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{Chapter: 388 Husband And Wife United In Heart And Soul}
William's body trembled violently, sweat streaming down his temples as his fists clenched and unclenched in chaotic rhythm. His veins bulged under his skin, glowing faintly as two conflicting energies surged inside him—green and dark red—locked in a furious battle.
From the sky, Alice and Ada watched helplessly. Anxiety flickered in their eyes. If Ada hadn't grabbed her wrist, Pepper would've already flown straight to his side.
"William!" Jane called out, her voice cracking slightly as she hovered tensely in place.
Sif looked down, guilt etched on her otherwise stoic face. "If I had noticed sooner…"
Alice shook her head, steadying her voice. "No one could've predicted this. It's not your fault. This… this was a trap."
Ada glanced toward the White Queen, who was analyzing the situation with glowing eyes and an unreadable expression. "What's happening inside him?"
The White Queen's pupils rotated like a data lens. "William and Algrim are engaged in full-scale spiritual warfare. A battle of consciousness for control over the body."
Ada's voice tightened. "And who's winning?"
"For now…" The White Queen paused, her tone tense. "They're evenly matched. But if Algrim gains even a momentary advantage, he could overwrite William's soul."
On the ground, William screamed, his back arching as he thrashed. "Aaaagh! I must… devour you!"
Inside him, Algrim's cruel voice echoed like a war drum: "You're weak! Your spirit isn't ready for this! My soul has been reforged—strengthened beyond comprehension! Your body is MINE!"
Outside, the women watched helplessly. Alice's hands clenched into fists.
"There has to be something we can do," she said urgently.
"There might be," White Queen replied slowly. "You and I both possess highly trained mental energy. Our thought projection abilities may allow us to enter his consciousness and assist him directly."
"Then let's do it," Alice said without hesitation.
"Wait." The White Queen gave her a sharp look. "There are… risks. If we fail, our minds could be trapped. We'd be brain-dead in the real world. Or worse."
Alice didn't blink. "If we wait, he dies. If we act, he might live. I'm going in. You can stay out if you're scared."
White Queen's lips curled into a rare, mischievous smile. "I've been waiting for you to say that."
The two women closed their eyes in perfect synchrony. When they reopened them, Alice's irises had transformed into sharp triangular patterns that pulsed with psychic light. The White Queen's pupils bloomed into clover-shaped glyphs, glowing with layered calculation and logic.
Together, their combined psychic force surged out and dove into William's body like twin comets of radiant willpower.
"William, hold on," Alice whispered, her voice barely audible in the air.
Pepper grabbed Jane's hand tightly as they hovered back. "They'll make it. They have to."
Ada stood her ground and crossed her arms, eyes burning. "They will. I believe in them."
---
Inside William's Mindscape
A bizarre, vast space unfolded—half pure white, half dark crimson. The boundary between them flickered like a glitch in reality, unstable and rapidly tilting toward darkness.
With a shimmer of white light, Alice and White Queen materialized as astral projections.
Alice looked around, her boots skimming across invisible ground. "What is this place?"
"The core of William's consciousness, the Sea of Consciousness or Inner World or Mindscape," White Queen said, surveying the environment. "Normally this would be all white—order, clarity, ego. But Algrim's corrupted soul is consuming it from within. If he wins, the white disappears… and William's body becomes his."
Suddenly, a tremor shook the spiritual space. A wave of unstable energy blasted toward them.
"There!" White Queen pointed sharply. "The battle is ahead!"
The two women burst forward, turning into twin streaks of mental light and darting toward the epicenter of chaos.
They arrived at a warped arena-like space where William—now a glowing projection of his consciousness—was grappling with a monstrous version of Algrim. The corrupted spirit had transformed into a twisted amalgamation of bone and fire, with jagged edges and a face twisted by rage.
William was locked in a power struggle, arms braced against Algrim's clawed hands. Sparks flew where their wills collided.
William growled through clenched teeth. "You want my body? Fuck you!
Algrim laughed. "Why struggle? You're already cracking!"
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang...
The deafening booms echoed through the spiritual space, each impact shaking the very foundation of the Mindscape. A blinding white figure and a shadowy dark red form clashed over and over again, the energy from their collisions splintering across the boundary line that divided this dreamlike battlefield.
White against red. Light against corruption.
