[What do you mean?] Evangeline asked with confusion, watching their exchange.
What would you say I'm doing right now? he quickly asked, raising a question of his own.
[Trying to scam the auctioneer?]
Precisely, Neraxis said before turning his gaze onto Amara, whose smirk was now visible even to the auctioneer himself as she spoke teasingly,
"40 trillion. I have more, dear, you should stop."
He couldn't help but let out a sigh. This act was beginning to feel a bit too obvious.
At first, she got away with it due to her reputation, but now the auctioneer had grown suspicious.
Eventually, he began closing the black box quietly, careful not to attract their attention.
However, before he could do so, Amara stretched out her arm, and before Neraxis could even tell what had happened, the auctioneer's head flew up into the sky, the black box following with it.
"You could have just given up," he said with a frown, for a moment forgetting that they were not exactly on the same side.
Amara opened her mouth to answer, but suddenly red lights began flashing all around the auction. The windows were being closed and barricaded with some reinforced material.
Immediately, an alarm resounded, and some form of gas began closing in on them. However, before it could reach them, Neraxis headed straight for the stage, attempting to grab the black box.
Alas, he was the weakest one in the room, as Amara simply used mana to whisk it toward herself, holding it in her hand before flashing a massive smile.
"It seems like I come out on top in this exchange...?" she began, but she stopped mid-sentence, watching in amusement as a red sword floated right above the black box.
"Is this y—" Just before her words landed, the red sword penetrated the black box before disappearing into thin air, the mana particles flying back into Neraxis's sword tattoo.
Did you get it? he asked with slight hope.
[It will take a little bit to digest, but yes, I got it,] Evangeline replied in an exhausted tone before continuing, [You should try to get out now. I won't be able to protect you for long if that gas closes in—or, well, if that woman attacks.]
Got it, Neraxis nodded and began moving toward a nearby wall. However, the sound of something falling to the ground startled him.
It was the black box that had previously contained the red skill book—but now, it was completely empty.
To his horror, Amara was looking at him like he was some sort of ant. I definitely should have handled this better.
Suddenly, he found himself unable to move, completely frozen under the pressure she was emitting—it was similar to what he had felt when she was going up against Valthor.
But this time, it was far stronger.
His lungs felt as though they were collapsing on themselves, and he could feel each and every blood vessel slowly pop in his body, dyeing his skin red.
However, before it could get out of hand, Neraxis saw all of that excess blood flowing toward the tattoo on his wrist, before once again flowing outwards.
This time, back to where it was supposed to be.
It was an excruciating process and it hurt like hell, but at the very least, he wasn't going to die anytime soon.
"Do you want to know something funny?" Amara asked as she began walking toward him, her tone growing colder.
"That skill was the reason I came to this bullshit auction in the first place, and I planned on getting my hands on it at any cost."
She finally stopped, standing within arm's reach of his face.
"I don't know what you did, but I will give you two choices."
Neraxis listened attentively. The pain was becoming even more severe than before—he was even beginning to feel dizzy.
Just before she could speak again, a red sword shot out from his tattoo, aiming straight for her eyes.
But to no one's surprise, Amara simply smacked it away with her arm—it sounded as though a bomb had gone off during that collision.
However, Evangeline was flung backward and straight into a wall, embedding the sword deep within it.
It created a few cracks in the wall before dispersing and coming back to Neraxis's tattoo.
Evangeline? he called out, but did not receive an answer. The connection felt extremely faint, as though she was dying.
As his worries increased, his vision momentarily darkened, and immediately, the connection was fully restored—just like it had been mere moments ago.
[Sorry I took your blood without permission, that crack was the most I was able to do in my current form. If an opportunity arises, make your way there,] Evangeline explained with a serious tone, to which Neraxis merely nodded, placing his eyes back on the amused Amara.
"Well, that was fun. Sort of. Nice artifact." She giggled, but in the very next moment, her expression turned cold, just like it had been before.
Taking a deep breath, she spoke, "Two choices. The first: Die right now. Sound nice?"
Neraxis narrowed his eyes as she continued,
"Now, option two: Work with me."
His eyes widened upon hearing those words as he began moving his mouth, mustering every last bit of his stamina to get them across. He needed answers—"What do you mean?"
"It's simple. I have a little group I formed not too long ago, and we're currently lacking members. I was going to use that skill book to become even stronger, but I can't do that anymore now, can I?" Amara said sarcastically with a tinge of annoyance.
A hostage situation then... It doesn't help that I don't know anything about her either. He thought before asking another question.
"What guarantee is there that I will be left alive even after I join?"
However, her answer was far from what he anticipated. "That's the beauty of it, you don't have a guarantee."
Amara's smile widened. "If anything, your life will be in even more danger once you join my group."
[You don't really have much of a choice, either join her or die. It's funny...] Evangeline snickered while Neraxis was preoccupied with his thoughts.
This is not in my favor at all... Who even is she? How did she even know about this place? And how was she so confident in scamming the auctioneer the entire time... How did no one call her out...?
His mind was a swirl of questions, but it was quickly interrupted as an ethereal sword materialized from seemingly nowhere.
Amara grabbed a hold of the hilt and aimed the sword directly at his face, mere centimeters away from slicing him in half.
Even as the sword did not touch him, he could feel the heat—the sheer sharpness of the blade.
Her power was no joke, and he was a fool for even thinking of being able to escape in the first place.
Ever since he arrived, everyone was already in the palm of her hand.
Amara gazed down at him, her smile slowly fading away as she spoke, "Make your decision. You have five seconds." The air grew chilly at her words, as if they held her raw emotions.
Neraxis frowned in reluctance, but not even after a second of thought, he decided, "I accept. I'll join. Just tell me about the group..."
The moment his words were spoken, the previous pressure he felt—as well as the ethereal sword—both vanished.
Instead, a massive grin appeared on Amara's face, one that accentuated her already stunning beauty with the flashing red lights.
But before his confusion could grow further, he saw her raise her arm and place it over his head, the grin from before widening even more.
Immediately, she brought her arm down over his head, knocking him unconscious. The last thing he heard was a giggle, followed by Amara's mischievous voice,
"Get some sleep. I'll explain in just a moment."