The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Side Chapter Blazers 2: Final Touches

Side Chapter Blazers 2: Final Touches 

On the day Ceella Stella arrived on Jelannax, a certain group were enjoying a meeting in their personal room in the second segment of Jelannax. In an undisclosed spot, hidden away from prying eyes. 

The mechanical sliding door opened to their small cosy room, and walking through it was a tall woman with long magenta hair tied in a ponytail.

“Look who finally decided to show up,” said Jordan. Which got a glare from Susan who was entering the room, he quickly replied. “What? It was only a joke.”

Susan crossed hers and said, “Huh ha, well do you want to be the person managing all the meetings and contracts then?”

Jordan, who was sitting back in his chair with his legs up and wearing black sunglasses, quickly sat up straight and pushed the glasses up into his short spiky black hair. His blue eyes showed panic as he swiftly apologised.

Susan sighed and grabbed a chair to sit down.

The Blazers had been Jelannax for a few months now preparing for the auction. The Nexus Marques auction was Aluber’s grand design, he created it to be the perfect trap to catch those who killed their friend.

However, there were many bumps in creation and management. One of those bumps was being part of the actual management for the auction. This involved a lot of constant work, but Aluber couldn’t be seen because of being declared dead, and because Jordan was awful in proper meetings, the work was left to Susan. Much to her annoyance. 

Susan’s eyes changed from a deep red back to her natural brown and her hair also shifted to a duller red. She still needed to be in disguise for everything to work properly. There were many secrets around this auction and many truths were kept hidden even by those deeply involved.

The reason their main hideaway was on the second segment rather than the first was due to the fact it was much easier to hide in the middle segment, while also being easily accessible to the top when required. Susan didn’t return to this hideaway often due to the privately-public nature of her current identity and work. 

A side door of the room opened. Aluber had left the bathroom, and he greeted his friend, “Susan I heard you entering, good to see you back.”

Aluber wore non-distinguishable greyish-blue-black clothes, his bright red hair had been toned back with wax and a strong greyish dye.

Susan smiled, “Likewise, so much better to be down here.”

The three of them started drinking and chatting. Due to the secrecy and importance of everything it was hard to spend time together as friends recently. Each was determined to do their part to get justice for their fallen friend.

Jordan looked over the statistical report of the event, “Welp, I think we just created the most popular auction of the last five centuries.”

Susan, “Yeah, it would be weird if it wasn’t with the items that are up for grabs.”

Jordan nodded, “Crazy how we even managed to make him agree.”

“We?” Susan looked over to him, “Last time I checked I was one who had to bloody convince the prick.”

A drunken Aluber commented, “Not a nice way to refer to your grandfather.”

“Screw off, what you said was way worse when we emptied the party stash to pay him.”

Getting Craftalot support was a multistep process which for the group was a collective pain. 

Hours spent of Susan attempting to convince him, and as the public guessed, the hosts ended up paying a large supply of rare materials to Craftalot for the items. This collection of materials was made up of ores collected during the Blazer's hunting trips along with some special goods for Aluber’s personal stash–part of his family’s long history of inheritance.

However, what finally helped push the deal forward was Craftalot's personal feelings on Dominous Hood. Susan and the Blazers knew about this dislike for a long time, thanks to Susan's personal connection with Craftalot from her childhood. Craftalot had a very strong dislike for Dominous Hood, it wouldn’t be the first time his creations were sought after by their despicable hands. Very few people had his items and he took great care to know who was welding each, most were passed down in families after all, after the previous wielder stopped their activities. He personally crafted and handed out each item so he held a small attachment to each person who successfully convinced him to craft an item for them.

So when those people went missing… 

Susan took one last sip from her glass, “I know I’ve mentioned this before Aluber, but what if things go wrong.”

Aluber placed the bottle in his hand down, “They won’t.”

Susan worriedly said, “That’s easy to say.”

“Just trust him, Susan, all the prep work has been completed.” Jordan sat back up, “Security is top-notch, secrecy has been kept, and we have enough professional hunters to deal with any force.”

Due to the secrecy of the event not only a few knew the actual purpose of capturing and killing Dominous members. People were informed that it was extremely likely for someone to try and steal the items, that wasn’t a crazy guess to make due to the legendary status Craftalot and his items had. Everything was handled in such a way no leaks of the truly important information would happen, but still ensuring everything would be properly put in place for the time to come.

Aluber nodded, “Everything has been prepared for so that Dominous Hood will fall into the trap.” His eyes shifted to a hostile glint, “They will be the puppets singing for us this time.”

Jordan gripped his fist, “Can’t wait till we grab a hold of those bastards.” 

Susan bit her lip. This plan wasn’t something she was exactly happy with, a sentiment shared by Craftalot himself. “But what if it goes wrong… 

For Susan, the location was too populated. It made sense why, it was the highest-profile auction in centuries, but it also meant a lot of innocent people could get dragged into the mess, and only about seven people knew that this was made to be a trap.

Aluber assured her, “It’s taking place on the top segment for that reason.”

Susan just quietly sighed, her own feelings of hate and worry were clashing inside of her. She tried to relinquish those feelings, after all, there was nothing she could do. She wanted to avenge Boss, and in the end that was still more important to her.

The auction was going to start soon and everything had been prepared.

Now it was just time to wait and see.

Days before the auction starts — 9.