The Broken Halo

The door closed behind Simon with a soft sound.

The third floor was quieter than the floors below.

There were no merchants shouting about the origins of their shells, no customers arguing over prices, and no crowds gathering around opening tables. The demons present spoke in low voices, as if raising their voices in this place would lower their status.

Dark silver tiles covered the wide floor, and thin formations moved beneath them like streams of light. Soft white flames floated near the ceiling, illuminating rows of abyss shells that were separated by a great distance.

None of the shells were placed carelessly.

Some rested on black stone pedestals. Some were sealed inside transparent cases, while a few had individual barriers around them. Small plates beside each shell contained information about where they were found, who recovered them, and their prices.

There were also private rooms along the walls. Simon guessed that the most valuable customers could inspect or open their shells there without attracting attention.

Only a few dozen demons were on the third floor. Most wore expensive clothes and carried themselves with the confidence of demons who were used to having money and authority. Simon also sensed several Greater Demons among them.

The moment he entered with Yara, some of them looked over.

"Who is that?"

"Do you recognise him?"

"No."

"Then how did he get up here?"

A few gazes moved toward Yara, then returned to Simon. They could see that she was treating him respectfully, but none of them knew why.

Simon did not recognise any of them either, so he ignored the whispers.

The black star containing UnholyRegeneration trembled again, and Simon immediately shifted his attention away from everything else.

The reaction was stronger on the third floor.

He could feel a faint pull toward the left side of the room, but it did not come from the most eye-catching abyss shells displayed at the centre.

One shell was almost three metres tall and covered in golden cracks. Another looked like a curled beast with dark crystals growing from its surface. Several demons surrounded both, discussing them with interest.

However, UnholyRegeneration did not react to either one.

Simon followed the attraction past them.

Yara remained beside him, silently observing where he was going. She had expected him to ask about the most expensive shells or request an appraisal artifact, but he did neither.

He walked directly toward a quiet corner of the third floor.

There were only about a dozen abyss shells there.

The moment Simon stopped in front of the fourth one, the black star trembled repeatedly.

’This is it.’

His eyes narrowed slightly.

The abyss shell did not look special.

It was just a little bit shorter than his waist and had an uneven oval shape. Its surface was rough and dark grey, with a few dull reddish lines running across it like old stains. One side was flattened, while several small holes covered the lower part.

It did not release any obvious energy.

It did not have beautiful crystals, strange runes, or a shape that would make demons gather around it. If it had been placed among the shells on the first floor, Simon doubted many demons would have looked at it twice.

Maybe only its size would have drawn some attention toward it because majority of the shells on the lower floors were not as large as this one.

However, it had its own pedestal and a thin transparent barrier.

Simon stared at it for a few seconds, then placed his hand close to the barrier without touching it.

The black star trembled again.

For a brief moment, the tree-like rune inside the star glowed, causing Simon’s expression became more serious.

He looked at Yara.

"Where was this shell found?"

Yara glanced at the information plate before answering.

"The Dreadfall Sea."

Simon raised a brow slightly.

He knew of the Dreadfall Sea.

It was one of the main seas of the demon realm and covered a large portion of its western region. Several kingdoms had ports along its shores, but the deeper regions did not belong to any kingdom.

The sea was famous for its black currents, crushing pressure, and sudden underwater storms. Calamity Beasts were common far from the shores, while rumours claimed that Catastrophe Beasts slept in its deepest trenches.

There were also countless sunken ruins beneath it. Some belonged to destroyed cities, while others were older than the kingdoms surrounding the sea.

Yara continued.

"A group called the Hollow Lantern Explorers recovered it from the lower region of the Silent Trench. It was wedged between a collapsed ruin and a black reef almost two years ago."

"The Silent Trench?" Simon asked with slightly raised brows.

Yara nodded.

"It is one of the deeper trenches of the Dreadfall Sea. The water pressure there can crush ordinary Archfiends into minced meat, and the currents are turbulent and difficult to navigate."

She looked at the abyss shell.

"Three members of the group died during the recovery, and they lost a specialised storage artifact before bringing it to the surface. That is one reason the shell is on the third floor."

Simon looked at the dull reddish lines on its surface of the shell.

"Anything else?"

"Sea-formed abyss shells are rarer than those recovered from mines, ruins, or battlefields on land. The pressure and demonic energy beneath the sea make their shells denser, and it’s not easy to locate and bring out abyss shells from the depths of a sea."

Yara gestured toward the small holes near the bottom.

"Those marks were created by creatures that attached themselves to the shell over a long period. Based on the examination, the pavilion believes it remained in the trench for at least hundreds of years or even a thousand years."

Simon was slightly surprised at her words, and he gave her a glance.

"Do you know what sort of ruin it came from?"

She shook her head.

"No. The explorers only recovered a few broken pillars and pieces of corroded metal from the area. Nothing that could identify who built it."

Simon fell silent.

An unknown ruin.

Hundreds of years or a thousand years beneath one of the demon realm’s most dangerous seas.

And something inside it was causing Unholy Regeneration to react.

It was suspicious, but it was also enough to keep his interest.

Simon looked at the price plate, but the runes on it were concealed. Yara noticed his gaze and moved closer to the pedestal.

"This shell is expensive because of the recovery cost, its age, the depth it was found at, and the rarity of abyss shells from the sea and the Dreadfall Sea especially."

She touched the information plate, causing the concealed runes to light up.

"The listed price is ninety-six thousand low grade hell stones."

Yara glanced at Simon before adding,

"With Lord Korran’s twenty percent discount, it will cost you seventy-six thousand eight hundred low grade hell stones."

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