_Chapter Begins_
The demonic roars of the wooden abomination boomed through the area — making everything that had a heartbeat shudder in place.
The roar slowly subsided and eventually completely stopped, as a long stretch of eerie silence settled over the area.
The silence was so intense that William could clearly hear his own heartbeat inside his ear.
Trying his best to remain calm, he stood still — waiting for the wooden creature to start moving again.
His efforts of remaining calm did not work, as William could feel his body shudder every few seconds.
His grip on the ghostly dagger tightened, and his eyes narrowed at the waves of crystals below him.
"Elsa. You there?"
William did not speak, as he didn't need to.
Now that he had found out that Elsa pretty much lived only inside his own mind, that made things a lot more efficient.
He could simply think of a sentence and Elsa would be able to read it.
"Yes, I am here."
Knowing that the voice he was hearing inside his mind right now was only an illusion or hallucination made by Elsa was... weird to say the least.
That level of trickery over someone's mind was truly terrifying.
In fact, it was so terrifying that William was constantly paranoid of everything around him.
His thoughts about Elsa were interrupted, as his arch nemesis finally made his next move.
The sound of claws scraping against a glass surface could be heard loud and clear from a wide distance.
The monster was moving towards him.
Now that the dreadful silence was finally gone, William could get to business.
"Elsa, I need you to be quick. Tell me what abilities this thing has."
She did not linger with her response, as she replied back almost like a computer.
"It only has one ability. However, that ability just happens to be very versatile."
William was a little shocked by this information, as he was expecting to be fighting against something that relied on brute strength only.
Continuing her explanation with a distant and uncaring tone — Elsa almost sounded half asleep.
"Its ability is based on sorcery. Do you remember seeing letters carved onto its body?"
The sound of wood scraping against glass continued to become louder and louder by the second.
A few drops of sweat rolled down William's forehead.
Thinking back to his first encounter with the wooden abomination — he let out a small gasp.
"Actually... yeah, I do remember seeing those letters carved onto its body."
There was no change in the tone of her voice, but he could tell that Elsa was starting to speed up her explanations.
Which would be a good idea since the damned monster that had ended his life twelve times was almost here.
"As I explained in the cave, those letters were known as sorcery. They can be used to make something harder or to make it go faster, or... I think you get the point. Sorcery can do a lot of different stuff."
Her aloof tone was really starting to piss him off.
"The wooden abomination uses sorcery as an adaptive ability. Meaning that each time you hit it with something, its body will gain a new line of sorcery that will negate and dull down the damage until it eventually does nothing to it anymore."
In the next moment, the giant crystal that William was standing on shuddered and groaned.
He barely managed to maintain his balance, as his body swung from left to right.
At the base of the giant crystal — a painfully familiar face awaited his eyes.
"Looks like the main guest has arrived..."
The wooden abomination had not changed at all since last time.
Well of course... it hadn't been that long after all.
He could still remember his encounter with the monster very vividly... he could also vividly remember the twelve times he got shredded by the claws and teeth of the monster.
At that moment — the glowing purplish lights that the wooden abomination used as eyes darted towards the top of the giant glass shard.
With light steps, William made his way towards the edge of the crystal surface.
And then... he simply looked down.
Both him and the monster made eye contact at that moment.
The dots of violet light that acted as the abomination's eyes glowed with ten times the intensity as it stared at the black-eyed boy.
There was a chasm of unfathomable madness lurking in its putrid eyes — if one could even call them that.
Atop the crystal, William's pitch-black eyes glowed with a dangerous glee, and a sinister smirk was printed onto his face.
It was finally time.
Taking a single step back, he put all of his power into his back leg and proceeded to jump off the tower of crystal.
At the exact same time, the wooden abomination used its long and powerful arms to grip the surface of the glass shard and catapult itself upward.
The rematch had finally started, and William did not plan on losing it or running away from it.
The only option was victory.
_Chapter Ends_