Chapter 102: The Tear that Burns Gold
I. The Silence of the Gavel
The atmosphere in the Golden Gear Auction House had shifted. If before there were whispers of curiosity about the outsider in the silver mask who had humbled young Lord Cassian, there now reigned a dense, almost predatory silence.
The auctioneer, an old man with bony hands and eyes that had seen too much greed, gave a signal. The gas lights in the room dimmed, leaving a single overhead spotlight on the stage.
—"Ladies, gentlemen, and those who seek to defy death," the auctioneer announced, his voice dropping an octave. —"We have reached the end. The object for which many of you have crossed the Sea of Beasts."
Two elite guards, dressed in heavy bronze armor, pushed out a cart covered in black silk. The fabric seemed to move on its own, as if there were a wind beneath it, even though the air in the room was stagnant.
—"Recovered from the Solar Nest Ruins, at the far southern end of the continent…" The auctioneer yanked the cloth away.
A collective gasp swept the room. Inside a glass cube reinforced with Saint-grade containment runes floated a drop. It was neither water nor blood. It was liquid fire—a tear of a red so intense it hurt to look at directly. Inside it, energy swirled to form the silhouette of an agonizing bird that was reborn over and over again.
—"The Ancestral Phoenix Tear."
Eris, sitting to Kael's right, gripped the edge of the table. The velvet tablecloth began to smoke under her fingers. —"It's her…" she whispered, her voice trembling from the resonance of her own lineage. —"Kael, that thing is alive. My blood wants to jump out of my veins just from being near it."
Kael nodded slowly behind his silver mask. He could feel the heat radiating from the stage—a heat that didn't burn the skin, but the Qi itself. —"Starting price," the auctioneer said, "Five thousand medium-grade spirit stones."
II. The War of Numbers
—"Six thousand!" shouted an alchemist in a green robe. —"Seven thousand!" roared a mercenary with acid scars. —"Eight thousand five hundred!" offered a veiled lady from a southern sect.
The price rose meteorically, weeding out the small fish in seconds. In less than a minute, the figure reached fifteen thousand stones.
—"Twenty thousand!" The voice of Lord Cassian, the Governor's son, broke the rhythm from his private box. He stood up, looking directly at Kael's table with an arrogant smirk. After losing money on the daggers, he wanted to prove who owned the city. —"Come on, 'Silver Mask,'" Cassian challenged. —"Are you out of coins, or are you only brave with scrap metal?"
Kael didn't move. He calculated their reserves mentally. They had just over twenty thousand liquid stones, thanks to the looting of the Valois and the road bandits. But twenty thousand was already a fortune for any clan that wasn't an established power.
—"Twenty-five thousand," Kael said. His voice, distorted by the mask, sounded metallic and bored.
A murmur of shock went through the hall. Twenty-five thousand stones was the annual budget of a small city. Cassian's face contorted. —"Twenty-seven thousand!" he shrieked, his voice losing its composure. —"No one humiliates me in my city!"
—"Thirty thousand," Kael replied instantly, not giving him a second to breathe.
Elara, sitting on the other side, gave him a slight kick under the table. —"Kael…" she whispered, barely moving her lips. —"We are in the red. If it goes to forty, we have nothing to pay with."
—"I know," Kael murmured. —"But he doesn't. I'm betting on his fear, not his wallet."
Cassian hesitated. Thirty thousand was a sum he would have to explain to his father, the Governor. And the Governor was not a merciful man regarding wasteful spending. But the young man's pride was a potent poison.
—"Thirty-five thousand!" Cassian screamed, his eyes bloodshot. —"And I demand a verification of funds! That vagabond doesn't have that much money! It's a fraud!"
The room fell silent. The auctioneer looked at Kael. —"Sir… the accusation is serious. By the rules of the Golden Gear House, for sums of this caliber, we must verify solvency."
Kael rose slowly. With a fluid motion, he pulled an object from his spatial ring and rolled it across the table. The heavy sound, clack-clack-clack, echoed like breaking bones. It was the Thunder Beast Core they had taken in the Valley (Chapter 93). The core crackled with arcs of blue electricity, and the pressure it emitted made the nearby guards recoil.
—"Thirty-five thousand stones," Kael said calmly. —"And this Sovereign Thunder Beast Core, Mid-Stage. Appraise it."
The house appraiser rushed to the stage, examined the core with a jeweler's loupe, and turned pale. He looked at the auctioneer and nodded frantically. —"The… the value exceeds ten thousand stones, sir. The credit is valid."
Kael looked up at Cassian's box. —"Your turn, boy. Do you have forty-five thousand? Or are you going to call Daddy?"
Cassian trembled. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. Forty-five thousand was impossible. His father would kill him. —"You…" Cassian stammered, pointing a shaking finger. —"You will regret this." He slumped into his chair, defeated.
