For a long time now, Larry had been living at the Midnight Inn. Using the Guild room to make some money made it very easy for him to stay there indefinitely, and the conveniences it offered made it the preferable choice - not to mention the perpetual safety from assassinations it offered.
It also allowed him to get his hands on resources and gear that he'd never be able to find on earth.
He'd rented a courtyard where he mostly lived by himself though his girlfriend spent a lot of time there as well. The most convenient thing about having his own place at the Inn though was that he could build his setup as he desired without fear of someone breaking in and getting their hands on his stuff.
Dozens of screens were attached to walls in the room he was in, completely isolated from the noise of the many servers he had stacked in the next room. The phenomenal temperature control at the Inn kept the servers running at optimal speeds without ever heating up. Though at the moment, his machines weren't doing anything processor heavy. Various videos played on the different screens, all of them muted. They depicted the various defenses around the place they were about to venture into.
Larry kept his gaze fixed on one massive temple, even as his attention was diverted towards Lex's message. So basically, he didn't need to worry about getting in trouble as long as he collected plenty of evidence?
He didn't show much of a reaction on his face as he put on his gear. He was not disappointed because of Lex's absence in the mission. No, his only thought was on the mission ahead of him. Today… he would finally face the man responsible for everything that happened to him.
He teleported out of the Inn.
*****
Alexander resisted the urge to groan. Although he could not say the challenge he faced was completely inconceivable, it definitely wasn't what he had expected when he heard of the pagoda.
His body was still getting used to the incredibly heavy gravity in the room. It was not just a matter of warming up his muscles or activating his spirit energy. Every single function in his body had come under an additional stress that it had to fight against.
His spirit energy felt heavier as he channeled it, slowing down all his techniques. His blood was pulled away from his brain and towards his legs, forcing his body to put in extra work just to keep that from happening. The air itself felt heavy in his lungs, making it difficult for the oxygen to diffuse into his blood without hurting his lungs themselves.
All of that was happening simultaneously and continuously. He did not know how much stronger the gravity was. His brain was not some kind of machine that could accurately calculate that the gravity was X times heavier than normal, causing him to expend Y% more energy.
All he knew was… his defensive armor came with a cup that was crushing him! After taking a moment to adjust himself, he felt much more comfortable. Or at least, as comfortable as he could be given the situation.
He stood at the very entrance of the pagoda, and in front of him was a line etched into the ground. Once he crossed the line, his first trial would officially begin.
"Picked a bad time to start but… oh well." He used a special technique, activating his backpack causing it to change form. It began wrapping itself around him, not forming an armor, but a skeletal frame. When it was complete, it revealed itself to be an exosuit!
Not only did the suit compliment all of his physical capabilities exponentially, it was the first step in mastering some of the strongest weapons the empire had to offer.
As he stepped forward, Alexander's eyes carried none of the hesitation or confusion he had been feeling the past few days. While there was a part of him that felt things he could not understand, there was also an overwhelming part of him that craved the challenge before him. He would become the best, slowly but steadily.
He took a step forward.
*****
Lex had moved the entrance to the Minor realm he took to calling the Pagoda realm - out of sheer convenience - to the Immortal Bastion. He expected it to be devoid of any crowds since the Bastion was not so popular yet, and the empire had only just gotten its hands on the realm. He was sorely mistaken.
A neat and orderly line of soldiers moved through the realm entrance, completely unprompted by anyone. He attributed it to the discipline of the army, and got in line himself.
A young man dressed casually, he stood out from the crowd of armored soldiers, though no one paid too much attention to him.
When it was finally Lex's turn and he entered the realm, he was stunned. Already having experienced teleportation besides the one caused by the golden keys, he was ready for the uneasy feeling.
What he was not ready for, however, was the extremely well developed alley he would come out to. It had only been a few hours since he told Jotun that they would take control of the realm so he did not really expect any real results.
At most he expected the empire would mobilize some forces and occupy the realm, before slowly developing certain parts of it. After all, not everyone had access to a magical system that would spawn buildings out of thin air.
He did not account for the fact that in place of that, the empire had massive, extremely sophisticated 3D printers that were literally building a fort around Lex before his very eyes.
Someone bumped into him, waking him from his reverie and reminding him to step out of the way of the entrance.
After apologizing, Lex moved to the side so he could actually admire the work the empire was doing.
Around the entrance to the realm, which had taken the shape of a door frame filled with white light through which people came, the empire had built a simple yet elegant patio. He expected they would change that in the future, but for now, it made for a beautiful entrance and exit to the realm.
