The Innkeeper

Eclipse rolled her eyes at the dragon. He was not born a dragon, nor was he born a Primordial. However, as luck would have it, many, many years ago, he was accidentally teleported into the Primordial Garden through sheer coincidence.

While such things were unlikely, it wasn't as if they were impossible. So, the little fellow had gone from being someone's pet gecko to becoming Eclipse's pet dragon after a number of events. Of course, since he was Eclipse's pet, she fed him a lot of good stuff, allowing him to eventually become a Golden Dragon. Even though he technically wasn't a Primordial, after a lifetime of living here, he had absorbed enough Primordial energy to somewhat qualify as well.

But, while she could change a gecko into a dragon, she couldn't change a pet into a proper wild beast. Even so, eventually, he became a Dao Lord, and since then had lived with Eclipse, ever her loyal dragon.

"Sure, you can have him, Just so you know, his backer is a Dao King so you'll have to deal with him yourself."

The dragon smiled, didn't mention it again, and turned to look back at Lex.

"I was just joking, mistress. How can I try to claim someone who you have appreciated?"

The dragon absolved himself of the situation with those words. Regardless of age, regardless of status, regardless of everything else, praising the mistress would never be wrong. Her strength and status were no joke. They were not things she received randomly. She had earned her repute through fire and ash, so the dragon felt no shame acting like that in front of her.

Lex, entirely unaware of what was happening, continued to attack. He had a disadvantage in terms of laws, so Lex used his Golden Inferno to attack all the laws. To be more specific, Lex attacked the commander's attempts to influence the laws.

Humans used tenets to influence laws, while the commander used some other, abstract method that Lex did not fully understand. Even without understanding it, though, Lex could detect it, and attack it.

Even if he could not completely stop the commander, delaying or hindering him was enough. After all, Lex had closed their distance between them, and he would not give it up any time soon.

The commander's limbs, his arms and claws and tentacles which he grew to handle Lex, all broke easily under the barrage of Lex's attacks. It was only his chest and his face which seemed to crack endlessly, but never actually break.

"I have to admit, the durability of Primordials is impressive," Lex growled, his voice deep and taunting. "You make an impressive punching bag."

Whether it was the mayor, or the commander, or any of the other Primordials Lex had met along the way, all of them were filled with an immense pride and arrogance. As long as they didn't look down on Lex, he couldn't be bothered to deal with them… but what gave them the right to look down on him?

After all, Lex too had incredible capacity to act arrogant. So he beat the commander, and he beat him, and after several minutes Lex stopped, looking at the commander with a weird expression.

The commander had been putting up some resistance, yes, but he had been failing so utterly that Lex began to suspect he had been failing on purpose. Did he… secretly like getting beaten up?

"What are you doing?" Lex asked, observing the massively cracked frame of the commander.

"I already gave you the go ahead to enter the lake. My job is done - what do you want me to do?" the commander asked in a complaining voice. "I could fight you properly, yes, but that would only drain me of more and more energy. Do you know how much energy it takes to regrow my arms? There's a bit of an energy drought down here - I'm not too interested in a prolonged fight I'm not getting paid for. It's not like you can kill me or anything, so I'll just let you vent your anger and then be on my way."

Lex glared at the statue feeling… frustrated. That was not the reaction he wanted in someone he was beating up.

But then, a hint of mischief flashed through his eyes.

"I'm not venting my anger - I'm teaching you a lesson," Lex instructed, exiting out of his dragon form and he held the commander's head. "Don't look down on others just because you're a Primordial. The universe is not as weak as you imagine."

Instead of waiting for the commander to respond, Lex quickly entered his Lotus form and sucked a tremendous amount of energy out of his body and bolted. As he ran, he could hear the commander roaring in shock and anger and the sudden loss.

Since he was so particular about his energy, Lex was certain the commander wouldn't chase him.

Lex snorted. That ought to teach him not to mess with Lex in the future. He quickly reached the edge of the lake and tested the water, making sure there was nothing wrong with it. The commander had said he was the last obstacle, but Lex wouldn't take his word too seriously.

Upon seeing that the water wasn't doing anything, Lex dove in, swimming deeper and deeper in.

Fortunately, the water didn't feel too heavy, nor was the pressure on Lex too great. In fact, the water was surprisingly soothing and nice.

As he swam deeper, Lex discovered that his body was rapidly healing of all the injuries he had accumulated over the last few days and hadn't had time to heal.

These days, his body was so strong that healing it was not easy, yet these waters made it seem like nothing at all. Lex almost wanted to scoop it up and take some back with him, but he was certain that every move he made was under the gaze of the owner of this garden. As such, he would not take anything without permission.

In almost no time at all, Lex reached the bottom of the lake, and found the belt just casually laying there, waiting for him to take it.