The man who lost the weapons in his hands stopped in his tracks after what he heard and slowly reached for the throwing knives mounted on his armor. The two people he had ambushed to rob and slaughter had killed all his men in the blink of an eye; if he couldn't destroy the shop owner who brought them here, he too would have to follow them.
"Die!"
While the stocky man cowering in a corner was killed by the metal piece that embedded itself in his forehead before he could understand what was happening, his eyes were still looking upward. The man belonging to the Vultures relaxed; they needed a guide, and there was no one else around but him. His priority right now was to save his life; when he found the opportunity, he could escape from their hands, perhaps even get the chance to finish his incomplete business.
"You have no other choice but me. Tell me, where do you want to go?"
The man, checking the shop owner just to be sure, turned around and shouted, but a hand clamping onto his throat prevented him from speaking any further. Soul Stealer might have been a bit slender by orc standards, but she was burly compared to normal humans, and now she had taken the enemy between her claws.
"Who do you think you are, daring to take away my right to choose, you loser?"
The Leader of the Elite Ten, palming her opponent's face with her free hand, pulled her hand back five breaths later, and the soul of the man belonging to the Vultures came with it. His thin body, turning into an empty shell, fell to the ground; even his blood had frozen, but the soul Soul Stealer caught by the throat was in agony.
"Ignorant fool, what gave you the idea that I needed you alive? You will pay the price for your insolence by suffering inside my totem. You will lose your consciousness moment by moment, forget who you are, and turn into a puppet that executes my orders without questioning!"
The man, who took action to cling to life, was condemned to eternal torment. If he had known this would be his end, would the thought of doing such a thing have even crossed his mind? Soul Stealer was one of a kind, and while what she would do was an unknown even to herself, it was impossible for her enemies to guess her abilities.
She approached the body of the shop owner who drew his last breath a few seconds ago, placed her right hand on his face, and five breaths later, his soul, which hadn't yet left his body, was in her hands. It had the exact same shape the stocky man had before he died, but the only difference was that it no longer possessed a physical form.
"We want to go to the place where the auction is held. Show the way in a manner that those possessing a physical body can follow!"
When the shop owner, receiving the instruction, started moving at the walking pace of a child, Wind of Death was watching the Leader of the Elite Ten with questioning eyes.
"Ma'am, if the instructions aren't clear, some problems can arise. If I hadn't specified 'those possessing a physical body', he would have started advancing by passing through the walls, and if that happened, we would have had to make quite a bit of noise!"
Soul Stealer, like other orcs, had to constantly improve herself. Otherwise, she could lose her place at the peak of billions of orcs outside the administrative echelon at any moment. She was increasing her versatility by expanding the scale of the abilities she developed through the Blessing of the Ancestors.
"I see, you created a soul puppet that cannot think and only executes orders. How long will this unskilled thing be able to stay with us?"
While indicating she understood a part of the technique, Wind of Death didn't hesitate to ask the question on her mind. Perhaps if it were someone else, Soul Stealer might not have answered, but when the Commander-in-Chief of the Orc Empire Armies spoke, this was no longer a question, but an order.
"It can maintain its existence as long as I channel the death energy unique to me, but once I use a soul in this way, there is no possibility of me storing it inside the totem."
Without making her learn one aspect of it every single time, she said whatever there was to be known about her technique. When twenty breaths had passed, they were once again walking among beings of every nation, every age, and every gender.
The interesting part was that many orcs were wandering around in the place called the Grand Bazaar, and judging by their movements, they were quite familiar with this place. People of the Hell Realm, citizens of the Lands of Light, mercenaries, merchants, and engineers with their formal attire standing out from everyone else, were everywhere.
This mixture was also reflected in the shops; right next to a counter where mechanical devices were displayed, there were fruits that only grew in the former Holy Fire Sect lands on the Hell Realm.
The soul-turned owner of the shop right next to the strange entrance wasn't looking at any of these; at a steady pace, neither slow nor fast, he was advancing by passing through the others. In the first moments, Wind of Death could see him too, but when they mingled among other people, that was when she began to be unable to see the stocky man's soul, just like the others.
Their journey didn't take a short time; they wandered for another ten minutes inside other paths intersecting the long roads surrounded by shops on both sides, and finally returned to the fountain with small tables around it.
"Is this idiot soul making fun of us?"
The stocky merchant, waiting motionless by entering the waters, had gone round and round only to come back to the entrance where his shop was. Wind of Death thought there was something wrong with this, but a woman slamming her goblet on the ground started shouting as if she wanted to answer her.
"Come on already, if this auction is going to start, let it start. We've been waiting on your pleasure since morning, get off your asses and come here!"
The height of the woman shining in her midnight blue leather jumpsuit was barely half of Wind of Death's, but her hair reached all the way down to her waist. Even though her size was small, the shop owners around started packing up their counters the moment she reacted, and within ten breaths, the square became deserted.
"You barbarian woman, how many more times will I warn you not to shout in places where trade is conducted?"
Wind of Death and Soul Stealer turned that way along with the voice coming from one of the three roads opening to the square at the entrance of the Grand Bazaar, but a breath later, they were looking at each other in astonishment.
"What in the world is this?"
"I have no idea, ma'am, it's my first time seeing something like this!"
People led by a dwarf were approaching in a double file, and a man the size of a two-bedroom apartment on the massive palanquin carried by dozens of people was being fanned by two beautiful women. The bare-chested man they were trying to cool down by waving leaves as tall as they were was simultaneously biting into the bunch of grapes offered by another beauty.
"Am I going to ask you what to do and where, you little runt? If you speak a little more, I'll kick you to death!"
The woman, fixing her honey-colored eyes on the dwarf, had no reverse gear and was constantly increasing her speed. The addressee of her words didn't say anything else; he gave his answer with the metal stars starting to spin in his tiny hands.
"What is this noise? On one side a horny woman, on the other an insolent dwarf! What are we going to do with you guys?"
When the man walking in front of the two men coming from the other road next to the caravan resembling a circus convoy showed up during the minutes the tension was rising, things got thoroughly complicated.
"You were the only one missing, you blond snob! Look at that face; anyone seeing you would think you went out for a stroll on the gloomy streets of Nilreb, not in the Heart of the Sand!"
Unlike the other side, the people who set foot in the square as a two-person team looked exactly alike, but it was also obvious there was at least a thirty-year age difference between them.
"Places do not make people, people make places. Though, why I am telling these things to a barbarian like you, your answer to my proposition will be attacking again anyway!"
Unlike the dwarf, the young man dressed in a tailcoat didn't take any action other than speaking. Coming all the way next to the fountain along with the man trailing behind him, who had the wrinkles of a seventy-year-old human, he pressed his hand on an imprint on the stone surrounding the waters. Whatever happened, happened at that moment; the fountain receded into the ground from where it stood, and before five breaths had passed, a wooden stage appeared!
"Bust your ass and everyone has arrived; only your master is missing!"
While the dwarf came next to the blond men with small steps, he also kept talking. On one side was the caravan resembling a freak show, on the other were the duo screaming they were engineers with every move, but the woman in the blue leather dress was alone.
"I guess your master gave you too much feed lately; look at you, you've started talking too big for your britches!"
The voice came from the roof of one of the shops surrounding the square, and a large silhouette slowly began to cover everyone below.