. The first portion will be a cultural show. Any and all guests from each planet can participate, and the event will entail whatever format the guest requires, whether it be a show, a presentation, a game or anything else. Of course, you cannot harm other guests in the process.

"This portion will be divided into a few stages. The first is the general stage, where everyone will be allocated a space and will have their presentations simultaneously. Based on genuine audience response, appreciation and popularity, candidates will be selected into the qualifying round, where they will be given the stage to present in front of the entire audience.

"That will lead to the finale, where the last two finalists will be given center stage. The winning team will win a prize not only for themselves, but for their entire planet as well. I hope that through that experience the people of all planets come closer together, and learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses.

"After that, of course, will then lead to the combat and the actual 'games' portion of the Midnight Games – much to some peoples delight." Lex gave Marlo a look before continuing. "This portion is a little different, and also dangerous. Instead of taking place here at the Inn, these games will be taking place on Vegus Minima."

That statement made Ragnar frown slightly, and caused Loretta to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Some of you already know, though most do not, that there is a great undertaking going on in Vegus Minima at the moment. For those of you that do not know, I will explain the details a little."

Naturally Lex himself did not know about events happening on Vegus Minima, but under the events panel he can view major events going on in all planets connected to the Inn. He can incorporate those events into his own using the panel, which is how he learned about the largest event taking place on Vegus Minima – the hunt for the spawning portal, as well as a detailed description of events relating to it.

"Currently, the planet is divided. Much of it is under the control of demons known as zombies, while the rest of it is under the control of humans."

This was a simple statement, but it attracted the attention of almost all guests. Some of the Beasts suspected as much, but learning that an entire planet – though they still did not understand the concept of a planet – was being controlled by humans shocked them! The Jotun soldiers and Devils were focused because clearly these 'games' were about to have a direct impact upon their confrontation that had just begun. Based on the direction of the games, support could go on either side. As for the Earthlings, well, which one of them had never seen a zombie apocalypse movie? It was as if their fantasies were coming to life in front of their eyes, and they were truly enraptured.

"Some of you may think that it is a simple battle, since the zombies have no direct way of reproducing, killing them would slowly but surely eliminate the zombies from the planet once and for all. But it is not so simple. You see, there is a spawning portal on the planet that lets more zombies enter the planet infinitely from another realm.

"The humans are desperately trying to locate the spawning portal, while the demons are doing everything in their power to keep it hidden. But in this struggle, the demons have had the advantage of time.

"They've taken a long time to set up a formation that not only hides the portal, it protects it from interstellar attacks. Should any weapons of mass destruction be used, the formation will channel the destructive energy directly into the planet's core, destabilizing it and ultimately destroying the whole planet."

Lex's words caused not only Ragnar to grimace, it caused the Devils to frown as well. This was not a new tactic used in the war against Demons, and was in fact a very common one. Unless the occupants are ready to sacrifice the entire planet, such a formation would prevent the use of not only high leveled cultivators, it would prevent the use of heavily destructive technological weapons. Unless the formation can be located, that is.

"With that background information, I think I can begin to explain the games. The protective formation has ten, very important nodes that keep it running, and so there will be ten games!"

"Dear Innkeeper," Loretta finally interrupted Lex, having completely understood the direction this was going in. But even while interrupting, her disguised masculine voice did not sound aggressive or accusatory, but rather remorseful and regretful. "It seems to me that there is a lot of discrimination going on in your 'Midnight Games'. I thought the point of this event was to get along together, build camaraderie and learn about each other's cultures. Yet now it seems to me that this is all just a build up to a slaughter…a slaughter of my people." Loretta wiped an imaginary tear off her cheek as she said the last part.

"That's not very nice, is it? Not the kind of behavior I would expect from an Inn. Especially not one that is trying to operate without needlessly provoking some enemies."

Lex smirked. He was waiting for this – and so were a lot of people, and Beasts.

"I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding," he said, amusement quite evident in his tone. "The Midnight Inn only ever promotes peaceful gatherings that help not only our guests, but the entire communities that they belong to. As a business, we have no interest in having 'enemies', only more guests. Our sole focus is on spreading our name across the universe, so that anyone who needs to rest knows exactly where they can come to."

"See, again. Your actions and intentions aren't really a reflection of your words. How can you say you're not making any enemies when you're clearly targeting us? How can you condem an entire planet full of my precious zombies to death, and yet claim to be looking for more guests?"

