It would normally seem a casual sentence, but it only made us realise how serious she was.

She glanced at us and then at the two former kings chatting behind us as she explained.

My ability grants me the power to control a powers actions through my voice hex. However, this only works with people who have smaller soul power than me.

And if this thing fell into the wrong hands, my power would just have another glaring hole in it's effectiveness.

So I decided, why not buy my so called weakness and destroy it myself.

With that, the girl turned back to the glass balcony in front of her as she calmly said over the visible mic placed against one of stands to bid beside us, "I bid a 900,000 credits bill!!"

Half of the commoners standing and watching the bid in the first floor almost fainted from shock.

They were the type of people who had only come here for entertainment. Just hearing these absurd numbers rise from the start made them feel like unaliving themselves.

Seeing that the Rich lady from the 5th floor had gone quiet, Mr. Lapui raised a hand. "Sold for 900,000 credits to the VIP in the seventh floor!!"

Yup, that's how it is, in this VIP Lounge, no one can decipher our faces until we remove the privacy screen and even our voices our modified by the mics in front of us automatically to keep an enhanced sense of privacy.

The orb shattered like the last one, dissolving into that same smoky particals again.

I realised that no matter how many times it happened, Sia's eyes always twinkled like stars—

The crowd buzzed again.

"You noticed, didn't you?" Seraphina asked me, her voice low.

I nodded. "The way the orb pulsed. Like it was alive."

"It was alive," she said. "Briefly. Those ancient sects—they don't just enchant tools. They sacrifice minds and bind them into these pieces of metals."

I shuddered.

Meanwhile Erza seemed to be dropping beside Dario, muttering about how a favour cost her 900,000 credits.

I could not help but want to scoff, for people like Erza and Me, who fought in the battle of Willow Greek, not only did we recieve the credits of the people we killed, we also recieved an award for participating in the war.

Thus something like 900,000 was worth nothing in the eyes of people like us.

Mr. Lapui gave us no time to digest it all.

"The third item," he said, as the lights returned to their regular brightness, "is something a bit more grounded."

The next orb rose—smaller, yellowish in glow, no eerie hum this time.

"This," Lapui began, "is another enchanted Ring—it grants the wearer temporary levitation or short-distance flight. It has a ten second cooldown after every use.

This thing can bypass most terrain-based hazards, perfect for rogue-class or assassination-type missions."

Everyone in Team A leaned forward this time, specifically Dario.

"This is useful," he muttered, knowing full well how extremely compatible it is with his ability.

Seraphina whispered something under her breath. Probably calculating air resistance and mana ratios.

Sia actually leaned forward a little too. Her eyes had changed again—this time assessing the orb with a strategist's look.

The bids began again—much more restrained this time.

100,000.

120,000.

140,000.

Although this ability was pretty useful, it wasn't worth the money for people who couldn't bring forth it's true potential.

The bid finally closed with a single shout from Dario.

I almost could not believe how insanely it synced with that guys ability.

It took him 300,000 credits to finally win the bid.

And yet, it wasn't the orb or even the bidding that struck me.

It was the silence.

Not the crowd—no, they were still talking. Still whispering, still placing their bets.

It was the sudden silence in my head.

Damien had gone quiet.

He'd been nagging me for hours.

About Sia.

About different dangers.

About strategy.

But now? Nothing.

And somehow...that scared me more than his constant paranoia.

"Damien," I called out in my mind, asking him what happened.

But the usually talkative system remained quiet, as if something has shut him up.

I peered inside my mind space, finding the blob of blue perfectly still.

It only took me a second more to realise that there was another figure in my mind space.

Jormungandr.

He stood there.

Or, well…floated there.

In the center of my mind space, a swirling mess of smoke and shadows stood silently, with only only his silhouette being visible.

The figure looked Long, serpentine, and massive.

I couldn't see his eyes clearly, but I could feel them watching me, piercing through the fog. Calm, but heavy…like something ancient was just barely holding back.

"W-what are y-you doing here!?" I whispered warily, taking a step back.

The mist twitched and I could hear a voice echo through the space, not loud but deep. A whisper with weight behind it.

"He has gained too much power..."

"What do you mean?" I asked, still feeling wary of the figure.

"Bear."

The name made my head throb, almost as if someone had chained My mind.

My knees felt weak for a second, like I had just heard something I wasn't supposed to.

"You mean the creator of this world?" I asked, clutching my head tight.

He didn't reply, but the shadow pulsed slightly, like a 'yes'.

"He's gone beyond the limits. He has more power now than he should. And it's not natural. Not earned."

I frowned. "But Damien said that he was just a newbie creator..."

"He was supposed to be—

The man was meant to be part of the game…not the game itself."

I didn't like the sound of that.

"He's doing all this for William," Jormungandr continued, his voice getting quieter, darker. "Trying to impress him. Trying to change everything just so he could ascend faster."

"Who the hell is William?" I asked, feeling as if I've heard the name from Damien before.

Not able to contain my curiosity, I couldn't help but ask, "who the hell is this guy anyways?"

Jormungandr didn't answer immediately. Instead, I heard a low hiss, almost like frustration.

"That's the problem. Even I don't know anymore. Not fully. He's not from our layers of existence. He was brought in by the World Contractor itself—"

My skin went cold.

"So... what does that mean?"

"It means this world—the system, the balance, the gods…even I—

We're all being used."

***