He expected that the entrance had originally been placed in the wild, but it did not look that way right now. A tiled road had already been built in front of the entrance, going straight. He expected that it would eventually lead to a gate, or perhaps a security check through which everyone would pass. For now, it ended near a wall that was being built at the very moment, forming the periphery for a massive, rectangular fort!
There were a few ships flying around in the air above him, perhaps scanning and surveying the area. What Lex didn't understand was, when and how these machines got here. Lex had not seen them at the Inn, which meant that the empire probably brought parts and constructed them right here in the realm!
𝒍𝙞𝙗𝒓𝒆𝙖𝓭.𝙘𝒐𝒎
The soldiers who were entering the realm were all reporting to various stations, from where they were being sent in every direction. He could imagine that in only a few days, this place would undergo a complete makeover.
But regardless of how amazing the technology of the empire seemed, and how amazing the end result was, it lacked the finish that the Inn gave! But it was not like he was accusing them of being lacking. They were already incredible enough by coming close.
Lex stepped forward and asked someone for directions to the pagoda, for he couldn't exactly see it anywhere on the horizon.
The soldier informed him that it was actually not that close to the entrance and offered him a spot in one of the ships flying around in the air.
He promptly agreed and soon found himself climbing aboard the sleek aircraft called Slingshot alongside a few other soldiers heading in the same direction.
"Why is it called Slingshot?" Lex asked the soldier sitting next to him, confused. The design did not really look anything like one.
The man only chuckled. But Lex did not need to hear his response, as he immediately understood when the ship rose vertically into the air till it was high enough, then suddenly shot into the distance like a slingshot! He went from 0 to a 100 real quick, and then a 1000, and then probably beyond.
Fortunately, the aptly named ship did not stop as abruptly as it launched, and began slowing down only a few minutes later as it ventured into a valley. A very regal and majestic looking pagoda stood in the heart of the valley, surrounded by what seemed like an ocean of white crystals.
Lex's intuition, which had so far been silent, began acting up again. There was something in the pagoda that was extremely valuable, though that was not a surprise.
Lex only took a moment to appreciate the beauty around him once he disembarked. But he was generally an impatient man, and not one for building suspense. He stepped in.
Hey, do you know who that was?" asked one of the soldiers who saw Lex walk into the pagoda. They had been informed that the pagoda would be open to the public, so they didn't really bother to stop him. But it was only after Lex entered that it occurred to one of the soldiers that they hadn't really spread news of the pagoda yet.
Although they did have a marketing plan, it had yet to be implemented, so a lot of people should not have known about it yet. The soldiers who had originally encountered the pagoda were told not to spread the news until a deal was made with the Innkeeper. Though that order had now been lifted, too little time had passed for the news to propagate properly.
"Does it matter?" asked another soldier, who was too preoccupied with his own assignment.
The first soldier shrugged and continued with his work.
*****
Entering the pagoda did not feel like teleporting at all, though his intuition clearly told him he was in an entirely new area. It felt as if he just walked into another room.
The air was surprisingly fresh, though the area looked like a massive hall made from large stone blocks with no windows for ventilation. Closed glass lanterns were attached to the walls, illuminating the hall with dim yellow light. But the range of his sight seemed to be limited for he couldn't see the end of the hall as it seemed to fade into darkness.
Lex drew a parallel between his situation and the visibility of video game characters when they roamed the map. Only a certain area around them would be visible to the player, while the rest of the map would be a mystery.
He looked down and saw a thin yet prominent line drawn in the ground. Somehow, without the need to be informed, he knew that his trial would begin the moment he crossed the line. It suddenly occurred to him that he should have polished up on new techniques before entering the pagoda, but then he shrugged.
Despite his train of thought earlier, he didn't genuinely believe that he'd be able to complete the pagoda on his first try, regardless of how powerful he was. That was because the limitation sustained by the pagoda for entry was one of age, not the cultivation realm. He was sure there were others out there much stronger than him at his age, so out right firepower shouldn't be the defining factor that allowed one to reach the top of the pagoda.
But then again, maybe it was. He still didn't think it would be so straightforward, however.
There was only one way to find out.
He took a step forward and crossed the line before continuing to walk ahead. Nothing seemed to have happened, but his intuition told him otherwise. The air had been filled with some kind of sedative, though Lex did not bother trying to filter his air.
Not only was he confident in his own body's capabilities, but his intuition let him know that it was unable to affect him at all.
