The Innkeeper

Chapter 1741: I am the best

Sensory overload was when one or more of a person’s senses were overwhelmed. It was like the feeling of being unable to think because the music was too loud, or being unable to focus because the weather was too hot, or being unable to look at something because you had eaten something too spicy.

That was an example of overload if only one sense was overwhelmed, but it was entirely possible for multiple senses to be overwhelmed together. Ever since he started cultivating, Lex had gained even more senses, but sensory overload had never been a problem because his spirit, or mental faculties, had grown proportionally.

Today, however, served to be an especially difficult day. The mortal equivalent of what was happening to him would be like sitting in a tight economy seat of an airplane where the air conditioning had stopped working in the dead of summer, causing the plane to become an over. He was barely dealing with the heat, and the fact that the flight had been indefinitely delayed when a baby started crying in the seat in front of him, and a kid started to kick his seat from behind.

The person beside him had become nauseous and had thrown up in the throw up bag, causing an unpleasant smell to spread, and to top it all off, he had a headache.

In truth, a scenario like that could only vaguely describe the agony Lex was enduring, because it couldn’t take into account his additional senses, such as spirit sense, instinct and area awareness – as well as having his consciousness split between himself, Jack and his clone.

Amidst all of that, Lex had to focus on protecting Kaemon, which wasn’t exactly hard – at least for now. But the combination of things just overwhelmed him until he was forced into doing something he had been avoiding.

He used his dragon form. The reason he didn’t want to use this form wasn’t something ridiculous, like not wanting to transform his human shape, which was also true. No, the reason was this form came with genuine risks.

Dragons, despite not being Elders or Sages, absolutely could not be underestimated. As individuals they had been hunted occasionally, but the whole universe acknowledged their strength, for they had never lost a war. Battles, yes, they lost. A war, they had never lost.

All their arrogance, all their attitude, their isolation and loner nature did not prevent them from rising to the occasion and carving out a piece for themselves in the universe every single time they needed to.

Humans, even backed by the Humanoid Alliance, could not achieve what dragons had done for themselves without additional support.

So it was all fair game for Lex to imitate them, and even take their strength for his own. His cultivation technique was amazing at that. But he had a very strong feeling that by relying on his dragon form, he risked changing his very nature from that of a human to a dragon. He already had a dragonheart, and he did not want to go replacing any other organs, even if that did offer him more power.

Unfortunately, in this instance, he was pushed to his limit, and so he did it.

His dragonheart beat, just as it had done countless times before, yet this time the sound of the heartbeat sounded like some ancient chant, being sung from within his body.

Lex’s blood began to boil, and steam began to rise from his skin as his body temperature rose. For a moment, his skin clenched up, deforming to form scales, yet that ended quickly enough. His skin was already strong enough to act as dragon scales.

His irises became yellow, and his pupils elongated, looking more like a dragons’. His will started to gain a physical aspect to itself, almost as if he could touch the world with his will alone – separate from his spirit sense – yet his Domination quickly spilled in to take its place.

Golden Inferno imprinted itself into his throat, the Lawcraft taking a physical form, allowing him to breathe golden flames as naturally as he breathed.

It seemed he was half dragon already, which protected him from the influence of his second form to a large degree. But there was, after all, a limit to the things he could replace.

The bones in his spine began to morph, allowing for two large wings to grow out of his back, as well as one long tail. Two horns grew out of his skull, almost forming a crown, which only fit his newfound status as a partial dragon. His nails grew longer and sharper, and his already irritated emotions began to bubble into a deep, smouldering flame.

“You talk too much for someone who has only ever tasted defeat,” Lex said, his voice rumbling through the lighthouse as his gaze went towards the Dark Knight, suddenly illuminating the darkness with a magnificent yellow light. “Do you think Abaddon protects you by bringing you back to life repeatedly? No, it only enslaves you. Nothing can protect you once you cross me.”

Lex’ flapped his wings and grabbed the dark monster, ignoring the fact that its size was many times larger than him. The moment Lex held onto him, the knight froze, and so did all the other monsters in the vicinity.

A chill spread in the air, one that was foreign to them. It was the tingly feeling of coming face to face with a predator, and one who had been rudely awoken from its slumber.

Lex did not attack the Dark Knight. No, he smiled cruelly and exerted his will upon the knight, even using the characters from the Book of Changes to make his will permanent, causing the knight’s tongue to roll back in his mouth… and disappear.

The Dark Knight opened its mouth to try to scream in horror, but no sound came out. For all of its existence, it would no longer be able to scream. Lex had rewritten the laws of the Dark Knights existence, without challenging Abaddon’s authority. As such, there was no obstacle in making the changes permanent, even spanning all of his future reincarnations.

Lex’s smile grew wider, and he turned to look at all the other monsters.

“I don’t know why I hadn’t done this sooner,” Lex said, his grumbling voice a sonic attack on all who heard it, causing their ears to bleed and their bodies to shudder. “This form is so much… superior. Maybe I should make it… permanent.”

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Lex felt like that was a bad idea. But the absolutely immense power he felt was too intoxicating, making him unwilling to give up this form.

In the glorious pursuit of power, what was the point of sticking to a weaker form?

“Ugh, listening to you speak is worse than dealing with Bob,” Lex said to himself. Or rather, Jack said to dragon-Lex. “Stop monologuing and quickly kill all the monsters around you. Can’t you tell something has hijacked our clone near the Well? You need to quickly reclaim it before something bad happens.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Lex said to his fairy-self. Of course, he also quickly started attacking, putting aside his immense desire to praise his own power for hours more. Whether it was Jack, Lex or dragon-Lex, they were all one and the same, even if they acted differently.

Dragon-Lex, in his intellectual superiority, assigned the difference in personalities not to different aspects of the soul, but the respective hormones of the physical vessel. Bodies weren’t just a carrier for the soul, but were also the conduit through which the soul interacted with the universe. As such, it was obvious that each different conduit would behave differently.

He couldn’t understand why such a simple truth could be overlooked by others, including himself. Then again, now that he was partially a dragon, it only made sense that he was smarter than before.

“I know,” he said, smugly to himself. “I am the best.”