Raven
Looking out over the thousands of universe level aristocracy bidding for the right to kill him and extract his power, Raven wanted to laugh.
Ever since he was little, it had been his dream to be one of these people, someone with the power to decide the fate of a nothing like him with a simple word. Yet now that would never happen.
He’d worked hard. Even before his father had murdered his mother, he’d been motivated, spending as much of his waking time as possible training.
He’d wanted to make his mother proud, to lessen his father’s burdens, and, after his father’s heinous act, he’d wanted to take over responsibility for his clan after cutting off his father’s head.
But nothing went right.
Seeing his clan would be destroyed no matter what he did, he’d left, but he hadn’t had the power to take his little brother with him, that pitiful individual everyone wanted to sacrifice for their own personal gains, and he hadn’t had the courage to risk doing so anyway.
More important, looking back, he hadn’t wanted that talented youth, born with the entirety of their mother’s natural skill with weapons, along with a dragon’s powerful body, stealing his opportunities.
He’d done enough to appease his conscience at the time, bribing a dying instructor to help train the youth, giving his brother a few skills, and subtly hinting to the force he’d joined about his brother’s talent so they might decide to raise him instead of using him as a sacrifice. But he’d always known it wasn’t enough, that his little brother would be sacrificed anyway, and he hadn’t cared.
Then, while his brother had almost certainly died a horrible death on that little F rank world, Raven had been living a good life.
The Amoranth Kingdom had treated him well, helping him rise through the levels as an E rank. And then he’d taken part in a tournament for E ranks in his home galaxy cluster and won, being scouted by none less than one of the families who ruled the force under The Unstoppable Blade, the god Raven had always worshiped, the deity whose path he’d always been trying his hardest to follow.
They’d given him resources, helped him advance to C rank with even a Fabled grade race.
And, even though he’d had to serve one of their youths, an asshole named Grendal Hox, he’d had status, and he’d enjoyed it, finally personally killing his father with ease.
Then, however, after he’d advanced to C rank with a powerful class, Grendal had sold him, something Raven hadn’t even known had been a possibility, and he’d been forced into the bloodtree behind his back, made into a resource for the aristocracy of the universe to bid over.
And there was nothing he or the other three sharing his situation could do about it.
“And sold to Lord Amos Dracar of the Seventh Tuathan Dynasty for 7,308 A rank universal credits.” The pretty red-headed master of ceremonies bowed to the crowd and Raven, along with the three others, was teleported back into the dark room they’d been held in for the last several days.
* * *
Yorick
7,308 A rank universal credits was much higher than Yorick had expected, making him feel quite good.
All the resources which could awaken or strengthen uniquenesses had been selling for quite a bit more than normal during this auction, three of the divine forces seemingly willing to spend almost any amount to make sure to take all of them, only not competing with each other, and this had been greatly to his benefit, allowing him to make up for the advantage his senior apprentice sister had achieved with all her Empyrean grade artifacts.
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Even with him seemingly having somehow angered the Space Scarab’s daughter, Yorick felt quite good as the final four items were sold.
And Ms. La’Vordi was quite polite after the auction officially ended, rising from her seat and curtsying toward him again. “Mr. Strong, would you mind if I had a word alone with your bodyguard?”
The Slaughterer, however, wasn’t quite as polite. “There is no need.” The man rose from his seat and immediately headed for the door, but, opening it, he found the master of ceremonies for the auction, Ms. Starflower, about to knock.
“Oh, hello, sir.” Ms. Starflower bowed politely to the Slaughterer and then curtsied toward Yorick and Ms. La’Vordi. “Lord Strong, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Lady La’Vordi, it is an honor to have you visit our humble establishment. Might I ask if you have some free time? My lord would like me to discuss something with you.”
Ms. Starflower’s lord was the head of the force under the Lord of Sand and Sun and, while this wasn’t a particularly powerful force, the difference in status between the head of a divine force and the candidate to become the head of another was large, making it proper for Yorick to give the other face.
