_Chapter Begins_
William hopped out of the reflection of the crystals below. The giant claw of the beast was coming his way with great speed.
But as it turned out, this new monster was not nearly as fast as William's previous adversary. It was probably due to the fact that the monster was a lot bigger than the wooden fiend—at least four to five times bigger.
"Alright, time to test the limits of this ability."
William put his hand on the crystals that sprawled from the ground, and then he uttered a single word.
"Copy."
The claw of the beast connected with a giant wall that was made of countless pieces of crystal shards. And interestingly enough, this wall looked exactly the same as the crystal expanse where William was standing on.
A loud bang resounded from the impact, and countless shards were flung across the air with blinding speed.
"I–it worked. Thank the Gods."
Of course, due to the fact that his ability, "Copy," only allowed him to copy stuff that he understood and could comprehend, it meant that his wall of crystals was much weaker than the crystals he was standing on.
He still didn't understand sorcery, so all of the runes that were carved on the crystals below were still out of his abilities' reach… for now at least.
So the wall that he made just consisted of a bunch of regular crystals that were not enhanced by the power of sorcery.
Despite being made of regular crystals, the wall was so big that it managed to tank the initial blow from the monster's claw.
However, it was only a matter of time before it crumbled away, so he needed to hurry up.
"Damn… I don't feel so good."
Back at the cave, William had only managed to copy nineteen small crystals before draining his soul energy. So this giant wall that he just made—well, it took a lot out of him.
William's face was as pale as a ghost's, and his whole body was shaking uncontrollably.
"Just another day in Hell…"
He turned around and immediately managed to spot Jane in the distance.
Placing his hand on the ground, William used reflection travel to appear right in front of his sister.
"William, you're here. I have a lot of stuff I need to tell—"
She was quickly cut off by her dear brother.
"Sorry, but we don't have time for this right now."
William scooped Jane into his arms and proceeded to jump with so much force that the shards on the ground snapped in half.
The sound of a second bang rolled throughout the area, and the wall of crystal shards that he had created crumbled and fell apart.
Two blows were all that the creature needed to destroy a wall that was the size of a house.
The abomination finally revealed its whole body as it stepped out from the wall of dust and approached the crumbled wall of crystals.
In the distance, William, who was laying on the ground, and Jane, who was cowering behind a crystal, both looked at the abomination with wide eyes.
Its entire body was covered in a thick layer of brown fur, and if it had eyes, there would be no way to confirm it, as the fur even covered its entire frontal skull.
The massive maw of the abomination was the only thing that wasn't covered by its fur.
Its body was plump and shaped like a ball, and the ugly thing also had a tail that was covered in shard spikes.
The disgusting fiend was massive—even more so than William had thought initially.
"Hey, William. You still conscious?"
He let out a pained groan as he heard the familiar tone of her voice resound inside his head.
"Elsa… where the Hell have you been?!"
To his question, he only got a chuckle as a reply. The worst thing was that he couldn't even do anything about it, as he was currently completely drained of soul energy, mental energy, and any other type of energy one had in them.
"I see that you are still awake. Well, that's good."
Another chuckle resounded from inside his head, which honestly made him want to rip his own head off.
"Elsa, you better get to explaining, or I swear that—"
He cut off his own sentence as Elsa's chuckle stopped abruptly, and it wasn't just that.
The dread of being watched—it was gone as well.
"Is she… is she gone again?!"
Jane rushed to his side and knelt beside him.
"William, I have a lot of information to share. But firstly, we need to get out of here."
He could only reply with a pained groan that vaguely sounded like an "ok."
With William being too weak to even walk, Jane lifted him onto her back and started to walk away from the area with as much speed as she could muster.
Behind her, she could hear the giant beast clash with someone—or something—else. Maybe it was another monster.
Jane did not look back as she continued to slowly escape the calamitous battle.
**************
He slowly opened his eyes, a blurry filter covering his vision.
"Where the Hell am I?"
William could feel his body rolling on a soft fabric. So, was he sleeping on a bed?
All that craziness that happened with the cult, Elsa, and Adam… was it all just a nightmare?
"Who am I kidding…"
He lifted himself up and looked around the room. It was a very familiar room, to say the least.
"I am back here… at the Castle of Envy."
He wanted to chuckle at the fact that both times he ended up in this room were due to Jane carrying him away from some horrid abomination.
"Well then, it seemed that we managed to escape."
His expression slightly darkened as he thought back to what had happened.
"The Angel of Kindness… she's much more powerful than I am."
He wondered why this gap between them existed.
Was it because virtues were just naturally stronger than sins?
Or maybe it was because Kindness was the opposite of Envy. Maybe it was just a matter of experience.
"Step one…"
The angel—she had told him that he was only at step one. What did that mean exactly?
What were the steps, and how many were there? Was that how she was so powerful—because she was a step higher than him?
And more importantly, how does one go about reaching a higher step?
These were just a few of the questions that were plaguing his mind. But there were more.
"The angel… what did she want to talk to me about? And Elsa—why did she appear and then disappear again?"
William scratched his head in frustration.
But then he stopped, as he remembered something else.
Jane—she had told William that she had a lot of information that she wanted to share with him.
A sigh of pure disappointment escaped his lips.
"I guess I'll have to wait for her to come visit me."
He laid his torso back on the bed, a shiver of pure happiness running across his body as he felt the soft fabric of the blanket rub against him.
But as fate would have it, Jane came to visit a lot sooner than he had expected.
_Chapter Ends_