At her question, Lex started laughing. It was not a chuckle or a giggle, or a small laugh that ended quickly. It was a clear, loud laugh full of mirth and amusement. The sound of his voice echoed across the coliseum. It was not oppressive or tinged with hidden anger, but genuine amusement. Yet the more it was like this, the more the Devil's frowned, and the more Ragnar looked confused.

They needed no explanation to understand that the Innkeeper did not take them as a serious threat at all.

"Loretta dear," Lex said, wiping actual tears from his eyes, "I am not provoking enemies, I am just hosting some games, do you understand? I am not condemning a planet full of zombies to death, these are just simple games."

The Devils and even the humans felt their back tingle at the man who considered the fate of an entire planet as a game.

"I have guests from all over the universe. I do not discriminate, and host everyone equally, so long as they obey the rules of the Inn. Do you understand? But when certain guests come to my Inn and repeatedly attack me, well, I don't mind tweaking my games just a bit. After all, how long can one ignore an itch before scratching it?"

Lex asked the question wearing his brightest and most genuine smile, yet no one felt as lighthearted as he looked right now. This was the Innkeeper, and even the Devil's threat was nothing more than an itch to him!

The coliseum was silent – each group for their own reasons. The Beasts, despite having very strong representation, were the most confused. They did not understand a lot of the concepts that were being discussed, not because they were stupid, but because they focused their society on individual growth, and not the growth of the whole.

They formed and stayed in their own territories, and the only exchange they had with their neighbors was defending from expansion, or expanding themselves. This caused their growth as a civilization to stagnate, and their individual power levels weren't high enough to leave the planet, so their knowledge base existed only up to a certain point.

The Beasts technically could not be blamed for this, as the term 'Beasts' was a generic term. For example, humans treated feline Beasts and avian Beasts both as if they were under the same category, but were they really? That Beasts treated those of the same species kindly, but were mostly hostile to other species. Looking at it from this point of view, it made sense that they were not eager to share their knowledge and progress with other Beasts. After all, even on Earth, despite all the humans' technological progress, did they share any of it with the Beasts? They were both sentient beings so technically they could, but the species barrier was a difficult one to overcome.

The Earthlings were silent, not because they couldn't understand what was happening, but because they were clearly the weakest ones here. They were ready to participate in the Midnight Games, but if participating in them meant provoking the Devils as enemies, they would need to run a cost-benefit analysis..

For the Jotun soldiers, it was even simpler. They were there to fill the numbers and act as soldiers. Only Ragnar and his entourage had the authority to speak here. As for why Ragnar was silent? Some of it was because of the weight of what the Innkeeper said, but mostly because he was staring at the Devil the Innkeeper called Loretta. He did not know the identity of this Devil, but he knew very well that there was a high importance target amongst the Devils called Loretta. Could this really be the same one? And if so, how did the Innkeeper know? Despite the empire's best efforts, they were not able to get a lot of details about this 'Loretta'.

The Devil's, of course, were filled with a hostile silence. They were ready to attack at their leader's order. It was true that the Innkeepers attitude depicted him as an extremely strong individual who treated an entire planet as nothing more than a plaything, but then again, were they as Devils any weaker? Their might was feared by even the strongest across the universe, and their influence undeniable.

Yet the reason Loretta herself was silent was because of the shock! How did the Innkeeper know her identity? It was impossible! Her disguise was perfect, and even those stronger than her should not have been able to determine who she was. Unless, of course, the Innkeeper was even stronger than they had first suspected.

"Speaking of an itch," Lex continued, deciding this was the perfect time to complete the latest quest he had just received.

"Since I was in the middle of my introduction for the Midnight Games, I did not bother addressing this. But you have interrupted to address grievances, so this will have to serve as an opportune moment. My Inn has some rules, not too many, and I don't need to share them because it is considered common sense. Yet I understand that there are many species across the universe, and they have a unique concept for what entails common sense. So I will take this time to elaborate on some of the rules.

"All guests are welcome, regardless of their age, background, species, affiliation, or anything else. Yet what is not welcome is a hostile attitude. Attacking, threatening or harming any guest or employee of the Inn is completely unacceptable. On three separate incidents, your zombies have found their way to my Inn and directly attacked me! But I do not blame you for others' actions, so that is fine. Yet now, in my presence, your fellow Devil has been planting tracers on a number of my guests. Tell me, Loretta, should I now hold all your Devils accountable for his actions, since you came together? Or just that single delinquent?"

