When the inner hall was affected by the spreading mist, people from outside could no longer see what was going on from the screen. There was only whiteness.
When it happened, an aged man with brown hair immediately teleported from his chamber on the top floor into the inner stage.
If Sunders was here, he would have quickly recognized this figure as ‘Azure Lion’ Devildare. This man was the supreme leader of the auction house. He used to be a wizard of Brute Cavern, who later returned to his family to train his children after spending many years struggling to break the bottleneck as a level-1 wizard.
His family clan, the Waterward Lions, was one of the groups manipulating Twilight Well behind the curtain.
Devildare was still a level-1 wizard now, but he already stepped onto the path of truth, which earned him quite a name in the southern wizarding region.
Every single wizard in Twilight Well attended the grand auction because of the last lot being sold today, and Devildare was here as the last assurance who had to keep everything under control.
He totally did not expect something to go wrong just before the last item could show up.
Devildare did not really mind the strange seabird flying into the stage, nor did he care about the seemingly weak apprentice. This was why he was quite shocked when the strange combination used some kind of unknown spell which obscured the entire inner hall.
Surprisingly, the mist prevented all of his detection spells from working. Now Devildare could no longer stay put. He ordered his guards to engage possible enemies and quickly went for the auction hall.
He believed that an enemy of his had to have learned about the final item, and they were here to seize it. The mist, as well as the bird and an apprentice, had to be a mere distraction. The real enemy should have already sneaked inside.
However, things were not as he expected when he arrived.
“Where… is everyone?”
It turned out that the white mist blocked his vision as well.
Devildare knew well about the layout inside the hall, so he did not need his eyes to move around. The man quickly found the auction stage and called for Twilight.
No response.
Nothing came from the guards either.
Devildare grew edgy by the second. He leaped onto the third floor and felt his way into one of the Gold VIP rooms.
“Phantom Master, sir?” Devildare tried. Again, no one replied to him.
Sunders is gone too?
Devildare started to worry for real now.
Several other wizards arrived and joined Devildare.
“What’s happening, Mister Devildare? I can’t see anyone in here.”
“No idea. A hostile attack, for sure. I can’t seem to find Mister Phantom.”
“Is it an illusion? I think I saw that level-1 apprentice deploy nodes inside his own body,” A wizard suggested.
Someone denied that idea. “Can’t be. An illusion should at least prevent people from going in or out. We aren’t affected at all.”
“It must be something about the mist then?”
Someone took out a container bottle for storing gas and collected the mist. No matter what the situation was, the mist was worth looking into just because it could block detection spells.
“Strange. Is this mist… real? I can’t get anything in my bottle.”
“My enchanted one didn’t work either. So, the mist is fake?”
“Can something fake block our eyesights?”
Devildare’s expression grew darker as he listened to the fruitless discussions.
“Enough. Let’s search around. Start from the first level and go up from there. Leave no stone unturned. Also, make sure none of those in the outer hall leaves this place-”
He suddenly saw something colorful flashing past in front of his nose.
“What’s that? Did you see something shiny passing by?”
They could not use spells nor spirit feelers inside the mist, so they were having a hard time seeing things.
A wizard called, “I saw a clown going through the wall!”
“Clown? What clown?”
To wizards, the first thing they thought about when hearing “clown” was Crown Clown, a terrible grand demon from Abyss Plane.
And there was no way Crown Clown or his clown legion would show up here.
“It’s just a clown from those circuses you usually see. But… weird. I think it’s ‘flat’.”
They checked for a moment without finding anything. As they decided to consider it someone’s hallucination, they heard someone singing an aria in a terrible voice.
“Croak! Shava loves my voice, but that dusk-colored old witch couldn’t understand true art! Oh, and the white beard old thing! Croak! And that red ugly! Croak! Shite! Shava is my only friend!”
Dusk-colored witch, white beard old thing, red ugly? Was the voice referring to Twilight, Kooper, and Lydia?
As the music which combined aria and harp went on, they saw a frog and a fox slowly showing up. Before they could make a move, the animals released some green and red ripples, which aroused a strange restlessness inside their minds. By the time they managed to suppress the emotion, the animals were already gone.
“Maybe this is really an illusion.” Someone spoke, “Mister Sunders is in there, right? Maybe he did this.”
“Yeah, he can definitely do something like this.”
A moment later, the white mist disappeared before they could reach any solid conclusion.
It did not happen immediately. The mist dissipated in front of their eyes gradually and turned from dense to thin.
As the mist completely vanished, the inner hall returned to being crowded with people. Twilight was standing on the stage, while the participants were well on their seats. The VIPs also showed up inside their private rooms.
Everything returned as if nothing happened. The wizard group led by Devildare was now the odd sight in the hall.
“We’re back… we’re really back?!” An apprentice exclaimed, which helped Devildare realize that they were not dreaming.
“What’s going on, Twilight? Aren’t you dealing with the intruder-” Devildare looked at the corner where the boy and a bird collapsed. He did see blood and the crack on the wall, but the said intruders were not there.
“They’re gone?” Devildare was confused a bit. “Are we under attack? The rebels from Midnight Sovereign?”
Twilight shook her head and signaled the other wizards to give her some privacy. She then told what she saw to Devildare using voice transmission. She also ordered the guard captain to arrange affairs for the dead guards and regain order of the hall.
Devildare scowled harder and harder as he heard more information. In the end, he glanced at Chamber 19. “Resume the auction. We shall discuss when everything’s done.”
With that, Devildare’s body slowly disappeared.
Twilight watched as the guards reestablished order for the auction. The strange journey in Nightmare Domain gave them three casualties, but the buyers were all fine, apart from several slightly injured apprentices.
Twilight Auction might suffer some disrepute, but not much, since the customers were alright.
Twilight sighed and glanced at Chamber 19 as well. She cursed in her mind.
“Everyone. We just experienced something unique in our lives. Let’s turn the precious experience into a tool which shall pave our paths toward the ultimate truth.”
Twilight gave the audiences a long, emotional speech, which was rare for her. Most of her words were useless overtalk. She mainly hoped that the customers could forgive the auction house about what just happened.
It was something they already agreed upon inside the Nightmare Domain, so the wizards gladly agreed.
“Now, let’s continue our auction. The 172nd lot, and the last but one item that’s being sold today is a waiter from Barbie’s Restaurant. Staring point is ten thousand magic crystals and raises should be five thousand or higher!”
The eyeless man was placed inside the iron cage again. The lack of eyes did not prevent him from glancing at Chamber 19 every now and then. It was where Toby was staying in at the moment.
…
Inside Chamber 19.
Sunders’ room now had two extra people plus a bird.
The gentleman sat under the light as he quietly looked at the unconscious young man on a sofa nearby.
“You would keep staring at him while he takes the Nightmare Domain? Well, either he wakes up later or gets lost in illusions forever. Staring won’t help,” Flora spoke in midair, bare-feet.
There was a hint of jealousy in her voice.
“Those clothes… are yours, right? Is Angor trying to mimic your way, professor?”
“I gave him.”
“Aw… you never gave me things to wear.” Flora pouted.
Sunders did not reply to the unproductive comment.
Flora kept slandering Angor, “Look, he tore your precious clothes. So disrespectful.”
Again, Sunders did not answer. The man looked back at the auction hall.
The bidding for the eyeless man had gone all the way to 100,000. Considering the value held by a gourmet wizard, it was completely expected. Everyone would want one of them to satisfy their appetite.