“Ms. La’Vordi, we won’t disturb you any longer.” He bowed toward the demigoddess, who seemed somewhat confused, and then began to move out of the room with the Slaughterer. “Thank you for accepting my invitation.”
He and the Slaughterer then left the room and he made sure to close the door behind him, activating the room’s automatic sealing formation to keep the words between the two women confidential.
He wanted to ask the Slaughterer what was going on then and there, but a hallway in an auction house was not the place for that conversation, so he instead headed for one of the auction house’s teleportation platforms where he and the Slaughterer teleported to the C rank world where he resided, quickly moving to a local teleportation platform and from there teleporting to his mansion where they entered his study.
“Would you care to explain what went on with Ms. La’Vordi back there?”
“Not really.”
The next thing Yorick knew the Slaughterer’s aura pervaded his entire study, only it was about three times as strong as he’d ever felt from the man. Then a spear, not a halberd, and one Yorick could immediately recognize as putting the Empyrean grade weapons up at the auction to shame, was stabbed into his heart, the Slaughterer having moved faster than his mind could follow.
The Slaughterer then summoned out an orb of some kind from his spatial storage ring and Yorick felt his soul get sucked in. And the last thing he saw in his life was a man—with long black hair, gray monolidded eyes, and black tattoos all over his slightly yellowish skin—come out from the shadows of the room, stand over his body, and transform to look exactly like him.
* * *
Krysta
Watching Isaiah leave, Krysta felt frustrated, but she couldn’t show it in front of Starflower, so she instead nodded her head and waited for the other woman to speak.
Instead of moving gracefully and speaking tactfully like Krysta expected, however, the master of ceremonies pulled one of the chairs toward her with telekinesis; sat in it in a comfortable, but not necessarily proper, posture; and summoned out some kind of drink in a mug from her spatial storage ring, taking a sip before speaking.
“The head of the Sandstorm Conglomerate obtained an artifact he has no way to use, so he wants to give it to you to have you owe him a favor if you ever reach A rank.” Starflower summoned out a sword from her spatial storage ring and passed it to Krysta with telekinesis, placing it directly into Krysta’s hand.
The weapon looked plain, just a simple black blade made out of entirely one piece, but its material was black iron quintessence, not the black iron essence of the Empyrean grade weapons sold during the auction, and the runes carved into its internal structure were numerous and precise. More important, however, the black iron quintessence was infused with three separate spatial Laws at the Law Dragon level and the blade, while not having a spirit, had a soul structure with six separate spatial enhancement skills attached.
In short, it was the most powerful C rank weapon Krysta had ever seen.
Its only detriment was that it required a Law Dragon level spatial Law to operate, so, as far as Krysta was aware, she was the only C rank in the universe who could use it, her Law Scarab of Spatial Shift recently having advanced.
For B ranks, the weapon would still be valuable, as it approached the limit of what was possible for a C rank weapon, but Law Dragon level Laws for B ranks were still extremely rare, only sometimes found on those ready to advance to A rank, and anyone with a space element Law at that level would be able to afford something better.
Briefly distracted by the weapon, and thinking about if she’d be okay with making a blood oath to use it, it took Krysta a couple seconds to realize what was happening. Starflower had said she’d had something to talk with Krysta about on her lord’s direction, but then she’d spoken of the head of the Sandstorm Conglomerate, the lord Krysta had assumed, like he wasn’t someone she respected. And this was right after Krysta’d confirmed Isaiah Gale had been moving around the universe without a care for millennia in what very much seemed like a created identity.
Looking around at the room they were in, Krysta again remembered how the entire structure of the auction house was made out of everwood, a building material which blocked almost all kinds of sensory skills, and how even the one way glass looking down at the auction house’s main floor was made from Kimari crystal, a substance with the same properties, though only in one direction.
Realizing who she was actually dealing with, and feeling rather excited, Krysta waved her hand, teleporting one of the other chairs to a position opposite the so called Starflower’s. And then she sat down, mirroring Li Mila’s deliberately comfortable posture.