Suddenly all the guests besides the Devils froze, and started sweeping themselves for the so-called tracers. Instantly, the coliseum was filled with hundreds of spirit senses, yet none of them were able to locate the tracers. How could it be that easy? After all, the Devil's cultivation was much higher than the rest, and even Lex himself, with access to knowledge of everything happening in the Inn, didn't notice until the quest.

The quest stated that one of the Devil's had been planting tracers on various guests in order to trace them back to their planets, and that as the Innkeeper he could not allow such hostile behavior to go unnoticed! He not only had to eliminate the tracers, he had to punish the Devil in question.

The guests were beginning to get confused, as none of them were able to find the tracers. Lex did not break his eye contact with Loretta during this time, and was able to pick up the surprise in her eyes. Yet before she responded, one of the Devils made a move! He was too fast for Lex to even spot, let alone react to. One moment he was sitting behind Loretta, the next he was in front of Lex with a dagger pointed towards Lex's skull.

In fact, the Devil did not mean to stop or slow down enough to be seen. He was aiming to stab Lex through the skull, but right as he was exactly one foot away from Lex, he froze! None of the guests were able to see the Devil make a move, other than Ragnar and a particular sloth.

Without flinching or reacting at all, Lex turned to look casually from Loretta towards the black dagger that was pointed towards him. He could physically feel the sinister intent planted within that dagger, and let alone a stab, Lex knew that if the dagger had even touched him, he would have died. So why had the demon stopped? Because behind him stood Lex's bodyguard, with his hand placed on the Devil's shoulder.

Several audible gasps could be heard from the audience as people came to realize what had just happened. Someone had tried to attack the Innkeeper so quickly they were not even able to notice! A wave of fear filled the guests as they looked at the Devils, who were still sitting there casually. Some members of the audience, however, were staring at the bodyguard in absolute horror!

'A Celestial!' John screamed in his mind as he did his best to stop himself from trembling. What kind of insane maniac was he working for, that also had a Celestial working for him? What ridiculous kind of existence could even convince those arrogant freaks to work for him?

"It appears as though the punishment shall go to the delinquent alone," Lex said, looking at Loretta. "When you dispose of him, please do so neatly. It would be a shame to waste excellent fertilizer," Lex told the bodyguard.

The bodyguard chuckled despite himself, as he could not believe the Innkeeper had the guts to kill a devil? But what did it matter to him? Indeed, as John had guessed, this bodyguard was from a race known as Celestials. There was no one in the universe they feared! He performed no visible action, but the Devil fell down, dead. As soon as the corpse hit the ground, Lex received the quest complete notification. For now, he ignored the notification and sent the body to the greenhouse.

He smiled at Loretta, as if he did not just order the death of her companion, and said, "Please don't think this means that you are not welcome here. So long as you follow the rules, you're more than welcome to stay. You may even participate in the Games though, unfortunately, I will not be able to change the conditions of the Games for you so you will still be fighting zombies."

But how could Loretta be in the mood to stay here any longer? The Innkeeper had a freaking Celestial working for him! Not to mention, he looked right through her disguise. Despite arranging for the Devil's to attend this meeting along with a small army of zombies, it seemed that they had underestimated the Midnight Inn.

They may need to rethink the kind of relationship they wanted to have with this newly encountered organization. Not that they feared the Inn, but they would suffer more than they would gain by being enemies. Moreover, she now needed to deal with the aftermath of the death of a Devil under her command. The Jotum Empire would serve as an adequate scapegoat – especially since Ragnar was here. Even with her status and power, she did not consider assigning blame to the Celestial that did the deed, or the anomaly that could casually order one around.

The coliseum was once again filled with silence. The tension was palpable, and though no one was actively exerting the pressure of their cultivation, some of the weaker Earthlings felt like they were going to faint. Yet even with such a scene, there were a few who did not take the situation too seriously.

Firstly, as could be predicted, was Marlo. The former behemoth sat comfortably in his chair near the 5 Nascent cultivators, with a table laid out in front of him. He was casually eating some Egg Fried Rice with a side of Dry Beef Chilli, as if he were watching a movie in his bedroom. Second was the sloth. It was asleep. The third, sitting amongst the Beasts, was actually a tree. Well, technically, it was not sitting; it was standing. It had rolled up all its roots beneath it, and stood firmly in its seat. Its focus was not on what was happening in the coliseum, but on shaking off the birds that would keep coming to sit in its branches. The endeavor was truly frustrating.

"I see," Loretta finally replied calmly. "Thank you for clearing up that misunderstanding. Please, continue with your explanation. I am eager to hear the details of the games."

