_Chapter Begins_
Just as the jaws of death could make contact with his soft flesh, William used his reflection ability to slip inside the abomination's eye and hide there.
The maw of the wooden abomination caught nothing but air as it continued its ascent upward.
Eventually, the wooden creature reached the top of the giant crystal—its wooden claws scraping against the reflective surface.
The wooden monster shifted from left to right, its massive body causing small tremors to run throughout the crystal.
The glowing eyes of the monster also shifted, looking around the area with a small hint of…confusion?
In these few precious moments where the wooden abomination was still confused about what had happened, William had to take advantage.
His reflection ability was instant, so it was no surprise that it would take a few moments before the wooden monster realized what had happened.
His reflection ability consumed only a very small amount of soul energy when compared to his other ability, "copy."
This meant that William did not need to rush back into the fight…but he still wanted to.
The wooden abomination was currently confused and distracted by William's sudden disappearance. He just couldn't resist launching a surprise attack on the damned monster right here and now.
Who knows, maybe he would be able to end the fight right then and there.
"Gods… I really need to contain myself."
William could not let himself make rash decisions like the one he had just thought of.
Right now, what he needed to do was form a good strategy—with the help of Elsa.
"Elsa. You there?"
The voice of a woman resounded inside his head—her tone cold and indifferent.
"Yeah, I am here as always."
Her indifferent tone did not disappoint in creeping William out, nor in making him very angry.
"I have a question to ask. May I?"
He didn't quite know why he was being so formal with her.
The woman's voice resounded once more, but this time it was no longer cold and indifferent…in fact, it was quite the opposite.
"Of course you can, William!"
Her voice was a mix of politeness and joy, with a small hint of sinister intent carved onto it.
Despite the fact that William was no stranger to Elsa's mood swings and alien-like behavior, it still made him feel extremely uncomfortable.
Shaking off the red flags of Elsa's behavior, he continued focusing on what mattered in the moment.
Figuring out who or what Elsa was… that would come much later.
Right now, he needed to focus on one thing and one thing only, and that was his rematch.
"Elsa. What do you think is the best strategy to beat the wooden abomination?"
As always, she did not linger with her answer. Her voice now sounded robotic—losing the cold indifference and sinister politeness from before.
"The best strategy to beat that fiend is to outlast it. Although that will be a little tricky considering its ability."
William decided not to interrupt—purely because he didn't have the time to. Every single second he spent inside this reflection drained a small amount of soul energy.
Even though it was only a small amount, it still added up.
Elsa continued.
"The sin of Envy is inside you, so do not fear losing a battle of attrition. Your soul energy far outweighs the monster's pool of energy. However, you're inexperienced and have no idea how to actually use your soul energy effectively."
She lingered for a few moments, which surprised William, who wasn't used to her doing so.
"The monster's ability allows it to adapt to almost anything, and that gives it a massive advantage in a drawn-out fight."
There was a long pause, which prompted William to break the silence as it was becoming pretty awkward.
"...So… any ideas on how to bypass that ability and win?"
His voice did not sound very confident.
Elsa let out a small sigh and spoke—her voice back to being cold and indifferent. She had made a full circle with the tone of her voice.
"Fight the monster and try to do as much damage as possible. It will be forced to adapt to your attacks and grow new lines of sorcery, which will slowly drain its soul energy, as that is the cost of using sorcery."
That sounded like a good plan, considering he had a much bigger pool of soul energy than the monster. But he couldn't help but notice one fatal flaw in this approach.
But just as he was about to bring this flaw up to Elsa, it almost seemed as if she had read his mind.
"There is one flaw with this plan, though. If you use your entire arsenal of attacks to damage the wooden abomination and force it to adapt… well, if it fully adapts to all of it, then you won't have any attacks left to land the finishing blow, as all of them will be negated by the sorcery of the fiend."
Yep. That was exactly what William had thought of. Even if the wooden abomination had no soul energy left, the lines of sorcery would still do their job. So if the creature adapted fully to his arsenal, then he simply would have nothing left to damage it with.
But he wasn't worried about this. William was pretty confident that Elsa would have a solution.
There was a long stretch of silence as William waited for the… solution.
Then he heard a small chuckle of amusement leave Elsa's lips.
Then she said what he was dreading to hear.
"Well… I have no solution in mind for this situation. It's all up to you, William. Good luck!"
Before he could rebuke anything, he felt a massive wave of relief wash over his mind.
It felt as if an invisible weight had been lifted off his neurons.
The feeling of dread that had invaded his mind ever since he encountered the red fog and crimson rain was now gone.
"She's gone, isn't she…"
Ever since he met Elsa in that cave, a constant feeling of being watched had manifested in his mind.
But now it was gone… which could only mean one thing.
"Hey… Elsa, you there!"
Nothing. No sound of a cold and indifferent person, no sound of a sinister person hiding behind politeness, and no sound of a robotic machine pretending to be human.
He felt such freedom from not hearing her voice… and yet he still didn't like it.
Why did she disappear, and where did she go?
"Ugh, I don't have time for this."
He would figure out where Elsa went after he dealt with his nemesis.
All he had to do was find the solution to fix Elsa's plan.
One solution—that's all he needed. Everything else was already set up for him.
Letting out a mental sigh, William broke away from the reflection he was hiding in and finally came back to the real world.
It felt nice to have a physical body once more… it was more comfortable.
William felt a breeze hit the back of his head, but for some reason this breeze was very hot… and also very smelly.
Turning around, he looked up at the two holes that the wooden abomination used as nostrils.
At that very moment, the wooden abomination let out another breath that hit William like a breeze from the ocean.
"Hello there. It has not been that long since our last meeting, has it?"
There was a mixture of sinister glee and smugness in its voice. However, that was only surface level. Looking a little deeper, one could also notice a small hint of disgust and fear.
The monster did not linger in its reply. Lifting its ugly skull up to the sky, the abomination let out a long and menacing roar that made the world shake.
Letting its wooden head fall back down, the monster and William made direct eye contact.
And then… all hell broke loose.
_Chapter Ends_