Fair of Souls

''It's almost the time, but I still can't find the correct place.''

It was the night of the fair of souls. The fair of souls started at the midnight and ended before the dawn according to the information Mayton got from Charbel.

Thus he had limited time to find his parents' souls and arrived at the place two hours earlier than midnight. He was already at the place marked on the map engraved on the piece of metal he got form Grau for an hour now and searched around for any clues.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find anything. It was just a normal neighborhood in the slums. There was no indication that a sinister thing like the fair of souls would take place in an hour.

''Hmm? So that's why!''

Just when Mayton was thinking about the possibility of Grau deceiving him for some reason, the piece of metal Mayton got from Grau glowed with a dark green light for a moment as the map on it changed. The new place marked on the map was at about half an hour of walking away from Mayton's current location.

After seeing the new location on the map, Mayton immediately started to rush towards there. His gray robe was flapping in the air and his long black hair followed after him like the tail of a kite followed after it, as he used his recently increased speed to its utmost.

Mayton saw more than ten people rushing just like him. Most of them were slower than Mayton but there were two of them who moved so fast, they were gone from Mayton's range of vision in a short amount time. This increased Mayton's vigilance. It seemed like this fair of souls was a place where the dragons mingled with the snakes. He reminded himself to not get overconfident because of his recent success in cultivation.

In less than five minutes Mayton arrived at a destitute part of the slums. Normally, this place was populated by the poorest of the poor who lived in crude shacks they made themselves from scrap materials, but right now it was completely deserted as an eerie silence took over the place.

Just when Mayton was inspecting the area, he saw another person clad in gray robes vanish in front of his eyes after a ripple in the air. Seeing that Mayton also went to the same spot. The moment he arrived at the spot his invitation once more glowed as he felt like his body penetrated a bubble's surface. After a brief moment of darkness, Mayton looked around and realized that his surroundings have changed drastically.

Instead of the crude shacks, there were all kinds of stalls, and the eerie silence gave way to the liveliness of a marketplace where buyers bartered for a better price and vendors hawked their goods. Mayton was taken aback he was expecting a more solemn atmosphere, but this was exactly like the part of the market district where the hunters' new shop located. Only differences were the goods sold and the people who conducted the trade.

Almost all of the shops here sold soul collecting orbs. Even though most of the orbs were the inferior quality murky white orbs, there were other more expensive kinds too. For example, there was an orb with a dark red color and a sinister aura sold for 2.000 gold coins. More than twice the amount Mayton spent on the hunters' shop. The common murky white orbs costed much less though. About 5 golds each.

When Mayton asked about the reason for the price difference and learned that the murky white orbs contained the souls of the mortals, he heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure if the money he had was enough to buy back the souls harvested from the villagers, it turned out he had more than enough.

''Friends, do you want to see things other than those useless orbs? Why don't you come to our auction? Entrance fee is only a single gold coin! With this price even if you wanted to just join in the fun, it's worth it!''

Mayton heard a loud, mechanical voice saying. The voice sounded more like a record playing than an actual person speaking. Mayton wasn't interested in the auction, but the voice intrigued him as he turned over to look at the owner of the voice. There stood something human shaped but from the gaps between the pieces of black cloth wrapped all over it, Mayton could see… nothing. It seemed like the inside of the clothes were completely empty.

''Haha, kid is this your first time around here? I just got a really good deal for some souls, so I am in a good mood. Let me help you out a bit.''

Mayton saw a masked woman approach him and say with a cheerful voice. Before Mayton could say anything in return the woman started explaining the talking empty clothes. It was something called soul slave.

Soul slaves were made using live divine cultivators' souls. After capturing the cultivator and treating his body with various medicines to ease the extraction of the soul, he was placed on a formation. The formation had two functions.

First was extracting the soul with minimal damage and the second was erasing the consciousness of the cultivator from the soul. Only the divine cultivators were suitable for this because demons and devils tended to have violent and unstable souls respectably which made the extracting process too hard.

When the soul was extracted successfully and the consciousness was erased with the help of a formation, only thing left to do was implanting a curse in it to make it do its owners bidding.

At first, Mayton wanted to get rid of the woman, but he couldn't help his curiosity as he asked more and more questions while they looked around together. After almost half an hour of touring the fair and chatting, Mayton finally asked the thing he wanted to know the most;

''Miss, is it possible to revive the harvested souls?''

Ever since Mayton learned about soul slaves, he started to think how wonderful it would be if he could revive his parents. He was willing to do so even if it meant his parents would be in soul form. Unfortunately, he didn't get the answer he hoped for.

''Reviving harvested souls? No way. These orbs are made to store souls for the energy inside them, not for preserving them. Immediately after a soul gets sucked in, it will be shredded to pieces. Since the orbs hold more than one soul inside, the only thing you can get from them is an amalgamation of all the souls it absorbed.''

the woman answered with her usual cheerful tone. It seemed like no topic could dampen her mood. Then after seeing Mayton's disappointed face, she continued;

''But if you are looking for souls that belonged to people important to you, you shouldn't give up. Even though it is impossible to revive them, if they thought of you before their deaths you could see their last memories. How romantic! I hope one day I will be able to see someone's memories that way... Alright, I decided to help you find the souls you are looking for!''

Mayton looked at his companion strangely. He was speechless. Wanting someone who loved you to die just to see that person's memories… this was a unique taste alright. But he was a stranger in a strange place and knew no one other than this somewhat crazy woman, so he accepted her offer.

