The audience went silent, even more than they normally were.

  “Bidding will begin at ten million Telvarian Marks!”

  Jonathan immediately raised his hand. “Fifteen million!”

  The Outer Realms denizen raised a tentacle. “Twenty million!” it bellowed in a bubbling roar.

  “Thirty,” a reptile woman hissed, raising her scaled hand.

  Jonathan scowled. “Thirty five.”

  “Forty five!” The jiggling mass of flesh shouted. “Beat that, pinky!”

  Jonathan glared at the creature, and let loose a tiny shard of his aura. Like a missile, it crossed the space, and suddenly, the monster froze.

  “No aura assaults!” the orc auctioneer shouted disapprovingly. “The golems will remove you if you do that again.”

  Jonathan nodded once, but didn’t say anything save for his bid. “Fifty million.” The auction resumed after a short pause.

  After Jonathan’s display, the bids were a lot less aggressive than before. The war continued up through the sixties and seventies, but Jonathan didn’t really care how much money he had to spend. None of it meant anything to him.

  Eventually, as he bid eighty million, his competitor dropped out.

  “Any more bids?” the auctioneer called out. Nobody answered. “Very well. Sold.”

  Jonathan got to his feet, having bought what he needed. He walked up one of the aisles, and entered the small door by the edge of the stage that led to the holding area. An attendant stood there, and led him silently to a small room down the hallway. Within it were two items, his Starfall Steel, and his storage device.

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  Jonathan pulled out his money pouch, and started to withdraw coins. He presented eight of the diamond colored tokens to the attendant. She moved to the side, and let him enter.

  Jonathan reached out for the storage device first, and then looked down at his previous device. He unclipped it, about to place it in the new one. Then he remembered something.

  “Will this storage device hold other storage devices?” he asked.

  Jonathan received a flat stare.

  “No storage device can.”

  “Right then.” He held the old device out above the mouth of the new one, and let its contents fall out. They dropped down into the larger satchel, until the smaller bag was completely empty.

  Jonathan then picked up his Starfall Steel. He secreted it away into the satchel, and then set the bag over his shoulder. He nodded once at the attendant, and then left. That had been a short, but ultimately profitable journey. Now he could do what he had originally set out to do, and relax with Eliza for a week or two before returning to the meat grinder of the Infinite Hells.

  ***

  Before anything else could happen, Jonathan had something important to do. He sat in the throne room of the Oozing Bastion, cross legged on the floor. Eliza sat opposite to him.

  “You sure about this?” she asked. “You could always just have a healer carry out the procedure.”

  “I don’t think any healer we have could cut through my skin,” Jonathan replied. “I’m going to have to use the Void.”

  Eliza shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat. Just don’t be a baby about it.”

  Jonathan frowned. “A baby about it? I’m the one doing it.”

  Eliza merely smirked.

  Jonathan started the process. He unstrapped Kharon from his back and laid the weapon down on the ground before him. It gleamed there in the light, looking like black glass. Jonathan removed the Starfall Steel from his storage satchel, and tapped it against the blade. A small chunk of it disappeared. It was much less than he had expected, although the metal was quite dense. At his level, it was quite hard to gauge lower weights, and below a thousand pounds, everything felt the same.

  Jonathan put the metal back in the bag. Then he extended one finger. A small blade of compressed Void formed before it. He carefully peeled away his left gauntlet, and then removed the protections afforded by his True Affinity. With surgeon-like precision, he drew the blade across his wrist.

  Bright red blood flowed down, dripping onto Kharon. It was sucked into the blade, just before Jonathan’s regeneration kicked in. He sighed. The next bit would be a lot worse.