Chapter 163 - Diablo Begins To Take Action

The inside of this auction house was like a two-story opera house. There was a large stage in the center, with seats all around it. However, the shape of the seats was a little different from normal. There were clusters of two to four seats connected together, and gaps between each cluster.

In some of the gaps, were show glasses with various artifacts, precious stones, and relics placed on display.

Right above the entrance was a gallery on the first floor with more seats on it. Those were for the attendees that were considered more important than regular customers, but not as important as the VIPs.

There were various private boxes and booths that were placed at both sides of the hall at different levels. The ones on the level of the first floor were for the boxes for VIPs and the ones on the level of the second floor were the booths for VVIPs.

Some were open, where you could see the appearances of those seated within (VIP seats), while some were closed, with the only thing visible being the black glass that covered the box(VVIP seats).

They led Arthur to a separate door on the side where he took an elevator to the top level. Arriving at the top, the trio walked into a hallway filled with double doors on one side. They walked down to the last door in the hallway and stopped in front of it.

"Your token, dear customer."

The woman in front gestured to the small round hole that was in the place of the keyhole and Arthur placed the token into it.

**CLACK!

With a sound, the double doors opened up to reveal a luxurious room with a drink bar on one side and a giant screen that provided an unobstructed view of the stage and the things that were on it.

There were three seats placed in front of the screen and a side stool with a tab atop it beside each one. The second woman walked up to the side stool in the middle and picked up the tab, navigating across the interface before presenting it to Arthur.

"The catalog is over here, alongside whatever meals or refreshments you may wish to order."

Arthur nodded and turned to the screen, looking down on the hall below before asking.

"Can I take walk around?"

"Sure dear customer."

Hearing their affirmation, he dropped the tab and walked out of the room, deciding to move around the auction house and see some of the things that were placed on display before the auction began.

◇ ◇ ◇

Arthur went downstairs and walked around, occasionally stopping to admire some of the items on display. He also chatted with other customers, the ones who did not look down on him for being young that is.

A great number of the VIPs had taken their seats and could be seen enjoying some wine or other refreshments in their private boxes.

As he was walking around, he saw a few people who did not bother hiding their faces with the weird masks that seemed to be trending and even recognized a few.

'That's all in this area, let me see how the next is.'

With those thoughts, he walked away from the display boxes around him, to the next section to see what was there.

He ended up bumping shoulders with a certain fox beast-man, who apologized before moving away with someone that seemed to be his attendant.

Arthur checked himself over to see if anything was missing while keeping his eyes on the beast-man so as not to lose sight of him.

Upon discovering nothing was wrong, he shrugged his shoulders and went back to looking at the things in the display glasses.

Meanwhile, the beast-man who Arthur bumped into, was frowning deeply under his lion mask. He turned to his attendant walking beside him and spoke.

"We have to leave."

"Huh? Why, My Lord."

His attendant asked back, wondering why they were leaving so soon when the auction had not even begun.

"This place smells, of candidates. Not one but two. The problem is that they both have the aura of time so there are no restrictions against them fighting themselves."

The attendant's eyes widened and he was about to speak, however, his lord suddenly stopped walking and rose his hands as if in surrender.

"Raise your hands, Now."

He spoke in a stern voice leaving no room for objections. Despite the strange gazes they were receiving, he rose his hands in surrender like his lord.

The next moment, he felt space attributed energy wrap around the both of them and carry them to a different realm entirely.

He instantly became on guard and was about to summon his weapon, but his lord bonked his head and told him to calm down.

The space they were in was a dark space; there were about a dozen screens in front of them, each showing the auction hall from a different angle.

The lion-masked beast-man sighed and turned around to look at the person who dragged them both here.

He pulled off his mask and his fox ears changed to that of a tiger's. His red hair turned golden with black streaks running through it.

He looked at the dark-eyed and silver-haired man in front of him before speaking in his true voice.

|Greetings, to the master of the Hell Universe.|

It was then his attendant finally realized the reason for his lord's strange actions.

'He most likely sensed the gaze of the master and rose his hands to show he was not hostile!'

Immediately bowing to the king of hell in front of him, Diablo, he offered his greetings respectfully.

Diablo acknowledged him with a nod before asking.

|What brings another Master to my universe in these trying times?|

He sat atop a throne and placed his elbow on the armrest of the throne. He then rested his head on his palm as he stared at the tiger beast-man in front of him, who was actually the master of another universe.

|I originally came for a retreat but after sensing two time candidates, I am outta here.|

He laughed lightly as he spoke, while also trying to gauge Diablo's reaction. However, the latter showed no emotion and replied in a flat tone.

|Good decision, I planned to deal with the candidate today.

And there aren't two but one. The second you sensed is most likely my foolish descendant who began dabbling with laws way before he was meant to.

Perhaps today's events would serve as a lesson for him.|

The beast-man master rose an eyebrow after hearing Diablo's words but decided not to question them at all.

|I would take my leave then.|

He spoke before grabbing his attendant's shoulder and teleporting the duo out of the space, leaving diablo alone.

Diablo just stared at the screens in silence before standing up and walking to the area behind his throne. He then disappeared as if melding into the darkness.

◇ ◇ ◇

Inside one of the VVIP Private booths on the top level of the Auction Hall, a fair-skinned man with a slightly muscular build sat on the middle of one of the three chairs in front of the booth's screen.

He had purple eyes and very long, purple hair tied in a ponytail. He was wearing a black suit with a purple-colored bow tie and he sat with his legs crossed and gazed down on everyone in the auction hall.

Behind him, were three other men dressed in black suits that were sending glares to the person seated at his right.

On the seat to his right, was a tall black-haired man that Arthur was very familiar with, he was the one who got Arthur to come here after all!

"So Larry, anyone interesting come over here today?"

"A lot less than I expected but still a few interesting fellows, there was a master too but he seems to have left when I was not looking."

Larry replied to the purple-haired man's question while taking a sip of the wine poured for him. The purple-haired man placed a hand on his chin before speaking once again.

"Ah, the Hell universe's master carried him away."

Hearing this, Larry's brow twitched. He dropped his glass and asked one of the women standing behind him to refill it.

'Seems that king Diablo really plans to take on that celestial.'

He looked up and inadvertently glanced at a certain private booth where the celestial in question was seated.

He was about to speak before the purple-haired man spoke up first.

"Huh?! Larry, Who's that?!"

He sat up and pointed to a certain black-haired and red-eyed person wearing a turtleneck, who was moving around on the second-floor gallery, causing Larry to turn his gaze to see who he was pointing at.

'Hmm? Isn't that?'

Larry shook his head and turned to the purple-haired man beside him and replied.

"Even if it is you, Lord. I cannot disclose the identity of my customer without their permission."

As he said this the three men in black suits all rose their voices in anger.

"You Dare!"

"How impertinent!"

"To refuse the lord!"