The white mist soon filled the auction house hall.
After an “affectionate” farewell with the noble lady, the kind-looking Tia turned and vanished into the white fog.
Her Magic Power shifted quietly.
No one noticed that Tia, the Daughter of a Count, had transformed into the Witch Celeste.
“Ha!”
The burly man guarding the Heart Gem let out a roar.
His muscled arms exploded with brute force, sending a monster trying to approach the Magic Display Cabinet flying with a single punch, shattering several rows of seats.
Although the white mist obstructed his vision, his keen senses granted him a terrifying Second Perception.
Any monster that dared approach him could not escape the justice of his iron fists.
However, in the next second, he whipped around toward a certain direction in the fog.
His pupils constricted, and his muscles tensed as if facing a formidable foe.
“Who’s there? Come out!” he shouted.
His Second Perception told him that an extremely powerful enemy stood directly in front of him.
The Magic Power radiating from her brushed against his senses, causing a sharp, stinging pain like a blade’s edge.
“Hm? You’re quite sharp, aren’t you? To think you could sense my presence,” a playful, laughing female voice drifted through the fog.
Its origin was elusive, sounding as if it were right next to his ear one moment and far away the next.
The implication of her words made the man laugh out loud.
He thumped his chest hard and said, “Of course. I have the strength of a 3-Star Iron Rank! Simply put, there are very few people in this city who can oppose me. Someone like you… Ah!”
His boastful words came to an abrupt halt, replaced by a short cry of pain.
He took a punch to the abdomen, his entire body slamming violently into the hall’s wall. His consciousness began to blur.
“You… You have the nerve to not let me finish…”
‘Despicable! How could she start fighting without exchanging trash talk first? Where is her martial honor?’ the man thought.
Celeste knew exactly what the man was thinking; in fact, she sympathized.
After all, she had received a similar punch when she was first thrown into prison.
No logic, no honor, just taking people by surprise and throwing two punches.
This, perhaps, was the true essence of fighting.
From that day on, she understood.
After the man collapsed, the white fog thinned for a moment due to Celeste’s strike.
Miss Silas, witnessing this from the second floor, nearly pressed herself against the glass of the VIP room.
“The gem! My gem!”
‘That black-haired girl must be the mastermind behind this monster attack,’ Silas realized.
‘And her goal is definitely to steal the Heart Gem from me!’
The white fog soon thickened again.
The Magic Display Cabinet containing the Heart Gem vanished into the mist.
Silas’s legs went weak.
An ominous premonition and the unbearable consequences nearly made her sink to her knees.
Beside her, the man in the suit smiled despite the slight sweat on his forehead.
“Rest assured, Miss Silas. With the Magic Display Cabinet there, it is impossible for the enemy to—”
Before he could finish, a bizarre confession rang out within the hall.
“I love you, my baby. Open your heart to me~”
‘What the hell? Why is there a confession in the middle of a battle?’
‘Is someone really falling in love in a situation like this?’
These absurd thoughts flashed simultaneously through the minds of everyone still conscious—including the struggling burly man, the stunned man in the suit, and the frozen Miss Silas in the VIP room.
Immediately after, their internal sense of dread reached its peak.
A “click” suddenly echoed through the white fog, so clear it made their hearts turn cold.
The man in the suit turned pale, his eyes filled with disbelief.
“What? How… How is this possible?!”
‘That sound… it’s the sound of the cabinet door opening,’ he realized.
But…
He looked down at the Unlocking Magic held in his palm.
Without the Unlocking Magic, how did that person open the cabinet?
That was a Silver Grade magic item; even someone with true Silver Grade strength couldn’t open it without the Unlocking Magic!
“The Inquisition! Where is the Inquisition?!”
Silas’s voice now carried a sob.
She pounded frantically on the VIP room’s glass, her face filled with despair.
However, at that moment, the screams of monsters began to echo from the white fog.
Many Inquisitors descended from above.
It took less than 1 minute for them to wipe out the monsters in the hall.
Along with them came the city’s Enforcer Knights.
The white fog gradually dissipated.
Seeing this, Silas and the man in the suit opened the VIP room door and hurried down from the second floor.
When she saw that the cabinet was empty, she fell to her knees in a pathetic heap, her soul seemingly departed.
Without the Heart Gem, her Slave Empire would have no way to rise, and her family would have no hope of a comeback.
‘It’s over. Everything is over!’
Reality ignited an unspeakable fury in the depths of her heart.
She looked at the Inquisitors standing in the hall and couldn’t help but shout, “Where were you earlier?!”
Several Inquisitors immediately looked at her, their gazes sharp as swords.
However, Mephia, their leader, didn’t bother with her.
After scanning the entire venue, she remained focused on the open cabinet and the holes in the walls surrounding the hall.
One Inquisitor said coldly, “Miss Silas, are you accusing us? The Inquisition is not your private organization.”
“I’m sorry, my apologies.”
The man in the suit practically threw himself toward Silas.
He bowed repeatedly to the Inquisitors and replied with a pale face, “Miss Silas is just too distraught over losing the gem.
She offended you in the heat of the moment; please, do not take it to heart.”
On the surface, the Inquisition was the agency that maintained security in Hela City, not the property of their auction house.
The fact that the Inquisition arrived so quickly this time already showed the auction house great respect.
If they said anything more, they would truly be ungrateful.
Mephia ignored their bickering; she only felt a bit of regret.
Based on the residual Magic Power fluctuations in the hall, she was certain that the person who stole the Heart Gem was the Witch who had escaped from prison.
If she had known the Witch would target the Heart Gem, she would have ordered the Inquisitors to seal off the club completely.
Fortunately, they had arrived very quickly this time.
“She hasn’t gone far. I’m going after her.”
After sensing the hole in the wall with the strongest concentration of Magic Power, a cold light flashed in her eyes.
She dashed in that direction without hesitation.
***
On the other side, after quickly leaving the auction house, Celeste didn’t seem to have gone far.
Beneath the starry sky, atop a roof.
The fierce wind whipped her black skirt.
Sensing the familiar source of Magic Power racing toward her, she licked her lush red lips excitedly, a stunning smile spreading across her face.