Lex smiled approvingly at her, as if an adult proud of a little girl who finally managed to calculate 1 + 1 when she first started school.

"I'm glad you understand. Games are only fun when everyone participates. If you have to keep changing the rules of the game because of a few people, then it affects everyone's enjoyment."

Lex's words were polite, but who there did not understand the naked threat in his words.

While Lex was exchanging words with the Devil, the Celestial bodyguard was looking around at the crowd with an internal frown. Earlier, he was hidden, so it made sense that his natural aura was not affecting everyone. Yet now that he was out in the open, they were still unaffected. He was not used to so many beings existing so casually in his presence. He noticed a few here and there who recognized who, or rather, what he was and that filled them with an appropriate amount of dread, yet seeing the rest completely unaware bothered him. When in his life had he gone anywhere without entire nations kneeling at even the reminiscent of his aura?.

"Are you the one restraining my aura?" he asked the Innkeeper, clearly unsatisfied. He did not bother using his spirit sense, and asked directly. When had he, as a Celestial, needed to care for subtlety or keeping others' faces? He intended to have the Innkeeper end the restraint on his aura, or else he may have to consider whether this quest was worth his effort.

Lex looked at his bodyguard and immediately understood that he was unsatisfied. This put him in a bit of a dilemma as he had no way to deal with the bodyguard should he renege on his duty, but for now, he could not show weakness.

"Naturally. Since your aura is not a conscious attack on my guests, it is naturally suppressed in my Inn, and there is no punishment for it. After all, how can I let my guests randomly suffer for no reason?"

In less than a millionth of a second after Lex finished speaking, the bodyguard was about to display his displeasure towards Lex, after all, since the Innkeeper required a bodyguard, he must be weaker than the bodyguard himself! Yet before he could act he heard a system notification in a tone he'd never heard before!

"Alert! Alert! Quest interference detected! Quest parameters changed! The punishment for quest failure has changed!

"New quest parameters: Ensure the safety of everyone in the Midnight Inn for the duration of the quest!

New quest failure punishment: Cultivation will be completely sealed for 0.5 years!"

"System, what is going on? Why did the quest change? This has never happened before?"

"Checking host authority…host authority is insufficient to learn details…using special bloodline clearance…host authority partially accepted…host authority suppressed…please raise your authority to learn the answer!"

His special bloodline clearance was suppressed! Yet another situation he had never encountered. At this point he could only speculate, yet the reason was most likely the Innkeeper warning him. How the Innkeeper could influence his system, he did not know. For now, he decided to behave – after all, being suppressed was also a novel feeling for him. The Innkeeper was more mysterious than he seemed.

"Interesting," he murmured and disappeared.

Seeing his bodyguard disappear, Lex was internally relieved, but did not let it show on his face. He believed that the bodyguard behaved because his system restrained him. Everyone in the audience believed that the Innkeeper must have admonished his bodyguard secretly, which scared the very few who recognized the Celestial. Even the bodyguard himself believed it was the Innkeepers' doing. No one knew that a tiny, floating projection of a girl hovered behind Lex's head, looking at where the bodyguard had once stood. She snorted, then disappeared.

"Now, as I was saying. There are ten very important nodes that keep the formation protecting the spawning portal protected. As a result, there will be ten games, five for Foundation realm cultivators and five for Golden Core cultivators. Each game will include all planets participating at the same time, and will be a group effort for each planet rather than an individual's efforts. The success or failure of each game will give each planet a certain number of points. Once all the games are concluded, the planet with the highest number of points will win. As for what will happen to the spawning portal once the games are over? That has nothing to do with the games, so it won't affect the outcome of the Midnight Games."

Lex smiled and was about to proceed to the questions portion of this meeting when something occurred to him.

"Naturally, since it's a team effort, if certain team members from a planet try to sabotage the game, they will be immediately disqualified and removed."

He did not look at or point towards anyone as he said this, but the Devils grimaced and the Jotun soldiers breathed a sigh of relief. As much as Ragnar was interested in the reward, so long as the portal was revealed, he would consider it reward enough, which is why he never cared if the zombies or devils would try to participate and sabotage. In fact, he hoped such low leveled Devils would participate and give him the opportunity to kill them.

"If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask."

Silence once again filled the air as they all waited for someone to ask the first question. It did not take long, however, before a Marlo who had just finished his meal stood up and asked, "Is there an age limit on the cultivators for the games?"

"No, so long as you fall within the category, anyone can participate."

"And how safe are the games?"