As he continued to walk forward, more and more gasses were mixed into the air, all with various effects. He figured that anyone with a weaker physique would suffer greatly, and even if they decided to hold their breath, it would only last until they faced some action. But there were too many ways to filter the air, so this was still not impressive enough.
But all of that changed when he saw a single figure emerge from the darkness up ahead. Lex's face paled as he saw the figure and identified what, or rather, who it was. It was himself.
The first trial in the pagoda… was to face an exact copy of himself. Lex did not need to draw assumptions as the pagoda somehow directly planted the information inside his mind, the way it had done about the line in the ground.
The Evil Lex, as he decided to call him, was completely identical to him in every calculable measure. That meant, much like himself, Evil Lex would have an outstanding intuition that would warn him about any incoming attacks, any plans Hero Lex made, how to avoid them and how to take advantage of them. He had all his techniques, which fortunately he did not update, and all his gear, which consisted of nothing but his clothes. He also had Hero Lex's boundless shamelessness, and would not feel any hesitation in defining himself as the hero and the other as evil.
As if that was not enough…
"You know we suck at attacking and are incredibly strong at defense. Why don't we have a chat instead?" said Evil Lex, with his signature evil and malevolent smile, which in no way was a result of Hero Lex projecting his hate onto him. Hero Lex did not need to reply, because he knew Evil Lex had his sixth sense as well, and could determine Hero Lex's mental state just by talking.
Hero Lex took a deep breath and said,"Let's get this over with."
He used Home sweet home to throw himself at the evil Lex and punched him right in the face. True to his completely arrogant nature, Evil Lex did not even bother moving and allowed the punch to land, confident in the knowledge that it could not harm him.
As predicted, the punch was unable to harm him, but if things were so simple, Evil Lex's expression would not have suddenly changed. Yet it was too late.
The ridiculously severe flaw in this unnecessarily common cliche, that Lex felt often ruined anime finales, was that as the original, no one was more familiar with his own weaknesses than Lex himself.
The biggest weakness Lex had was his overreliance on his intuition, and the biggest flaw his intuition suffered was that it was unable to warn of things related to systems. In the last moment before Lex's punch connected, a golden key appeared between his fingers. The key naturally was not able to break through Evil Lex's skin, and instead broke itself due to the strength of the clash.
Evil Lex disappeared and Hero Lex remained, feeling like he had overcome the most ridiculous and overused challenge. If what the pagoda had in store for him was more of this, he would be seriously disappointed.
Though, just to make sure he had Mary check if an Evil Lex showed up to the Inn. He didn't. It seemed the moment the clone or projection or whatever it was exited the pagoda, it ceased to exist.
With a snort Lex continued forward. A staircase leading to the next floor revealed itself from the darkness, allowing him to go to the next floor.
*****
Larry sat across Marlo in his private jet as the man shared plans of their incursion. The 'prison' where all the prisoners were being held was in India. It was far away from any settlements and hidden through the use of formations.
Larry did not know what Marlo did to get his hands on this information, but the man had a general layout of the kind of defense they had, and it honestly scared Larry a bit. There were quite a few Nascent realm guards posted, not to mention defensive formations, spirit tech and more!
But if, despite knowing all that, Marlo was confident in going, Larry decided to trust him. This was not an opportunity he would get again. Perhaps it showed a hint of desperation that he was following such a crazy plan, but he'd spent way too many years suffering because of what happened to his family.
He no longer had any hope that he would miraculously discover that they were actually alive, being held somewhere waiting for him to rescue them. He was convinced they were dead. He just wanted revenge. It would also help if the constant assassination threats against him would stop.
He played with small, metallic beads in his hands, unaware of the pressure he was exerting on them. Every time he would swipe his thumb over them, one of them would disappear while the other beards became larger, only to return to normal with the next swipe.
Such a small detail would escape most, but not Marlo. The man was extremely meticulous, especially now that he was constantly racked with pain all over his body.
But in exchange for pain, he was stuck with a new issue. His new form of cultivation depends on him continuously overcoming difficult and dangerous trials. Only by putting his life on the line would he grow stronger. Unfortunately, there were almost no such dangers left for him to face on earth.
The one exception… was the place he was about to arrive. Everyone thought that he was going to get justice for the numerous wrongs that prisoner subject earth to. Instead, he was going because there was no one left on this planet for him to pick a fight with.
A wide, maniacal grin painted his face.
The moment Lex set his first step onto the second floor a couple of things happened. First, some esoteric knowledge about how using appropriate forms while punching produced different results appeared in his head. Second, his intuition started blaring about incoming danger.
