The silence that followed was suffocating. The remaining three masters, pinned by wounds and the overwhelming presence of William's monster guard, felt the weight of his words.
They were casual, almost conversational, yet they carried a domineering gravity that felt heavier than the spiritual pressure of the scariest masters they had ever encountered in the heavens.
They were trapped in a state of profound shock and total confusion. Nothing made sense. The intelligence they had been provided—the meticulously gathered reports from the organisation that had hired them—was wrong.
It wasn't just slightly off; it was a catastrophic failure of information. They had studied William.
The reports described a capable, resourceful master who had managed to rise within the constraints of this "lower world." But as they watched him now, they realised the fundamental error of their mission.
