“Keep your Truesight on so that we don’t run into the white strings,” Sunders warned.
He had barely finished his words when a thick light beam emerged from the mist. Sunders didn’t react, while Devildare stomped the floor and summoned the image of a large blue lion from his body.
“Guardian Lion!”
Devildare could avoid the parasites because of this original spell that he created after finding the path of truth. It could block all sorts of spells and evil tricks.
The light beam paused in front of Sunders and moved away. It went for Devildare and quickly turned to dust-like glitter dust when the lion image stared it down with those mighty eyes.
At the same time when the light beam came, a surge of wind also blew over the hall and removed the mist. And now, both Sunders and Devildare were attracted by the giant nest inside the room.
This one was larger than the one in Lady’s Juice. More importantly, three extra monsters stood beside the colorful dragonflies.
A card painted with a clown stood right in front of the nest. The clown card was making all kinds of funny poses. With each move, the mist began to gather. When the clown bowed in the manner of a curtain call, the mist from both sides joined together to block the view once again.
“Don’t mind the card. You distract the animals. Let’s move!” Sunders ordered.
Devildare released a series of meteor strikes toward the frog and fox.
The animals had been playing their music. They immediately retaliated. Froggy would send an attack to Devildare each time it opened its mouth, while the fox harper flipped its harp strings and created more white strings in the room.
“Tank the frog while watching the fox’s movement, Devildare!” Sunders yelled as he flew toward the top of the nest. As he expected, the dragonflies threw themselves at him like bombs. But they were one level below real wizards. Each of Sunders’ attacks could easily wipe out a great number of them.
The fox harper also looked at Sunders and revealed a grim look. When it played its instrument again, a white string appeared right beside Sunders.
Using Truesight, Sunders easily leaped away from the string.
He believed that the fox was the most dangerous being. The large energy reading they saw before came from the harp held in the animal’s paws. Using it, the fox creature could release legendary-level energy even though the fox itself was only as powerful as a level-2 wizard.
It was very likely that the harp once belonged to a legendary. Or rather, the harp was a Mystery Weapon.
At that thought, Sunders displayed a passionate look. The harp was the second reason why he chose to come to the auction house.
“Stop that harp!” Sunders called and began to release his own mana. As more energy ripples showed around him, the image of a giant black tower materialized behind him, decorated by swarms of bats and a full moon.
The Nightmare Tower.
Sunders spent two centuries to combine three Nightmare Domains into one and named it the “Nightmare Tower”.
All the monsters in the auction hall were immediately engulfed inside this Nightmare Domain. They were all surprised when they sensed the rich nightmare aura.
“A foreign breath…” The clown made a strange pose and caused the energy of the Nightmare Domain to shift. Sunders squinted and quickly suppressed the unwanted energy surge.
“He who tries to fool the moon-blessed Froggy shall be spat on by the moon itself!” the frog scoffed.
The fox harper remained silent. It always was.
While the wizard-level monsters managed to refrain from getting attracted by the Nightmare Domain, the rainbow dragonflies failed; they all began to absorb Nightmare Aura eagerly.
When the insects absorbed enough nightmare aura, Sunders detonated them and wiped the floor with bug juice.
“Close the tunnel!” Sunders moved to the mist tunnel and hurled several Nightmare Stones inside.
At Lady’s Juice, Angor also received the message and quickly displayed his own Nightmare Domain to fix the broken space.
They successfully started their work at the same time, although Sunders was having more problems on his end.
“Damn it, the fox is slippery. It won’t fight me!” Devildare yelled out while reflecting Froggy’s attacks. “It’s heading toward you!”
Sunders was still focused on the mist tunnel on top of the monster nest. He suddenly heard something moving behind his back.
“How fortunate of me to meet a live Nightmare Watcher. Harper Fox, at your service.”
Sunders didn’t look back. He already saw the fox showing up just behind him, flipping its flame-red tail while stroking that harp.
“Nightmare Watcher? Is that how you address people who own Nightmare Domains?”
Fox lifted its harp with a smile. “My queen cannot wait to descend upon this realm for any longer. Please do not bother her highness, Mister Watcher.”
Sunders asked another question before Fox could play its harp, “Is Shava a Nightmare Watcher too?”
It wasn’t easy to run across a monster who could communicate properly, so Sunders asked something he wanted to know most instead of “playing calm”.
Fox revealed a cold look. “The true name of her grace is not for you humble watcher to use!”
Following another harp note, several white strings rushed toward Sunders.
As the attack approached, Sunders sighed deeply and mumbled, “The day and night are divided by more than light and shadow. Heh. It’s been a long time.”
Under the surprised gaze of Fox, a dark shadow struggled to climb out of Sunders’ body. The shadow’s white-glove covered hand slowly brushed past the incoming white strings, when the strings all caught fire. Black fire.
When the flames died down, Fox looked at… Sunders, in the familiar black gentleman suit, who just broke the strings.
But there was… another Sunders, who was still fixing the tunnel.
A new Sunders just appeared out of Sunders’ body?
Fox looked more carefully and noticed that the “second” Sunders appeared younger and had darker skin. This one’s sclera was black instead of white, while his irises were of bright, blood-red color.
The second Sunders looked more handsome in a sense. Devilishly handsome.