A few minutes earlier…

A girl with silver hair was sitting in one of the VIP rooms with a frown on her face.

The girl was obviously Aria.

"I don't have that much money left…" Aria muttered with a troubled look as she looked at the black card in her possession.

She had sold almost everything except her sword and the one time stealth artifact to gather money for the auction through one her trusted maids.

But the way the bid was going up, she didn't think she could even buy one of the item much less three.

The black card which was in her possession contained a lot of money. It was sent to her by her informer as well.

This person was the one who had been helping her all this while. At first, Aria was doubtful about this person. But when she started to investigate things, she found that things were indeed anything but simple.

She had been striking a lot of places and found people engaged in weird transactions but she couldn't get anything out of them. They were nothing but puppets who had no idea what was going on….only those people in black seemed to know something...but these people were fast….they disappeared like ghosts…

She had even got her family involved and her father believing her words helped her out, but the fact that nothing came out even after several raids only made her look desperate in her father's eyes.

Her father asked her to leave the things for the Union to deal with. The Union acted soon enough on the Lord's report and these people were caught. It turned out to be some shady drug deal between gangs.

These made the situation between Aria and her father worse. She didn't believe it was so simple while her father felt that she just didn't want to admit to it. Later, she requested the Knight of House and raided the Black Liquor where she met Max and Lear.

But it was obvious that she had gone too far this time and as a result she was punished and the dispute with her father further grew forcing her to take all the investigation on her own.

She continued her search in discovering the identity of these people…

She had always thought that these people were only good at running and not fighting if not why didn't they just kill her….so she planned and successfully managed to corner one of these people in black and that had resulted in the wound on her back

These confused her even more, why didn't they kill her? What were these people after?

It was then that the last message she received from the informer came…

It was literally a shock to see her possible marriage partner's name on it.

The informer named Werner as one of the perpetrators behind the incidents. She didn't believe it of course that was a huge accusation to make but….if that really was true then it somehow made sense….why these people didn't kill her….why the Union couldn't find anything….

Aside from these, there was the black card and the information about the auction and three items which could change everything….

Aria knew that this was dangerous, but that was even more of a reason for her to do it then….until now it was only to prove herself but now….if what the letter said was the truth, then she would fall in into a b*stard's hands...and not only that....Werner would even have considerable power to influence her family...how could she sit back like that….

She tried to contact her father but he was only disappointed in her. She was making such excuses and even putting such grave accusations which could very well strain the relationship between the two Houses to extreme….

The next person who she could turn to help was her elder brother but he went missing apparently.

She didn't have anyone to rely on...but Max's face appeared in her mind as he had once said that he would be willing to hear her and she was in dire need to get someone to advice her….but…

It was then that Elly found out about Max and her living together...when she saw how happy this guy was with her leaving….she threw that thought out of her mind..

'At worst it would be death…' With that thought in her mind, Aria began her plan.

It was simple. She would buy the items and not leave the place until the Elder from her family showed up. She really doubted if these people would dare to cause trouble in broad light.

After all, even Werner was not that powerful…..

''I have no choice. I will have to use this card after all…'' Aria muttered with unease. She wasn't naive enough to believe this person helping her was actually a good person.

There was no reason for him to contact someone as weak as Aria for help and yet he did….she wasn't sure what he wanted…..but even knowing that this could very well be something harmful to her, Aria had to bite the bait….she didn't have a choice. No one believed her….

At worst, her death would open her father's eyes….and stop Werner from getting his hands over her family...

In her mind, she had already deemed Werner as the person behind all of this…

"100 million!"

Seeing that the price was still rising, Aria was about to raise her hand to bid when she suddenly felt a grip on her hand.

When she looked at the thing, it was already too late. Within a split second she found herself restrained. She couldn't even let out a word.

She looked at the purple snake in shock.

'I can't believe they made a move in broad daylight…' Aria smiled but tears began to form in her eyes.

Who in the world actually wanted to die?

She just closed her eyes in an attempt to stop her tears and make her end pathetic.

But the things which she had been waiting for never occurred.

At this moment, a familiar smell wafted her nostrils and she immediately opened her eyes to stare at the snake.

'Why does it smell like 'him' ?' Aria felt that she was probably going insane with death so close.

As minutes trickled down, she finally confirmed that the snake didn't seem to have any intention to kill her.

At this moment, the door to her room was suddenly split apart as jet black scythe like slash pierced through, heading straight for Aria.

But the spirit snake bared its fang bit down the slash with its head sideways.

"Crack!"

The slash crumbled and the spirit snake's head distorted a bit. But it still kept a hold on Aria refusing to let her go.