After telling her about the circumstances of his parents, they started to look for their souls. The most important things were the date and the place their souls got harvested at. The time was important because it was possible to understand the time a soul collecting orb got filled. The place was important because vendors bought their goods from parties operating in limited areas.

Hearing it was his parents' souls that he was searching for, the woman looked less unenthusiastic, but she helped him nonetheless, saying, ''Aii, you are too young after all''.

About an hour later, at a little stall, they found five soul collecting orbs fulfilling their conditions. They were all form around the edges of the Demonic Forest and got filled roughly at the time of Mayton's village's destruction.

Mayton looked at these murky white balls in a daze. There was a huge possibility that his parents' souls were in one of these orbs. Remembering his parents, he couldn't hold his tears back as they started streaming down his cheeks.

''Wow, you are making it more and more enjoyable! What a good deal I have made indeed! Unfortunately, this is the end of our little game. I can't let you take what you want and leave.''

The masked woman shouted delightedly.

This startled Mayton awake from his daze. Just when he wanted to ask what deal was she talking about, he saw a huge black snake with its mouth fully open and ready to bite flying towards his face.

''What is the meaning of this?''

Mayton cried out in surprise as he slashed at the incoming snake with his dagger and cut it in two cleanly.

''Nice reactions! Try a few more!''

The masked woman conjured three more snakes and threw them at Mayton. The snakes were extremely lifelike as venom dripped from their sharp teeth and their scales glittered in the moonlight. Mayton had no time to examine the snakes though. All he could do was doing his best to avoid getting bitten by the snakes.

Mayton reflexively brandished his dagger to block one of the snakes and avoided the other two with a sidestep. But before he could catch his breath, he saw another three snakes coming his way. This time he didn't have the time to avoid them. All he could do was raising his arms to guard his face as felt a sharp pain his right arm and left leg.

After the venom of the snakes seeped into his blood, he felt a numbness spreading over his body from his right arm and left leg. But in a moment he felt his blood boiling and a fiery heat countered the numbness. Mayton had no idea what was going on with his body, neither did he have the time to bother. Feeling that he could still move, he hurled himself at the masked woman.

''Huh?''

The woman exclaimed as she rolled back a few paces to maintain the distance between herself and Mayton, almost colliding into someone who came to watch the fight in the process. Mayton was not willing to let her go unscathed like this though, so he threw his dagger at her face.

If Mayton was thinking rationally, he definitely wouldn't decide to let go of his only weapon like this. But unfortunately with his body heating more and more he lost most of his mental faculties. All he wanted right now was destroying everything around him, starting from the woman in front of him.

The reason for his rage was not the masked woman's betrayal. He met her about two hours ago and never truly trusted her in the first place. His rage was caused by something entirely different. It was a rage against everything that ever existed. Mayton felt like only if he burned down the entire world would his rage subside a little.

The masked woman wasn't expecting Mayton to move, let alone counterattack with reckless abandon. Because she got caught unprepared, Mayton's dagger almost plunged right into her face. Thankfully for her, she was an experienced fighter and managed to move her head a little to the right at the last moment.

Even though the movement of her head wasn't enough to completely avoid the dagger, she overcame this potentially fatal crisis with just a scratch at her left cheek as the dagger cut through her mask and scratched her face.

''Grau, what the hell are you waiting for?! Do you dare to break our deal?''

said the masked woman with anger evident in her voice. This was the first time the masked woman's tone changed. She did agree to help Grau but she didn't agree to put her life on the line.

''Haha, how could I dare! No need to be angry Celyse, I was merely surprised a little by this boy.''

A black robed old man walked out of the crowd gathered around the fight. It was indeed the old man who gave the invitation for the fair of souls to Mayton.

''Now boy, be obedient and come with me.''

Mayton was, once more, charging at Celyse but Grau stopped him with a strange coin he tossed. The coin hovered above Mayton as a gray light enveloped him and rendered him immobile. Mayton couldn't react to the old man or his coin at all. He already lost consciousness after he threw his dagger. He was only trying to attack Celyse instinctively.

Celyse looked deeply into the red, flaming eyes of Mayton and saw endless destruction and violence in them. For a second, she felt like the flames in Mayton's eyes were about to consume her soul. 'What is there to be afraid of? I don't believe Grau will let him go after the price he paid for me to act.' Celyse thought as she shook her head to clear her mind.

''Celyse, you can collect your payment from the usual place. As for you gentlemen, the show is already over. I advise you to disperse.''

Grau said threateningly to the onlookers. Hearing Grau the crowd dispersed in no time. Grau was a known person. There were even some rumors that said the fair of souls was, in fact, organized by none other than Grau. No one wanted to risk offending such a person just for satiating their curiosity.

Without waiting for the crowd to disperse, Grau with a wave of his hand, he made Mayton float next to him and went to the other side of the stall together with Mayton. Grau signaled the vendor to leave with his eyes. After the vendor left, Grau chanted a bizarre incantation, and all the light around them dimmed as Mayton and Grau got shrouded in darkness.

Grau was excited to finally get his hands on the item Mayton used to hide from his senses. He paid a steep price to make Celyse act, but since no one came to help Mayton even when his life was in imminent danger, it seemed like using Celyse was a waste of money after all. Grau didn't mind wasting some money as long as he safely achieved his goal though.

''Now, time to take the spoils.''

Grau licked his lips and started searching Mayton's body for any unusual items. When he found the traceless talisman, he laughed uproariously as the fair of souls reverberated with his laughter.