But by now Lex had become fairly used to emergencies. His reaction was quick yet smooth, and lacked the jerkiness that came with dodging an unexpected attack.
He leaned forward just enough to dodge a paper thin blade that had aimed to slice through the back of his neck. The fact that Lex felt the need to dodge meant that the blade was sharp enough to cut through his defenses.
Calmly he moved his hand forward and transitioned from leaning forward into a single-armed handstand, allowing him to look back. A strange looking creature had attacked him, and was preparing to attack again after its ambush failed. It was bipedal but with four arms, two coming out from its shoulders but two coming out from its back.
The arms attached to its shoulders were longer and had eight fingers, each with a long and sharp nail that ended at an impossibly small point. The arms coming out of the back, while shorter, had four fingers and a thumb, and each held a weapon. One held the sword with which Lex had been attacked while the other looked like some kind of gun.
The creature also had a long and thick tail dragging behind, in the shape of a lizard's tail. While the tail did not look too flexible, the sheer size of it told of the immense strength it probably had.
Not that it mattered. Lex had been wanting to try something for a while now, and this was the perfect opportunity. Using his left eye, he used Evisceration. His left eye was special, he already knew that. Evisceration was an incredibly strong soul based attack, he also knew that. What he didn't know is if the result would be greater than expected if he combined the two.
The result… uhh, he didn't know how to gauge the result. Despite his promotion, the difficulty of using Evicersation had not reduced. In fact, the reason he avoided using it frequently was because he feared hurting himself in the process. Even now, despite his growth, he wasn't completely confident in his perfect implementation of it.
Yet he did not know if he was just better than he assumed, or it was the result of using his left eye, but he did not get hurt. Other than that, nothing much seemed to change. The strange creature directly died as a result of his attack and fell forward. Perhaps he would need to find a creature capable of surviving his attack to determine if there was a difference.
That might be more difficult than it seemed, for soul attacks were always extremely lethal.
Lex allowed his body to fall backwards, but quickly yet elegantly moved his feet, making it seem as if he had completed a cartwheel. It just so happened, his move had allowed him to dodge a projectile.
Though he didn't want to admit it, the quick and easy defeat of his own clone had given him certain insight into his own weakness. Though the projectile was weaker than the blade and would not have broken through Lex's defense, there was no real reason to allow contact. Who said he should blindly rely on his defense just because it was strong? Instead, the protective measures he took needed to encapsulate multiple different strategies.
His sharp intuition and perfect control of his body allowed him to dodge most attacks, suddenly creating a new layer of difficulty his attackers needed to overcome.
This might seem like it was no different from what he did earlier, since he was always dodging attacks in his previous fights as well, but there was a fundamental difference. Earlier he dodged because all his opponents were usually stronger than him, and capable of harming him to some degree. But in the instances where he could get away with it, he took full advantage of his defense. It was the difference between strategically allowing an attack to land on his body, and allowing an attack to land because he was too lazy to dodge a weak attack.
He created a small challenge for himself in addition to anything the pagoda might throw at him. He decided to see how many floors he could overcome without allowing a single rip in his clothes. After all, unlike him, they had no substantial defense at all.
Lex walked forward, only glancing at his enemy long enough to kill him with a shot of evisceration.
The speed at which he walked seemed completely ordinary, yet each and every move he performed allowed him to dodge an enemy attack which had started increasing. He seemed completely at ease as countless blades fell in his path and endless bullets chased him. Of course, he did not walk in a straight line, as that would be too predictable.
Instead, it seemed like he was slowly warming up for a dance. There was a rhythm that his body adopted that seemed to resonate with some unseen force. He moved his head to dodge a close shave, yet if someone saw him from a distance, it would seem he was bobbing his head to a song.
All the while, the number of enemies around him kept increasing, as well as bodies. He started picking up speed, but the elegance of his moves did not diminish in the slightest and soon it was like he was on a stage giving a performance.
For some reason, an image flashed in his mind of a ballet performance he saw long ago during the Midnight Games. But the image disappeared just as quickly as it came, and Lex did not really think about why he suddenly recalled it. Instead, as he made his way through this trial, and his gaze that heralded death washed over his enemies, Lex realized something else.
Although the resonance was not reaching a point significant enough to produce a result yet, whatever unseen force his body was connecting to reminded him of the effect of array characters.
Even as Lex was experiencing something new, he retained perfect control of his thoughts. He did not allow himself to become too excited, and calmly analyzed the situation.
