The Innkeeper

A holographic wolf was giving Blood Fang a tour and was leading it to the Midnight manor when it halted in its steps. It saw humans standing in the building, looking out at it. These humans were clearly different from the so-called 'guards'. It suspected that they were also guests. Truth be told, Blood Fang has great trouble adjusting to the fact that these humans were so powerful. On its planet they were nothing more than insects. In fact, since insects could also cultivate, calling them insects was a compliment. They were simply humans, the name an insult unto itself.

Yet now in this mysterious place it encountered countless humans who were ridiculously strong, some even stronger than itself. This enraged Blood Fang, yet it dared not do anything lest he upset its host. Blood Fang firmly decided to vent his anger on the humans back on its own planet once it returned. For now, it would adapt.

As the wolf walked towards the manor it felt its height shrink, until it was no more than 7 feet. Even its guards were suppressed to seven feet, though nothing else seemed to change. This made Blood Fang uncomfortable, but it understood that the buildings here weren't designed for Beasts and thus some changes were needed.

"Greetings…humans," Blood Fang said in a low, throaty voice. Perhaps it tried to be friendly, but his voice was too full of disdain. Yet none of the humans reacted to it. The Beast was clearly extremely powerful, and had a right to be disdainful towards them.

"Greetings, sir," Alexander responded with a slight, respectful bow. "You must be from the planet called Nibiru, I assume. I look forward to your participation in the Midnight Games."

"Yes…the planet Nibiru," the wolf responded. It was still struggling with the concept of a planet and had never heard the name Nibiru before, but how could it say that to a measly human?

"What…planet…do you humans come from?"

"We come from Earth," Alexander said simply.

"And we come from Vegus Minima," replied Lily.

'Two different planets…' the wolf contemplated. It had difficult accepting this new change, but it considered the possibility. Should such planets exist, its path would open exponentially. It only needed to find a planet with weaker beings and conquer it. The wolf was on a journey to replace the bloodline it was born with with one of its own design. Such an endeavour required countless resources, but the wolf only had a limited supply in its territory. It could not expand further because it controlled an entire continent, albeit a small one, and could not venture out to the sea. Not to mention, the deer had strongly threatened it: should the wolf start a senseless massacre the deer would not sit still. How could the wolf conquer more land without exhibiting its might? Yet the deer was stronger, so the wolf had to obey.

The exchange ended there. The wolf said nothing more, and the humans did not question it. The hologram continued to give the tour, and Blood Fang continued to follow it. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief that there was no conflict, and everyone mentally prepared themselves for more such encounters in the future. Lex simply accepted it. Even if there was a conflict he could handle it. Everything was in his control.

Ten minutes had passed since the last portal opened, bringing a Beast, when finally new portals started opening. They did not open one by one, but simultaneously, as if they had been orchestrated as such. Dozens of humans stepped forth, entering the Inn for the first time. These humans had a much lower cultivation compared to the Beasts, mostly belonging to the late Foundation realm, with one or two Golden Core cultivators here and there. Yet even so, with prior experience the guards took no risk, and a wave of spiritual force passed over all of them before a hologram appeared in front of each guest, welcoming them and giving them instructions about fighting.

Lex kept an eye on the people from Earth to see if he recognized anyone. Most of the people were strangers but he managed to see a few familiar faces belonging to popular Tempest profiles.

If it could be said that the Beasts from Nibiru had him on guard, the people from Earth only provided him with entertainment. Firstly, everyone was dressed strangely. He expected a lot of suits, but it seemed everyone wore very traditional attire. It seemed that Lex still didn't fully understand the cultivation culture of Earth. He saw everything from kimonos to plated armors to quilts to skirts to this one particular hairy lad who was wearing uncomfortably short shorts. As in, Lex had never seen a man wear such short shorts. Who the hell was he and how did he get here?

Lex decided to look away. He wanted to forget the image the very next moment. The next thing that amused me was that the humans did not realize that they could communicate without utilizing their spirit sense. This caused a small verbal argument when an Estonian man passed a comment on an Arabic woman to one of his followers. Almost the entire crowd surrounding him froze when they realized they could understand him. This was followed by a very aggressive argument that would no doubt have turned into a fight had they been anywhere else other than the Inn. In the Estonian man's defense, he was only admiring her thick mustache.

Fortunately the embarrassment the humans were causing themselves was lost on all the Beasts otherwise Lex would have been ashamed to associate with Earthlings. A few moments later, more leaders arrived and the situation finally took a more formal tone. This was because, amongst the newest arrivals was The Queen. The one true monarch widely recognized on Earth. Of course, although recognition did not mean approval as there were a few people who gave her frustrated looks. But that was the extent of what they did. Who had the guts to go against her?

Even Lex recognized her, and was surprised to realize that it never occurred to him that she was a cultivator. While Lex was undergoing his own epiphany, the Queen and her followers were undergoing a realization of their own. Brandon's claims about being able to cultivate here were real. This was ground breaking news!

This would drastically affect the power dynamics of Earth. They had to be sure to maintain their lead in utilizing this new resource over the rest of Earth.

"You may begin the tour," The Queen said to her hologram, ignoring the crowd of Beasts staring at them from a distance. Even though they were powerful, the humans from Earth had never been afraid of Beasts.

*****

On Earth it was early morning, and all seemed normal. Everyone was going about their day, no one realizing that some of the top leadership on all of Earth had almost simultaneously disappeared. Well, almost no one.

After waiting thirty minutes and ensuring that enough time had passed, in a bunker under the Sahara a meeting was started.

"We have official confirmation, wherever they have gone they do not have access to communication. Immediately begin the operation," said a hoarse voice. "Begin moving all units into place. However, only move the units into place. No one, I repeat, no one is to start any action right now!

"Establish reconnaissance on the five families and start repositioning troops worldwide. Make sure everything looks official and there are no loopholes. This opportunity is too good to miss!"

All the members of the meeting turned off their holograms and began taking actions personally. This opportunity was heaven sent, they could not mess this up. Troops started to be repositioned all over Earth, under the guise of drills, or practice, or some reassignment. Various companies started relocating valuable resources, many banks raised their interest rates on loans, various currencies strengthened and many others weakened. No pattern or correlation could be seen between these seemingly separate incidents. Only very few people knew what they signified.

One of those people was a soldier, following his troops' repositioning. Only, these troops weren't on Earth - they were on the moon. A few hours after leaving their original base, they arrived at an underground base full of various kinds of jets and ships.

Under orders from their superiors, some of the soldiers started climbing into the ships. Others started loading supplies. The only soldier here who knew what was actually happening stood quietly as he waited his turn to board a ship. His actions seemed completely normal, and no one could tell something was amiss, so it was fortunate that he was wearing a helmet that covered his face otherwise someone would see the nervous eyes of a teenager. Even as he climbed onto the ship and the doors closed behind him, he said or did nothing suspicious. But in his mind, he only hoped that what he was doing would redeem him, and that he lived long enough to go back and tell his friend Alexander that he, Zeus Levintis, was not a coward. As the ship lifted off Zeus' knees trembled. Well, he was mostly not a coward.