The Innkeeper

Chapter 1187: Marble

In truth, Lex did not need anything to detect time fractures. His affinity for time, which still had not been sealed yet, reacted perfectly to time fractures in a way that let him know where they were.

Lex also had absolutely perfect control over his entire body, down to every single hair, so he was absolutely certain he wouldnʼt accidentally touch the cracks. But considering the seriousness of the matter, he still took a few moments to compose himself. Or a few hours.

Honestly, by now, he had no idea what rate time was flowing at. His personal quest from the system still showed over 300 hours left, but according to Giselle the time they had left was much less.

He had no idea how her watch was able to calculate the remaining time for whomever time was flowing the fastest in this entire bubble, and now wasnʼt the right time to ask either.

Lex closed his eyes and retracted his spirit sense. He even withdrew his sense of touch.

Right now, he only needed three things to occupy his mind. The first was a total awareness of his body, the second was his instincts guiding him, and the third was his time affinity to warn him.

Lex walked towards the time fractures literally blind, maintaining his utmost composure. His affinity reacted, and from more than one direction. There were cracks in front of him, to his left and his right. But there was nothing above him, so he began to fly, inch by incy rising higher, until the path forward was clear.

If Lex had his eyes open, then in a few moments, where his line of sight wasnʼt interrupted by the cracks, he would have seen the two figures.

For billions of years their postures hadnʼt changed, unaware that their fight had literally ceased the flow of time.

One of the figures was a black minotaur, rising sixteen feet tall with taut muscles, larger than a normal manʼs entire body. He was wielding a golden hammer that, in itself, was ten feet tall, and smashing against the silver sword of his foe, a banshee made of purple flames, her ethereal form blazing with an eerie light.

Their weapons, a testament to their might, were interlocked in a perfect stalemate, and the raw, unyielding force of their clash has warped time itself, encasing them in an immortal moment. The chamber, a silent witness to their relentless fury, suffered coutless cracks in time. The very hall itself felt charged, as if the vibrations of their clash, the echoes of their unresolved battle, still hung in the very air itself, waiting for time to flow once more so that they could be unleashed.

Amidst that unresolved tension, Lex navigated the invisible, deadly maze, hoping to find a path through. He did not let his thoughts stray to those who were waiting for him. He did not think of those who he still needed to save, nor those who he needed to kill.

In those moments, his focus was unprecedented, and his mind completely clear of all distractions.

A drawback of such pure focus was an unusually clear perception of the flow of time. It felt an eternity was passing in each moment, and the closer he came to his target, the longer each moment felt.

He was certain he was coming close just by how strangely time felt to him, but the more it was like this the more careful he had to be.

This continued until, suddenly, there were no more cracks in front of him. Still, as a precaution, he continued forward, slowly and steadily, but still he felt no cracks. Instead, he eventually felt something touching his body.

Lex unsealed his senses and saw that he had crashed into the hoof on the minotaur.

The sight stunned him. Even though the two were frozen in time, he could feel their power. Both of them were mere Nascent realm cultivators, yet the strength they wielded was a lot more. Lex was pretty confident in himself as a Nascent cultivator, but even he did not think he could use his physical body to demonstrate the kind of power they were wielding. How was that possible?

For a moment he was confused. Then he quickly came to an answer. This was not the natural strength of these two, but an augmentation of their gear. The gear they were, from their clothes, to their bangles, earrings, belts, weapons, everything and anything, they all were treasures of the highest quality and order, and they all strengthened them physically.

Even Lex, who cared little for treasures usually, felt a little tempted by such a grand display of wealth.

He was admiring their magnificent figures when he noticed something. In the middle of their clash, caught between the hammer and the sword, was a tiny, green marble.

Neither the sword nor the hammer were actually touching each other. Instead, they were both connected via the tiny marble, and his instincts were guiding him to remove that marble from between the two weapons.

In fact, for a while now, his instincts had been absolutely screaming at him to hurry up, but to maintain his focus and avoid any mistakes, he was forced to ignore it. Now, finally, he flicked a finger, and a small pulse of energy traveled out and hit the marble.

There was no freaking way Lex was going to touch that marble with his body. He had learned his lesson by now. No touching mysterious objects that could alter reality. Instead, he popped the marble free from a distance, completely unaware that he removed the marble just in time.

Less than a single second remained for the time to elapse. But whether it was a fraction of a second, or an hour, what mattered was that Lex propped the marble loose in time.

In fact, as soon as the marble escaped the reach of the two weapons, it disappeared completely, and the flow of time resumed.

The hammer and the sword clashed, resulting in a shockwave that launched Lexʼs tiny body across the room.