The Innkeeper

Liz distanced herself from the wooly dog standing above Harriot, and quickly drew out a blaster, pointing it at the approaching soldiers and even shot a few warning shots, stopping them in their tracks.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked out loudly, as she looked warily at the wooly dog who had been her partner a short while ago. But in truth, she did not care for the answer. While the wooly dog monologued, she was already using a secret treasure to communicate with Harriot without being detected.

"We're surrounded and will be captured soon," she told him. "I can save you, but only if you provide me with the location of the Gilded Dolphin first."

"If I tell you the location, you won't need to save me. Get me out of here, and I'll take you to the Dolphin myself."

"Fine. But if it turns out that you don't actually know where the Dolphin is, I'll dump you out in space," she threatened.

Ignoring the nonsense being said out loud, explaining how they had all fallen for a trap, Liz activated her teleportation formation back on the ship. Instead of teleporting away herself, it was the wooly dog standing above Harriet who suddenly found himself back on the ship. Besides him, there were a dozen other soldiers who had climbed aboard the ship to ensure Liz couldn't take it to head back.

They looked at each other with confusion, but before they could actually do anything, Liz also triggered the explosive she had set up using the ship's battery. The entire station rumbled, but the soldiers had no time to focus on that.

Liz had spring into action, throwing a laser grenade towards the soldiers while launching a device at Harriet as well. When the grenade exploded, it vaporized everyone in the vicinity, save Liz and Harriet, who had been marked as friendly by the device Liz had used.

"Come on," Liz said as she rushed to Harriet, grabbed his wool, and then activated a second teleportation formation - one she had set up a long time ago.

The two teleported away and Liz was ready to rush towards the command bridge of the hidden spaceship she had left in the vicinity of the station, but she froze.

The place she teleported to wasn't her ship. Instead, someone had found a way to move her formation without disrupting it, bringing her to a completely unfamiliar place.

Once she got over the shock of what happened, she looked around to see that they were surrounded by hundreds of soldiers in the Nascent realm.

"My dear Liz, you have put up quite the resistance," said a mature-looking man, his black hair mixed with gray. He stood in full armor in front of his troops, only his face exposed. "You have outsmarted us at every turn, and more than just us. But you cannot hide forever. The time has come. These games grow tiresome. It is now time you accept your duty and place."

"You… I've seen you," said Harriet weakly as he glared at the armored man. "You're the one who met with the regent. Are you… did you trigger this war?"

"Naturally. If I do not ensue chaos, it would be harder to ensure enough chaos and limit Liz's options. Enough of this farce. As a guest of Liz, I will allow you to live and attend our wedding. Liz, give up your futile resistance. Our future progeny will rule galaxies, and after that… who knows."

Liz maintained an emotionless expression as she studied the man. She could not say that she even knew his name. There were too many after her.

"Are you not afraid of the Williams family? Of Ventura?" she asked, delaying as much as she could while she activated her contingencies. Yet they continued to fail. Each teleportation formation, each attack, each escape… all of them had been deactivated.

The man scoffed.

"Ventura is a school, nothing more. Unless, if for political reasons, or unless our gap in strength is too massive, they will do nothing. The Williams family, more so than ever, is too weak to interfere in anything else. Not to mention, Damian has given a silent approval of your marriage as long as it benefits the family. There will be no escape this time, Liz. Come."

The man stepped forward, and with each step his aura at the peak of the Earth immortal realm began to spread out, suppressing everyone.

Even now, Liz showed no fear. Instead, her mind only worked towards future plans. She had been in dire situations before. So long as she was alive, she would not quit. She would escape. She was so close - closer than ever before. Harriot would tell her where the Dolphin was, and then she would…

"Enough," a familiar voice said, and suddenly the room was silent. The countless guards froze where they stood, as if they were statues. The soft breeze in the room, a result of the ventilation, stopped. The Earth Immortal, lost in thoughts of a glorious future, halted, his foot still raised to take another step.

Neither Liz, nor Harriet felt it, but a powerful aura had erupted, and enveloped everyone else in the room. The suffocating heat of that presence caused everything to come to a standstill.

Lex could tell that Liz was not at the end of her rope yet, which was interesting. Even in the face of such a powerful adversary, she had contingencies.

But he had seen enough. Watching how she handled challenges was all well and good, but Lex could only tolerate so much. Even if she had a way of escaping this situation, she shouldn't have to use it.

Rather, the measly Earth Immortal who dared to eye his sister was the one who should be thinking of escaping.

Harriet looked around, trying to understand what was happening, whereas Liz had already caught on.

"Lex," she said simply, looking around the room for her brother. The last she had seen him, he was enjoying himself on Lover's Island, surrounded by countless women. He was impressively powerful, even back then, but it shouldn't have been to the point where he could command immortals with a single world.

Following Liz had not been a problem for Lex - he merely followed the path of her teleportation, so he emerged from the ground when Liz called him, and turned to look at her. For a time, there was only silence as the two siblings studied each other. Liz looked at him with a wary gaze, a distinct lack of trust in them that Lex easily recognized, as well as doubt at his sudden arrival.

It took him but a moment to understand. She did not think he was really Lex, but that instead an enemy was using an illusion to get her to drop her guard.

Lex, on the other hand, studied his younger sister. Technically, she was only a couple of years younger than him, though Lex had lived many more years already due to the time difference in their realms.

Somehow, though, Liz did not lack for life experiences. Without any support or anything else to fall back on, she had used her own wits to escape the grasp of countless powerful people, traveling the Origin realm in search of some unknown objective.

"You've been through quite a lot," Lex said after a while. "When I saw Moon she was… well, she was over the moon to see me. You, on the other hand, are trying to determine if my jugular is still a weakness for me."

Liz maintained her cold expression, though he could see a deep hint of embarrassment in her eyes.

"How do you want me to react? Bonds of family, or siblings, are just words to us. Our parents are not the most reliable people in the universe, and a majority of the time we've spent together is fake… you've spent more time with a clone of me than actually me. I've never met someone who didn't want to use me somehow. So, brother, tell me how you want to use me?"

Lex smiled. Ah, Liz. She had developed an attitude. Good for her. She had always been a bit of a teacher's pet when they were children.

"It's good to see you too, Liz. I'm glad you're doing well. Moon was not doing so great when I found her. Hold on for a minute while I take care of these guys. Then we can have a proper reunion."

Lex turned around and summoned Naraka as he walked towards the peak Earth immortal. Despite the fact that Lex was the one with the lower realm, this immortal was nothing compared to the ones Lex had been killing easily in the Trial of Eternity. Which meant that, compared to the elite of the entire realm, this immortal was nothing. While for those immortals, Lex needed to exert some effort, for this one it would be no effort at all to crush his tenet and kill him.

Behind him, Liz took advantage of the moment where no one was focusing on her to run away once more.

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