This was a question many people had in mind, and one Lex had also fretted over a lot. He did not want a lot of people to die, so he did his best to make it as safe as possible. Yet he was limited by his funds, and was unable to make it completely safe.

"The difficulty of each game will be based on the cultivation. But it will ultimately still be dangerous, and anyone who is not careful risks losing his life. This is one of the reasons that the games will be based on teamwork rather than individual games, to support and protect one another to achieve the goal. How well the contestants use this is up to them."

Marlo did not seem disappointed by the answer, and sat down with a grin. Unfortunately, he did not realize that even though his new cultivation method was incomplete, he no longer qualified as a Golden Core cultivator.

The tree that had previously been shaking away the birds raised a single root, as if raising its hand to be called on.

Lex looked at the tree's status and called out to it.

"Yes, Igishima, what is your question?"

The tree had no mouth so Lex expected it to speak using its spirit sense, yet who could have expected its leaves to start vibrating rapidly, causing a sound akin to the voice of a young lady to come out?

"I will need a few days to set up for the culture show. Is that fine?"

"Yes, it is not a problem. As soon as this meeting ends, anyone who wants to participate can register, and those that need to prepare beforehand can start doing so. The Inn will cooperate with your needs."

Once a few questions were asked, the guests became more comfortable asking questions and more and more started opening up. This continued for a while before Ragnar gave one of the men beside him a look, prompting him to stand up to ask a question.

"I have a question that's not strictly related to the games, I hope you don't mind," he said, flashing the Innkeeper an apologetic smile. This man did not look bulky or muscular like the rest of the Jotun soldiers. In fact, standing next to them his clear skin and delicate physique seemed even more prominent. It made one wonder how such a character ended up alongside these elite soldiers.

"Go ahead." Lex was looking forward to interacting more with the Jotun soldiers. He planned to learn more about this so-called 'known universe' from them since eventually he was bound to have guests from planets in this territory. The more knowledge he had, the lesser his chances of making an ignorant mistake.

"Is it alright if, during the Midnight Games, the empire sets up a recruitment stall?"

Lex raised an eyebrow in curiosity. This truly was not what he was expecting.

Lex was immediately faced with a conundrum. His decision here would set a precedent and would impact his future relationship with the many powers of the universe. On the one hand, he thought that this might be a good way of earning some MP and could charge them for the stall. On the other hand, should such a presence become a permanent part of his Inn it would automatically tag him as an ally or subordinate of the Jotun Empire to new powers.

This was because he was sure that if he allowed them such a stall, they would try to keep it permanent. Not to mention, should the Jotun Empire realize they can get a permanent residence here, they won't hesitate to set up a permanent stall.

He weighed the pros and cons in his head for a moment. Ultimately, the decision was completely up to him, and since he was feeling good, he allowed it – with some rules.

"For the duration of the event, you may host a stall for recruitment.

However, you must follow some rules. You cannot solicit others, only if they come to you can you try to recruit them. You cannot coerce my guests, and you cannot manipulate them using their lack of understanding. You must explain to them in ?detail what you may recruit them for. Furthermore, I will assign a staff member to accompany you in your stall for the duration of its existence."

The lanky man thanked the Innkeeper as he did not mind those rules, but before he could sit back down, a voice he was not expecting to hear again spoke up.

"In that case, you won't mind if the Devils want to set up such a stall as well, right?" asked Loretta.

The question not only froze the man, it stilled Ragnar's heart as well as everyone else's. Lex internally cursed himself. He had just told himself that if he allowed one, others would also follow, but conveniently forgot that another major force was also here..

"Naturally, so long as you follow all the rules, there should be no problem," Lex replied to her.

Loretta smiled, and let no satisfaction or reluctance show. She may have been testing the Innkeepers' so called 'neutrality' or may have been trying to create a divide between Lex and the Jotun Empire.

Whatever the case, Lex already knew that if he catered to everyone, he would make some people dissatisfied. Yet even if it were not the rules of the Inn itself, he would have done the same thing.

There was a momentary pause in the questions, but this time the Queen stood up and asked, "How do we bring the participants to the Inn for each portion? And what about guests? How many people can we bring to view the Games? Or can we watch the Games from our planets?"

"Good questions," Lex said, glad things were getting back on topic, instead of being mired with politics.

"Each of the leaders who were invited to this meeting will be given a certain number of keys that they can take back to their planet to give to the participating guests. Each key will ?bring in 10 guests maximum. Should you require more keys, you can purchase them directly from your personal holographic assistants. The same is true for the audience as well – each leader will get keys for audience members. If you want to bring more, you can purchase the keys.