Since Aria was alone, there was no need for the killer to be careful as he was confident to finish her without letting her grab anyone's attention unlike the room where Max and his buddies were too many to finish quickly.

But when the guy saw the situation in the room, he was dumbfounded.

Both by the fact that she survived and the fact that she was wrestling with a snake…..

''It seems she lost control of her contracted beast…." He mumbled before spatting on the ground in disgust.

"Pathetic…."

The spirit snake bared its fangs towards the intruder.

''Why don't you just kill her stupid thing and make it easier for us? Didn't she bully you enough?" The man asked as he looked at the snake trying to agitate it to make a move.

Seeing that the snake had no intentions to finish the girl off, the man ran out of his patience.

"I will kill you both in that case...." He said before rushing towards them. The spirit snake immediately readied itself to break through the black glass frame.

But the next moment it's body suddenly slowed down….it immediately looked at the man….but to it's surprise...the man's eyes were widened as well because his movements had been slowed down as well….it was as if the the time had slow down for them…after all the host on the stage was still moving at normal pace.

Just what was going on?

"It's been a while, Aru…you have become quite wild I see…"

The voice took everyone by surprise and their eyes slowly moved towards the source to see a handsome guy with silver hairs smiling at them as he walked into the room.

Aria was surprised to see him here…..she wanted to scream but she couldn't get a single a word out of her mouth.

He slowly walked towards them...his pace was normal unlike them who were moving in slow motion….

He quietly waved his hand and the guy in front of Aria immediately disappeared and the time again seemed to return to normal.

"Hiss!" The spirit snake immediately hissed at this young man who seemed to be even more dangerous than the guy from before.

"Woah! Calm down….don't you recognise this handsome and cool face?" The guy said as he immediately raised his hands.

"Why don't you ask your host? I am sure he knows that only one person in this world has such a handsome face in the entire world…" He further said with a smile.

But at this moment, Aria's eyes widened as she saw another one of the black figures emerge out of the shadow in the corner of the room and rush at the guy.

The moment the figure emerged, the guy seemed to have sensed it too…..

But as he was about to attack, the black figure suddenly collapsed at the guy's feet.

Everyone was surprised until a centipede crawled out of the man's clothes…

No one had noticed when this guy had entered this place and even discovered the hidden person…

"Khukhu!" Juju released a triumphant cry and looked at the guy with a smirk on his face... at least it looked like one to the guy.

"A sensory type...I see…" the guy mumbled as he looked at Juju.

At this moment, the spirit snake released Aria and she immediately rushed towards the person and jumped towards him, "Brother!!"

Seeing his sister crying, the guy sighed as he spoke, "I know you have gone through a lot...but can you please not dirty my clothes with snot and tears…"

"Shut up!" Aria retorted.

…..

On the other side….

'Sh*t!'

Max knew he messed up. There was no choice now, he would just have to go all out even at the cost of causing disaster.

Max knew his priorities...the people he was close to mattered the most to him, he wouldn't care for stranger's life if it had to be at the cost of his close one's.

Lora obviously fitted the description as he had already accepted her as Lear's partner. The fact she was here even after all of that happened between them was a fact enough to prove whether she cared for Lear or not….

But as darkness began to leak out of him, Max suddenly saw a red streak of light emerge from Lora's body.

The red light was extremely fast and before the man could even react his head was missing from his body.

The red streak of light didn't stop after that and immediately approached Max. But Max didn't fear it, because he didn't have a reason….

The red stream of light turned out to be a cute little fox and it immediately perched on Max's shoulder before spitting out what seemed to be like a skull…

'Spirit Manifestation…' Max had a lot of questions in his head but he decided to put it out for later.

He would soon meet the guy after all.

Lora looked at the scene clearly terrified and fell on her butt. .

"Calm down….don't scream….'' Max tried to calm her down not realising that his face half covered in blood didn't look reassuring at all.

But Lora wasn't someone naive who couldn't understand things. She had been there on the train hijack incident as well.

"What is going on?" Lora asked with cold sweat dripping down her forehead. She really not prepared for that unexpected attack.

"We are in big trouble…" Max said as he swiped his hand the body and the blood on the floor all disappeared along with the skull in the spirit world.

"I will get the security…" Lora said with a serious tone but Max held her back.

"It won't help...just get out of here first I will get the help…" Max said with a serious tone.

At this moment he felt his spirit snake trying to communicate to him again. Earlier Max was too busy fighting to respond.

Max closed his eyes hoping nothing went wrong. But when he found out what was going on, he sighed in relief…. and asked the spirit snake to let Aria go…

'I can't believe this guy was her brother…' Max was really in for surprises today.

"This narcissist has to be him...''