William's eyes flew open as he fought against the effects of the drowsiness with newfound determination.
The view of the effervescent, idyllic room once again appeared in his eyes. He stared intently at the Reader of Dreams, with his trident in hand.
"Come now~ Surely you wouldn't want your precious little girly here to get hurt~" She gently reminded him of the situation at hand.
Knowing that she was likely trying to buy time for reinforcements to arrive, he began to strategize.
[Writing has been activated.]
[200 seconds.]
Instead of actually writing anything, he used the time dilation feature of the Writing ability to think.
'I have two options at face value. To attempt to fight the emerald witch and put Lian's life at risk, or to pretend to give up and retreat, which would guarantee Lian's life in the short term, but then my men won't wake up, and I won't have a fighting force. I need manpower to win this fight. Perhaps with some constructive criticism, I could distract her. No, she'd be able to react in time...Then maybe by writing in movements? It would sacrifice a lot of Ingenuity to make someone do something against their will, but it's probably my best option currently.'
[The Reader of Dreams will stop utilizing her ability and become momentarily paralyzed to non-life-threatening actions made by enemies.]
A forceful action such as this would have normally cost William around a third of his total Ingenuity amount, but for some reason, the cost was significantly reduced. Rather than being joyous over the ingenuity saved, he was worried. For the ingenuity in writing to be saved, it meant that one of the conditions written wasn't difficult to achieve at all; perhaps it was already achieved, and thus the writing had no effect, causing it to be recycled.
Therefore, in this case, a failure taught him more than a success would have. And what he had learned was that The Reader of Dreams was never utilizing her ability.
'Interesting.'
As time began to flow once more, the Reader of Dreams appeared to be paralyzed in some kind of way. Taking the opportunity, William dove towards her in a non-lethal manner, tackling her with all the strength he could muster, knocking her to the floor with the bone-clattering thud.
This move would snap the woman out of the paralysis; she'd begin wrestling with William on the wooden caravan floor.
He used his trident, which he had kept in his right hand during all of this, to try to pierce through the woman's neck.
Unfortunately for him, a strange, dream-like feeling washed over him as his body felt hazy, like the feeling he got when he was in the dream world before he realized it, a kind of stupidity, moreso a hazy obliviousness.
This was yet another facet of the Reader of Dreams' ability; once combined with the drowsiness effect, it would render an opponent completely unable to think coherently.
William stumbled around like a toddler just learning how to walk before being grabbed by the neck and lifted into the air by the Reader of Dreams, who would promptly begin crushing his windpipe.
"How adorable~ I love watching little creatures struggle before they go to bed!"
William coughed, or at least he tried to. He tried to scream, but no sound came out. Things were looking grim for him; he should never have attempted to save his people. He should have taken the path to survival,l even if it meant sacrificing the ones he held dear, he should have thrown away his emotions to become stronger. Only then could he have been powerful enough to succeed here alone.
(But you chose a different path. The first of your kind. An interesting development worth seeing to the end. )
However, in a situation like this, the only thing that could save William from death would be a deus ex machina.
Fortunately, I have just the thing in mind.
William's consciousness began to fade; whether to sleep or the afterlife, he wasn't sure. Even so, he desperately clung to a life that he didn't even know the meaning of.
Just as he was about to hit his breaking point, a powerful wave of red, regal aura flooded the caravan. It was extremely precise in its control, only targeting the subordinates of the Lord of Shadows.
Instantly, the Reader of Dreams fell to her knees, and the multiple status effects affecting William dispersed quickly.
To someone like William, who had experienced this ability firsthand, it wasn't hard to tell where and who it had come from.
'A person more fit to rule than I ever was.'
The aura emanated in bursts, around sixty times per minute. Aligning with a certain man's heartbeat.
Taking the opportunity he was given, William took his trident and stabbed the woman's abdomen.
It was at that point that William's injuries began to heal thanks to his coat. It had been diminished quite a bit since he had first received it. Becoming increasingly transparent by the second.
The woman coughed up a mouthful of blood whilst smiling.
'I have to thank you for this one.'
Soon, the regal aura began to dissipate; it seemed that the deus ex machina that William was granted was now over. And it was up to him to finish the battle.
The Reader of Dreams grinned while blood poured out of her mouth. She grabbed onto the trident with her right hand and thrust it deeper into her body, making it stuck. She then held onto William's weapon-wielding arm with her left.
She then manifested an invisible object in a flurry of illusory text, which she would thrust straight into William's chest, piercing straight through William's rib cage, and through his left lung.
Worse yet, his coat had seemed to cease functioning.
He started bleeding immensely, but he didn't react at all. After all, this madwoman had already put him through pain far worse than anything a singular dagger could deal to him.
'So it's a dagger, eh?'
At least, that's what he thought before the dagger's effects caught up to him.
'W-wait, I was just joki-
William felt as the dagger pierced through him that a small piece of his soul had been severed.
Though it was only a small tear, it felt as if someone had ripped his brain from his head and chopped it up. Which is ironic, since the brain doesn't have any nerves anyway. The point is, it hurt like hell.
Staring at the rather elegant woman whom he had penetrated with his trident, and had penetrated him with an invisible dagger. Both rendering each other's souls.
She quickly retracted the invisible dagger, trying to go in for another attack while they were still so close. However, William had anticipated this ahead of time.
He blocked the attack by leaning in and biting down on the arm she was using to attack with everything he had. Which managed to tear through most of the flesh and nerve endings in her wrist, leaving her unable to use the dagger.
"Arrgh!" William screamed as he bit through her wrist.
The invisible dagger fell to the ground with a metallic clang. As William stared at the Reader of Dreams while licking his lips like a professional food reviewer.
"Human doesn't taste too bad...Could use some seasoning, though." He shamelessly remarked with a hideous grin.
For the first time, he thought he saw the woman's composure break, as she stared at William with slightly disgusted and fearful eyes. She took a slight crawl backwards from where they were on the floor.
"Awwh...What's the matter? Scared? I'm awfully hungry today, you see, so forgive me for indulging a bit." William continued smiling unnaturally, while standing up and walking towards the woman, licking his lips.
'Also, seriously? Does she have trauma from cannibalism or something? She tortured me for like a full hour while giggling to herself like a schoolgirl in love! Surely light cannibalism is better than that!'
'G-gluttonous demon...'
The woman's eyes widened as she felt like a lamb being stalked by a hungry wolf.
"You...What kind of monster..." Her voice trailed off in confusion.
"A monster that eats people," William stated calmly.
As he walked towards the woman, she continued crawling backwards, eventually reaching the hard oak wall of the caravan. It felt like an impassable barrier to her, separating salvation from despair.
Her eyes wandered before landing on something behind William, something in the doorway coming from the back of the caravan.
Suddenly, her composure changed, revealing a still disgusted and confused, but confident expression, like her hidden trump card had finally come into play.
"Now!" She cried out urgently.