The Innkeeper

“You came at last,” the knight said, staring towards Z. “I thought maybe your courage had waned after experiencing Abaddon.”

“The loser asking the winner if he lost his courage. Now that’s something I haven’t seen before. I’d say it’s pretty courageous of you to show up in front of me once again after I beat you up.”

The dark knight shook his head.

“You don’t understand. I have nothing to lose, and nothing to do. I want to see the person with the aura of Earth. I want to reminisce – to ask him about the planet I used to call home. Then I want him to die. Why should he be free to roam the universe while I am trapped here? He must become a prisoner of Abaddon as well.”

This time, Z shook his head.

“No you don’t understand. You think I’m depriving you of what you want by standing in your way? No, I’m saving you from a much worse fate. Not that it matters what you think. Since you have decided to make an enemy of the Midnight Inn, then I will be the one to deal with you.”

“Deal with me? You think having background music makes you guaranteed to win? Within Abaddon, I am immortal. Kill me a million times and it matters not. I only need to succeed once.”

“Infinite reincarnations is a crutch for the weak. I don’t need to be reborn to defeat you – I can do it with a single life.”

While they exchanged words, Z was also scanning the surroundings, ensuring there was no trap waiting for him. It seemed that the knight could not, or would not enter the jungle. But that is not a reliance Z wanted to depend on. This was training, and that meant he had to face it head on.

“Last time, I was in a rush so we couldn’t fight properly. This time, let’s see if you can still pressure me.”

A lot of Z’s combat strategy relied on building momentum, and the more momentum he raised, the stronger he would be. But of course, such a thing took time. Now that there was no rush, it would be a proper fight.

“You are not the only one who was holding back last time,” said the dark knight. He waved his hand, and from the ground a golem horse made from stone emerged, serving as the knight’s mount.

The two stared at each other for a moment, and then clashed.

*****

Now Luthor was not an evil man – far from it. He was kind and attentive, and every worker of the Inn had felt his care and attention. But a man had to have hobbies, and plotting the death and destruction of all his enemies was a pretty decent hobby in his opinion.

After all, it kept the Inn workers safe, and removed future obstacles from their path. For a long time, that planning came in the form of designing a prison in the Inn for captured enemies. The problem was… no one dared to mess with the Inn, so they hardly ever captured enemies.

In the end, the prison was, ironically, being used as a spa for creatures who were born in a fiery environment. It was safe to say that such a plan could, more or less, be considered a bust.

Then the Innkeeper sent him on a mission to tame the planet Ereboth, and have it produce dungeons for the entertainment of the Inn’s guests. It was basically impossible to tame a planet in the Celestial realm for him. He did, however, dominate Ereboths psychology, suppressing him using the Innkeepers reputation and influence, making it easier for it to accept the Innkeepers superior position.

During the process, Luthor himself explored many of the dungeons, and found them interesting and challenging, as well as rewarding. It seemed like, even if Ereboth wanted to, he couldn’t withhold the reward for completing a challenge in the dungeons. All he could do was increase the difficulty of said dungeons.

As it happened, while testing out a Hell themed dungeon, Luthor had gained quite a lot – much to the dismay of the planet. Not only had Luthor gained Hellfire, he had also gained a blueprint for creating a miniature Hell.

He’d heard that the turtle was creating a Heaven inside the Inn, and thought that maybe he could work on creating a Hell. After all, the Inn was not biased towards any one side. Besides, while Heaven had many benefits, Hell was not without its own advantages.

The most difficult part of creating a Hell was finding a Conceptualised Torment. This was not a physical object or item, and was very much an abstract existence that could only be encountered by luck or chance, and never artificially created.

Compared to Heaven, which could be grown from a garden, Hell presented a different, although equally difficult, challenge. This was something he wanted to discuss with Lex, since Lex had a lot of experience with these things. But he seemed preoccupied with their ongoing task.

Luthor had to admit, he was impressed by the Midnight Inn. He’d heard of guests coming to hotels, but he’d never really heard of a hotel or an Inn traveling to a guest who was unable to leave their location.

Now that he was in Abaddon, he could understand why it was important to bring the tavern to them. The Innkeeper had probably been paid directly by the Condottiere for this service.

Little did he know, the Innkeeper had not been paid at all. The System was simply accommodating the expenses for all basic services as a part of the ongoing quest. If the Innkeeper wanted to earn something, he had to go out and gather his income himself.

But that aside, Luthor had been thinking long and hard about the Conceptualised Torment. He was not entirely sure what it was, or how he could find it, when it randomly occurred to him that all of Abaddon basically just seemed like one massive Hell, and was probably filled with Conceptualised Torment. Probably.

Now, normally, the rules of Abaddon made it pretty difficult for him to leave and search the lands on his own. But this jungle… it presented him with an opportunity. So, one day, after gathering a lot of information on the jungle from their insectoid guests, he asked Lex to take over in the Great Hall for a bit.

Luthor was now on the hunt for some Conceptualised Torment, and once he found it, he would begin work on manifesting that concept as a Hell.

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