Although it may not have seemed like it, Lex's progress with arrays was phenomenal. Not only was he memorizing more and more arrays that could be used in various circumstances, he was further familiarizing himself with the new and unique way he designed to form arrays.
He had not had too much of an opportunity to show off what he learned, but just the fact that he could defeat Nascent realm cultivators before his rise in cultivation realm should have been an indication of just how much more he could do with arrays.
Although arrays themselves technically had nothing to do with cultivation realm, as the strength of an array came solely from the characters used and the array itself, there was more to it than that. A greater cultivation realm allowed him more energy to power an inherently larger array than he could have before, not to mention how the boost in his mental faculties allowed him to hold on to larger arrays in his mind as well. The speed at which he could create arrays to match his circumstances also gained a massive boost.
An easy way to understand it was an oversimplified comparison. Regardless of the physical strength of a person, the amount of damage a bullet could do would stay the same. The fact that Lex had grown stronger did not change how much damage the bullet could do. The fact that Lex could now aim much faster, shoot with much more accuracy and probably wield a 100 guns at the same time with the same precision due to his spirit sense also did not inherently change the destructive capabilities of the bullet. It just enhanced Lex's own capacity to cause much more damage.
But even setting all that over simplification aside, the matter at hand was that Lex was not using any arrays! So why then did he feel like he was experiencing something similar. The power of an array came not from the user, but from the universe at large. Was he in some way resonating with the universe the way array characters did? Was that the effect of new, unknown affinity?
Before he could come to an answer, all the enemies were dead. This was… interesting. Lex walked forward until he encountered another staircase and proceeded to climb to the next floor. His mind conjured up countless possibilities for what the actual answer was.
The ring given to him by John that actually carried a compiled manual for arrays was something he consulted often, either to further his studies or provide him with answers. A part of his mind began to peruse the ring, searching for what exactly about the characters caused their relevant effects.
He also wondered if the reason why the resonance he experienced didn't produce a result was because it was too weak, or because it was lacking in something else.
The moment he stepped onto the third floor, despite all the calmness and coolness he displayed earlier, he stumbled. The new information that entered his mind… was a guide on how to use soul energy to enhance the effects of dances!
As ridiculous as that sounded, at least now he could determine what kind of rewards each floor would give him. He would receive information about how to enhance one of the techniques or abilities displayed in overcoming the previous floor.
The first floor pitted him against a single enemy. The second floor put him against an entire host of enemies with a weapon strong enough to hurt him, though they were still too weak. Regardless of the fact that they were both easy to overcome for Lex, there was an exponential increase in difficulty between the floors. This theory was only reinforced once he stepped onto the third floor.
This time, a massive robot stood in front of him, staring at him with red glowing eyes. It had the shape of a spider, with wings and what looked like laser turrets.
Lex had a suspicion, so he tried it out and… yes, evisceration did not work on the robot because it had no soul! Even his left eye could do nothing about that. Lex shrugged. He was still not intimidated. Although he had no other good attacking techniques, as a user of Regal Embrace, it was long destined it would be so. The cultivation technique actively made it difficult for him to learn offensive techniques. Only arrays remained unaffected by the influence of his technique, so that's what he'd use.
One moment they both stood still, but the next a fierce battle erupted!
*****
As ever, his signature six swords hovered in the air behind Alexander. But for once they did not move to attack the horde of insectoids that attacked him, and retained their place in the sky. Instead, this time Alexander took to solving things up close and personal.
Like a barbarian, he hurled himself into the endless wave of enemies, but their numbers did nothing to slow him. His exosuit suffered no harm no matter how much damage it soaked up and continued to strengthen his each and every action.
It did not matter what kind of enemy came in front of him. Whether they had hard shells or indestructible carapace mattered little, for what guided his herculean strength were a carefully selected and perfectly implemented selection of techniques.
One of Alexander's greatest strengths was always his masterful use of various techniques, but that had gone to a whole new level now. He changed techniques faster than anyone could understand, moving from one to another with ease and efficiency that was almost machine-like.
His whole life, he'd had many advantages that others lacked. He'd been helped and guided by the best. He'd had opportunities that most could not even imagine. But none of that made him feel like he was borrowing the strength of others, or that he hadn't earned his strength.
Though he had been trained by many, he was the one who took what others gave and turned into something so much greater.
𝑙𝒾𝒷𝘳𝑒𝑎𝒹.𝑐𝑜𝓂
He didn't need destiny to choose him, or pity his weakness. He would carve out his path himself.