"Anyone will be able to watch the Games live from the coliseum or anywhere else in the Inn, but not on your own planets."

With that question, things came back into flow, and more people started asking questions again. One enthusiastic Beast asked if he could travel to other 'planets' from the Inn, which sparked everyone's curiosity, to which Lex answered not at the moment, perhaps in the future.

More questions came, mostly about what kind of display would qualify as 'culture'. Lex left it as open to interpretation as possible, setting only a very few restrictions. Most of the restrictions actually originated from the Devil's questions, who at some point decided to participate as well.

The restrictions were along the lines of no killing, no torture, no corrupting the souls of the damned, no furys – eh no, what he meant to say was, no human or animal amalgamation tests, etc.

Finally, after a while, the questions came to a close, and just as Lex was about to conclude the meeting, a sloth raised its hand.

"Yes?" Les asked

"I do not have a question," the sloth said lazily, "but I have a humble request for the other planets."

Intrigued, Lex raised an eyebrow.

"I have noticed that no Beasts were invited from the other two planets. If you have any, I would request that you invite them as well, and give them an opportunity to broaden their horizons. I would also like to meet them."

Lex was not expecting such a request, but saw no reason to interfere, so he only looked on in silence at the other groups.

While the Earthlings were hesitating, one of the Devil's spoke. "Beasts, we have a few back in Garvitz. We could bring some, if you feel lonely."

"That would be splendid," the sloth replied, as if ignorant of the sinister tone of the Devil.

"Be careful dealing with the Devils, sloth," Ragnar finally spoke. "They are treacherous."

"Thank you for your warning, young human. But Nibiru is not a planet with an allegiance. We can handle some trials."

The sloth's reply raised quite a few eyebrows, as so far the Beasts had only displayed a complete lack of knowledge of the universe, let alone their own planet's name. It seemed things were not so simple.

"We will extend the invitation," the Queen answered the sloth. "Though whether or not they attend is out of our control."

Seeing that matter settled, Ragnar stood up as well and said and looked towards the Innkeeper, as if seeking permission to speak. Seeing Lex nod, he said, "I too have a request. Before you all return, I would like to have an individual meeting with the leaders of your planet."

Without missing a beat, Loretta asked, "You want a meeting? Even with us?"

"Especially with you," Ragnar said, not hiding his aggression at all. It was only out to respect or perhaps fear of the Innkeeper that he had kept himself restrained so far.

"It seems to me that everyone is done with questions. If that is the case, let's conclude the meeting," said Lex. Yet before he could say anything else, Marlo stood up abruptly, as if to emphasize that he had one last question.

"Yes?" Lex asked in a tired voice, sure that this would not be a productive question.

"I remember hearing something about a combat arena? Can I challenge other guests to fights?"

"Not during the Midnight Games," Lex stated flatly. "I think that should do it for now. You all can ask your personal holograms if you have anything else. Feel free to stay as long as you want, though my suggestion is that you return to start preparations."

With those words said, Lex disappeared from view, heading straight to his apartment. As soon as he returned, his previous state of 'flow' that he was in broke. From being absolutely okay, he quickly went panting heavily. His rosy skin went pale and Lex started sweating. He felt the energy drain out of him like water leaking from a tank, and his previously clear head started fogging up. Unable to understand what was happening, Lex tried to stay awake, but collapsed the very next moment.

He had been absolutely fine just up until a few minutes ago, but suddenly started feeling like he needed to wrap things up. At first he ignored the feeling, but the feeling only grew till it became apparent something was incredibly wrong. His initial plan was to stay around much longer and keep an eye on how his guests reacted to the information he provided. He especially wanted to spy on the meetings Ragnar was planning, yet in the end, he had to return to his apartment.

What he did not know was that his ability to enter a 'flow' and perform absolutely perfectly according to the situation was not a normal state. It fed heavily on his spirit, or mental energy. In fact, had his spirit not stabilized just in time for the meeting he would not have been able to maintain that state for nearly as long.

This was not to say that he could not have held the meeting without being in such a state, but he definitely would not have handled things as well – especially with the pressure of the Devils and the Jotun Empire.

Since his cultivation was low, he could not accurately gauge his mental energy. Normally when he was running out, he would feel a physical signal from his body, such as mental exhaustion or fatigue, but his state of 'flow' allowed him to ignore it. Well, he could ignore it right up until the last moment. Had he not ended the meeting quickly, he would have collapsed in front of everyone.