The Innkeeper

The only thing more revolting than the hand itself, a fusion of all that was rotten and disgusting, was the fact that it seemed to be slowly permeating into Jack somehow, infecting everything else.

Jack could see that he had other Karma as well, obviously. There was Karma between him and his crew members. There was Karma between him and his ship. Heck, there were traces of Karma between him and the numerous undead rising from the deathly waters of the river.

The putrid hand was using him as a conduit to slowly infect all those other lines of Karma as well, honing in on them and infecting them as well. The process was slow, and required an immense amount of time. Yet it was also steady, and would eventually infect all that it touched.

Jack had to close his eyes and lean over the side of his ship to retch. It had been a long time since Lex vomited, and technically speaking Jack had never vomited at all. It was not a pleasant experience, to say the very least.

He immediately deactivated the ability, but it was too late. Even with the ability turned off, even with his eyes closed, Jack could still smell the ever present, rancid stench of decay covering his entire being.

He opened his eyes, and indeed the vision had disappeared, yet the stench stayed with him.

“What the hell is going on?” Jack asked out loud as he resisted the urge to vomit once more. He activated his fairy magic. With his fairy dust as the vessel, he channeled his intention into creating a barrier that would keep all smells away.

But it didn’t work. Jack tried healing his soul, but he was in perfect condition. He tried exercising himself of any and all curses, and to his genuine surprise actually removed a few curses that the river had silently applied onto him without his knowledge. But it did nothing for the smell.

This was not his own, personal Karma, of that he was sure. No, this was the Karma of a fairy. It was the Karma that kept fairies as a forgotten race, demoted to the rank of servant or slave across the universe.

What kind of tremendous power could do this to them? It surely couldn’t be a Dao Lord, he was certain of that. If a single Dao Lord could influence an entire race across the universe in such a way, they would be way too powerful. But maybe a collection of Dao Lords could achieve as much. Who could say?

At the moment, though, Jack didn’t care about any of that. He just wanted the smell gone. Unfortunately, no matter what he tried, it was of no avail. The smell was stuck to him, and it wasn’t going anywhere.

Manic desperation began to fill Jack. It wasn’t that he had such a weak will power that he couldn’t tolerate some smell. No, rather it was the knowledge that this smell could actually drive him insane, and through him it could drive Lex insane.

Although Lex and Jack had both taken some precautions to hide their connections from one another it was far from foolproof. Ignoring their many other connections, just the fact that they both had the same soul – even if it was split in two – meant that powerful beings might be able to connect them together. There was also their Karma towards each other.

Someone who was adept at reading Karma could surely find a connection. Much more importantly, the hand that was surrounding Jack’s body was affecting everything else that was attached to him by Karma. It was only a matter of time before it reached him, and that was not something Lex wanted to see.

But even in desperation, Jack did not lose his mind completely. Though he himself did not have a way to remove the smell, they were almost at the end of the river. Or, to be more specific, since the river touched every place, they had almost reached the seven dwarf dragons.

Even if this hand hadn’t been created by them, Jack would be surprised if seven Dao Lords couldn’t fix his situation.

“Alright guys, change of plans,” Jack yelled with deep red eyes as he flew off the deck of the Jolly Rancher. “Practice is over. Now it’s time to get the hell out of here and reach our destination.”

Even though the crew was in the midst of battle, they all sensed that something was amiss with their captain. Unfortunately, they did not have the luxury of turning and checking. They just hoped that whatever it was that had turned their usually relaxed captain into someone in a rush, it wasn’t too difficult to handle.

Jack also did not bother explaining. As a Nascent level fairy, who had the experience and knowledge of an Earth Immortal and a deep understanding about various laws, Jack was much more powerful than he usually appeared.

Although Jack could not directly influence laws, he knew more than sufficient ways to indirectly influence laws in his surroundings. He also knew a whole lot more about energies than before.

The tiny fairy’s body began to glow with a bright white light as Jack furiously flapped his wings, unleashing a tide of fairy dust, all of it quickly turning into flashes of light.

Fairydust was how fairies expressed their abilities, and it could take on all kinds of traits and abilities according to the fairies intentions. More importantly, those traits could be transferred to anything that absorbed fairy dust. That is how he usually strengthened his ship, or stopped it from turning into gold, or crystal, or golden crystals.

What Jack was summoning right now was fairy dust attuned to Purinex, a type of spiritual energy that was generally very effective in cleansing curses and ill omens. Also, while not exactly the opposite of death, it negated Death energy with great effectiveness, despite not having anything to do with vitality or life itself.

That was fortunate, because both of those were a lot more expensive, energy consumption wise, for Jack to attune his fairy dust to. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire