As the man's body was pierced, time seemed to slow down. As an even more bloody aura exploded from his body, only this time, instead of targeting an attack, it reversed, retreating inwards.
William would jump up from his kneeling position at this sight. As his intuition told him something was wrong.
The man's body would convulse mid-air, levitating. The hole in the middle of him would stop bleeding as this occurred.
'Self Conquering...'
A unique application of the conquering ability, to conquer one's desires and emotions, all of them.
The man would stare at William, who had outed himself as a perpetrator of this event. His eyes were cold and empty, almost like a mirror to William's.
William's smile would return to a thin line as the man slowly descended from the sky. An iron greatsword would manifest in a flurry of illusory, incomprehensible text in the man's right hand, as his opponent manifested his own signature bident in his left hand.
"You are unfit to be a king."
[Constructive Criticism is active.]
[Effects: Weakens one's will to rule. Especially effective against current target.]
[1200 Loreld has been invested into Ingenuity!]
[Ingenuity has leveled up! Lv.11 ---> Lv.13!]
[Title: All-Rounder's effects have been activated.]
The man would stagger as he reached the ground, a clear sign of Constructive Criticism's effects. With this stat increase William would be on near equal footing with the man.
The man would emptily open his mouth and say.
"Let us begin."
As they began to clash, William would use Bane of Existence to enhance his Bident's destructive ability.
Clash after clash, the Bident and Greatsword struck eachother again and again, neither of them budging an inch.
'He still fights with such vigour after constructive criticism...That sword can withstand Bane of Existence as well. This man is fighting for something he treasures clearly.'
They would continue clashing their weapons against each other, with the man having conquered his weapon to move to his will, and William enhancing his weapon's attack potency; they were at a stalemate.
If this went on, William would lose to a stamina disadvantage, so he had to change tactics. He'd jump back in a form of retreat.
[Record: The Odyssey, Chaos Edition, has been brought to reality.]
In an instant, a sun would ignite within William's page-like right eye, like golden ink on parchment. Signifying the return of his Divine Bestowal, if only temporarily.
[Record: Moonbeast, lends you one facet of their power fully for the next few minutes; they will cover the cost.]
[Skill: Moonwielder has been activated.]
A Silvery crescent moon would appear in his left eye. As the Moonlight of the night contrasted with the Sunlight of the day, a surge of power emanated throughout William's body.
"Equinox."
Just like his eyes, the two prongs of his Bident started to shine with the respective energies of the Sun and Moon. With Bane of Existence forming the Third Prong in the center. Which would then dissolve and add onto the other two prongs, because of how it reminded William of that fish freak.
[The Greek Pantheon is aware of the activation of one of their own's power.]
However, as William attempted to attack the man, a hexagonal barrier would appear, made of individual hexagonal energy shields linked together, blocking the brunt of the attack, but also being destroyed completely.
'So that's how it is...Does he have an anti-espionage attribute?'
The man would ready his blood-iron greatsword, as the conqueror's aura exploded out from him once more, weakening William, and conquering something else.
William would be on guard; however, the one being targeted wasn't him, it was the air around them, more precisely, the particles of Ingenuity were being conquered right before William's eyes, or senses, I suppose.
The Reader of Lore would simply gaze at the efforts of the "King", before exerting his own force onto the Ingenuity particles in the nearby area, denying the man a monopoly over them.
In the end, the particles were split 60/40 in the man's favour. They would then bind themselves to the man's injuries, providing a temporary bandage.
Then, the particles not used for plugging the hole would gather themselves into the man's blood-iron greatsword, fusing with it and increasing its size severalfold. The particles obeyed the Reader of Conquerors' will perfectly, like a disciplined soldier.
The ginormous sword would then levitate into the sky and start swinging; at that kind of mass, the air itself was cut under its pressure.
As a massive wind blade large enough to cut down a skyscraper like a samurai's katana to a tatami mat came towards him, William would mimic the man's actions; those long, grueling hours of studying weren't for nothing after all.
The Bident in William's hand would expand several-fold, before levitating into the air, with the powers of the sun and moon on each prong shining even brighter and larger, it looked as if the celestial body's themselves had descended.
Although the man had the advantage of skill and size, William's raw power, due to his various sources of amplification, made his weapon far deadlier. As the trident would effortlessly pierce through the wind blade, splitting it into two. The two fragments of the wind blade then crashed into several nearby abandoned homes, destroying most of them instantly.
William would have his eyes closed at this time, shutting off as many of his senses at once to concentrate on manipulating the Ingenuity inside his trident. He'd launch the the trident straight at the man's Greatsword, aiming for destruction.
The "King" would see this coming and wield his kaiju-sized weapon to slice the trident apart.
The collision of the two massive weapons would create a deafening boom and split the sky itself. As a massive rift appeared in the air, just to close up moments after.
On the ground were blood-red fragments of a once great greatsword, while the Frigid cold bident returned to its owner's hands.
'I guess this means I win.'
Just as he thought he had won, William would see the fragments of the greatsword bind themselves together, using Ingenuity particles like glue.
'You've gotta be kidding me...'
The man would stand tall, having received even more brutal injuries from the collision, bloody gashes all throughout his body, his left arm had been severed as well. Yet he continued fighting, for what purpose, William did not yet know.
