After the scream - 900 million universes remaining
This vial, in a simple glass casing, contained a single drop of a viscous black liquid. Without even knowing what its contents might be used for, all the Singularities could feel a burning desire to obtain it.
This instinct became irresistible following a few words from the Director.
"What you see before you is a Uniquity. A Uniquity is the equivalent of a Singularity, but for an object. The liquid in this vial is therefore unique and cannot be recreated. Due to its condition similar to that of Singularities, this drop can metamorphose into one of them."
A profound silence followed his words. In the assembly, time seemed to have stopped. Desire and curiosity had abruptly given way to disbelief. The gaze of the oldest Singularities filled with fanaticism. They, who had long lost hope of finding their soulmate, could now glimpse a ray of hope.
However, there was only one vial for the multitude of Singularities present. Disbelief quickly turned to despair. The Singularities who had not reached the rank of Monarch knew perfectly well they would stand no chance against those above their heads.
In the circle of Monarchs, the various Singularities had already started to incur debts from the other Monarchs. Among the ten thousand Monarchs present, there were about a hundred Singularities.
One of them, a sort of tree with golden leaves and countless crimson roots, felt her slim chances of victory dwindling as her competitors multiplied their debts. After a short reflection, she decided to approach the restricted group of Unleashed.
She first tried her luck with Jason. Unfortunately for her, he had no Promis since he did not participate in any missions within Promise.
She then turned to the second Unleashed who might still be considered "accessible." Orion had an expression on his face as if he were wondering if he should buy the vial to taste its contents. When the Singularity approached to ask him, he replied the same way as Jason. He had undertaken no missions, so he had no Promis.
The Singularity now wondered what he was doing within Promise. She kept this thought to herself and turned hopefully to the last two Unleashed.
Her hope was short-lived given their cold response. Arden did not even reply, keeping his gaze fixed on the figure of the Director. As for the most mysterious of the Unleashed, she heard his response in a whisper.
'No.'
No matter how much she begged, offered everything she could, neither of the last two Unleashed accepted.
She returned to the other Monarchs, disheartened, and tried to incur debts from them. Knowing she was behind, she approached the man who could well turn the auction in her favor.
All the Singularities had asked Zhang Shi for help to win this auction, and he had rejected their proposals one by one.
When Zhang Shi noticed a Singularity had the courage to ask the Unleashed, she rose in his esteem. Yet when she came to see him, he politely rejected her request using the same argument he had given the others:
"I feel pity for all the Singularities. Helping one of them would mean for me being partly responsible for the suffering of the others."
After the longest five minutes of their lives, the Singularities saw the countdown reach zero, and the auction began.
With all the loans made by Monarch-ranked Singularities, the auction quickly became impossible to follow for mortals and immortals.
With no restraint in the bids, they quickly reached staggering amounts. Some Singularities, despite the risks, tried to steal the vial hovering above the Director's palm. Without the slightest movement from the Unleashed or the Director, they were apprehended by Monarchs of various races wishing to maintain the proper conduct of the auction.
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The Uniquity was finally won by the Monarch of Genetics. This Singularity was a crossbreed of so many species it was hard to identify them all. One of them had to be a phoenix since his wings extended as far as the eye could see when spread.
Once he had won the auction, he bowed and disappeared from the auction. Some Singularities also left, hoping to steal the Uniquity from him before he could ingest it.
Given the value of the Monarch title and the Uniquity, the entire membership of Promise was eager to know what the last two artifacts of these auctions would be. This impatience was also heightened by the fact that auctions often ended with the most desirable objects.
The penultimate artifact appeared beside the Director. It was a sword whose blade seemed dull, given its many cracks. Its hilt also showed signs of time's passage, though not in as deplorable a state as its blade. Finally, its handle was formed of numerous intertwined leather bands that must have been a brownish color when created but had darkened over time.
After allowing a few seconds for the mortals to observe the sword in detail, the Director spoke:
"This sword is an Unleashed-grade artifact. It will reveal its true potential only in the hands of an Unleashed whose powers align with it. For Unleashed already possessing an artifact of the same grade, this sword will conflict with it. For interested Monarchs, you will need immense vitality to wield it. Finally, even though this sword is Unleashed-grade, it cannot harm an Unleashed if its user is a Monarch."
The sword was undoubtedly incomparable to the previous artifact, but few seemed interested in buying it due to its severe restrictions, making it very unappealing to most Unleashed. Only a curious minority of Monarchs wanted to bid. It was said that even if the blade could not harm an Unleashed, it might still show devastating power against another Monarch.
Among these Monarchs were the Monarch of the Sword, Zhang Shi, Asmond, and some Monarchs leading large factions. The Monarchs of the Voss Empire could not participate in this auction after previously buying the Monarch title. Zhang Shi had a different philosophy from the others in approaching this sword. He was curious to know if it could bring him closer to the power level of the Unleashed, and the second reason raised more hypotheses than established facts. Not even he knew what conditions were necessary to become an Unleashed. He now thought that perhaps an Unleashed-grade artifact was necessary to make the leap.
He knew nothing, but he could spend a few Promis to test his hypothesis.
These few Promis quickly turned into his entire fortune because he knew perfectly well the final artifact would be won by an Unleashed. It would be hypocritical of him to force young Anna to spend her entire fortune on a Monarch-grade artifact and be thrifty himself to buy a higher-grade artifact.
No Monarch could match his insane spending, and no Unleashed intervened in the auction. The sword materialized beside him. He took a brief moment to observe it before storing it directly in the ring on his index finger.
It took him only a fraction of a second to understand that what he had just bought was far beyond his comprehension.
He didn't even know if he could ever understand it.
During his inner reflection, the final artifact finally appeared in the Director's palm.
It was a keyring. It contained ten keys made of an unknown material, each darker than the previous one.