—"Thirty-five thousand and a core going once!" the auctioneer shouted. —"Going twice! And three times! Sold to the gentleman in the silver mask!"
III. The Bronze Cage
Kael didn't wait for the applause. —"Violeta, barrier," he ordered in a low voice. —"Eris, get ready to take the package. Elara, watch the exits."
—"They're already blocked," Elara replied, her eyes glowing with a faint gray light. —"They've closed the main doors. Troop movement in the hallway."
An assistant brought the containment cube to the table. Eris took it with hands that trembled slightly. Upon contact, the Phoenix Tear reacted to her aura, glowing with a light that illuminated Kael's mask. Eris stowed it in her spatial ring in a fraction of a second.
—"We have the medicine," Kael said.
At that moment, the gas lights went out completely. From the box, Lord Cassian's voice boomed, amplified and full of malice. —"Ladies and gentlemen, the auction is over. Unfortunately, we have a security problem. The outsider has attempted to pay with stolen goods." There was a theatrical pause. —"Guards, kill them. Retrieve the Tear. The rest of the loot is yours."
IV. The Dance of the Morningstars
Chaos erupted. Four crossbowmen appeared on the upper balconies. Bolts hissed through the darkness.
—"Frost Wall!" Violeta shouted. A dome of translucent ice materialized over their table. The bolts impacted the ice and shattered.
—"It's the Iron Vipers!" Elara warned, detecting the Qi signatures. —"Twelve on the floor, four above. Transcendence Level, Stages 7 and 8."
The side door burst open and a group of mercenaries in heavy armor and gas masks charged in. Kael unsheathed his greatsword. The crimson glow of the blade sliced through the darkness.
—"We didn't want blood," Kael growled, his aura expanding and making the crystal glasses on nearby tables vibrate. —"But if you insist on giving it, we will take it. Breakthrough Formation!"
Kael leapt onto the ice table. With a roar, his sword descended on the first group of mercenaries.
Dragon Slash: Red Fang! The shockwave of fire and brute force split the bronze shields like paper. Three mercenaries were sent flying, their armor dented and smoking.
From behind, Eris unleashed her frustration.
Flame of Ruin! She didn't throw fireballs. She launched lashes—ropes of black fire that snagged the crossbowmen's legs on the balconies, pulling them down into the seating area with screams of terror.
Violeta, with her eyes closed, moved her hands like an orchestra conductor.
Spatial Distortion: Ice Mirage. The guards trying to attack Eris suddenly found themselves cutting the air, their swords deflecting inches to the left or right, leaving them exposed. Elara seized those gaps. Like a shadow, she glided between them, her daggers slicing tendons and armor straps, incapacitating without killing, but ensuring they could not follow.
V. The Explosive Exit
—"To the main door!" Kael shouted.
The group advanced like a spearhead. Kael cleared the path with brute strength, Eris covered the flanks with fire, Violeta deflected projectiles, and Elara secured the rear. They reached the great oak and bronze doors. They were barred from the outside and reinforced with a blocking matrix.
—"It's sealed," Violeta said, touching the wood. —"It's an Earth-Grade Matrix. I need a minute to decode it."
—"We don't have a minute," Kael said, looking back. More guards were arriving. Among them was a man in golden armor with a Half-Step to Origin Realm aura—the Captain of the Guard.
Eris stepped forward, her eyes glowing with a dangerous light. —"Kael, move aside." —"Eris, if you use that here, you'll bring the building down." —"Then let it fall!" she screamed.
Eris brought her hands together. A sphere of black and gold fire compressed between her palms, spinning at a dizzying speed.
Decaying Core Explosion: Concentrated Version!
She struck the door with open palms. There was no great fireball. There was a pulse. The wood and bronze simply disintegrated, turned into ash and metallic dust in an instant. The shockwave burst outward, clearing the street.
—"Run!" Kael ordered.
They shot out into the rainy night of the Bronze Citadel, leaving behind a ruined auction house and a Lord Cassian screaming hysterical orders from his safe box. Once in the street, under the rain and the steam from the industrial pipes, Kael looked at his team. They were panting, but alive. Eris patted her chest where she kept the ring.
—"We have it," she said with a wild smile.
Kael looked toward the city clock tower. Alarm bells began to ring. —"This was just the warm-up," Kael said, adjusting his mask. —"Now the true hunt begins. We have to cross the city and reach the wall before they close the perimeter."
Elara appeared from the mist at his side. —"Kael… there's something else. As we were leaving, I felt a gaze. It wasn't the Governor." —"Who?" —"Someone above. On the roof. Their Qi… it felt like the Swamp Pantheon. Ancient."
Kael gritted his teeth. —"Then we run faster."
[End of Chapter 102]