"You're stubborn, William!" Algrim snarled, his body flaring with a molten crimson hue, blazing like liquid rage. "Your physical vessel is remarkable—strong beyond anything I've possessed—but your consciousness is fractured. Just give in! You were never meant to wield such power!"
William's voice, steady and sharp like thunder cracking through a storm, shot back with defiance. "You want me to give up? What kind of moron do you take me for?!"
Algrim's laughter echoed through the spiritual void, deep and unsettling. "Keep fighting if you want, but with every blow, this space deteriorates! This is your soul, not mine. When it collapses, you'll die... but I will be reborn from the wreckage."
"Then go ahead and dream, parasite!" William shouted, throwing himself forward again. Their fists met with a flash that shattered the clouds above and sent shockwaves rippling across the mental plane.
Both combatants were flung backward, tumbling across the ground before skidding to a halt on opposite sides of the field.
William groaned as he got up, holding his ribs. He spat to the side—no blood, just radiant white mist. "You're like a stain that won't come out no matter how hard I scrub."
Just then, two brilliant streaks of white light descended. Alice and White Queen arrived beside him, both taking on their psychic projection form, astral projection form. Their presence stabilized the chaos briefly, causing the ambient energy to flare brighter around William.
"We're here," Alice said firmly, grabbing William's arm to pull him upright.
"We'll end this together," White Queen added, her sharp gaze already analyzing the rift in the mental plane.
Algrim's eyes blazed as he snarled. "Two women? Do you really think that's going to make a difference? I'll devour them too if they get in my way!"
William grinned despite his pain. ""Hahaha, you are worthy of being my woman, if you have the courage, let's kill that idiot. These two women are more dangerous than you ever were. Together?."
White Queen rolled her eyes, "I told you already—I'm not your woman."
William shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, but you're fighting beside me, and that's close enough right now."
Algrim let out a roar and slammed his fists together. "Enough games! Your 'alliance' changes nothing! You're still alone!"
"Wanna bet?" William's tone turned ice-cold. "Alice. White Queen. Sync up with me. Now let's be united as husband and wife and work together to kill the idiot, Alice, White Queen, let the three of us merge our consciousness into one."
"I'm not your woman." White Queen yelled. "You're lucky I care," White Queen muttered, before her body turned into a beam of data-like light and flowed into William's spiritual form.
"I was going to do this even if you didn't ask," Alice added, her projection glowing brighter before merging into William's soul.
William's form surged with brilliant white radiance, his body standing tall and unwavering at the center of the realm. The light from his core exploded outward in a shockwave of pure psychic force, washing over the dark red half of the spiritual plane and purging it inch by inch.
The ground beneath Algrim cracked as the light encroached upon his domain.
"NO!" Algrim bellowed, his molten-red eyes wild with desperation. "You think combining minds gives you the right to erase me?!"
William's voice now echoed with a chorus—his own, Alice's, and the White Queen's—unified. "This is the power of unity. Of clarity. Of resistance. You were never going to win, Algrim."
Algrim charged again, roaring in frustration. "I can't lose! Not after everything I sacrificed!"
In a blink, William vanished.
Flash.
He reappeared behind Algrim, moving faster than thought.
A gasp escaped Algrim's lips. "Wh-What…?"
His body faltered. A massive wound had torn through his chest—clean, silent, devastating.
The crimson energy drained from Algrim like air from a balloon. He slowly fell to his knees, clutching the gaping hole in his body as thick dark-red spiritual matter oozed out.
"This isn't happening… This isn't possible... I can't fail… not like this..." he whispered, more to himself than anyone else.
William's form hovered over him, burning with the intensity of three combined souls. "You should have stayed buried in history. Instead, you crawled back into the light—and now I'll show you what true purification feels like."
William raised his hand, and from his palm poured forth a wave of blinding white substance—his condensed soul-force. The light surged like liquid flame and latched onto Algrim's shadowed body, rapidly crawling over his corrupted essence.
William turned around with a hint of tyranny, "Algrim, this time it's a complete end. You actually brought me so much trouble. You deserve to die."
"No—NO! STOP! STOOOOP!!" Algrim writhed, screaming in agony as the white light began to engulf and dissolve him from the outside in.
"This is it fuck you fucker," William said, his tone final and unyielding.
Algrim's body twisted and shrieked as the light consumed him piece by piece.