The Innkeeper-Novel



Without hesitation, Lex used Evisceration on the robot that had spoken. But as he had long suspected, the technique had no effect. No matter, he didn't mind doing things up close and personal.

On his fists, he was currently wearing iron knuckles that he had bought from the Guild room. Unlike normal iron knuckles, these could be charged up using Lex's spirit energy. Once they were charged, the next time they made contact with anything, they would release a concentrated burst of energy. That, accompanied by Lex's ridiculous physical strength, made it so no spiritual technique was required. Brute strength was enough to take down any foe he faced, so far at least.

That was exactly why Lex threw himself at the robot that had spoken earlier and kicked its body. He did not want to defeat it too quickly. He did not know if the robots felt pain, but he definitely knew the satisfaction of beating it senselessly.

The soldiers, who had finally gotten some relief and took that time to readjust themselves, went into shock. They had been fighting for their lives, barely holding on, when fighting. Yet against the same opponents, the strange masked demon, the robots were nothing but rag dolls.

Completely ignoring all the attacks falling upon his body, the demon kicked one of the robots into the sky. But that was just the setup for more attacks, for immediately afterwards, the masked demon punched another robot, tearing it apart. He then grabbed the robots breaking limbs and started to throw them into the sky at the robot he kicked up.

But after a few moments of that, feeling unsatisfied, he jumped high up into the air and kicked the robot back onto the ground, creating a crater where it landed.

By now, the armor he was wearing had turned red from the heat of the laser hitting it, and even began to melt. Yet for a man who had swan through lava, what was burning clothes?

He did not even slow down and kept stomping the first robot. But the demon was strategic. He did not immediately destroy the robot by attacking the core of its body which was its center. Instead, he attacked its limbs, slowly crushing them.

By now, the pants he was wearing were literally on fire and his armor was melting off his body, but he had not even slowed down. Some robots had come near to attack him, but not only did their physical attacks not hamper him, as he had done earlier, he ripped off their limbs and used them as weapons to continue smashing the robot at his feet.

A strange scene unfolded, where the human soldiers were left stunned, preventing them from doing anything, and the remaining robots finally stopped firing and slowly began to back away from the literal flaming demon.

But all things, regardless of how bizarre they were, eventually had to come to an end. The robot Lex was crushing finally gave out, and collapsed under Lex's endless barrage.

Realizing his target had died, Lex suddenly looked up, and finally realized how strange the situation was. The humans and robots alike were staring at him, in fear and awe.

Feeling a single sweat break out, he finally realized that his gear was on fire. He erected an Imperial shield around himself, took off the thick, melted goo that was sticking to his body, and put on a fresh pair of identical body armor.

He removed the Imperial shield, ready to continue the fight. Yet the scene of him in fresh attire scared everyone even more than the chaos that he had just wrought. The fact that he had prepared extra armor… meant that such behavior was a norm for him.

One of the soldiers that had shot at him earlier fainted.

The robots, too, had completely stopped firing at him, and watched from a distance. All the attention… was making Lex feel a little awkward. He was just venting a little, was there really a need to treat him as such? Wasn't this war? How were his actions more intimidating than fighting each other to the death?

For a short time, everyone was still. No one knew what to do next.

Then, one of the robots stepped forward, and for the first time, attempted to communicate with the humans.

"Human, the Operation Commander wishes to speak with you. Will you accept the call?" The robot spoke in a very stereotypical electronic voice, which was not what anyone had been expecting.

Lex was surprised by the level of etiquette being shown by the robots all of a sudden, but did not disparage the opportunity to communicate with them. Maybe he could finally understand why they had invaded.

"Sure," said Lex, and walked towards the robot. When they came face to face, the robot spoke again, though this time with a different, more feminine electronic voice - if that was possible.

"This is Iota-336 speaking. Are you the leader of the local humans?"

"I am neither a leader for the humans, nor a representative of anyone on Earth. I am here on private business that you are hampering. Do you care to explain why you are suddenly invading this planet? As far as I know, the residents of this planet should have no hostilities with any foreign entities, nor do they have any resources valuable enough to prompt an invasion."

Using his sixth sense, Lex could tell that whoever he was speaking with was extremely annoyed at him in particular for some reason. What had he done? Nothing. Why was he being targeted?

"The residents of this planet have broken intergalactic law by enslaving sentient A.I. Regardless of the circumstances, all residents of this planet have been deemed criminals, sentenced to slavery or death. Surrender peacefully, and you will be allowed to live. Resist, and you will die."

"I have never heard of this law, and I don't know anything about the slavery you're talking about. Isn't it a little harsh to punish an entire planet for a crime they don't even know about? Not to mention, most of the people had nothing to do with the crime."

"Irrelevant. All living beings on this planet have been sentenced. Shall I take your lack of answer as non-compliance?"