_Chapter Begins_
William's body reformed once more. At this point, he had become very familiar with the experience.
Long rigid bones weaved themselves into existence and formed a human skeleton. Then came the blood vessels, which wrapped themselves around the thick white bones of the skeleton.
Then came the muscles, which shaped themselves into different groups. One group wrapped around the skeleton's arms, forming a forearm, a bicep, and the three heads of the shoulder.
Then came all the organs, with the heart being the first one to appear.
Brain, lungs, kidneys, and all the others followed along.
Throughout this whole process, the wooden abomination did not even show a single sign of wanting to attack William.
It just stood there, its powerful wooden body not even twitching a little bit at the sight of William's return.
He did not know why this demonic freak let him return without interfering, but he was glad that it didn't.
William also knew that once this process was fully done, the wooden monster would once again come after him.
And as the minor details of his body were finally added in… well, you could probably guess what happened.
The wooden devil hurled its massive head down with speed that would make bullets jealous.
But just like always, the ugly creature's teeth sunk into the hard crystal floor below. The soft and juicy flesh of the black-haired boy had long disappeared.
"…Gods, that was way too close!"
William hopped out from the reflective surface of the ground, a few drops of sweat rolling from… literally every part of his body.
With his body being reborn once again, his bruises and cuts had all disappeared — along with his physical fatigue.
Of course, the mental fatigue remained as he remembered everything that had led up to his death…
"I don't have time to feel sorry about myself!"
William's eyes shifted around the area, searching for his dagger in a panic.
"Oh… don't tell me that…"
With his teeth suddenly clenching together, William slowly turned his head to the side.
The first thing that caught his eye was the giant wooden abomination that had just managed to break its teeth free from the crystal ground.
The second thing he saw was his half-demolished body that was slowly turning to ash, strangely enough.
Well, now he knew what happened to his other bodies once he was reborn.
But then his eye caught what he was dreading to see.
The soul-destroying dagger — his ticket to success, his game-winning shot — was lying right below the wooden abomination.
And the monster, being the annoying little shit that it was, did not make a single move toward him.
The thing was pretty smart, so it knew how dangerous the dagger was, and it also knew how important it was to William.
So the slick bastard was just waiting for him to come to it.
William glared at the monster, his pitch-black eyes having a piercing effect that would work on most humans.
But of course, the wooden beast was no mere human — it was a devil that came from the deepest pits of Hell.
So the thing stared right back. The purple glow that came from its eyes intensified, as if it was trying to imitate William's glare in its own perverted way.
After a few seconds of glaring at the creature, William let out a long sigh and dropped his tough act.
Since the monster did not plan to attack anytime soon, that gave William plenty of time to think of not only a plan, but also of the entire situation in general.
"It seems that Elsa did not give me false information after all."
His eyes moved down from the eyes of the monster, now looking at the creature's chest.
Right in the middle of that wooden chest was a single jagged piece of broken crystal that was buried deep within its wooden carapace.
There, above the stab wound, was the proof that William needed to confirm that Elsa's information was actually true.
The wooden devil supposedly used sorcery to adapt to attacks, and each time it was struck, a new line of runic letters would appear on its wooden body.
By now, William had already mapped out every single line of sorcery that was on the demon's body, so if a new one appeared, he would notice it immediately.
And that was exactly what had happened.
Compared to the rest of the runic sentences, the new one was pretty short — but it was indeed there.
That line of sorcery had not been there before, so that proved that the ability of the monster was exactly what Elsa had told him.
It felt somewhat nice to know that Elsa hadn't lied to him… but he was still angry with her.
Why the hell did she leave, and where did she go?
"Who cares about her anyway. She gave me all the information I needed to beat this monster, so I don't need her… for now."
He made eye contact with the wooden abomination once more. However, his mind was not at all focused on the demonic beast.
He wondered if maybe Elsa had gone to keep an eye on his sister while he was busy fighting this thing.
If that was what she was doing, then William felt both a sense of ease and unease.
On one hand, he knew that Elsa would not dare harm Jane, as it was clear that she really wanted to keep her alliance with him.
Why she wanted him as an ally, William had a couple of guesses in mind — but it wasn't the time for that right now.
So if he was confident that Elsa would do no harm to his sister, then what was he worried about?
And that was also what he was wondering — why the hell was he feeling so uncomfortable all of a sudden?
He hadn't felt like this when Elsa had first left, so why was he only feeling like this now?
This dread he was feeling — it was like it was reaching his very soul…
"Dread that can reach the soul…"
A bad premonition suddenly grasped William's mind and heart.
The last time he had felt this level of dread was back when he had first met Adam, the Pillar of Death.
And now that dread had come back.
However, for some reason, William's intuition told him that whatever was creating this foul emotion in his heart was someone or something that he had not met before.
And as it seemed, William was not the only one having this feeling.
The wooden abomination was shifting its head at every possible angle. It was clear that it was searching for something.
The once terrifying-looking demon and deranged human were now both looking around the crystal expanse like two scared children.
"Just who… who the hell is coming our way?!"
His question would soon be answered.
_Chapter Ends_