"What the hell is that? Why isn't it showing its fatal weakness? Don't tell me it doesn't have one!" William was under heavy pressure right now, starting to lose his feeling with his left arm. He couldn't see his real body, but he was sure if he did, it'd be filled with deep wounds.
That didn't matter as long as he finally reached his goal and learnt this very important secret. Yet the figure in front of him stood silent, not showing any change or doing anything at all. And when William started to lose hope, prepared himself to tell Arthur to cancel the formation, something started to change.
The body of the monster was made out of golden dust particles, so it looked like a golden statue. And now William could see a faint white dot that appeared just in a spot in the middle of the chest.
"This… Is this its fatal weakness?" Before he'd continue his words, the alarming shout from Arthur came to startle him.
[We can't hold any longer! Prepare yourself to get out of there in five, four…]
As Arthur started counting down, another white dot appeared at a spot at the belly. Then another one appeared, and another, making William want to curse.
The world waited until they couldn't hold anymore and started to show him the answer he sought. He didn't know if this was on purpose or it was something accidental, but he still hated it no matter what.
When the count reached zero, the world started to blur. William focused entirely over the body of the humanoid monster in front of him, trying to not miss a single detail even when he was leaving.
And in just a few breaths, the entire world vanished, and he returned back to the world of darkness.
"Damn!" the first thing he said was this shout, and then he had to stop speaking as he felt weird weakness and inhuman pain assaulting him.
When he looked at his body, he found himself suffering wounds that were no less than the time he met that nine tailed fox back at the end of his past life.
William expected a severe backlash, but when he saw his body littered with wounds, filled with holes as if he just came out from a brutal fight, he couldn't help but get shocked by this.
He didn't care about his falling body, or when it hit the ground. He hurriedly took out lots of healing potions and elixirs, didn't care about how many he gulped, and kept opening them in batches, emptying their content in his mouth without pause.
He knew he was in a very bad situation, and he didn't have time to even check on others. He cared mostly about himself at this moment, and it proved right later on what he did.
The wounds caused by such backlash weren't normal at all. Even after an hour of gulping elixirs and potions, he still felt immense pain and weakness.
"Don't just use healing elixirs, use spirit power replenishment elixirs and potions," the weak and shaky voice of Arthur came while a weak silhouette of his appeared in front of William. He was leaning on a long stick, as if he was used to have such weird backlash, "this hit is at your body and spirit."
"..."
William was so weak to even say a single word or issue a sound. He instantly took spirit power replenishing elixirs. When he used these, he felt a lot better.
"Thanks," William could speak and even slowly stood up just after a few minutes, "are everyone alright?"
"We didn't lose anyone, luckily," William asked out of courtesy, yet he never expected that part of the team to die. He knew these were the strongest one hundred masters in the entire branch, and this branch was supposed to be the leading branch in this continent.
Realising this made William bitterly sigh. It felt like he was standing in front of the death's doorsteps without even realising it. "Don't think too much about it, we are lucky to return back alive."
"I see," William paused, "that world is totally dangerous. Why are you doing this?"
"Believe it or not, this is our destiny," Arthur bitterly smiled, "it's something that a youth like you wouldn't understand. Anyway, we got to see all that you saw… That enemy of yours… He isn't human, isn't he?"
"It's a monster," William knew they shared lots of pressure and torture with him and they deserved to learn part of the truth. Besides, they already saw all that he saw.
Even if the final shape of that enemy didn't appear, it was clear it was a monster before. William didn't know they had their own means to interpret things, including understanding things that didn't appear clearly in that world.
Arthur and others already guessed many things, including the fact that this enemy was a monster, and it got born out of another, much scarier, monster.
"We have tons of questions, if you may," Arthur knew a lot, but he also missed a ton in the entire picture. And so, he wanted to speak with William about these doubts, hoping this youth could clarify things over.
"I'm sorry, but I'm tired and exhausted as you can see," William pointed towards himself before adding, "and I lack understanding of lots of what happened. So why won't you give me scrolls about this mysterious world and your ways?"
"This… It's against the law," Arthur momentarily hesitated, and William couldn't help but evilly grin.
"Laws that bind low level masters in your Cult like Leo and Jeremy don't apply over a Cardinal candidate, right?"
"..."
Arthur didn't know that what he once bragged about before in front of Jeremy would backfire at him like this. "But we'll need something in return."
"Then I'll answer one question for you, and you'll provide me with enough scrolls to know the basics of your way."
"Fair enough," as William expected, speaking about the basics wouldn't limit Arthur. In return for answering one question, he'd gain access to lots of things.
