William made his way towards the place where Sang Pianyi and Sasha were heading, his expression a stoic calm.
He breathed lightly as he ran, eyes tunneling vision on what was in front of him.
The soft sounds of rain began to fall from the sky, feeding the dry earth and turning it into mud. The air tasted moist, enveloping William's senses with its smell.
Eventually, the clearing unravelled to reveal a mid-flight Sang Pianyi and Sasha, both surprised to see William waiting for them.
Sang Pianyi distressingly called out, "Run! They're coming!", not bothering to explain, which luckily for him, he didn't need to.
William calmly approached them, a chilling dual-pronged spear appearing in his hand in a flurry of illusory tex. The Underworld Bident.
Under the gaze of the full moon, which tore through the pitiful rainclouds above them, Xiao Wei seemed to have gained a second wind of sorts, looking perhaps stronger than ever, as she leaped off of William's shoulder and stood in front of him, eagerly awaiting instructions.
Speaking calmly, William addressed the two who were quickly approaching him. "Did you two forget? If we don't take them out here, the damage that comes after is going to be catastrophic, for all of us." He raised his spear towards the creatures in the distance.
The two's bodies froze momentarily at William's strange insights, before Sang Pianyi continued running forward while grabbing Sasha's hand. "I think you're the one who has forgotten his rationality. If we can evacuate everyone before those things catch up, the casualties will be minimal."
Before he could continue running any more, though, Sasha started to pull back, beckoning Sang Pianyi to turn around in confusion.
Her eyes full of conviction, she spoke determinedly. "I think he's right, at least, that we have to try to take them down. We're part of why they're here, we hold responsibility, right?"
William used the transformation ability granted by Xiao Wei's record to seal off his wounds beforehand, sacrificing some of his height in the process and reducing him to about a hundred and seventy-five centimeters in height.
'Awh.'
Not waiting for the two to decide, William had already stepped beyond them, gazing upon the enemies coming near.
[Author's Note has been activated.]
[Name: Intermediate-High Rank Shadow Fiend]
[Details: Possesses the strength of a low-ranked Scholar]
[Name: Intermediate-Middle Rank Shadow Fiend]
[Details: Possesses the strength of a highly ranked Reader]
[Name: Intermediate-Low Rank Shadow Fiend]
[Details: Possesses the strength of a standard-ranked Reader]
Then, a side note appeared.
[Fiend]
[Definition: A low-ranking species of demon that inhabits the underworld. Despite being some of the weakest creatures that reside there, they outmatch the vast majority of humanity in strength and possess inhuman intelligence. As a species of demon, they possess many abilities under the evil domain, such as being able to accept sacrificial rituals to be summoned.]
'Useful, but this does beg the question of how the Lord of Shadows finds out about this?', William wondered. He had used his Reader attribute to speedread the contents that appeared in less than a second, and was thinking of a way to combat these creatures currently.
Suddenly, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder; it was Sang Pianyi. Who stared at William with stone-cold eyes.
"Listen, man, I'm all for trying to save the people who rely on us for protection, but this...It's tantamount to suicide; we're leaving. If you want to live, come with us; if not, your sacrifice will be remembered...and I will respect your decision, as an equal."
Behind him, Sasha watched worriedly, staring back and forth between William and the shadow creatures quickly approaching, her fingers digging into Sang Pianyi's.
[Attribute: Monster resonates with its wielder strongly.]
A cold layer would wash over William's surface expression. "You two go on ahead, I came this far for a reason after all. Besides, someone has to stall the horde, and it might as well be me."
Sang Pianyi's gaze lingered on William for a moment before picking Sasha up in his arms and using the few moments left of his crow enhancements to depart the premises with haste.
William stared slightly behind Sang Pianyi whilst he looked at him, giving a half-hearted smile as he avoided eye contact.
Once certain that the two had left, he turned towards the three fiends that were already around five seconds away from reaching him. He dropped his smile, displaying his "real" face, a void-like, stone-cold expression.
He twirled his bident around his fingers in a show of meaningless theatrics, carefully treading towards the demons with empty determination. The cold raindrops fell onto his silver-rimmed glasses, which he then calmly removed and tossed to the side.
The glasses fell onto the muddy earth with an audible splat, sinking deeper and deeper by the second.
Strangely, since the pouring rain had long since entered his eyes, soft moisture began to drip from his sockets; if someone were to describe them, they would be...cloudy.
Taking a deep breath, he stood still and waited for the fiends to reach him, staring directly ahead, finally.
The soft curtain of rain obscured his vision just enough to hide the clear images of the three fiends, instead granting them a veil of secrecy and turning them into shadowy silhouettes.
Grrr!
The three quickly surrounded him, their filthy snarls and growls piercing through William's eardrums while they loomed over the pitiful young man, their hungry gazes staring deep into the outline of his soul.
William slowly raised his gaze to lock eyes with the one in front of him, the highest ranking fiend out of the three, as the crystal raindrops cascaded upon him, wetting his hair, blurring his vision, and soaking through his clothes. He slowly approached them.
The fiend took the form of a broad-shouldered giant, around three meters tall, bearing several nasty scars and gashes across its body, a sign of its long, long history of endless battle, as well as strange black orbs in place of its eyes. It seemed to hint at William's next move, with an almost cynical body language.
His page-like eyes reflecting the colourless black orbs of the giant's, he spoke calmly. "Well...I guess I'll trust the Library to help me translate this one...It is a pleasure to meet you three, I am...no one of importance, just a sacrificial lamb, I suppose. Mind if we have a chat?"
He hoped to buy time for the rest of them to escape, or at least so his death wouldn't be in vain, like some kind of sacrifice found in fantasy. Unfortunately, reality is often much crueler than fiction.
The words he had spoken just now went against his dream of having a normal life, instead choosing to be the sacrificial lamb that others depended on, how far you've fallen, "mighty" truthseeker. Don't let yourself fall.
"Insolent mortal, if that is all you hope for, this discussion ends now." The giant let out a strange series of tongues while sneering mockingly, which was automatically translated for William, before raising its colossal claymore as it had before, preparing to do what it had just done to the Lord of Shadows.
"Hold on."
The giant paused momentarily, deciding to give this mortal a last chance before they finished him off for good.
William sighed with a dark expression, "We are more alike than you think, fiend of the underworld. Just as you are a demon who devours men, I am a man who has consumed his own mortality." He said whilst staring directly into the giant's "eyes".
It seemed his words affected the three fiends, even if only a little, as in the next moment a new message appeared in the Library.
[Attribute: Monster resonates with the nearby creatures.]