The man used the rest of the Ingenuity in the area that he could find to bind his left arm back on and seal his injuries once more, if only slightly.
'Damnit!'
The ingenuity particles in this area had all been scattered far and wide with that last collision, so William had no more left to use.
'Well, I probably should back out, lest my Ingenuity reserves get too low.'
Just then, a bloody aura would exude from the man's body, this time targeting the cloud above.
'Such an obvious tactic...'
William would whip out his phone and start speed typing to Fei Kangzhen, whom he had added before for situations like this.
Fei Kangzhen would receive the message and yelp in a nervous panic, before hurriedly moving the cloud away from the aura of the "King".
Though, at this point, the man had taken around a third of it's mass, and forced it to dissipate instead of using it offensively.
Then, he'd charge at William.
The two of them would engage in a bloody brawl, with William receiving nasty slashes from the greatsword, and the King receiving several stab wounds. If things kept going like this, it was uncertain who would win, as the man was using every second to slowly conquer William, weakening him as the battle went on.
'What a troublesome opponent...But I have one thing he doesn't have.'
Just then, the grey cloud above them would shrink and shrink, becoming smaller than a needle, before blasting towards the man, who was hit in the right shoulder. This caused his entire body to convulse and freeze up once more.
'Allies.'
A strange looking dark coloured ring would appear around William and the King, who seemed to be weakened by it. Invisible artillery shots were fired again and again at him.
'Now or Never.'
William would thrust the Trident of Destruction straight into the man's upper body. A hexagonal barrier would appear in front of his strike, however, the trident pierced through it, shattering the barrier, as an aurora of light and darkness appeared behind him, painting the sky with a gorgeous view.
'A painting, huh...Reminds me...'
In the next moment, an explosion would occur within the man's body, representing his defeat. A second gaping hole would appear in his body, causing blood to start pouring out like a waterfall.
"It's over..Wh-
A fist would suddenly strike William hard in the face, not with malice or hatred, but sympathy.
"I...
The man struggled to stand upright, but he would stand his ground.
'No way..'
"I am Haralen Syerna. The Sin of Pride. There is...
He declared his name and title.
keuk..
"A plan here, if you're strong enough to beat me...Then you may be able to.....stop it, stop 'Him'. Pride."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Pr....tec....t....H..er.."
At this point, the man had lost so much blood he could barely speak, let alone think. Yet he pointed at the very top of the watchtower with a determined face, both referring to the people at the top of the tower and what lay at the top of the tower.
William would nod and signal to the agent he had left at the top of the tower.
'Xiao Wei, head to the true highest floor.'
The now cat-form Xiao Wei would break through the locks on the top door, as the barrier skills were deactivated quite some time ago. Breaching into the top floor. Which was a small room, big enough to fit one telephone box, with a single item on a golden pedestal in the center. Xiao Wei would form a shadow hand to grab onto it, before sprinting back down a floor and throwing it to her boss through the balcony.
Seeing a shiny, rectangular object flying towards him, William was quite intrigued.
'What could this be? A magic tome, perhaps?'
It was only when he caught it that he saw what it was, as well as the man's intentions. He'd grin and look at the "king".
'You sly bastard...'
William would open up the book and drop it onto the man's dying body. As a flurry of illusory, incomprehensible text appeared to whisk the man's soul away.
[Title: King's Saviour, has been acquired.]
William would stare at the book before picking it up and throwing it back to Xiao Wei with a grin.
"Store it for me, will ya?"
Xiao Wei would do as she did before and consume the book whole. Before heading into one of the rooms, explore. It was then that she realized something, that this man was never the heinous fiend everyone thought he was, the ones who were executed up front? People who tried to kill him, the ones in these rooms, were not being abused or neglected. They were using his place as shelter. As Xiao Wei saw a group of young women huddled together whilst shedding tears silently, afraid of what might happen next without their guardian.
Back on the ground, William would turn his attention back to the body, which seemed to now be in a state of stasis.
'This'll make things easier...'
At this time, Li Jiaojie had arrived, with Fei Kangzhen not too far behind, though he seemed rather winded. Both of them dressed similarly to William, with grey overcoats and collared shirts.
He'd yell out.
"Boss. Did we win?"
William would simply smile and step aside to reveal the man's "corpse".
Li Jiaojie would look extremely relieved.
"Thank God....."
"Funny you mention that, actually."
William wouldn't continue any further on that topic.
"Anyway, I suppose this counts as our official first victory. I wonder what we should call ourselves. Any good organization cares about branding!"
Fei Kangzhen would finally have made it; he'd stammer whilst catching his breath.
"W-what....about....Cerberus? F-for now at least..."
William would think for a few seconds before turning to the crowd, who had spectated the entire fight from a safe distance away with their loved ones, and proclaim loudly. With Fei Kangzhen and Li Jiaojie to his left and right, respectively.
"From here on out, this Safe Area is under the authority of Cerberus. Those who dare to challenge us will be swiftly put six feet under. Those who align themselves with us will be rewarded handsomely for their efforts. We are businessmen after all."
He'd brandish his coat before turning around and preparing to head inside.
"Oh, and Li Jiaojie, patch him up, will you? He doesn't deserve death."