"Did you see? That poor couple over there got two properties thanks to Hex and Dex. They seem to be good people after all." Soul told me. I nodded. I was fairly certain she was correct, as they haven't done anything bad. Zeus, on the other hand, was the problem now.
I now had a solidified bad feeling he was a bad person, but with no proof, I'd become an enemy of the state.
"Greetings all! I would like to participate in the auction and give away properties for free! I'll take the next three no matter the cost and I will hand them out!" Zeus shouted out.
The crowd went crazy for him, proclaiming him to be a God and thanking him for everything they had. Maybe I was crazy, but I still didn't trust him.
They idolized the man, which was fine, but why? What made him so important? Why did people like the way he treated them? Do people know about his cult? I could think of a million questions in a millionth of a second, but not a single one could be answered in a million years.
Zeus gave away the properties and Soul and I stood silent, just watching how Zeus acted. We were determined on watching his face turn sour or some other bad thing about his personality finally reveals itself... but it never did.
I was losing faith in his capacity to be a bad person.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we're beginning the second half of the auction now. We are giving away our property here in New Olympia because we are traveling to another location soon after the festival ends. I would like to thank you guys infinitely for taking care of our property in advance! So, let's start out at one-hundred silver!" Dex declared.
For a moment.
Just for a fraction of a second.
I could see Zeus smile before ditching the look.
That was all of the affirmation that I needed. There was something sinister he had planned. Maybe not fully sinister, but he was close. There was no way that was an accident.
What does he have planned?
"Where are you going, Dex?" One of the patrons asked. He asked what we all wanted to.
"Hex and I have business over near some Cliffsides, but we'll return shortly after." He explained.
Cliffsides?
WAIT.
Dex had business near Cliffsides, but I'm pretty sure Persephone was located near one! Could they be going to meet her? I would be more than honored to join, but I wanted to have something of value so I wouldn't be completely useless. Dex and Hex wouldn't care, would they?
"Oh, good luck!" The person in the audience said. Zeus didn't make another face, but I was still suspicious of him.
"Soul, do you think he could be talking about Persephone? Wasn't she near cliffsides?" I asked her. Soul nodded, but still seemed unimpressed.
"What's wrong? We need to communicate here." I explained to her.
"I'm sure you feel it too, but something is really off about this room." She told me. I shook my head.
"It feels normal to me, I'm just suspicious of one part of this room." I clarified, but she shook her head with a smile.
"You can't feel it yet, not with how new you are to this world. Sometimes the mana displacement can be off in a room when it's being used. The problem is, I'm not sensing any mana in this room at all." She explained to me.
"None at all? Don't be ridiculous. All living things radiate mana, there's no way it could all be missing..." I said to her as I looked at Zeus. I noticed he had a weird look to him. Something about his right arm and a pattern up by his shoulder made from what looked like his veins? It was something blue and shaped like veins.
"So, you finally see what I'm talking about. All mana exerted by the people in this room is being absorbed into one source, and Zeus is the one doing it. He's building it up." She told me.
"What does that mark mean on his shoulder?" I asked her. Soul explained that when individuals absorb too much mana, it's shown through a mark on their shoulder that exemplifies a strong attack charging. "Charged Skills", as she called them, are skills that require less mana and shoot out the highest amount of power, but take more mana than the person can hold and acts as a Limit-Breaker.
"That sounds annoying to remember, and I'm going to forget it. Anyway, tell me, what can I do now to stop him from absorbing that mana? Can I do that so he can't charge the skill?" I asked Soul. The reality of the situation hit me as she shook her head.
There's no doubt in my mind, after fluctuating so much, that Zeus had nothing good in mind planned with that absorption of mana, but nobody can do anything about it. I can't intercept, I can't dodge that... how in the hell am I supposed to react to this situation? If I tell everybody to get out of here, Zeus would use the mana for the skill immediately and then kill us all. If I don't, then Zeus will use it somewhere else... what the hell do I do?
"Everybody! With the fame and riches, I've granted you in properties, and with all thanks to the help of Zeus, I'd like to bring this Auction to a close!" Dex declared, walking off of the stage. The people sitting down in the chairs all got up and started to walk out of the building, and I kept a dead stare on Zeus in the most secretive way I could.
What was he going to do... I'm waiting for it.
I'm waiting for the moment he was going to use that skill. In the worst-case scenario, I had Shima to intercept, but I'm not sure how much she could actually do...